Yeah, the above is not a bad suggestion at all. I actually went Wolfdale when I upgraded my system, but then again I wasn't held captive by the need for IGP. The GeForce 9300 finally gives you a good IGP choice on Intel, and now that Wolfdale has dropped below $100, it's a good deal. The AMD system ...

I want to buy a nice mobo and cpu with some other people. Unfortunately, we all have our demands on what the system will be able to do: low power consumption when idle: less then 50watt, my goal is 35 watt or less (even if I have to undervolt/underclock the cpu). Being able to play 1080P (HDCP enco...

Search the forums. I remember reading a post where an owner of both said he found the Ecogreen superior in every respect. I believe the Samsung is still fairly scarce in North America, so there hasn't been that much discussion. Well, I wouldn't jump the gun so quickly. There is a new revision of th...

If you're not getting TWO HD4870s, then you might want to consider the Antec Sonata. The case comes with a 500w Earthwatts powersupply, which is fairly efficient and quiet. 500w is not enough for two 4870 cards, but it is more than enough for one, even paired with an overclocked quad core processor....

I use a WD Green Power 750GB in my main rig and it is dead silent. No, it's not as fast as the latest 7200 RPM drives, but by contrast those 7200 RPM drives are not silent. The WD drive does have %80 of the performance of modern 7200 RPM drives, and is actually faster than my old Seagate Barracuda 7...

You're creating a voltage divider. Let's double-check, shall we? Goal: you want 5v to fall across the fan leads, and 7v to fall across the resistor. I am assuming your source is 12v, correct? Fan load: .3 amps. This same current must flow through the resistor. V = IR (good enough for this situation...

I use one of these drive enclosures with my WD green power 750GB, and it is completely silent. The power management spins down the drive when is is not in-use. NOTE: if you want eSATA support, you can get a NexStar with it. Face facts people: if you want silent, you'll get the best results when you ...

You're creating a voltage divider. Let's double-check, shall we? Goal: you want 5v to fall across the fan leads, and 7v to fall across the resistor. I am assuming your source is 12v, correct? Fan load: .3 amps. This same current must flow through the resistor. V = IR (good enough for this situation,...

My thoughts on the 4850: They need to fix the idle power issue. Something is terribly wrong, because even running the card at 160/500 (used the MSI bios update) only dropped my idle temps by a few degrees. No card should have to use so much power at idle. That said, the default fan profile for the 4...

My 120mm Scythe FDB fans are pretty quiet, but you have to use something like Q-fan to make them completely silent. The fans I have are targeted at 1200 RPM, but I run them at 1000 RPM for pure silence. But it's not fan mechanical noise, but the large amount of audible airflow. You might not need to...

After reading in this thread that some of the MSI cards have a newer bios that clocks lower while in a 2D profile I can across this review: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_4850/21.html What I found interesting is that the review data included both an MSI and Power Colour 4850… Sy...

Some guy on the hardforum installed S1 on his CF 4850s. He said he was able to cut the heatsink fins without damaging the heatpipes, and give himself enough room for the CF bridge. But yeah, if you're a silent nut, stock cooling will not satisfy you. It is silent at idle, but you can hear it at load...

I own one of the Asus drives with QuietTrack, and I have to say: it is much quieter than my old optical drive. But that's not saying much, because it's still loud on seeks. An improvement, but in reality nothing amazing. You will still have to use drivespeed controls and put up with 16-24x speeds if...

It's nice to see the return of performance 5400 RPM drives. It seems with every iteration that 7200 RPM drives get hotter and nosier, and the only ones that are remotely quiet sacrifice performance. I've used quiet 5400 RPM drives in the past (like Seagate's U6), but the performance hit was huge. Wi...

I might have to give Asus a shot next. http://www.cdfreaks.com/reviews/ASUS-DRW-2014L1T-LightScribe-Multi-DVD-Writer-Review http://club.cdfreaks.com/f61/quiet-dvd-writer-220060/ I have this drive, and I was surprised at how quiet it was. You do pay for this, of course, with slightly lower read spee...

I would consider giving it a shot, but only if your motherboard has fan throttling.

Not directly related, but I'm usng the stock HSF for my X2 3800+ with Q-fan enabled. On boot it typically revs around 1000-1300 RPM, and is silent. It's certainly possible to expect the same from your stock HSF.

You know how it is. These are huge hunks of metal, attached under pressure to PCBs with hundreds of surface components. A short to ground is quite possible, even from vibration months after the original install. I always inspect Zalman coolers and the card before I mount them. Often, I will lay down...

I installed a vf700 on my XFX AGP 6600 GT over a year back, was painless except when it came to the ramsinks. Like you, I modified the ramsinks, but I took the easier method: the sinks are made of a soft aluminum, and you can easily remove the pins with a pair of needlenose pliers. I sold the system...

I'm willing to bet 3D cards under Vista will use a demand-based clock and voltage throttling system similar to Cool 'n Quiet and Speedstep. Now that Microsoft has revamped the driver model to support multithreaded access to the video chipset, it is now possible to implement finer controls such as th...

If I were in the market right now, I'd pick up Conroe. But I don't need an upgrade for at least 2 years. My 3800+ X2 @ 2.4 GHz w/2GB will have a nice long life. By then, AMD will have K8L quad-core chips in the mainstream, and Intel will release a quad-core Conroe. That, and the industry will probab...

What did you expect? The Pentium 4 had a curiosly high Speedstep speed of 2.8 GHz, which wasn't all that big a downclock. Intel wants to make sure you can only get really low power consumption in Merom so they can keep tight control on their markets. It wouldn't do with manufacturers mucking around ...

It's pretty common. My Winchester 3200+ would do 1.5 GHz at 1.0v, and I've heard even better things about Venice cores at 1.0v. Not to discount your chip though: that's a mighty fine one you've got. I just want to encourage everyone to buy Semprons and undervolt them because it is SO DAMN EASY! When...

VIA hasn't done anything spactacular with the Winchip core since they bought Centaur. a half watt power consumption at idle is rather spectacular, isn't it? Not really. Via accomplishes this with the same aggressive voltage and clock throttling AMD and Intel have been using for years (the C7 thrott...

Could be a much better multimedia performer than current C7s. Don't see how that could be. This is likely a rebranded C7 with higher clock speeds due to greater voltages. They have stated previously that the C7 will scale up to 2.0 GHz. PC-1 Featureset: 90nm x86 processor 128KB L1, 128LB L2 SSE, SS...

Good review. The product itself is not bad, but it is not all that great for $270, unless you absolutely need THE LOWEST power consumption on the market, aside from using a notebook. You still have to pony up for ram, a hard drive, powersupply and a case, plus an optical drive if you want to use it ...

For my latest system: Antec Sonata II: (~$50 more than an SLK1650) Zalman vf900-Cu: $50 2 Scythe 120mm S-FLEX Fluid Dynamic Bearing fans: $30 Zalman ZM-NB47J (blue) northbridge cooler: $6 I voided the warranty on my Asus A8N5X, but I don't care, because the board cost $75 :D I voided the warranty on...

Update: I've discovered (to my dismay) that the Antec TriCool on low isn't enough for overclocked stability (processor is at 2.4 GHz, and the video card is overclocked). Unfortunately, Oblivion is a LOT PICKIER than any other game I own with my overclock. Even with fans throttled up, I have to back ...

I dunno, I havn't had any issues with the ZM-NB47J (blue, pins) on my Asus A8N5X. The placement of the chipset means it doesn't get in the way of video cards, and the board itself is DIRT CHEAP.

Unless you MUST have SLI, I recommend the A8N5X plus a Zalman cooler.

Have you tried improving the airflow to the heatsink? That heat has to be dissapated, and if the airflow isn't enough, the heatsink (and thus, the heatpipes and chipset) get hotter.

Why don't you just use a USB enclosure? You can run USB up to 15 feet without a hub, and extend it indefinitely with hubs. 15 feet is enough to put the drive in a closet. Even if that isn't an option, with the right enclosure, drives are almost inaudible. Best of all, performance is MUCH better than...