if you go to average joe's house and open up his dell system, he'll probably have 1 hard drive, and 1 optical drive (mabey 2), a video card, and mabey a sound card. along with that he'll have about 3-4 empty expansion slots on the motherboard, 2-3 5.25" external bays empty, and a couple 3.5" intern...

/start-rant think about it, how many optical drives do you REALLY need? me personally, i only use my optical drives to install software, and occasionally rip some music. 99% of the time they just sit in their doing nothing. then theirs hard drives. i dont know about you, but my 120gb drive only has...

What OS do you plan to run? If you're going to use Windows, I would consider the AIW series, as it will come w/ tuner and I believe the component output you're looking for. I suspect you can get a model that won't burn up your system. Then you won't need the Hauppauge card. If it's Linux, you pretty...

OK, so I just finished moving my old machine to a P180. The objective of this machine is to be my file server. Super quiet, relatively low power, and lots of big HDs -- that's why I went w/ P180 -- way more HD space. Firstly, this SITE ROCKS. I've been reading for over 3 years and if it wasn't for y...

RAID5 using the RAID controllers on the motherboard chipsets is what interests me. I’ve looked at RAID5 controller cards, but they are outside my budget and also require PCIX or PCIe support. I’m not clear on whether you can migrate arrays between different platforms, which is what’s putting me off...

I’m happy to buy more P120S and will do so in the New Year. Drive failure is a part of life and I’m considering a SATAII RAID5 setup with 3 P120S, so that the inevitable drive failure doesn’t cause any problems. The lack of transportability of a RAID array across platforms is making me question whe...

Sigh, so what do you do if you want an AIW card? I have 2 choices: 1) Keep my AIW 9800 Pro AGP and add a NVidia 7800 GT using a ULI dual MB (ASRock, AGP + PCIe) 2) Buy an AIW X1800XL. I suspect even with the high power consumption, the X1800XL will be quieter and draw less power than the first setup...

The biggest risk with the hardware RAID solution is the failure of the RAID card. Then you're dead in the water, especially if the card is older. The other problem is driver support... I'm going to build a RAID 5 array as well, but I've decided to got with software based RAID only. With today's proc...

That is what I was leaning toward. Maybe I'll just order a pile of fans so I have some in reserve for my dedicated FS that I plan to build in June. Of course, my luck would have a better fan coming out before that time. Two more Nexus fans coming up! (the one I bought was earmarked for the XP-120 --...

The case is Antec SLK3700AMB. The HDs are mounted in the drive cage with the metal grommets. I plan to suspend the whole cage by removing the 3.5' drive cage above and using shock cord. It is a Thermalright XP-120. My MB is an Asus K8V Deluxe which has CnQ and it also has QFan which adjust the CPU f...

I need some opinions and advice: I have now signficantly reduced the noise in my computer by buying a VGA cooler, and RMA's my defective SS-400 for a Rev 3 version (wow, I never knew what I was missing that whole year). My Thermaltake 120 w/ Nexus Case fan has arrived as well. I immediately replaced...

It is also known as carpet underpadding. The really high quality stuff is actually thinner, so less useful for noise dampening, but probably good vibration dampening.

I have done a bit of flooring in my house recently so I happen to be familiar with this (thought not by choice)... Your first reference is actually laminate flooring underlay. This is Pergo's high quality stuff, which is acutally quite thin, but high quality. I believe the quality likely relates to ...

What do you use to connect two boxes together (i.e. a cooling box with your computer box). I want to use 1/2" tubing, and I can find 1/2" barb connectors, but I need more than a thread on the other side to go through a box. A double barb is fine, but you can't screw these into a panel? I'm planning ...

OK, I'm getting the message about Gigabyte... But about the SATA to ATA adapters, don't I lose some performance there vs straight ATA to ATA drive?

Zhentar... what RAD/fan combo are you using?

Plus, if it ships with a fan, I assume there's a good reason. I don't want any fans (except I'll live with a single PSU fan).

Has anyone tested (or just heard) any 120VAC fans? Or are they all automatically louder than their 12V cousins?

I'm guessing that they would be more difficult to come up with a variable speed control as well. They would make my life a lot easier though...

George

I'm looking for a full featured MB, I'm currently running an ABIT, but I've had problems with it... The keyboard port died a year ago, it doesn't suspend properly with USB problems... Very touchy with AGP/RAM seating. I would actually buy the ABIT NFS-7 but it only has Serial ATA RAID, and the Gigab...

So what is the advantage of using a heater core instead of the RADs from Black Ice etc? I would think the heater core adds a whole ton of weight to the unit, and probably a higher pressure drop as well. As for testing the PSU heat sinks for live current, you would measure the voltage between the hea...

OK, I see there are a few opinions... A couple thoughts: Has anyone ever split the watercooling tube? Unfortunately, I can't remember my fluid dynamics course from university anymore (I'll have to look it up now...) but I would think that one would have to double the pressure from the pump to get th...

Hi, I always build my own AMD PCs and since my current PC is getting near 3 years old it's overdue for a new machine. My last machine was pretty well constructed, but it is as loud as a jet plane, and that just won't do for the next machine. Since I like to tinker, I am strongly considering a water ...