Search found 1385 matches

by IsaacKuo
Wed Oct 28, 2009 6:55 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: 2TB compatible with ECS nForce3-A Socket 754 motherboard?
Replies: 3
Views: 2890

I don't know. All I know is that it wouldn't POST with the Seagate hard drive installed--it would get as far as trying to detect the Seagate hard drive and it would hang at that step.

I had no idea to even look for a SATA1.5 jumper setting. My knowledge in this area is very crude.
by IsaacKuo
Wed Oct 28, 2009 6:26 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: 2TB compatible with ECS nForce3-A Socket 754 motherboard?
Replies: 3
Views: 2890

2TB compatible with ECS nForce3-A Socket 754 motherboard?

My file server uses an old Socket 754 motherboard: ECS nForce3-A I'd like to buy a 1.5TB or 2TB hard drive, but how can I tell if it's compatible? I had previously bought two 1TB hard drives: Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000528AS 1TB - NOT COMPATIBLE and HITACHI 0A38016 1TB - compatible With the Se...
by IsaacKuo
Mon Jun 08, 2009 1:22 pm
Forum: Cases and Damping
Topic: Slightly different Case Design
Replies: 35
Views: 31047

I never did get around to linking my Enlight case mod here: Single fan madness pt 5 I no longer use that Enlight case for a server. Now, I use it for my RAMboot workstation...I never got around to making a gallery entry, but I should. Essentially, the PSU has a single 80mm fan blowing inward. I got ...
by IsaacKuo
Mon May 11, 2009 10:39 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Which 500 gig 2.5" laptop drive?
Replies: 0
Views: 1681

Which 500 gig 2.5" laptop drive?

Since 500 gig 2.5" drives have hit the $99 mark, I've decided to finally get rid of 3.5" drives in my main file server. But which 2.5" drive should I choose? My main consideration is reliability, followed by quietness. Samsung Spinpoint M7 Western Digital Scorpio Blue Seagate Momentus 5400.6 Hitachi...
by IsaacKuo
Sun Apr 26, 2009 9:08 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: HOW-TO: Boot Linux into RAM for silence and speed
Replies: 31
Views: 36999

If someone knows, how i limit the size of the ramdisk (by default it uses half of the available memory) please let me know. A tmpfs ramdisk only consumes about as much RAM as the total sum of the current contents. It dynamically resizes itself bigger/smaller, up to the nominal size limit. By defaul...
by IsaacKuo
Sun Apr 26, 2009 9:03 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: HOW-TO: Boot Linux into RAM for silence and speed
Replies: 31
Views: 36999

Strangely enough, in my case it would NOT be silent. For whatever reasons, all of my later motherboards make audible electronic chirps whenever accessing most I/O hardware (like ethernet, or USB thumbdrive, or hard drive). Even with a completely silent hard drive, the motherboard hardware makes chir...
by IsaacKuo
Mon Jan 26, 2009 3:09 am
Forum: Power Supplies
Topic: Fanless PSU + P180, a perfect pairing?
Replies: 41
Views: 25032

It really isn't hard to replace the fans which come with 120mm fan PSU's and CPU coolers. You don't have to use the fan which comes with them. Swapping the stock fan for something better is standard SPCR practice.
by IsaacKuo
Sun Jan 25, 2009 9:58 am
Forum: Power Supplies
Topic: Fanless PSU + P180, a perfect pairing?
Replies: 41
Views: 25032

There are cheaper 120mm fan PSU's which are also designed from the ground up to run with very low air flow, and you can replace its fan with whatever quiet fan you want.
by IsaacKuo
Sat Jan 17, 2009 5:54 am
Forum: Green Computing
Topic: Re-using old IDE drives?
Replies: 12
Views: 13212

The average power draw is insignificant if you use the rig for periodic incremental file backups. It will only be powered on for a few minutes per week.
by IsaacKuo
Fri Sep 26, 2008 7:55 am
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: Doug's Quiet Wood Case PC
Replies: 40
Views: 43673

I'm sure. I haven't tried that exact technique, but I've used the more commonplace method of simply mounting a fan with some small lengths of foam in place of the screws. You need at least a few millimeters of foam length between the fan and the case in order to get any noticeable vibration reductio...
by IsaacKuo
Fri Sep 26, 2008 7:05 am
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: Doug's Quiet Wood Case PC
Replies: 40
Views: 43673

The tiny amount of space between a thin screw and the surrounding fan hole will not allow for significant vibration dampening.
by IsaacKuo
Sat Sep 20, 2008 11:54 am
Forum: Off Topic
Topic: Linux is just not ready for the living room.
Replies: 28
Views: 13861

That hooked me, even if all I really knew how to do at first was use linux to play videos. Good enough for "the living room", since that's all the TV computer needed to do. But you're forgetting one thing, besides actually playing videos, it needs to have some way of being controlled that's appropr...
by IsaacKuo
Sat Sep 20, 2008 8:39 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Ghetto polyethylene foam vibration isolation drive mount
Replies: 10
Views: 6969

The Velociraptor isn't designed to be a laptop drive and won't even fit in a laptop due to the extra thickness.
by IsaacKuo
Sat Sep 20, 2008 5:16 am
Forum: Off Topic
Topic: Since when is 1680x1050 resolution 1080p?
Replies: 10
Views: 7475

Since when is 1680x1050 resolution 1080p?

Lately I've been noticing monitors with 1680x1050 resolution being marketed as "1080p", even though it's smaller than 1920x1080 all around. I could understand 1366x768 being marketed as "720p", since it's more larger than 1280x720...but this 1080p thing is simply deceptive. When did this start? Grrr...
by IsaacKuo
Thu Sep 18, 2008 11:04 am
Forum: Fans and Control
Topic: Round or Square duct ?
Replies: 7
Views: 6426

My preference is to avoid ducts altogether. Instead, I use partitions to make airflow go where I want. A duct is like a tunnel, but a partition is like a wall with an open doorway. A partition splits up the case into two halves; so long as all of the "intakes" are on one side and all of the "exhaust...
by IsaacKuo
Mon Sep 15, 2008 2:33 pm
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Passively cooled graphics card capable of 1440 x 900 - 60hz.
Replies: 6
Views: 3323

Do you have any more detailed information about what sort of system you have? There are different sorts of internal expansion slots. Also, some systems have "low profile" reduced height slots. Most current systems have PCIe slots, but older systems use AGP. Some motherboards have only PCI card slots...
by IsaacKuo
Mon Sep 15, 2008 2:26 pm
Forum: Off Topic
Topic: Linux is just not ready for the living room.
Replies: 28
Views: 13861

While certain things will just go, getting certain things to work on GNU/Linux can be, in my experience, quite troublesome. Yes, that's true. That's why I was specific about my examples of "just plain worked". For what I wanted my living room computer to do, Knoppix was just awesome. It was much ea...
by IsaacKuo
Mon Sep 15, 2008 2:04 pm
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Is fanless possible?
Replies: 19
Views: 8640

I sometimes think of doing another fanless build, but it just never seems to really make sense. The problem I always run into is that electrical buzzing, whining, and chirping is already the dominant noise problem even with just one undervolted 80mm fan. Besides being much louder than the fan, the e...
by IsaacKuo
Mon Sep 15, 2008 11:42 am
Forum: Off Topic
Topic: Linux is just not ready for the living room.
Replies: 28
Views: 13861

Something like the eeePC just "goes" out of box. That's perfectly fine for the average end user. There's no magic reason why a computer pre-loaded with Linux should be any more difficult than a computer pre-loaded with Windows. Personally, I find it amazing how much annoying crap Windows users put u...
by IsaacKuo
Mon Sep 15, 2008 3:52 am
Forum: Green Computing
Topic: Re-using old IDE drives?
Replies: 12
Views: 13212

Spend $10 and get a IDE to USB external case and use the drives as a backup. I'm too cheap even for that. I have old computer systems for free, whereas an IDE->USB adapter would cost money. Plus, my extra IDE drives are smaller so they're more useful if I can union into larger combined file systems.
by IsaacKuo
Sun Sep 14, 2008 4:42 pm
Forum: Green Computing
Topic: Re-using old IDE drives?
Replies: 12
Views: 13212

20gigs goes a long way when it comes to most "critical" personal files. Think of your tax return files, resume, and so on...maybe even also your digital camera photos, depending on how much you have. It's likely they will fit on 20gigs. An old drive of this size can be quite useful as a backup. I us...
by IsaacKuo
Sun Sep 14, 2008 4:19 pm
Forum: Green Computing
Topic: madness of 1080p
Replies: 71
Views: 50002

My "old" 1280x1024 19" TFT display can display Half HD in it's native resolution. In fact my 19" is probably the best divice existing for displaying that material. Why? It's no even widescreen. Reason: there's no widescreen 720p displays or televisions. There's only 1366x768 (TV 16:9), 1440x900 (mo...
by IsaacKuo
Fri Sep 12, 2008 6:49 am
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Cheapest low-power system for encrypted NAS?
Replies: 13
Views: 6487

I'm wondering--for this particular application, would dual core actually make a difference? I don't know how inefficient uTorrent is, but I'd imagine it wouldn't consume much CPU. That leaves the main problem which is file encryption/decryption. I don't know how TrueCrypt works, but I'd guess that y...
by IsaacKuo
Fri Aug 29, 2008 9:20 am
Forum: Off Topic
Topic: RAID and SSD's
Replies: 22
Views: 11519

Hey, I just had a thought. I don't think this idea will work. See, SSD's are not like hard drives. And the bottleneck is going to be the memory controller anyway. You don't think that partitioning the SSD will magically clone new memory controllers, do you?

Just helping! :P
by IsaacKuo
Thu Aug 28, 2008 11:23 am
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: New Matrox videocards: The M-Series
Replies: 40
Views: 19486

Re: New Matrox videocards: The M-Series

Single Link port can only give you 1920x1200, which is good for 24". Dual Link gives you 2560x1600 which is good for 30". Instead of two 24" monitors, get a single 30". Instead of 4 24" monitors, get 2 30" monitors. That way you only need a single GPU with 2 dual link dvi ports, so even a cheap ATI...
by IsaacKuo
Thu Aug 28, 2008 2:00 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: What drive configuration in desktop if most data in NAS?
Replies: 26
Views: 12779

On my main workstation, there's just a single hard drive. It's partitioned into a small hda1 OS/RAMboot partition and a large hda5 backup data partition. I have a simple script that uses rsync to backup data from my file server to /mnt/hda5. Basically, I like for the hard drives to be spun down for ...
by IsaacKuo
Wed Aug 27, 2008 2:18 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: What drive configuration in desktop if most data in NAS?
Replies: 26
Views: 12779

Just to confuse you even further, if you really want blazing fast performance, you could RAMboot . The means perhaps investing a bit more in system RAM (more than 2gigs would be nice), and getting your hands a bit dirty with some boot script hacking. The benefits, though, would be stupendously fast ...
by IsaacKuo
Wed Aug 27, 2008 12:10 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: What drive configuration in desktop if most data in NAS?
Replies: 26
Views: 12779

@IssacKuo - Isn't that more of a reason to run two separate drives? You're splitting the IO requests across two disks, which is likely going to be faster than having it all on a single disk anyways. If your applications hit both disks hard at the same time, and both drives are equally fast, then ye...
by IsaacKuo
Wed Aug 27, 2008 10:16 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: What drive configuration in desktop if most data in NAS?
Replies: 26
Views: 12779

Unless you have a very good reason to put /home on a different drive, then I'd recommend leaving /home in its default location (on the root partition, along with everything else in the OS). Clearly, you are thinking of putting the OS on a fast drive for performance. But you seem to not realize how c...
by IsaacKuo
Tue Aug 19, 2008 10:01 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Slot 1 upgrade problems
Replies: 13
Views: 5786

Instead of using hot glue, you could simply remove the old retention hardware and rely on friction alone. I've used friction alone to support a heavy P3 with a huge heatpipe based VGA cooler (this was before I discovered that such a large heat sink was not necessary). That computer has gone on an in...