Nice article. Well done considering it is a Mass Market piece and not intended for folks like those who hang out here :) I liked the choice of components, didn't just fall into the PCP&C and components with quiet/silent in their names. Shows the 3700BQE rather than the Sonata and AcoustiPack for dam...

Why the 80GB drive? Well it starts from the Raptor and the ASUS P4P800 Deluxe mobo. I do not have all the details worked out but ... It seems the "hot" setup for digital darkrooms is a pair of small Raptors in RAID 0 for OS & Apps in one partition and new/RAW photos & work in progress in a second pa...

You can hear it over the stock P4 HSF? Sounds like I will save some serious money on my new system, but I really wanted the new Raptors to be Quiet Enough

So now I need an 80GB 8Meg SATA drive. Isn't that the "missing" drive from Samsung?

Another dream shattered.

M1BX mod perhaps?

Mike C and others have posted that they prefer the medium speed Panaflo with tach output for some PSU mods as there will be more airflow if things really get hot in there. And they say there is not much difference in noise levels from the L1A to the M1BX.

Nice job, looks like original equipment. Now if someone could do the "add a firewire" trick and it looked this good ...

Neat bird too. Has a look similar to my Norwegian Elkhounds (troublemaker, that is).

HammerSandwich is right. Swap wires on the female plug too. Or cut out the other pair of wires so only the 5V pair remain. Right now you have a connector that looks OK but puts 12v on the 5v side. Two years from now you will pick this thing up and use it to connect your new 500GB 15dB harddrive and ...

DTemp shows my Maxtor DM+8 to be around 16-17C on startup in a 19-20C room. One or the other ( DTemp or DM+8 ) must be off a bit so it's not just the Spinpoints. The temp does climb during use, right now it's up to 24C Does go higher for defrag or full virus scan.

A very good read. Thanks for making it a Stickey

I opened the PSU forum and it jumped out at me, "Got to read this."

Jim

Welcome to SPCR! NO personal experience yet but ... The 74G Raptor is a second generation Raptor. The 36G is the first generation (ball bearings). I think the single platter second generation (With Fluid Bearings) has not been released yet. Someone said the second gen. is to called a 37G (so you can...

I am going to make one before I go out of the house today.

Randy,

Thanks for the info.

What 120mm fan with tach output did you use?

Photo?

Jim

My 60PN does NOT have a "fans only" plug.

Jim

No experience with the P III 700 but you could try a Zalman bracket or a homemade version of same to hold a Panaflo 80mm L1A running at 5 - 7V. Position the fan to blow along the HS slots not over the top edge of the HS. Remove the original fan to get better airflow along the HS, I assume it has "ch...

Skwang, You mention the Antec 3700 BQE but that only holds four HDDs in the 3.5" HDD mounts. Look at the 3700 AMB. It is less expensive and holds five HDDs in a "normal" orientation mount. There is better cooling of the drives too. Check Ralf's reviews of both cases. I assume you will only have one ...

Thank you Ralf!

For proding Tom about the Pix links that no longer worked in the first post. Look what we got, an article on modding all the facits of the Sonata case and related information. With a quick rewrite Mike C has another feature contribution.

Oh, Tom, thank you too

Gordo,

No nasty comments fron me. Just a big THANKS. These are the two drives I am planning to use in a 3700 BQE when I build a new rig next month.

Great to hear from someone on this forum about how they really perform. Also nice to hear that they actually are fairly quiet.

Jim

Gourdo,

How many hours of running do you have on the M1BX ? Perhaps the new fan is a bit tight. If you run it for a day or so it may loosen up a bit and start easier. Quick, cheap fix if it works.

Faster typists beat me to the Submit button.

A Review Sample! Probably free too

The power of the press So will we get to see a review/article/note?

Thanks,
Jim

Seagate Medalist 4321 that sounded like nails shaking in a tin can. Right now it's sitting on the desk next to my LaserJet printer while a Maxtor DM+8 does its job. Thanks to SPCR the Maxtor is sitting on foam at the bottom of the case with AAM enabled. Wow, what a change! I may just fire up some ol...

Ralf,

Did you buy the 6607 case just to get the AcoustiPack kit you installed in your 3700? Or did you find a way/place to buy the kit without the case?

Jim

Where can I purchase the precut AcoustiPack kits? They were "coming" last Summer but I never saw a vendor offering them :( Figured something went wrong when the revised Deluxe kit was offered. If I dampen the case then I could buy one of the new 78GB Raptors & a 160GB Samsung 1614C and my darkroom w...

If it smells that much I think it would be prudent to wait a couple of weeks to mod the fan. That way if it dies you can still return it

Maxtor also has their own AMSET acoustic management utility available at their website.

I use it with my Diamondmax +8 HDD. I think the list of drive families that it is usable with is out of date, others have also used it with DM+9 drives.

@Bondiablo: How do you like the Fortron 400 with the Panaflo M1A? I have thought that if I needed more power I would go that way. All the "factory modded" 400s seem based on the Fortron. And you managed to mount the PSU fan on the EAR F-344 isolators! Is that much of a job?

In any case have your friend put some packing in the box with the PSU (a quick wrap of bubble film would do). Mine came with only the power cord in the box and had enough room to bounce around in there! Mine was OK after the trip from Calif. to the East Coast.

My "Retail" 300 from Newegg came with only the power cord, that must be the standard FSP "package."

Yes, it is neat that such an inexpensive PSU can be so nice.

Well, if you had to ask ... they cannot be making a LOT of noise. Have you removed the case "grills" next to the fans? And do the Antec purple plastic fan baskets have grills? These changes could occupy some time and help to reduce the noise a bit at near zero cost. Try finding the loudest things le...

It looks like the Samsung that Mike tested has yet to make it to the marketplace. Check the model number of the one in the review before you buy just any Samsung.

DTtemp.

See the links section on the main site.