Search found 33 matches

by GentleGiant
Tue May 27, 2014 5:32 pm
Forum: Fans and Control
Topic: cheap Cooler Master 120mm are as quiet as Nexus
Replies: 0
Views: 2272

cheap Cooler Master 120mm are as quiet as Nexus

I can recommend the 120mm Cooler Master 1200 rpm sleeve bearing fans as being no noisier than the reference Nexus 120mm fan, at least at 12V, which is the only way I could conveniently test them. They are tremendously cheap, with a 4-pack running $16 at Newegg. There are many other Cooler Master fan...
by GentleGiant
Tue May 27, 2014 5:13 pm
Forum: Fans and Control
Topic: Looking for quiet 120mm LED fans
Replies: 6
Views: 5082

Re: Looking for quiet 120mm LED fans

I've been happy with the inexpensive Cooler Master 1200rpm sleeve bearing non-led fans and I see they make a blue LED version. The ones I've had are no more noisy at 12V than the Nexus 120 fans. There are many variation on Cooler Master 120mm fans, and my experience is only with the ones specificall...
by GentleGiant
Fri May 16, 2014 4:20 pm
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: GTX 750Ti sips power
Replies: 153
Views: 164712

Re: GTX 750Ti sips power

I've received the MSI 'Gaming' edition 750ti that will be going to Mike for review. I tested it in my system, which is 'quiet' by SPCR standards, but not silent. It's a Fractal Define R4 with stock rear fan, and 2 Coolermaster low speed 120mm intake fans, all running on 12V. CPU heatsink is a 212evo...
by GentleGiant
Sat May 10, 2014 11:49 am
Forum: Donate for Reviews
Topic: ALL HAIL THE GTX 750 TI / $150 (CAD)
Replies: 17
Views: 32488

Re: ALL HAIL THE GTX 750 TI / $150 (CAD)

Mike - I'll order the MSI 'Gaming' 750ti and see if I can get it shipped directly to you. Is the address in the sticky in this forum correct? {Silent PC Review; 361-6417 Fraser St; Vancouver, BC V5W3A6; Canada} ^^ quest_for_silence - thanks, good suggestion - I have a couple Zalman Fan Mates I could...
by GentleGiant
Fri May 09, 2014 8:02 pm
Forum: Donate for Reviews
Topic: ALL HAIL THE GTX 750 TI / $150 (CAD)
Replies: 17
Views: 32488

Re: ALL HAIL THE GTX 750 TI / $150 (CAD)

I would happily buy one and have it shipped to SPCR for testing, with the understanding I could pay for shipping it on to me after the testing, and I'm OK with the likelyhood that it would be weeks/months before it was completed. I have an EVGA 750ti FTW and the noise level at the minimum fan speed ...
by GentleGiant
Fri May 09, 2014 7:35 pm
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: SilverStone RVZ01: Mini Raven Case
Replies: 11
Views: 15014

Re: SilverStone RVZ01: Mini Raven Case

SilverStone had revised the fan and fan speed in the power supply used. http://www.silverstonetek.com/images/memo/ST45SF-G-Fan-speed-curve-comparison-with-V1-&-V2.jpg In the Q&A on the product page they say the two versions can differentiated by a sticker on the outside of the box. Which version of ...
by GentleGiant
Thu Sep 19, 2013 10:26 pm
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: Gigabyte GA-H77N-WIFI Mini-ITX Motherboard
Replies: 10
Views: 12361

Re: Gigabyte GA-H77N-WIFI Mini-ITX Motherboard

With a 120mm tower cooler, (Hyper 212 evo) the fins overhang the PCIe slot's centerline by about 4mm. This cooler is symmetric, there are a few that have things offset just a bit, where you might be able to turn it one way or the other and get it to fit. A 92 to 100mm wide cooler would fit with no p...
by GentleGiant
Thu Jun 14, 2012 4:58 pm
Forum: Notebook Systems
Topic: Apple's new MacBook Pro and Asymmetrical fans
Replies: 10
Views: 26547

Re: Apple's new MacBook Pro and Asymmetrical fans

The spacing of the impeller paddles varies around the circumference of the wheel, that's the innovation. It even looks like it's not quite symmetric on opposing sides. Having the wall off-center, that might make for a more gradual pressure/velocity/impedance transition at the outlet. I know in super...
by GentleGiant
Tue Nov 08, 2011 11:46 am
Forum: SPCR Announcements
Topic: WD Scorpio Black 750GB & Scorpio Blue 1TB
Replies: 4
Views: 16888

Re: WD Scorpio Black 750GB & Scorpio Blue 1TB

Yes, the Samsung M8 HN-M101MBB 1TB drive was generally available before WD's 9.5mm drive was out. I have one and it's been fine and quiet.
by GentleGiant
Fri Sep 30, 2011 8:40 am
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: Samsung Series 9 Ultra Portable Notebook
Replies: 6
Views: 5385

Re: Samsung Series 9 Ultra Portable Notebook

I just got a Lenovo Thinkpad X220 - it has a matte-finish 12.5" display and with the $50 "Premium HD Display" upgrade you get an IPS display panel with essentially perfect off-angle colors. It's not really bright, but it otherwise blows away any laptop screen I've used, including my 15" Macbook Pro ...
by GentleGiant
Thu Sep 29, 2011 12:18 pm
Forum: Deals, Vendors and Classifieds
Topic: FS: New IBM ServeRAID m1015 SAS/SATA cards
Replies: 2
Views: 2702

Re: FS: New IBM ServeRAID m1015 SAS/SATA cards

PM Sent for 1 of these.

It's a low-profile x8 PCI-E 2.0 card with two internal SFF SAS x4 ports, for those interested.
by GentleGiant
Wed Feb 23, 2011 9:34 pm
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: saving power: locking nvidia gpus' clock to low 2d desktop
Replies: 2
Views: 1842

Re: saving power: locking nvidia gpus' clock to low 2d deskt

Difference in core power will be 12.5% at the greatest, enough other components operating means overall power difference will be much less on a percentage basis.

Nothing to be even slightly concerned about.
by GentleGiant
Sun Feb 13, 2011 12:59 pm
Forum: Power Supplies
Topic: My Corsair VX450 fan seems loud
Replies: 10
Views: 3444

Re: My Corsair VX450 fan seems loud

I have a VX 450 and I found it was very sensitive to the temperature of the incoming air -- I had a down-blowing CPU cooler that put plenty of heat out where the power supply was sucking air in and it never was very quiet except at absolute minimum load with on-board video. I measured temperatures o...
by GentleGiant
Tue May 25, 2010 1:36 pm
Forum: Green Computing
Topic: Because the D510 and the i5-661 in IDLE consume equal ?
Replies: 2
Views: 4143

With the processor idle, the power consumption is mostly by devices such as RAM and the chipset (north or south bridge chips) -- and these are similar in each system. The TDP numbers are a guide for system designers to make the cooling performance as needed -- they represent the typical maximum powe...
by GentleGiant
Thu Jul 16, 2009 12:43 pm
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: is there a way to get 45nm in 975x msi?
Replies: 3
Views: 2049

The 45nm processors use a different communication protocol to the motherboard to select voltage etc. If the BIOS and motherboard don't support it, there's not any way to do it yourself. Many boards did get BIOS upates to support the 45nm chips, but if there's not one yet from MSI for that motherboar...
by GentleGiant
Thu Apr 17, 2008 1:40 pm
Forum: SPCR's Folding@Home
Topic: It's here! It's here! Intel 45nm Quad
Replies: 5
Views: 5199

Aristide - these new Xeons are still Socket 771 but unfortunately they're not compatible with many older boards - My Dell PowerEdge 2900 server will work with the 65nm processors (5100 and 5300 series) but not the 45nm ones (5200 and 5400 series) - Bummer. The new Penryn-based parts (server and desk...
by GentleGiant
Thu Apr 17, 2008 1:22 pm
Forum: SPCR's Folding@Home
Topic: Rant: Why's there still no SMP client w/ checkpointing?
Replies: 7
Views: 5852

It's not checkpoints, but deadlines that are the problem

The Windows SMP client (or core, really) does checkpoint in pretty much the same way as the conventional single-thread client. What's likely the problem is the current short deadline (4 days) on SMP units. A dual core machine folding 8 hours/day will miss the deadlines. My 2 Ghz iMac C2D runs 24 hou...
by GentleGiant
Fri Jan 11, 2008 11:01 am
Forum: SPCR's Folding@Home
Topic: A serious FYI to Folders who OC.
Replies: 2
Views: 3565

Is there an equivalent for Linux? Or a way to boot enough of Windows from a CD or USB device to run Prime 95?

Only one of my 5 current machines is running Windows, and I really don't want to mess with adding partitions etc. to get Windows installed.
by GentleGiant
Mon Dec 31, 2007 2:25 pm
Forum: SPCR's Folding@Home
Topic: Affinity Changer - run two F@H SMP clients on a quad core!
Replies: 33
Views: 35187

Results vary by WU project

The benefit of running two instances at once varies a lot between the different SMP projects. Some of them leave less free CPU than others. If both of my WU's are p2653, there's a 25% increase on Pts/day while running two (frame time goes from 9:50 to 15:45). Production goes from 2570 to 3220 PPD Wi...
by GentleGiant
Thu Dec 27, 2007 8:39 pm
Forum: SPCR's Folding@Home
Topic: Affinity Changer - run two F@H SMP clients on a quad core!
Replies: 33
Views: 35187

I have heard that under Ubuntu you should get more ppd, but it is under Ubuntu where I still have 20% idle even with 2 instances. Yup - both true :o My machine is a Dell 2900 with dual Xeon 5140 2.33 dual core cpus. Over the last few days I've been switching OSes With Windows Server 2003, my CPU ut...
by GentleGiant
Tue Dec 11, 2007 4:14 pm
Forum: Cases and Damping
Topic: Need 5.25 inch bay cover - mesh
Replies: 11
Views: 8315

Looking carefully at the blown-up image on the FrozenCPU site, there are two small nubs on the side flange that seem to correspond to the two forward screw holes on an optical drive. This baby ought to just snap into place in most any case. Very nice. If that doesn't work, drill a quick hole through...
by GentleGiant
Mon Nov 05, 2007 3:27 pm
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: Zalman VF1000 LED Graphics Card Cooler
Replies: 32
Views: 30507

vf900 ok?

Seems like the results for the vf900 are inconsistant with earlier tests - it was a great cooler in last year's test. I tried to calculate the difference in GPU power consumption - the net difference is ~25-30W but the CPU is different from the previous test. The rated TDP is ~10W higher in the new ...
by GentleGiant
Fri Jun 08, 2007 9:53 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: How hot should memory get?
Replies: 9
Views: 4590

big heatsinks == bad news on AMD mobos

If your board is like all the other A64 boards I've known, the RAM slots are all packed right next to each other, and even if you have just two DIMMs they use adjacent slots. "High performance" RAM with large heatsinks block two of four sides because there's no airspace between the inner heatsinks. ...
by GentleGiant
Mon May 28, 2007 11:03 am
Forum: Off Topic
Topic: Dual-Channel Memory "Real World" Performance
Replies: 9
Views: 6732

My results with Folding@Home on an AMD X2 gave a 15-25% drop in performance with a single 512MB versus two. It's likely SuperPi is not nearly as memory intensive as you think... Fooling around with memory timings showed me they don't matter so much: going from the stock 200Mhz 2-2-2-5 timings to 166...
by GentleGiant
Sun May 27, 2007 10:09 pm
Forum: Off Topic
Topic: APC UPS question
Replies: 4
Views: 4562

The spark is usual. It's probably mentioned in the manual, if you read it carefully. The advice for charging is so that if there is an outage in the first hours the UPS is connected, that there will be enough juice to provide backup power. I also think the charging circuit firmware does some calibra...
by GentleGiant
Sat Dec 16, 2006 10:21 am
Forum: Quiet Prebuilt, SFF and Barebones Systems
Topic: SPCR Designed Computer Systems
Replies: 216
Views: 388603

Bravo Mike and SPCR! These look like fine systems. The prices are not unreasonable, considering the extra work required and the fact that End PC Noise undoubtly pays more for components than Dell or Newegg. The economics of a small business' labor and parts prices are not the same. Remember folks, i...
by GentleGiant
Thu Sep 14, 2006 10:48 am
Forum: CPU Cooling
Topic: CPU cooler for E6600 recommendations?
Replies: 4
Views: 4115

Look to the past...

I'd actually suggest the Zalman CNPS 7700-AlCu, or the 7000-AlCu with Zalman's adaptor for socket 775. For an all in one, simple heatsink these are still a great choice. And it will work just great on a 65w cpu like the Conroe 6600, even with the fan controller turned all the way down. It's got what...
by GentleGiant
Wed Feb 15, 2006 2:53 pm
Forum: Power Supplies
Topic: #### General FAQ ####
Replies: 15
Views: 60755

Tell me more about -5V output and motherboards that require it. I have a new GA-K8N51PVMT-9 Gigabyte motherboard (s939/nForce 430/GeForce 6150) which Antec tells me is not compatible with their power supplies because it requires -5V, which has disappeared from ATX 2.x standards. What power supplies ...
by GentleGiant
Thu Feb 09, 2006 1:09 pm
Forum: Consumer Advocacy
Topic: Antec Neo HE PSU Users Poll
Replies: 355
Views: 631639

Neo 430 HE from a P150 purchased late Dec./early Jan. from newegg. It won't startup my Gigabyte GA-K8N51PVMT-9 system: Athlon 64X2 4200, 1 gig ram, on board video, 1 sata hd, 1 dvd-rw. This is a GF6150/nF430 board. It will power a system with Athlon xp-m 2600 (at 2.3ghz oc'd), Asus a7v880 mobo, 1.5 ...
by GentleGiant
Sun Jul 03, 2005 10:30 am
Forum: Quiet Prebuilt, SFF and Barebones Systems
Topic: Finally a concurrent for Antec's Aria !
Replies: 17
Views: 14218

Looking at the the "box" the 60mm exhaust fan lives in, there seems to be enough room for an 80mm fan with simple cutting/drilling of a new opening.

I'm not sure what the intake fan on the side left front is meant for - it looks to feed a small duct?