Search found 229 matches

by Mr Spocko
Wed Jan 08, 2014 7:27 am
Forum: Power Supplies
Topic: Corsair RM Series intro'd
Replies: 90
Views: 82290

Re: Corsair RM Series intro'd

I still can't decide between 450 and 550 version for i7 ivy and 760.. I don't mind spinning fan when gaming (GPU will make noise anyway), I just can't imagine how much of a difference is between these two.. I'm thinking of getting the 550 shortly the price is only slightly more than the 450 A point...
by Mr Spocko
Tue Dec 17, 2013 10:07 am
Forum: Power Supplies
Topic: 100% failure rate on Antec Power supplies..
Replies: 4
Views: 4654

Re: 100% failure rate on Antec Power supplies..

I'm aware of that I know they have used various makers in the past, but still the failure rate is very poor by any standards. Maybe they are decent enough right now, but I'm not likely to buy any more of their products because of this. Any company that skips quality for cheapness risks losing custom...
by Mr Spocko
Tue Nov 26, 2013 1:03 pm
Forum: Power Supplies
Topic: 100% failure rate on Antec Power supplies..
Replies: 4
Views: 4654

100% failure rate on Antec Power supplies..

Built quite a few over the years (mostly due to wanting a decent PSU and case) I had 2 die this week An Aria power supply that let rip in quite a fashion (sparkle, bang, tripped the mains fuse) Antec SLK1650B gave up the ghost it's 350 PSU unable to boot a pc properly, whipped out the volt meter all...
by Mr Spocko
Fri Sep 27, 2013 1:02 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Quiet affordable mini-tower for new haswell build?
Replies: 18
Views: 10528

Re: Quiet affordable mini-tower for new haswell build?

It looks very similar obviously is a clone but.. It doesn't have 2 slot in HDD Mounts (just one shown to fit HDD's) and doesn't have the noise insulation on the panels. Slightly different front panel design Lack of USB 3 isn't a problem with spare slots to put them You do get one 120mm fan on the Ac...
by Mr Spocko
Thu Sep 26, 2013 2:23 pm
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Quiet affordable mini-tower for new haswell build?
Replies: 18
Views: 10528

Re: Quiet affordable mini-tower for new haswell build?

Sorry I forgot about USA folks!
I'm surprised the company (based in Sweden) doesn't appear to have any outlets in North America
It's a pretty decent case very pleased for the money, but for crazy postage not worth it!
by Mr Spocko
Thu Sep 26, 2013 11:52 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Quiet affordable mini-tower for new haswell build?
Replies: 18
Views: 10528

Re: Quiet affordable mini-tower for new haswell build?

Things have changed a bit, LR 4 was actually pretty slow in many ways (even with a pretty high end processor) LR5 is out now and it's an improvement in many areas including performance, but still probably not as efficient as it could be.
by Mr Spocko
Thu Sep 26, 2013 11:35 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: USB powered external 3.5 enclosure
Replies: 11
Views: 9741

Re: USB powered external 3.5 enclosure

My suggestion is as above either go for external 2.5" drives (which are USB powered) Or possibly consider a docking station as a solution. I can recommend the ANKER USPEED as a good solution USB 3, and eSATA. It's worth thinking about if you are doing lots of offline storage, also the dock can be ve...
by Mr Spocko
Thu Sep 26, 2013 11:24 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Quiet affordable mini-tower for new haswell build?
Replies: 18
Views: 10528

Re: Quiet affordable mini-tower for new haswell build?

It's been Intel's std practice for a few generations to have ~$100 difference in price between the consumer i5's and i7's with comparable clock speeds. Just note that while some apps might be a LOT faster with a 4 core 8 thread processor, others might be fairly negligible...and you could make up th...
by Mr Spocko
Thu Sep 26, 2013 11:15 am
Forum: Newcomers Briefing Room
Topic: This will be my first build..
Replies: 13
Views: 9549

Re: This will be my first build..

Tricky really for a budget build like this, I personally think it's not a bad choice. You could save a bit on a non APU processor, but then you'll have to budget for a graphics card which pushes the cost up again.

On balance I think you've extracted overall your best price performance with that spec.
by Mr Spocko
Fri Sep 20, 2013 5:58 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: 3TB shootout featuring WD and Toshiba
Replies: 3
Views: 6027

Re: 3TB shootout featuring WD and Toshiba

Interesting article, seems there are as ever some compromises to be made whatever your choices are.
by Mr Spocko
Thu Sep 19, 2013 3:15 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: I want a quiet 2.5" HDD
Replies: 30
Views: 30036

Re: I want a quiet 2.5" HDD

I've got both side by side, and there is very little vibration off of either the 5k or the 7k drive. I have mounted them both in a Scythe Twin Mounter 2.5 Rev.C fitted to the 3.5" bay of a Sileo 500 which also has some rubber mounts for the HDD bay. The drives are effectively inaudible even during i...
by Mr Spocko
Thu Sep 19, 2013 1:09 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: I want a quiet 2.5" HDD
Replies: 30
Views: 30036

Re: I want a quiet 2.5" HDD

I bought 3 2.5" hard drives 1 x WB blue 500gb 1 x Hitachi 7k1000 and one 5k1000 All are quiet, with very little vibration. The 7k1000's performance is superb for a hard drive with a big buffer, faster spindle speed making it ideal as a boot drive. The 5k and WD blue are both good and similar perform...
by Mr Spocko
Fri Aug 23, 2013 1:02 am
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Gigabyte fan control for Haswell
Replies: 10
Views: 10326

Re: Gigabyte fan control for Haswell

Easy Tune 6 is a resource hog. It will cause audio and video playback problems; for details look up "dpc latency checker', run the test with and without ET6, the result will speak for himself. Anyway, there's still an use for ET6(at least for me): run on startup, do the hardware setup, exit, then u...
by Mr Spocko
Thu Aug 22, 2013 5:16 pm
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Gigabyte fan control for Haswell
Replies: 10
Views: 10326

Re: Gigabyte fan control for Haswell

Just use the easy tune to set the fan curve. It writes it to bios you don't have to have the software boot up with it. It would be better with more bios control no question, but hardly a deal breaker IMO. At least Gigabyte have been supporting voltage control for 3 pin fans, more than can be said of...
by Mr Spocko
Thu Aug 22, 2013 5:12 pm
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: A replacement for my old silent PC
Replies: 27
Views: 17907

Re: A replacement for my old silent PC

I really wouldn't bother with a re-build. I've made this mistake before putting cash into a system where I could have sold off the older bits (maybe as a bundle or complete) sinking the cash made from that into a new pc. You can easily out power your old CPU even without spending that much, it will ...
by Mr Spocko
Wed Aug 21, 2013 5:31 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: WD new super-quiet HD SPCR most quiet FDB HD ever?
Replies: 9
Views: 8977

Re: WD new super-quiet HD SPCR most quiet FDB HD ever?

I would tend to agree that the price premium for 2.5" HDD's is a lot less now. A few years ago it was too high for me, but now you can get a 1TB 2.5" HDD for not that much more v a 3.5" one. The only issue is if you want bigger 2TB HDD's you're stuck with 3.5" for now at least. I'm considering repla...
by Mr Spocko
Wed Aug 21, 2013 2:50 am
Forum: Notebook Systems
Topic: Amazingly simple quieting technique -- vacuum the dust out!
Replies: 5
Views: 27401

Re: Amazingly simple quieting technique -- vacuum the dust o

Laptops can pick up quite a bit of dust and this can block the outlets and yes ramp the fan speeds to try to keep things cool. It's not an uncommon problem, some are easier to get at than others. I sometimes use a small artists brush here to remove dust. Desktop wise the Intel CPU cooler is notoriou...
by Mr Spocko
Tue Aug 20, 2013 2:14 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: A replacement for my old silent PC
Replies: 27
Views: 17907

Re: A replacement for my old silent PC

The only addition I'd make to this is I disagree with the above on the AMD v Intel aspect purely because so few applications use single threads. So really the multi threaded performance is the key element to me. This totally depends on the software you are using. If you use win7 and Office and some...
by Mr Spocko
Mon Aug 19, 2013 7:53 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: A replacement for my old silent PC
Replies: 27
Views: 17907

Re: A replacement for my old silent PC

The only addition I'd make to this is I disagree with the above on the AMD v Intel aspect purely because so few applications use single threads. So really the multi threaded performance is the key element to me. So if the OP is looking for an i3 processor I don't recommend them being honestly the i5...
by Mr Spocko
Mon Aug 19, 2013 5:17 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: A replacement for my old silent PC
Replies: 27
Views: 17907

Re: A replacement for my old silent PC

Hard part is different processors for different needs/prices. Most go with something like an i5 4670K There is no point IMO buying a a socket 1155 processor now that Intel have changed sockets (yet again) That will give you room to move for a few years at least, I doubt you'd be anything but impress...
by Mr Spocko
Mon Aug 19, 2013 3:18 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: A replacement for my old silent PC
Replies: 27
Views: 17907

Re: A replacement for my old silent PC

This one is really wide open build wise you have a huge range of choices. It doesn't look like you are a heavy duty user so I don't think we're looking at i7 CPU's or anything as dramatic as that, but it's your cash to spend. Personally I've updated pc's with newer builds rather than upgrading for a...
by Mr Spocko
Mon Aug 19, 2013 2:32 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Quiet workstation build (Core i3 or A10)
Replies: 5
Views: 5122

Re: Quiet workstation build (Core i3 or A10)

I don't see the AMD problem really there are a range of micro ATX boards around, I've used a few ASrock ones for budget builds on AM3+, you can pay a little more and get USB 3 if you want, other than that I've pushed out some quite decent budget builds for the FX processors on AM3+. FX6300 is overki...
by Mr Spocko
Thu Aug 15, 2013 8:21 am
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: Intel Core i7-4770K Haswell Processor
Replies: 50
Views: 49786

Re: Intel Core i7-4770K Haswell Processor

It scares me when I see iTunes in a CPU benchmark, it should never feature in any CPU reviews ever again.
It's downright awful software that's sub optimal on windows machines.
by Mr Spocko
Thu Aug 15, 2013 2:12 am
Forum: Fans and Control
Topic: Effect of blade surface texture and notches etc to noise
Replies: 1
Views: 2436

Re: Effect of blade surface texture and notches etc to noise

I can only speak on my own building experience using a number of fans, and I personally feel it's got a lot more to do with marketing and "looking different" than actual performance. I replaced my TX-3 fan with a Noctua NF-B9 92mm fan, which I compared to a Gelid Silent 9 fan. The Noctua was not as ...
by Mr Spocko
Wed Aug 14, 2013 2:44 am
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: SilverStone Argon AR02 CPU Cooler
Replies: 5
Views: 7672

Re: SilverStone Argon AR02 CPU Cooler

Looks like a CM TX-3 to me with another name badge :mrgreen:
by Mr Spocko
Mon Aug 12, 2013 11:22 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: WD new super-quiet HD SPCR most quiet FDB HD ever?
Replies: 9
Views: 8977

Re: WD new super-quiet HD SPCR most quiet FDB HD ever?

I was looking at this new drive for a few quiet builds I have coming up. Would be useful if anyone could share any experiences of it.
As far as I'm aware I've only seen 1.5TB drives in external form factor for 2.5" drives. I'm sure 2TB will turn up at some point for these drives.
by Mr Spocko
Mon Aug 12, 2013 11:13 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Silent gamer desktop on a budget
Replies: 9
Views: 5182

Re: Silent gamer desktop on a budget

i5 seems overkill for a budget gaming machine, just my own thoughts no that.

I'd be temped to get something more cost effective and then pump the cash into a better GPU
by Mr Spocko
Mon Aug 05, 2013 2:56 am
Forum: Cases and Damping
Topic: Ecco 250 Micro ATX Case with sound proofing installed
Replies: 24
Views: 18754

Re: Ecco 250 Micro ATX Case with sound proofing installed

Just an update here. Whilst looking for a reasonable cost quieter case I picked this one for a new build for an AMD FX system. I've not tried one before, it's actually a build for my Son and I'm replacing the now getting on quite a bit (but still ok) Antec Sonata original. Never been too happy with ...
by Mr Spocko
Mon Aug 05, 2013 2:38 am
Forum: Cases and Damping
Topic: I give you the ANTEC SOLO II
Replies: 177
Views: 246532

Re: I give you the ANTEC SOLO II

I was thinking about this case for an update build I'm working on. I do like Antec esp regarding the decent thickness of metals they use. However I then looked at the price and was quite shocked to see it selling for over £100 where I live. That's a bit too much for me, so I opted for a micro ATX ca...
by Mr Spocko
Tue Jul 30, 2013 1:27 am
Forum: Fans and Control
Topic: Bought a Nexus 120 PWM, big mistake
Replies: 26
Views: 21501

Re: Bought a Nexus 120 PWM, big mistake

The problem with most PWM fans is they run at faster speeds than non PWM ones The Nexus one can go up to 2000rpm (as usual some samples can be a bit over or under) I've no idea why you'd want that kind of fan rotation myself. I've tended to stick to voltage control myself, but for builds where I've ...