Pylon wrote:Hmm... the WD Black seems nice and about the same price... thanks man!

Is it quiet though?

Eh, not according to SPCR: http://www.silentpcreview.com/WD-1TB-Black

Your idea isn't much different than what the Scythe Kama-Bay cooler does. If you have 3 empty 5.25 slots, you could always get something like this: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=N82E16811999141 I'm not sure about the dampening though. You might have to get rubber grommets if your h...

I'm not sure just how quiet that Zalman would be. Ever since the fairly quiet CNPS7000, Zalman's been trying to extend that design for hotter and hotter processors. Unfortunately, it hasn't worked out terribly well in terms of fan speed/noise. I'd recommend checking out jab-tech's selection: http://...

Ok, after quite a bit of research, much of it inspired by the comments here, I've changed things around a bit. The new plan looks like this: Antec NSK 3480 Scythe SY1225SL12M 120mm "Slipstream" Case Fan Nexus Value 430 PSU Scythe Ninja 2 fanless Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz LGA 775 65W Gigab...

Welcome to SPCR! 1. In stock configuration, I don't think you can hook this up to your graphics card. With an extra water cooling block and some hose, you could hook it up to your GPU, but the extra hose and block would reduce your flow rate and stress the pump a little more. You also have to worry...

Welcome to SPCR! I can't answer much for items 1 or 3 since I've been out of my gaming habit for awhile now, and I've never used anything close to the size of a Mungen 2 (I'm always scared of those heavy, giant heatsinks ). Just a couple notes about fans . . . Since you're using Scythe sleeve-beari...

I would think that it's not a thermal or PSU issue. Neither of those will cut off at the exact same percentage of Memtest. There will always be some variation depending on temperature and ramp-up of power draw. I'm betting it's a bad memory controller or motherboard. When it tries to access a certai...

IIRC, the mid-high end nVidia cards have lower idle power consumption. They tend to ramp up higher, so it'll tax your PSU more at times, but I doubt it'll get close to the Seasonic's capacity.

Here's some stats I found on anandtech: http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3539&p=22

directron has a retail store too, I think its in Houston Yup, I've been there a few times. Big warehouse, decent sized show-room out front. They also fixed one of the floppy drives I bought from them for free. I had accidentally plugged the wrong end of a cable in and pushed one of the pins in. :oo...

Why do you NEED to measure how loud your current setup is? Obviously, the stock CPU fan is too noisy for you, so you should just replace it. The problem with buying equipment to measure the sound level is that it's generally not worth the money. Cheap equipment will have it's own internal sound floo...

@ nutball: Just out of curiosity which low profile cooler did you use? I've been hearing good things about the Nexus LOW-7000 in conjunction with this board for low profile use, maybe you could try it out? It would be more economical for you to buy 1 heatsink instead of buying 2 heatsinks and a cas...

For an extra $4, yeah Solo with PSU > NSK4480. The question is what kind of PSU is it? If it's the usual pre-included Antec one, then it'll be roughly the same as what you're getting in the 4480. Just make sure you're including tax and shipping in your decision. Sometimes eBay and Amazon sellers cha...

Don't waste your money on the PSU noise reducer kit. It's just a silicone grommet for where the PSU contacts the back of the case. Unless your PSU fan has a lot of vibration (unlikely if you pick a PSU recommended on SPCR), I would bet that it won't make much of a difference, if at all. IMO, the For...

I think it's going to be hard to stay under a few hundred dollars with a motherboard that takes DDR3 RAM and the need for a graphics card. Since you're very budget constrained, I'd recommend a case with the PSU included. Something like the Antec NSK4480 . It isn't the quietest thing out there, but s...

Do you have a price range you can specify? Why have you selected an ATX motherboard? Unless you're going for expandability, it would be easier to just use a mATX board. Since you're only going to have one HDD and DVD burner, a full ATX case is a waste. Have you considered on-board grahpics? On-board...

I bought a laptop almost 1 1/2 years ago. From what I can tell, its generally best to stick with Dell and Lenovo and stay away from HP/Compaq. I've had friends that have had troublesome experiences with their HP/Compaqs. Dell's are generally more customizable and cheaper than Lenovos, but if you can...

I could see you preferring the Corsair VX450 due to quality or availability but the Seasonic M12 II is louder than the Corsair and the Nexus Value. The Nexus value is more quiet than either the Corsair VX450W or Seasonic M12 II 430W. I'm not sure why you'd prefer the Seasonic just because it is the...

It sounds like an excellent product, and I might even consider it when I build another "high-end" desktop machine. But, for HTPC and home server usage (which I'm looking to build next), it's a little too expensive to be considered "value" IMO. The price of silence is subjective, and this one seems a...

Yeah, I'm resurrecting an old thread, but I've got something interesting for people to try if they haven't already dimmed/swapped their LEDs. I was working on a server rack that had a rackmounted KVM switch that had a terrible blue LED. It's brighter than the ones on the recent Antec cases I've used...

I have to agree with most of the other posters in that the mP180 is going for a niche market. I was motivated by size and cost in my purchase of a 3480 about 5 months ago. I'd probably make the same choice today. One thing that did surprise me is the rigid hard drive mounting that they have in the T...

I too am concerned about the hard drive cooling. HDs don't need all that much cooling, but a small breeze over them is definitely neccessary. I also don't like how it's such a negative pressure case (3 exhasut, 1 intake), but still packs 4 fans. If I had one (unlikely due to the cost), I'd disable t...

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=26 http://www.htpcnews.com http://www.digitalconnection.com/ Those are the places I'd look at. There's lots of information on avsforums on TVs, stereos, etc., and they have a specific forum dedicated to HTPCs. Digital Connection is a HTPC retailer th...

Interesting stuff. It looks different than the anechoic chambers I've been in, but those weren't for sound. I never would've thought that these companies would make such an investment to do accurate noise testing.

What are the alternatives then to a cool (for a HTPC) case that is full ATX? I've got an Overture II that works fairly well. It's got a nice big intake vent right on top of the CPU, which keeps that area of the case very cool. Unfortunately, I've got an 8800GTS and HDTV card in there that has the o...

Hmmm... Although eliminating a fan is very intriguing, I think I'd be nervous about just a passive heat sink and then use the Antec Fan... unless someone has experience with this exact combination... This person did it with a NSK2400 case: http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=305508...

Is there a workaround for this? Can I plug the Dell fan plug into the motherboard and somehow fool the BIOS into thinking the system fan is connected so I don't have to press F1 to boot? I was never able to fix that problem on my Dell Dimension 8200. I had replaced the original fan with an Arctic C...

Height is no problem -- although, as you'll note, the fan exhausts up so it needs an inch or two above it for airflow. It cooled my AMD X2 3600+ just fine. I believe the 7700-CU is "venerable" just because it's old -- it was a "best choice" several years ago, and has been eclipsed by larger heatsin...

I think I mentioned the Zalman 7000 as a good, reliable choice, but the 7700 is a little noisier IIRC. I took another look at your case choices and the Antec Take 3 is much better as far as cooling goes. I was basing some of my suggestions on the 3U25ATX450XR-2. If you have the Take 3, there looks t...

I don't know much about rackmount systems, but I can tell you that your CPU cooler choice isn't good. The general rule is to stay away from Thermaltake products. So far, their only decent one has been the ThermalTake Big Typhoon, and that's only because they used a fan similar to Nexus/YateLoon fans...

What's with that crazy eleven blade side fan? Is it a 120x20? One wonders if they could have not made the case 5mm wider. Read the original post, it's a 14cm fan. Oops! Got caught with egg on my face. It is replaceable with a 12cm though? (There's not that many 14cm fans that are awesome as, say, N...