Search found 61 matches

by wing
Mon Dec 11, 2006 6:39 am
Forum: Site Feedback
Topic: Minor errors in MODT mismatched article
Replies: 2
Views: 3889

Minor errors in MODT mismatched article

I spotted 2 errors in the MODT Mismatched article while starting to read it: 1. "Mini-Mac" should be "Mac Mini" 2. "they were" should be "there were" in "There are no stock fans, and no place to mount them even if they were." (last paragraph on the page) Cheers PS: Thumbs up for the "were" in the "[...
by wing
Wed Feb 08, 2006 11:12 pm
Forum: The Silent Front
Topic: Does using long audio cables/usb cables increase latency?
Replies: 15
Views: 9697

I've read about a lot of audiophiles using CAT5 as speaker cables with excellent results. Pretty surprising considering all the BS about expensive thick cables. I once had a boss who told me that he wires all his audio-visual equipment with "data quality" cables because they are of so much better q...
by wing
Wed Jan 18, 2006 9:32 am
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: A Quiet PC for Torrid Thailand
Replies: 129
Views: 104442

I am wondering, if anything has been (or can be) done to minimize damage to the computer by Customs officials?

They are known to unpack things and apparently don't even know how to pack simple things back up :roll:
by wing
Mon Dec 19, 2005 5:59 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Defective Samsung 250 GB SATA. tell me your experiences
Replies: 38
Views: 20495

My personal feeling is: High class WD > Maxtor > Seagate > Samsung in terms of reliability. Noise may very well follow the inverse trend. Another poster had said what I wanted to say. However, to add my own words, I find that Maxtors I have bought have been the worst in terms of reliability; Seagat...
by wing
Mon Nov 21, 2005 7:38 am
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 500GB HDD
Replies: 33
Views: 106779

The ~465 gigabyte Windows calculated should be called gibibyte ;) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_prefix Microsoft is following the old standard; many people (myself included) still are. "Gibi" just sounds too bizzare. And (this is very important), don't believe everything you read on Wikipedia...
by wing
Mon May 09, 2005 12:45 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Drive temperatures over 50?
Replies: 13
Views: 6184

Dead fan? Removed? Put a new one on it! Belated update: The fan was replaced and then the CPU temperature did not change :shock: So I took the heat sink off thinking maybe I need to remount the heatsink (scary, I did not know that Celerons come in a bare die, and I was rocking the heat sink when I ...
by wing
Mon May 02, 2005 8:58 am
Forum: Power Supplies
Topic: Directional hum from Super Silencer
Replies: 0
Views: 1193

Directional hum from Super Silencer

I persuaded management to get 3 Super Silencer 300's a while ago. However, after installing one of them and turning the PC on, there is now a very noticeable (and very annoying, too) directional hum that was not there before. Has anyone seen Super Silencers generating directional hum? What if any ca...
by wing
Mon Feb 21, 2005 10:04 pm
Forum: Power Supplies
Topic: What happened when your PSU died?
Replies: 20
Views: 10538

When the PSU of my PC at home started dying, it caused my hard drives to produce uncorrectable errors. Both the Western Digital and the Maxtor were affected, but the Maxtor was affected a lot more. Finally the PC started to reset itself, and later it won't post. (After the PSU was replaced, the WD b...
by wing
Mon Jan 10, 2005 9:07 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Is Samsung's HUTIL system diagnostic valid on a SP1614c?
Replies: 21
Views: 14730

Unfortunately I am not an expert :-( According to http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/ "uncorrectable" means Disk drives store data in blocks (sectors) of 512 bytes. Each 512 bytes has additional bytes appended to it (usually 40 to 60) which are used internally by the disk firmware for error checki...
by wing
Mon Jan 10, 2005 5:27 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Is Samsung's HUTIL system diagnostic valid on a SP1614c?
Replies: 21
Views: 14730

Is there any possibility that I have a BIOS, driver, configuration problem or is what I describe consistent only with a physically damaged drive (e. g. bad sectors or other?)? I would first try to zero fill the whole drive (yes, it will take almost the whole day to run but I found that an interrupt...
by wing
Mon Jan 10, 2005 5:18 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Is Samsung's HUTIL system diagnostic valid on a SP1614c?
Replies: 21
Views: 14730

I did that a while ago. I wrote 0 to the first 40 GB of the hard drive (was taking too long), but I still get the format hanging at ~ 27 GB. I know, this takes more than half a day, but you have to let the zero fill run completely to the end. It does make a difference. Filling part of the drive wit...
by wing
Mon Jan 10, 2005 4:47 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Is Samsung's HUTIL system diagnostic valid on a SP1614c?
Replies: 21
Views: 14730

You could try to do a "low level format" (a.k.a. fill with zeroes) of the drive from hutil. If it seems to erase the drive ok, do another full test from hutil and see if it passes the test. This might fix the problems, but I don't know how much trust I can place on such a drive. (My PATA Maxtor was ...
by wing
Fri Jan 07, 2005 6:12 am
Forum: Cases and Damping
Topic: New Antec cases being shown at CES on pcmag.com
Replies: 473
Views: 397013

Hey Cams - i always used Alt-0176 for the degree symbol 176 gives a smaller one than 186: ° vs. º how interesting :) 176 is the correct "degree" symbol; 186 is the "masculine ordinal" symbol (i.e., the "o" masculine ending, presumably for Spanish etc.). In some fonts, there will be an underline in ...
by wing
Wed Jan 05, 2005 9:00 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Turning the volume down!!
Replies: 26
Views: 11328

I don't know what to say other than find a new drive. SPCR's Recommended List is not very kind to Maxtor; but compared to my WD, even my Maxtor is "noiseless". Seagate and Samsung sound alright too. (Yes, I have all 4 brands, due to some stupidity on my part. But currently only the Samsung is actual...
by wing
Tue Jan 04, 2005 5:22 pm
Forum: Off Topic
Topic: Pocky?
Replies: 25
Views: 15249

But then, too bad for me, Pocky is too expensive here, I cannot afford to be addicted on that stuff.... I think Pocky might be expensive everywhere. Look at the prices on glico.co.jp (they list only a few limited-edition ones), 1050 yen for the special Pocky's, almost CAD$15 :shock: EDIT: Giant Poc...
by wing
Tue Jan 04, 2005 4:36 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Turning the volume down!!
Replies: 26
Views: 11328

I don't know if turning down the seeks would help much; if the whine of my WD is anything typical, its whine was as loud as everything else in my computer combined.
by wing
Sun Jan 02, 2005 9:49 pm
Forum: Fans and Control
Topic: Is the Zalman Fanmate only for 1 fan only?
Replies: 3
Views: 2372

Also think about whether you want the speeds of your fans to be reduced by the same amount. This might not be what you want to do.
by wing
Sun Jan 02, 2005 7:29 pm
Forum: Cases and Damping
Topic: What's causing the noise??
Replies: 8
Views: 4143

Perhaps it's the PSU :?
by wing
Sun Jan 02, 2005 7:32 am
Forum: Cases and Damping
Topic: silentmaxx HDDD-silencer review
Replies: 6
Views: 3382

It does, but: the smart drive makes your drives run hot, while the silentmaxx cools them down. Big difference IMHO. Do you mean Smart Drive or Silent Drive? "Makes your drives run hot" is inconsistent with either results from Tom's Hardware or SPCR's own testing (and SPCR was not even testing this ...
by wing
Sat Jan 01, 2005 3:47 pm
Forum: Fans and Control
Topic: Quiet 40 mm fans! (maybe)
Replies: 15
Views: 5979

Sizzle wrote:From my first hand experience with Papst and Adda 40 mm fans, none of them qualify for silent. However, I have two of these that I think would make a good case for being called silent fans.

http://www.silenxusa.com/productcart/pc ... Category=6
But aren't SilenX fans made by Adda? :?
by wing
Sat Jan 01, 2005 3:03 pm
Forum: Fans and Control
Topic: Quiet 40 mm fans! (maybe)
Replies: 15
Views: 5979

According to Papst site(the link i posted) they are 18dB(A), 3.8bels. But 3.8bels should be 38 decibels, decibel should be a tenth of a bel. Or am i wrong again? :lol: What does the (A) stand for really? :?: Anyway, i doubt any fan is as quiet as the manufacturer says, if it is the airflow isnt pro...
by wing
Sat Jan 01, 2005 1:41 pm
Forum: Fans and Control
Topic: Quiet 40 mm fans! (maybe)
Replies: 15
Views: 5979

Re: Quiet 40 mm fans! (maybe)

Tyrdium wrote:Edit: Huh... Are they Papsts?
Yes, these are Papsts. "ebmpapst" is the same company as Papst.
by wing
Sat Jan 01, 2005 1:20 pm
Forum: Fans and Control
Topic: What's the SMOOTHEST/quietiest 120mm fan?
Replies: 9
Views: 6363

I am not sure of the voltages, but turning down my Fan Mate too low makes my Nexus 120mm produce some noise (I think motor noise) which is absent when it has higher voltage.

Edit: can't type today ..
by wing
Fri Dec 31, 2004 3:17 pm
Forum: Power Supplies
Topic: UPS absolutely unacceptably noisy...
Replies: 15
Views: 7784

Tripplite UPS... one of those which you can send it some commands and reprogramme it into an expensive power bar? :shock: If you mean with the convoluted Javascript-based software package that you can download free from the site and use once you plug the UPS in with USB, then yeah. My bad... it's t...
by wing
Fri Dec 31, 2004 9:29 am
Forum: Power Supplies
Topic: UPS absolutely unacceptably noisy...
Replies: 15
Views: 7784

Tripplite UPS... one of those which you can send it some commands and reprogramme it into an expensive power bar? :shock:

We have an APC unit in the server room at work. I can't hear it, but then it's a very noisy server room so I don't know if it'd sound ok in more normal ambiant noise levels.
by wing
Fri Dec 31, 2004 8:48 am
Forum: Power Supplies
Topic: Is this true about PFC
Replies: 11
Views: 5496

I don't know how much impact APFC has on battery backups, but it seems that not all APFC units are created equal. My "old" (less than 2 months) Silverstone SST-40F would do weird things to my UPS, but so far I've had zero problems with my new Seasonic. Both have APFC.
by wing
Thu Dec 30, 2004 10:52 pm
Forum: Off Topic
Topic: Pocky?
Replies: 25
Views: 15249

Different varieties contain different amounts of chocolate; some contain none (e.g., the salty ones or the milk-flavoured ones). It seems that the "limited edition" ones might contain more :D

EDIT: My bad... the salty ones are Pretz... the Pocky are the ones with chocolate... :oops:
by wing
Tue Dec 28, 2004 10:17 pm
Forum: Power Supplies
Topic: Experience of Silverstone SST-40F vs Seasonic Super Tornado
Replies: 0
Views: 1840

Experience of Silverstone SST-40F vs Seasonic Super Tornado

I just wish to write up something about the Silverstone SST-40F (the one with a fan, not the better-known fanless model) vs the Seasonic Super Tornado 400 (Rev A3). I bought the SST-40F about the same time I discovered SPCR, when SPCR was just another review site and when I did not have a good enoug...
by wing
Sun Dec 26, 2004 5:03 pm
Forum: Power Supplies
Topic: Seasonic: Silencer vs. Tornado
Replies: 19
Views: 10351

It seems that all Seasonic PSUs sold in Europe are rev A2s. I got this email from KoolnQuiet in the UK: All the Seasonic power supplies sold in the USA are Rev A3. All other markets, including Europe, have Rev A2. It was done as a marketing ploy but they have shot themselves in the foot. So I guess...
by wing
Sun Dec 26, 2004 3:52 pm
Forum: CPU Cooling
Topic: How slow is your cpu fan running?
Replies: 38
Views: 16876

About 1120 RPM. It's a Nexus 120mm fan at 12V, CNPS6500, Northwood 1.8GHz. 53°C when running CPU Burn, 47°C when folding, about 35°C idle.

Edit: After quitting cpuburn, the cpu refuses to go back to 47°C, it is now doing 49°C folding :?