I recently built a new system. Relevant parts: Sandy Bridge i5-2500k Scythe Mugen 2 rev B with stock Scythe 120mm fan Asus P8P67M Pro motherboard (as far as I can tell very similar to the rest of the P67 family) Gigabyte 460 GTX 1GB Sonata Proto case with Antec NeoPower 650W power supply (80+) and s...

Thanks for all of the ideas. I really like the look of the Define mini, but wonder what the airflow will be like. It seems that systems with front air intakes are all the rage according to SPCR. The Silverstone Sugo SG03 looks great too. Has anyone had experience with any of the cubes and how easy t...

I like the idea of small gaming computers, but after building an SFF 5 years ago was very difficult to work with. Changing the video card would mean I'd have to unplug lots of things and remove lots of the case. I also had frequent issues with overheating and ended up turning the fans much more than...

Hi all, I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and I pay through the nose in electricity. We have a tiered energy payment, and some months I'm paying up to $0.40 per kwh for a portion of my energy. This means that for every idle watt, I pay $3.50 per year. For a 100W idle system, I'm paying $350 for ...

65C is not that high a temperature, and The CPU is not supposed to crash just for reaching it. If this is a hardware problem at all and you are running at stock settings, you probably have a defective component. It could be the CPU, mobo, memory, graphics card... Before you waste your time and mone...

I'm having difficulty finding the recommended HSF links (sorry, been a while). Mind pasting a URL? How does the PWM fan function on the Xigmatek HDT-S1283 with a 3-pin fan connector? Does it run at its full 2200RPM? It sounds like I should be able to use the 3-pin fan voltage controller. Do I need t...

Hi all, I have built the following system: Antec Sonata 3, stock fans and stock 500W EarthWatts PSU Intel Q6600 evga 650i Ultra A1 2GB of DDR2 ECS N8800GT-512MX+ (Passively cooled 8800GT 512MB) In order to cool the system I bought a special S775 bracket for a Zalman CNPS7000A I had lying around. I u...

8600GTs are going for $125 today (2x=$250), 8800 GTS is $260. 8600 GTs are passive, 8800 GTS is not.

Has anyone considered taking passively cooled graphics cards and running them in SLI so you get similar performance as high speed, actively cooled cards? I wonder if 2 passive cards work from a thermal standpoint, and if anyone has a rough idea of how something like 2x8800GTs runs compared to an 880...

I just put my old Sonata parts in a Microfly. Everything fits fine, and I found a spare 12v to 5v converter to slow down both case fans. There are two issues I am having so far: 1) Temperature -- I let my Athlon X2 3800+ fold overnight (for spcr of course), check my computer this morning, and the CP...

Knowing that I would eventually want to move to microATX, I built my main system a year ago off of a Foxconn 6150 microATX motherboard. I am going to use my modded Sonata case for a NAS box I'm hiding in the closet, and would like to replace the case with a quiet microATX (preferably cube) form fact...

There hasn't been much talk about SFF, so I was wondering if people know of newer SFF builds that look promising for decently quiet operation and also support newer socket-types and PCI-Express support (ideally, a chassis-only with standard ATX power supply support). The AOpen XC Cube EZ65 looks pre...

Does anyone have links or descriptions of the bios problems people were running into with these Abit boards? I definitely like the idea of a reliable passive cooler on an nforce4 board, and I have built 4 machines with Abit mobos in the past (my first build was a P3-450 w/ an Abit BE6), but I lost a...

*deleted*

Hey guys, For those of you who are interested in 7800 GTXish performance but consuming slightly less power, I spotted a link on ZipZoomFly where they listed specs on an XFX card. Hopefully it'll be one more step towards next-gen "quiet" performance. XFX GeForce 7800 GT OVERCLOCKED 420MHZ 256MB DUAL ...

I have an extra 15" LCD that I have setup as a second display, and I put my temperature displays on that screen.

I have no idea how people are overlaying their GPU temps unless they are playing a game in windowed mode.

On overclocking my 6800 from 325 MHz to 350 MHz (memory not OC'd) My idle temperatures definitely dropped from ~80 degrees to ~55 degrees celsius. However, the load temperature stayed in the ~90-95 degrees celsius range. In fact, it may have been 1 or 2 degrees C higher. So I cannot really explain w...

I'd like to confirm what some people have stated in this thread. Using Gigabyte's V-tuner 2 plus sensor, I overclocked my card from 325 MHz to 350 MHz. The idle temperature has now gradually dropped from approximately 80 degrees C to 59 degrees C. I would guess it was some kind of temp recalibration...

Cheapest and easiest way to cool it silently -- unplug the fan. I ran my TI4200 with its fan unplugged for 2 years without a problem, although it did eventually die. Not that I cared that much since by then it was time to replace it.

You did exactly what I've been hmmming and hawing over for a month or so. I have a Nexus 300W PS, Zalman 7000-AlCu, Nexus 120mm fan, passive Gigabyte 6800, a 37GB raptor, and a 160GB Samsung SP1614C. The Raptor is by far the loudest component in my system, especially when it's not resting on foam. I...

I've ordered mine and will be sure to share my experience with the card.

I'm somewhat concerned that my Nexus 120mm fan won't push out enough heat since it only runs around 1000rpm, but we shall find out.

I have a Ti 4200 w/ 128MB of RAM. The fan on the GPU died a long, long time ago and I didn't notice until I added a Nexus 300W power supply and 120mm case fan to my Sonata. Thought I would hear the card, but upon closer inspection I realized my card "gained" silent capability. :) Anyways, on my Asus...

Judging from this thread, it sounds like it's 12 pipe. Sounds like people have also had limited success enabling ALL 16! I checked, and it appears that Newegg has this card in stock...

http://forums.sudhian.com/messageview.a ... erthread=y

Hi, I recently built a P4 2.8C/P4P800 system using a Sonata. Although the PS is louder than I was hoping, the system didn't get really noisy until the CPU's retail fan started making an occasional low-frequency whine (perhaps something wrong with the bearings?). I'm looking for tips on either repair...