I've just done a really naughty test. I stuck a chopstick in the fan of the psu - it seems to be causing all the noise. The hard drives are actully not too bad. What is the best way of modifying this psu? The best way of modifying that PSU would be a fan swap, but there are a number of caveats that...

It's powerful enough, yes, the main problem is one of connectors. The S12 500 and S12 600 have two PCIe video power connectors, each rated at 150W. With the 430 and below, you'll need to use adaptors to convert from two molex connectors to one 6pin PCIe power connector. With two such adaptors, you m...

No need to kick yourself about the Sledgehammer, it's still much cooler than a Prescott. With an XP-120, you can probably still run the Nexus fan at minimum. 5V mod or a fanmate would do the trick. Same for case fans. Having just read the P180 preview, I'd regard it as worth waiting for... or if not...

Yes, the Hitachi T7K250 looks good, though I haven't seen definitive performance or noise tests yet (i.e. SR and SPCR, respectively). Restrictiveness might be a problem, though if you're using AMD, and a relatively low end video card, perhaps the Reserator pump will still produce adequate flow with ...

Get a Zalman NB-47J, mod it as required. Cheap, fairly easy, and effective.

Quick, lazy answers - 120mm Nexus is better than 80mm for most things. Less noise for airflow produced, and what noise there is is a lower, less obtrusive frequency. PSU - Seasonic S12 330, 380 or 430W. Depends on whether you're going Intel or AMD - Intel dual core is pretty thirsty for power. You'l...

TBH, dust filters area risky thing to include as standard. Your typical user won't even know it exists, and probably wouldn't notice it was clogged even if they opened the case. Better to have open intakes and let a little dust get in than to have finely filtered intakes that clog easily without fre...

There was an article in New Scientist a while back about doing something like that for steam turbine power stations - the condensors could be used to boil ethanol or something similar, to drive another set of turbines. It worked out to be the same cost per kW as coal/oil/gas fired power, but with no...

Also, the 74 GB Raptor (WD740GD) has faster seeks and other improvements over the WD360GD, and even the updated WD360GD with FDB doesn't match the WD740GD version in every respect. The faster seeks of the 74 GB model would outweigh the STR advantage of two WD360GDs in RAID 0. It's harder to judge wh...

Well, if you're willing to replace the whole thing, the Zalman VF-700 Cu is the way to go. Using the included 5V adapter, it's pretty quiet. That PNY has a shroud over most of the heatsink, so I don't think pointing another fan at it would help much - the airflow wouldn't reach most of the heatsink ...

Why not just switch it off when not in use? Especially if you don't print very often. If that's not a practical option... I'm sure at least some laser printers eventually go into a sort of "deep sleep" mode, where almost everything but the network interface is shut down, even the display backlight. ...

Probably not. Since both those components are capable of running passive (in the case of the chipset, using a larger heatsink), you should remain perfectly stable with even a little forced airflow.

You may find the VF700 is quieter than the NV5, and will better integrate with the NB-47J (read: not get in the way as much, and give it some airflow).

You can cut holes in the Acoustipack to correspond with the case vents, or you can remove the air guide and use the Acoustipack to block the holes. You'll get a slight increase in case temps by doing the latter, but it will block more graphics card noise that way. I'm using a 6800GT with NV Silencer...

The IBM 7K250 / 7K400 range and the Maxtor Diamondmax 10 or Maxline III series would do well here, although you'll have to accept that four drives will be noticeably noisier than one. To install the OS on a RAID array, you'll need the RAID drivers on a floppy for when you press F6 during XP installa...

Cansan, the FX-55 is 2.6 GHz, 1 MB cache, multiplier unlocked.

The 2.4 GHz, 1 MB cache, multiplier unlocked chip was the FX-53, now replaced by the 4000+, which is identical except for the unlocked multiplier - you can only increase the multiplier on FX branded chips.

FWIW, I had a problem with the RAM overheating on my system. Changing the fan from blowing up to blowing down improved stability. It's not especially scientific, but here's one voice with evidence that memory is cooled better with the HSF blowing down rather than up.

Tibors is right. A tilted drive could experience uneven bearing wear, but with fluid dynamic bearings, I'm not sure if even that cautionary note applies. Any right angle to gravity will be fine. Once upon a time (10+ years ago), you had to reformat your drive if you wanted to use it in a different o...

Good FAQ! Randop nitpicking: Hard drives - FDB = Fluid Dynamic Bearing. (BB=Ball Bearing). You will often see FDBs referred to as FDB bearings (just like the way everyone instinctively calls Tesco "Tesco's" or the St. John Ambulance Brigade "St. John's Ambulance". Don't know if those examples travel...

Are you using the latest build? (1433/RC2 beta, or ~1830 final) Try http://www.planetamd64.com - their motherboard forums may be able to help.

Does this mean the RS480 has no AGP lock?

Maybe an array of Nexuses (Nexii?) would work. Or perhaps you could undervolt the existing fans with a bit of rewiring? Trouble is, AC units will always need powerful fans, just to get the cooled air pushed around the room. Ideally, these fans would be somewhere else, and the cooled air would come i...

Thanks for keeping this valuable resource up to date!

Zalman was developing an external fanless 400W PSU. Haven't heard anything about it for ages, so don't hold your breath, but it's another possibility.

1) classic floor-standing tower -- 30 dBA/1m max 2) HTPC -- maybe 35 dBA/1m max? depends on location 3) SFF for desktop -- 25 dBA/1m max 4) general office -- 35 dBA/1m max Qualified by a number of subjective requirements -- a) benign sonic signature b) no rapid variations in noise level or quality ...

Those are 15,000 RPM drives. But Elixer is right - pretty much any current PSU will do. One proviso - if you get a new PSU with a 24-pin power connector, you'll need to make sure it comes with a 24-pin to 20 pin adapter to plug into your current motherboard. The S12 330W model has enough power for y...

It's safe to say that most PhotoShop users can't afford enough memory to ignore disk based optimisations. Even with 4 GB, you still end up needing scratch and pagefile. When Photoshop is capable of using 10 GB of RAM, and users have that much RAM installed, maybe then it won't matter so much where y...

It might be worth re-sealing the bags after you've squeezed the air out, or the play-doh might dry out, losing its softness & dampening properties.
Perhaps you already did that, but I thought I'd mention it, since you hadn't.

Maybe putting the OS pagefile and Photoshop scratch space on the same drive is OK? If you have more than one hard disk, these are the first things you should separate. Disk access gets very messy if they're both on the same disk. The reason being, you get heavy access to both swap and scratch at th...

Your best bet may be to get the NB-47J and mod it. Plenty of simiar topics round here, search for NB-47J, or see the links at the end of the thread linked in my sig.