Well, my multimeter reports 12.2v while MBM is bouncing around 11.3-11.43, so either MBM is way out to lunch or there's a local current deficiency somewhere that isn't manifesting itself in the voltage reading at the molex I tested. To top matters off, the 120mm fan in the PSU started to get noisy t...

I suppose it's possible it's the PSU that's out of spec. Hhmmm, I suppose it's worth a try to RMA the PSU. It's under a year old, but who knows what I did with the receipt. I'll have to try it with the multimeter tomorrow with something unhooked (all molexes are full). Too busy tonight- the Sopranos...

Well, I've got a system that my Fortron FSP350-60PN 120mm fanned PSU won't run anymore. 2.4 ghz P4 Northwood @ 2.4 SB Live Toshiba DVD-ROM CD-RW 2x 120gig 7200.7 SATA Seagates in RAID 0 Radeon 9800 Pro with Zalman heatpipe and optional fan on slow mode floppy 120mm case fan @7ish volts L1A on cpu@7i...

I don't find 3DMark to be the best heat-inducer because of the breaks between the tests. Try something 3D like Neverwinter Nights and leave it running with the environment spinning around you. Spinning isn't necessary, though. Leaving any complex 3D game running even with a static display will have ...

I have the Sparkle FSP350-60PN without PF. Are you in the EU? I've read here in SPCR that the EU power-factor corrected version of this PSU isn't nearly as silent as my US/Canada version without PFC. If you can get your hands on my version, I'd recommend it. It runs my system just fine and is bloody...

I'm looking fairly seriously at a Sapphire 9600 Pro at the moment and hoping it's not too noisy by SPCR standards. I was in looking at a local shop and the price he quoted me seemed pretty good for a retail card. If it's pretty good I won't bother with a Zalman heatpipe rig for it, but if worse come...

Chunker: what vidcards did you try that with? I was going to fiddle with mine to make it quieter until I found out that mine was one of the ones with the Macrovision problem. Major lousy feature in a HTPC, eh? If we didn't play a lot of games here then running older drivers wouldn't be a problem, bu...

Jan Kivar: certain nVidia videocards have Macrovision support that, when coupled with driver support, disables tv-out when playing movies. I found this out _after_ buying my card because it only became an issue after roughly Detonator 41 or 42ish (I think- I read it a month or so ago and have been t...

It's looking like time to upgrade my Ti4400 vidcard to something a bit faster, but mostly because it's not capable of playing movies via tv-out with current drivers (I apparently got one of the nVidia ones that're affected). Anyway, my bad luck aside, does anybody have any recommendations for a Rade...

Been there, done that. I couldn't find any NMB fans, either, although a couple of places sell their PSUs. If anybody knows, please speak up.

I just switched my system into a Sonata with FSP350-60PN, but I can't give any opinions on the stock Sonata PSU. I knew I was going with a 60PN PSU, so I asked my local dealer if he would be so kind as to cut me a deal on the case only, which he did. The Sonata is a beautiful case with some cool too...

Well, I finally got my Sparkle FSP350-60PN installed shortly after switching my gear into the new Sonata case. I yanked the whiny Intel HSF out at the same time and replaced it with a Thermaltake Volcano 7+ heatsink modded to take an 80mm Panaflo L1A. The Panaflo is plugged directly into the motherb...

Well, I just ordered the FSP350-60PN from coolcases.com (it being apparently the only vaguely Canada-friendly place to get them) after a long "should I get one?" stage. It'll go into my system at the same time I get my Antec Sonata and install my modded Thermaltake Volcano 7+ (80mm Panaflo installed...

Riffer- I found a spot that will _ship_ to Canada. That's a lot better than I could do for the first month I heard about them. The US dollar is going down the tubes, so that makes US mailorder much more attractive than it used to be, too. That won't help you if you want to walk into a place and actu...

Aristide1- do you have Seagate Barracuda IVs in your system? I'm just wondering about the whine that some people have been reporting when using the Fortron 120s with this PSU. It isn't unique to this PSU/HD combination, because lots of others complain about PSU whine, but a few people noticing the s...

Source for Canadians! I just got an email from Jim Hanson at coolcases.com about getting the Sparkle FSP350-60PN. The site's ordering for Canada is currently broken, but I got this information about a workaround- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Well, we're updat...

I haven't found either a Canadian source or a place that willingly ships to Canada. The closest I've found is xpdirect.com for the 350w Fortrons, but they want to be prepaid with paper (no Paypal or Visa, etc) and they want $20 US ($30 in Canuck bucks) for shipping. Apart from the costly shipping, t...

Showoff!

I just modded mine a couple of ways and so far the best was to remove the 80mm fan completely (leave the grill there), duct tape up the rear vents, and use just the stock 92mm fan. I did that and I can no longer hear it over the rest of my system, which is as follows- 60mm by 15mm exhaust fan at 7v ...

I think if I'd thought of it earlier, even before I was interested in quieting the thing down, I would've taped up the rear ducts just to make sure that the hottest air (from the CPU) was being exhausted. The PSU is running cooler now by a few degrees at idle, the CPU is a degree or two cooler, and ...

Well, I have an update on my Enermax 365 PSU mod. I yanked the thermistor-controlled 80mm fan out of there completely, put the 92mm back in, and duct-taped the rear vents so that all of the hot air sucked in by the 92 goes out of the back of the PSU. The "Moving the thermistor from near a hot coil t...

I'm in New Brunswick where the HST is 15% (PST 8%, GST 7%). My business is farming, so everything used for and by the business is tax free. I might have some trouble convincing the gov't that power supplies were a farming item if I resold them, though... :) Honest, I just scattered a few around and ...

If I were to buy a bunch for personal use and bring them across, 15% sales tax would be added, plus the applicable duties for bringing a non-American made item across the border. For business use or resale, I would be refunded my 15% from the gov't or, possibly, not have to pay it at all if I presen...

Has anybody in Canada found a good (hopefully Canadian) source for the 60PN Fortron/Sparkle/Aopen/Powerman PSUs? Aopen should be a good bet, but I haven't had any luck yet. None of the sites in the US that have them are very Canada-friendly. Newegg won't ship here, and xpdirect wants prepayment via ...

Yes, that was the plan. Man, did I ever learn a lesson about who to listen to when reading that a PSU (or whatever) is silent. Always always always find out what other components are in the system! Overclockers are bad judges of silence because most of them have several noisy fans in their systems t...

I haven't bothered to get one either and guess what? I zapped myself inside my power supply the other day, too! I had it connected to the board but outside the case with the cover off experimenting with different places to stick the thermistor. I started out with the thing unplugged, but after a few...

I've seen some pretty weird stuff. I was inventing links for dating sites and was almost afraid to type in www.findyourmate.com in case I got a mailorder bride site or something. It turned out that www.date.com was a real place, so I used that instead.

How about a review on the quietest cold cathode tubes? Recommend the ones that have no hum, highest power efficiency to keep those PSUs cool, best sound reaction to pulse to the beat of Barry's White and Manilow, etc. Heck, even review the thickest clear perspex (or does Lexan absorb more sound?) fo...

If you're worried or at all in doubt, buy a new power supply that's rated as being silent by the folks around here. Many other places think something's silent if they can't hear it well over 3 3500 rpm case fans, the Vantec Tornado on their CPU, a Geforce FX 5800 Ultra, and their 15k rpm SCSI drives...

I've had the buzzing sound occur to me before when moving the mouse and especially when scrolling a page in windows. You'll never guess what it was, so I'll tell you- the hard drive! It has happened to me with 3 separate drives and it either changed pitch or disappeared depending on what HD was in t...