Here in Portland, OR we have Free Geek. They have a section on how equipment is recycled: http://freegeek.org/recycle.php It's not all sell/dump to country with no environmental laws. Responsible recycling like this is a labor intensive and thus money losing adventure though, so Free Geek requests d...

I'm still using a couple of 10 gig drives from '97. They are useful in that I can stick them into older computers to do some testing. One nice thing now, is the external hard drive enclosures. One of the drives is a 2.5" so I bought a small enclosure for $18 and I can carry around 10 gigs. So if you...

I used to have one, but after I got a new PSU the UPS didn't provide enough VA. It only got used a few times. I haven't had any problems without it for quite some time now. I would like to buy a new one, but don't have the money to spend on ones that provide enough juice.

Be careful if closing the door does completely close off the computer. I've heard of someone who had a desk like that and left the door open, but someone who didn't know to leave it open closed it. They came back later to a dead computer.

Newegg has the Bytecc 2.5" USB 2.0 enclosure for $20. They had it for $18 a little while back and I picked one up for a 10 gig laptop HD i had laying around. The enclosure does nothing to cause noise, so if you can get a quiet laptop HD, just get one of those enclosures. It might be cheaper than buy...

This might rekindle my interest in getting my HTPC together. Hopefully SPCR will get to review it

pcgamer wrote: Which vga silencer are u getting 4 $16?

SVC has them on sale.

Nevermind, I just realized I can put the $6 difference towards getting a VGA Silencer. Getting a $200 card, mine-as-well spend the extra $16 to make it quiet.

At Newegg they have 2 Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pros. The only differences I can see is the fan and price. Anyone know which one is better? $204 US http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-268&depa=1 $210 US http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-362&depa...

@sthayashi
I went from LFS -> Gentoo. I think you'll really like Gentoo.

@dukla2000
If you want to try Gentoo again, check the message boards. There's a lot of info on getting it running on a nforce2 board. There should be a kernel that has as all the nforce2 patches applied.

The patent office pretty much will give you a patent for anything involving technology... its messed up. I also hear that Antec plans on enforcing this patent.

I have a black LG 48x Combo Drive that has impressed me. You'd hear it spinup if you have a quiet system, but definitely the best I've heard.

No url, no scientific backing, but I know the theory. A slightly uneven surface gets metal to metal contact on the ridges, with the thermal compound filling voids at the valleys. Too perfect a finish eliminates those microscopic ridges and thereby eliminates any direct metal to metal contact and le...

I got the same HSF for my parents' computer that has a 2100+. It's a nice little thing for decent cooling and out-of-the-box quiet at dirt cheap price. The Sparkle PSU they have is the loudest thing in the computer, but overall not bad for a computer that was built with budget in mind not low noise.

UPS is crap even if shipping within the US. From what I've heard they treat their workers like crap and the workers treat the packages like crap. I've noticed on eBay that most people who insist on shipping through UPS do it so that they can overcharge on shipping, since UPS doesn't display shipping...

-very sensitive to lights, such as CRT flicker, florescent light, flashing from cieling fans; very sensitive to touch, such as being easily tickled or irritated by the wrong touch; very sensitive to taste or smell, such as able to notice (or finding annoying) faint smells others don't or able to id...

It's kind of wierd for me. I can hear noises pretty well, but then I can also zone them about if I want to. I'll be able to hear a medium sized TV's whine from a different room and I'll go to turn it off. On the other hand, my computer's current heatsink fan is pretty loud when the temps crank up, y...

nForce2 is the only way to go for mATX. The other chipsets just don't provide enough options and newer features. It wasn't designed to be a small system, but I upgraded my parent's computer with: Chaintech 7NIL1 Summit (7NIF2 has onboard video) Athlon 2100+ XP (overclocked to 2700+) w/ Coolermaster ...

I always thought Apple should leave the "PCs our way or else" business and focus on making cases, iPods and software (maybe ).

Have you guys ever heard the original PSU in the Dual G4 towers? I'm not to noise adverse, but that thing sounds like my vacuum cleaner!

Okay thanks for the tips guys. I'll try some stuff out. The SK7 never crossed my mind cause I didn't realize it was only $20 at NewEgg. I'll definitely pick that up if nothing else works well.

Hello, I have an 1800+ with a Volcano 7 on it. To say the least the Volcano 7's fan isn't quiet, but my idle temp is 42 C and max I've seen is 47, so it does a good job. I tried replacing the stock fan with a Panaflo L1A, but upon running SANDRA's burn-in test the temps rose to 57 C, and I stopped i...