The poor network performance may be attributable to a bad/broken antenna or connector. Though from the looks of things, that's rather poor layout on their part.

It has been ages since we had a good article of building a quiet PC from scratch. This was definitely well written and well researched, and despite keeping somewhat familiar quiet PCs for years, I did learn a couple new things from this article. I tend to agree with David_CA that the Lian Li case ha...

I shudder to think what you might have built if you had access to 80/20. I have no idea if you can get it in Finland, but it was the first thing I thought of when I saw your frame.

Nice job with the paneling.

For $10 + shipping, I'd be willing to check out how they do it. Swapping fans on a VGA cooler is not a project I'm interested in getting into. I don't like using zip ties to mount fans and then I get the added bonus of dealing with 2 fans instead of one. Plus the cost of good fans and the wiring to ...

This has been done commercially, most recently by Nanoxia with the PWMX. It was quite a neat device, and included a variable fan speed control. As it disappeared fairly quickly I assume it was not a sales success. The issue, as always, is that it may be cheaper to replace a 3 pin fan with a 4 pin P...

Sorry to bump up an old thread, but I have a completely theoretical design for controlling a 3-pin fan with a 4-pin fan controller. It's theoretical because I've simulated it in SPICE and it seems to work there, but I've been reluctant to build it and was interested in getting some like-minded folks...

drop test -- not easy. What angles? heights? several samples needed for backup. Wrote this before: No web review site can do proper reliability/longevity testing. There appears to be a rough standard for a drop test. Panasonic advertises it for their toughbooks . I'd love to see SPCR (and other sit...

Wouldn't a LED backlit TV also have a much longer lifespan? That would be a nice bonus. Longer compared to what? Plasma lifespans are generally rated pretty highly (usually around 60,000 hours last time I checked), and CFL LCD TVs typically have a similar rating. LED lifespans are around this area ...

Hello Mike, I've been reading reviews of a lot of the interesting home theater displays like this one. The 2 big issues I've read about with this device is 1) off-axis viewing, which you addressed in your article, and 2) screen uniformity or contrast uniformity. Have you noticed any issues with the ...

Quick 'n Easy? Screw watercooling, I'd go with a Memoright SSD drive and a Zalman TNN500AF case and be done with it. That's my solution anyways.

Interesting thread here. One thing I've discovered is driving a little more slowly can have much larger impact on your mileage. On the highways, 60 MPH is more fuel efficient than 70 or 80 MPH. Locale and commute appear to dictate my mileage, FWIW. Pittsburgh is not friendly to these tricks when you...

This was a major concern for me when I wanted to do some data storage. Ultimately, for low power storage, you want a commercial NAS. There is no question about this. The reason being is that commercial NASes can utilize parts that are much lower powered than most anything you can build on your own. ...

Ideally, there should be a metric more accurate than dBA to help us with what is generally audible to most people in an office or a home, or wherever. Something along the lines of frequency overy frequency (yes you read that right) or even frequencies over time. Yes, but it's not going to be any si...

MikeC invited me to post my thoughts on this article last week, and I've pasted a modified response below: Near the end, there was a phrase that ran through my mind. "I didn't even notice it, until it wasn't there." When I first visited a recording studio, the guy giving the tour mentioned that the ...

Thing is, even passive PFC is only like 60-70% efficient vs 95-99% efficiency for active. If you care at all about how long your ups lasts, active is an awesome way to increase your battery time. (Thank this site for 80% efficient active pfc psus ^^) Just a friendly reminder that PFC != Efficiency....

Static Electricity f***ing up a controller chip? Keep in mind that the level of static electricity needed to kill a chip is lower than what humans can typically feel.

To do a price comparison between this particular iMac and a conventional PC is kind of silly. Core Duo is a very unique processor that has no real desktop PC equivalent Intel has released a chipset specifically to support Core Duo on the desktop, so it is not such a strange comparison to make. http...

To do a price comparison between this particular iMac and a conventional PC is kind of silly. Core Duo is a very unique processor that has no real desktop PC equivalent (not unlike the G5 that preceded it). In addition, part of the price includes the OSX experience, which inseparable for better or f...

To get back on topic, there have been a few integrated Wintel systems like the iMac where the back of the monitor is used to house the main guts of the PC. Here's a pic of one I took at the IDF showcase last week, which I think looks pretty good. Apparently it is the latest version of a machine sho...

I wasn't going to post this initially, but I will say this now while the discussion is still civil. Discussing Macs in a PC forum will almost always evoke a flame war. Because this thread is meant to discuss the article, its analysis and conclusions, I think its safe to say that criticism that is NO...

Ugh, reading that article made me cringe. A graphics subsystem drawing over 240W in SLI configuration has me wondering how they're getting rid of the heat. And that's when I shudder. and worse, the "solution" to the power problems that people have been having is to ironically draw more power. I'd tr...

Whatever happened to trying it out before modding it? Worry about whether there will be noise first before worrying about what to swap the fan with. You may end up being pleasantly surprised. I want dead silence man, not a quiet PSU. For instance, I got very irritated with a Panaflo L1A which is de...

My system(CPU,GPU,NB,HDD) is passively watercooled by Innovatek. There are no case fans at all. HDD is enclosured as well as watercooled by Innovatek HDD Pro so it is not a concern. (HDD Pro absorbs most of the noise caused by HDD) Pabst fan that I'm deciding to buy is stated as 18db@1200 rpm at 12...

smaerd58 wrote:I need at least 400-500 power and atleast 15Amps on the 12 rail.

No you don't. Read the FAQ.

But can we really trust what the manufactors say about the noise their drives make? 25 dB (Spinpoint) vs. 29 dB (Maxtor), how big is this difference with the HD box that comes with Arctic Cooling Silentium case? Or has anybod experianced less/more noise with these drives? Especially the Maxtor DM10...

Athlon 2400+ @ 200x10 @ 1.65V (stock voltage I believe), using a Thermaltake SI-97 heatsink with a 92mm Nexus fan at full speed. Abit NF7-S with zalman chipset heatsink. ATI 9800 XT with VGA silencer. Antec SLK3000B case, with front 120mm Nexus at 7v and stock tri-cool fan in rear at 12v, running o...

Resurrecting an old thread... Awhile back, I had to RMA my Raptor (enclosed in a Smartdrive, resting on foam). Apparently, the SATA cable was full of corrosion, and so was the connector on the hard drive end. What would have cause that? The drive itself? A bad cable that was prone to corrosion some...

Bump for the Dvork recommendation. I often have to switch between Dvorak and Qwerty. Different lab machines that I work on are inevitably in Qwerty, but I rarely have to do any major typing on those machines. On the rare occasion that I DO have to do some typing, I carry around this program . It's s...

Dude, you're running a Northwood! Try keeping your heatsink and just doing a fan swap to a lower powered fan. Your heatsink was an SPCR favored heatsink way back in the day. IIRC, it was comparable to the Zalman 7000-AlCu. The Enermax 465 IS loud. Make its replacement top priority after the above he...