Thanks for the feedback guys. I'll open it up, and take a quick look at the fuse. If the fuse is broken, I'll replace, otherwise I'll trash it. Hate to lose a perfectly good PSU because I'm so clumsy, but I doubt the electronics repair (beyond simple fuse replacement) is worth the $40 it'd cost to r...

I was working on my wife's computer the other day, and somehow I ended up with an exposed, 3-pin male fan connector hooked into the PSU, bouncing around the case. Unfortunately I didn't notice this until it was too late: I accidentally grounded that 3-pin live connector on the aluminum case. ZAP! Th...

Actually, it looks like that is the DVI chip One of the most prevalent features of the reference GeForce 6800 Ultra design, which third-party manufacturers may or may not adopt, is the dual DVI display output. NV40 doesn't natively feature a TMDS transmitter, so digital outputs are enabled through a...

Someone tell me why there is a Silicon Image chip on my 6800

Probably AGP <--> PCI-E bridge

Bringing this thread back from the dead: I find it difficult to believe in this torrid tech industry that samsung literally has not introduced any higher capacity drives for an ENTIRE YEAR. As my great-grandmother once said: "what the heezy?" And that goes double, almost one year later. WTF? Is Sams...

fanless systems have been built with fanless xp-120's especially if you can orient the fins toward the rear fan True, but the design doesn't encourage that-- it's clearly designed for a fan mounted on top blowing down. You might need a duct for that to work. Only the heatpipe towers (Hyper-6, Therm...

Don't sweat it. I really think any of these options will work. You made an excellent choice in the Winchester (90nm) A64 3000+ ; this CPU doesn't produce that much heat. An 80mm fan should be plenty to cool this CPU. I still like my thermaltake fanless 103 suggestion best, of course. There's just so...

If cost is no issue then the XP120 can't be beat. Wait a minute. If you're running the antec fanless PSU, how exactly is heat getting out of your case? Surely you're running a rear case exhaust fan. Wouldn't it be logical, then, to mount the Thermatake Fanless 103 in front of your existing rear cas...

If you want the ultimate HTPC, I think you have to go with the Pentium-M, as I did in this thread . You definitely need a mobo that can undervolt to make this a worthwhile exercise. That should be priority 1. Modding power supplies is always a good idea too. Be sure to not only replace the fan, but ...

Hey Ralf-- you mentioned in your review that the Pentium-M system is your main system now. Can you elaborate a little on that, eg, what's in it, some pictures, etc. Having built a Pentium-M system, I can concur with Ralf's conclusion that the Dothan Pentium-M chip is the ideal "no compromise" silent...

OK here are some photos. http://www.wise-ebusiness.com/pictures/htpc/htpc_top.jpg Only two fans are running in the system: 1. the thermistor/gasket modded fan in the Sparkle 180w PSU 2. one 60mm rear fan converted to 3-pin operation, on zalman fanmate set to minimum I apologize for the ghetto mounti...

A little update. That sparkle 180w power supply is indeed very quiet-- with minimal load . Like so many other power supplies, the thermistor is glued flush against a heatsink inside the thing, and as soon as moderate load is put on the PS, the fan ramps dramatically. I cracked the PS and moved the t...

IMO the ti4200 wont produce enough heat to cause any problems, and if it does just a second heatpipe wont make much difference. That wasn't my experience. the Ti4200 runs HOT, whereas the 9600 series (vanilla, Pro, or XT) run extremely cool.. the Pro and vanilla are trivial to passively cool with s...

Yeah, I screwed up. That's in my MAME cocktail and it includes everything on the powerstrip inside the cabinet-- eg, the creative inspire speakers/sub! So disregard that.

Everything arrived today. I wanted to give you guys some preliminary results. Good news: that sparkle 180w microatx psu is very quiet. I was a little worried about buying it without reading any SPCR reviews first, but it's hardly audible at all. Recommended! I mounted the Alpha 8942 heatsink sans fa...

I didn't even think of that, but you're right. Anyone have links handy to vendors that sell external power bricks compatible with a MicroATX mobo? I may add something like a Radeon 9600 pro if necessary, but that'd only increase power draw by about 9w (see my exhaustive thread on that ). I'd only do...

Thanks for the responses. Does the XP-90 overhang the P4 bracket at all? I know the XP-120 does (obviously). I thought the pin-fin arrangement of the Alpha would be better in low-airflow conditions, but maybe not. I can also duct the processor. I plan to use the Intel EXTREME graphics 2, since this ...

6 months later, no issues whatsoever.

By now, there might be alu-finned heatpipe equivalents to the Hyper-6 that will cause less nervousness amongst the.. uh.. skeptical.

Shoot, I should have noticed that the GamePC 90nm processor comparison does quote comparative power consumption numbers: Power Consumption AMD Athlon64 "Winchester" 1.6 GHz vs Intel Pentium-M "Dothan" 1.6 GHz Load (folding, cpu only) 132w -- 95w Idle (full clock): 125w -- 81w Idle (speedstep/CnQ): 1...

Based on Ralf and Mike's excellent article: http://www.silentpcreview.com/article218-page1.html And my desperate need to have a HTPC that can run in a semi-enclosed space with crappy ventilation, I ordered the following: AOpen i855GMEm mobo http://images.newegg.com/productimage/13-137-057-02.JPG 1.6...

This is mostly due to PWM fan control on the ATI cards - I can confirm that my NV5 Silencer does NOT click on a 6800gt. I know this because my old VGA Silencer (on a 9800 pro) definitely DID click, and I performed a direct swap of the cards. So don't be too quick to conclude that they all click. I ...

Well, just as a counterpoint, I can say pretty definitively that my new NV5 silencer is quieter than my old VGA silencer. Same system, everything else is identical, except I swapped from.. Sapphire 9800 pro -> VGA Silencer to Verto 6800gt --> NV5 silencer One of the main reasons the NV5 silencer is ...

Shoot, I was just going to start a new thread describing how happy I was with my NV5 Silencer (on a Verto 6800gt). IMO it is very quiet-- definitely as quiet as the old-school VGA Silencer I had on my 9800 Pro. Arguably quieter since my VGA Silencer developed an annoying tick over time. I know becau...

Using the Hyper 6 is taking a risk. Not a very significant risk, considering there are no documented reports of actual problems with the weight in normal use scenarios. It's just aggravating to me that people keep parroting the "it's risky to use something so heavy" mantra with absolutely no proof ...

I opened up my dead Zalman 300w PS and I don't see anything at all unusual-- no swollen capacitors, nothing burned or blackened. I am by no means a PSU expert but it looks absolutely functional with the casing off. But unfortunately it isn't.. still won't power up at all on my bench PC. Ah well, at ...

Cooler Master Hyper 6: Too heavy Note that this is a THEORETICAL complaint. I have yet to see a single documented case of responsible* usage causing any harm. It's working great in my A64 tower system for a month and a half, anyway. * Yeah, it would definitely be stupid to use this if you are movin...

To share my PSU failure experiences -- outside of cataclysmic testbench failures... Interesting, those sound like almost exactly what happened to mine. I'm starting to reconsider my "running kind of hot doesn't matter" philosophy when it comes to PSUs. At least no system components were lost when t...

Yeah it's a 2.6c. As for pax.mate, I like it. At the very least it turns a hard reflective metal surface into something more likely to absorb and deflect sound (open-cell foam surface). Plus it's cheap -- $9.99 if you shop around -- and easy to fit virtually anywhere. It's more of a finishing touch ...

Did you run the Panaflo from the stock fan contoller or fixed voltage. I hooked the L1 directly into the wires where the old fan went, so it was being controlled by the PSU, not at fixed voltage. Any mods to fan controller ckt such as thermistor relocation? No, just quickie 1-to-1 fan swap. If you ...

Reader's Digest condensed version: - Zalman 300w power supply - Modified with 80mm Panaflo L fan - Running 24/7 for 4-5 months - Dual undervolted athlon XP (barton) 1.7ghz server measured at ~150w draw with Kill-a-watt (dual folding) Ran fine for about 4-5 months, then last night, POW! When it went,...