Search found 714 matches

by stromgald
Thu Sep 15, 2011 8:29 am
Forum: Cases and Damping
Topic: I give you the ANTEC SOLO II
Replies: 177
Views: 246850

Re: I give you the ANTEC SOLO II

+1 I don't understand why that unwillingness to SOLO II. In my opinion, it has the best design for a 7-slot ATX case. It has no wasted space. It's beautifully small. It's perfect for Seasonic and Kingwin fanless PSUs. It allows using anyone video card. It allows positive pressure, it brings an exce...
by stromgald
Wed Jun 01, 2011 3:08 pm
Forum: Cases and Damping
Topic: I give you the ANTEC SOLO II
Replies: 177
Views: 246850

Re: I give you the ANTEC SOLO II

I agree with many of the other comments. This SOLO II is a disappointment. With the Fractal R2 coming in at around $100, and the new Cooler Master 550 Silencio, Antec really needed to revamp the SOLO. I would've liked to see at least better cable management and a bottom mounted PSU with downward fac...
by stromgald
Mon Mar 28, 2011 12:45 pm
Forum: Cases and Damping
Topic: Cooler Master prepares new cases for Cebit 2011
Replies: 28
Views: 13268

Re: Cooler Master prepares new cases for Cebit 2011

The Silent M looks like a really good competitor to the Antec Solo. I'm looking to upgrade from my NSK3480, but I've been hesitant to jump on the Solo bandwagon because it's a rather old design (can't wait until Antec releases an update) with limited cable management and somewhat small fans. The Sil...
by stromgald
Tue Feb 02, 2010 1:38 pm
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Gigabyte GA-P55-UD4 Fan Control
Replies: 11
Views: 15519

Sorry about resurrecting an old thread, but I had a question about this motherboard. I'm planning to do an overhaul of my desktop system and was looking at getting this motherboard. Can the SYS fan headers do any fan control at all? I have a single fanmate and some fairly quiet fans, but I'd like to...
by stromgald
Thu Jan 14, 2010 9:27 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Please crit my Gaming HTPC
Replies: 12
Views: 5582

Power consumption differences between the i7 860 and i5 750 are almost negligible. However, I'd save the money and stay with the i5. Hyperthreading generally doesn't help much in games. Until games can utilize more than 4 cores (most only handle 1 or 2 now), hyperthreading may hurt more than it help...
by stromgald
Thu Jan 07, 2010 12:48 pm
Forum: Power Supplies
Topic: I need a little help choosing a new Power Supply.
Replies: 15
Views: 5617

My mistake. I went to their Testbed and Methods page of the article and they didn't mention anything about their power testing methodology.
by stromgald
Thu Jan 07, 2010 12:20 pm
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Advice on HW for "simple" file server appreciated
Replies: 4
Views: 2469

I'm not sure what's the point to going to ECC RAM. It's much more expensive, and you'll have to find a motherboard that supports it. I'm just not sold on the benefits for a home system, even a home server. However, just to add some info to your build choices, my brother has an HTPC/NAS system with a...
by stromgald
Thu Jan 07, 2010 11:49 am
Forum: Power Supplies
Topic: I need a little help choosing a new Power Supply.
Replies: 15
Views: 5617

I think the PSU is too weak for heavy oc and 5850 CF. Here are some power figures for a very similar system: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/radeon-hd5800-crossfirex_10.html#sect0 This is the test setup: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/radeon-hd5850_4.html#sect0 The sy...
by stromgald
Thu Jan 07, 2010 11:34 am
Forum: CPU Cooling
Topic: Xigmatek SD964 or S1283 for i5?
Replies: 1
Views: 1920

Xigmatek SD964 or S1283 for i5?

I'm planning out an upgrade for my mATX system and am unsure of which cooling solution to use. It'll be most likely an i5-750 processor in my old Antec NSK3480 case. I want to keep the weight < 500g, so I'm looking at either the SD964 with the fan undervolted or the S1283 passive (with possible duct...
by stromgald
Wed Jan 06, 2010 3:03 pm
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Silent HTPC and gaming rig
Replies: 6
Views: 3990

It's roughly 20W less power under load according to this test: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3634&p=17 The thing that clouds the results are the different motherboards/chipsets for the tests. Since they used fairly high-end motherboards throughout their tests, I don't think the...
by stromgald
Mon Jan 04, 2010 4:19 pm
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: My new i5 system decided advice welcome :)
Replies: 22
Views: 8576

Re: My new i5 system decided advice welcome :)

Hej hohoho:) After alot of researching and building machines for friends its time to build my own, any advice is welcome! Keep in mind the machine will be used for daily use of inet, photoshop, office some light gaming(cs & wow) and movies. Keep in mind the build has to be really silent :) CPU : Co...
by stromgald
Mon Jan 04, 2010 4:04 pm
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Antec NSK3480 users -- what CD/DVD drive?
Replies: 5
Views: 3389

I have an NEC 3540A DVD+/-RW Drive in my Antec 3480. It's pretty tight in there, but I think any standard optical drive will fit. Longer than normal drives will probably cause problems. In addition, if you are installing two 5.25 drives, right angle plugs and/or shorter drives would make things alot...
by stromgald
Thu Oct 29, 2009 9:03 am
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: Lenovo IdeaCentre Q100: World's Thinnest, Smallest Nettop
Replies: 12
Views: 9950

eeebox still the best The eeebox is bigger, but it does include a card reader and optical drive, so I'd agree that it's better than the Q100 or Q110. The lack of a VESA mount is only on the Q100 I think, Lenovo's website advertises a monitor mount for the Q110. However, I'm more interested in the Q...
by stromgald
Thu Oct 08, 2009 1:47 pm
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: Low Power Monitors from Samsung and Lenovo
Replies: 27
Views: 25016

As far as the interface goes, Dell has a 'new' four button interface that is apparently much more intuitive. I found out about it a few months ago when I was looking for a new monitor. I haven't used it, so I can't say much about it, but there was this glowing review about it. I think it looks promi...
by stromgald
Wed Jul 08, 2009 2:22 pm
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: Antec ISK-300 Mini-ITX Case
Replies: 86
Views: 84641

Would a Thermalright XP-90 cooler fit and cool the E7200 passively (i.e. only case fans)? It's an older cooler, but fairly compact.

EDIT: Nevermind, it's too tall. I thought it was closer in height to the XP-120 which I've used before, but it's actually more than 1cm taller.
by stromgald
Thu Jun 18, 2009 1:43 pm
Forum: Newcomers Briefing Room
Topic: General Input for a New Build
Replies: 6
Views: 4321

RAID 0 offers little to no performance boost. Theoretically, it could provide close to 2x performance, but that's only if it's always reading from the two disks simultaneously for a given operation. From many threads discussing this online, this is rarely the case. Here's one on anandtech and one fr...
by stromgald
Thu Jun 18, 2009 12:45 pm
Forum: Newcomers Briefing Room
Topic: General Input for a New Build
Replies: 6
Views: 4321

Re: General Input for a New Build

What's your justification for going with the P190? It's an awfully big case, and unless you're going to be having 6+ HDDs or using 3+ optical drive bays, I don't see the reason for it. The larger fans are nice, but I don't think it should be the driving factor. A P182 or SOLO/P150 would be more econ...
by stromgald
Mon Jun 08, 2009 3:01 pm
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: No sound after resume from sleep mode
Replies: 7
Views: 3473

Just to add to what jesse posted, I would avoid drivers from microsoft's windows update. I've had spotty performance with it on graphics card and laptop dvd burner drivers.

I second jessekopelman's suggestion of going with the motherboard manufacturer's drivers and BIOS updates.
by stromgald
Mon Jun 08, 2009 10:09 am
Forum: Power Supplies
Topic: X-bit Labs tackles the issue of "how many Watts we need
Replies: 13
Views: 6192

I think this should be put in the PSU forum. Good info. In addition to pointing out the difference between good and dirt cheap power supplies (as BillyBuerger mentioned), they should also point out that the usual testing method used by anandtech and other websites is a Kill-A-Watt meter, which is hi...
by stromgald
Fri May 29, 2009 7:55 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: need some help debating parts for a build!
Replies: 4
Views: 2700

for cpu cooler I was thinking about going with the Noctua NH-U12P SE1366. Thanks for the advice about the PSU.. i'll look more into that. Do you think the WD velo-rap's are more quiet than the caviar black? It doesn't seem like the performance gain might be worth the extra price for the raptor. Not...
by stromgald
Thu May 28, 2009 12:35 pm
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: need some help debating parts for a build!
Replies: 4
Views: 2700

Re: need some help debating parts for a build!

Hey guys, So i'm trying to build a decently powerful core i7 rig while also keeping noise at a minimum. I've been going back and forth through cases, fans, etc and would appreciate any advice I could get.(any suggested changes?) As of now I will only have a single GPU installed but I would like the...
by stromgald
Thu May 28, 2009 12:18 pm
Forum: Newcomers Briefing Room
Topic: Questions about upgrading...
Replies: 5
Views: 4236

Re: Questions about upgrading...

Hi guys. I was on here back in '06 and the computer y'all helped me build was the finest I've ever owned. I've been doing the laptop thing of late and frankly, the fanboards + vibration have been driving me nuts. In a fit of monitor-envy, I purchased a Hanns·G HG-281DPB Black 27.5" 3ms Widescreen ...
by stromgald
Wed May 27, 2009 9:05 am
Forum: Off Topic
Topic: Win 7, what compels you to upgrade?
Replies: 112
Views: 47608

I find it good that USB is getting update, BUT it makes me go nuts that people are even thinking of replacing DVI/HDMI with USB. GAAAAA! I don't think anybody is talking about replacing DVI/HDMI with USB. It's mostly USB vs. Firewire. DVI/HDMI will be replaced by DisplayPort if VESA ever gets off t...
by stromgald
Tue May 26, 2009 8:59 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: PWM Scythe fan on Dell Motherboard doesnt move!
Replies: 8
Views: 4279

I'm not sure if the connectors are necessarily wrong, but they might be. You also don't need to cut the wires, you can pop them out of the connector with a small needle or screw-driver.

Example: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/496/2
by stromgald
Tue May 26, 2009 8:38 am
Forum: Off Topic
Topic: Win 7, what compels you to upgrade?
Replies: 112
Views: 47608

Seriously USB3.0 should be burned to hell. I mean for what is it useful anyway to boost the interface speed? For external hard drives eSATA is simply a better choice, for digital video the standard FireWire 400 never gets old and whatever else application - you name it - there's already something m...
by stromgald
Tue May 26, 2009 8:29 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: PWM Scythe fan on Dell Motherboard doesnt move!
Replies: 8
Views: 4279

It's not the amperage rating. That just tells you how much current the fan draws, and since it's lower, it shouldn't cause a problem. It's only when the fan has very high amperage, which the motherboard might not handle, that it becomes a problem. You might want to take pictures of the connectors (o...
by stromgald
Mon May 18, 2009 8:27 am
Forum: Newcomers Briefing Room
Topic: Reviews section
Replies: 7
Views: 3951

Re: Reviews section

Guys, just wanted to ask, is the reviews section dead? i.e. is spcr getting new stuff and reviewing them? I was looking at the graphics card section and it looks rather outdated. I can see reviews of individual components but are the recommended/reference sections being updated? please correct me i...
by stromgald
Fri May 15, 2009 4:27 pm
Forum: Newcomers Briefing Room
Topic: Power Consumption by Component
Replies: 2
Views: 2668

There are plenty of PSU sizing calculators online, but most of them are very, very conservative. If you want to look at overall system power consumption, check out anandtech.com . Most of their CPU and motherboard reviews have overall system power consumption. They don't do individual parts because ...
by stromgald
Fri May 15, 2009 6:51 am
Forum: Off Topic
Topic: Win 7, what compels you to upgrade?
Replies: 112
Views: 47608

I works with Windows 7 RC1 for about a week. It is fast, remarkably stable even for RC and nice. But it is Vista... . Not so fast in "copy/paste" files like XP. The network performance is better than XP. Actually, that's a bit of a myth. Vista was slower than XP in copying and pasting in some situa...
by stromgald
Thu May 14, 2009 4:09 pm
Forum: Off Topic
Topic: Win 7, what compels you to upgrade?
Replies: 112
Views: 47608

Re: Win 7, what compels you to upgrade?

I'm reluctant to accept this. I like the minimalistic approach to the OS interface-refined, nice (not Windows 3.1), but minimalistic. Without these windows open and close with "effects", which needs monstrous 1GB graphic card and Quad-core CPU. Yes, you may switch them off-but this does not solve t...