On low TDP slim laptops, the cooler module is usually really small and can't "store" heat for long before the computer overheats. It's not just the CPU, but the chipset is usually connected to the same cooler as well. The fanless laptops might use the whole computer body as a heatsink, so the design...

I personally wouldn't use a hot GPU + normal / SFX PSU combination with this case. It would be hard to get all the heat out of the case. A reference style GPU cooler could be decent at getting the heat out, but that wouldn't be quiet. Normal or SFX PSU will limit the CPU cooler height, making it noi...

Those are rather controversial fans Yeah, I just checked the review and it seems completely different from my experiences. I have 2 of these fans and they have had the least motor noise from all others I've tested. I've tested other fans from Noiseblocker as well. They didn't sound nearly as good. ...

No problems with the graphics card. It's simply amazingly energy efficient and doesn't heat at all. While the card itself doesn't get too much airflow, most of the air that goes through the case comes from the bottom passing through the Accelero S1. I could make a bigger hole on the bottom and put a...

The best fan I've ever used is the Noiseblocker eLoop PWM. http://www.blacknoise.com/site/en/products/noiseblocker-it-fans/nb-eloop-series/120x120x25mm.php?lang=EN All the Scythe, Corsair, Noctua fans I've tried have had this annoying clicking sound / motor noise on low speeds. The Noiseblocker does...

That PSU cover isn't necessary. I'm not looking at the back of the computer after all. Airflow is better without it as well. I guess I'd have to do something about it if I get a cat or something. The PicoPSU is nice, but there have been a couple of problems with it. The adapter from 4-pin to externa...

I made a horrible mistake and bought Crysis3 for 5€. The AMD 7850K just didn't seem to run it smoothly enough so I just HAD to upgrade. Since I already had a picoPSU 160XT, I planned to re-use it and make low power set that would be more powerful than my previous one. First, I planned to use my old ...

PS07 is actually pretty good one. Should be quite easy to build a silent set with that. Build quality is solid and you can get good airflow with low rpm dual fans. How about Cooler Master Silencio 352? http://www.coolermaster.com/case/mini-tower-silencio-series/silencio352/ That's pretty small and s...

If only there would be place to mount 120mm fan in the bottom of the case and dustfilters on intakes, it would be damn near perfect case for me. It's quite easy to do it yourself. I did it with my Jonsbo V2 / Cooltek coolcube mini. Just use a Dremel, drill the screw holes and place a dust filter an...

Just a quick update. I felt like the fan speed was still a bit high so I put a resistor to both fans. They now run at 430rmp and 410rpm. It's much better. There seemed to more headroom thermally so I made some OC test. I OC'd the GPU from 720MHz to 960MHz and the RAM from 2133MHz to 2400MHz. Had to ...

I wanted to "update" my current computer to be just a bit smaller. The old box had i3 2100 with GTX 660. The CPU was alright and fast enough for me but the GPU was far too powerful for my current needs. Since AMD Kaveri CPU's were supposed to have a powerful iGPU, I decided to go for it. Components:...

Akbhar wrote:What are the temperatures of the GPU?

Idle: 44 °C
Furmark: 80 °C
Room temperature: 22 °C
The fans were at minimum when I tested. That's about 400rpm or so.

Ok, more info it is then. There is a dust filter under the bottom fan. The bottom fan is a Scythe slip stream, rear fan a Thermalright fan and there's a AC F80 in the PSU. All mounted with rubber gormets. The rear holes are now blocked with foam - as is the upper side part where the normal PSU cable...

I'm not gonna bother scrambling every detail about this, but here's the short version. I wanted to make a fairly low power and reasonably powerful gaming machine some time ago. Had to be able to play Skyrim. I took the easy route by buying an Antec NSK 3480 case and just modded it to fit to my purpo...

The parts you have chosen seem fine to me. The DC-DC converter on the Antec case is more capable than you would think. It's just the external power brick that's 65W. I've been running e5300 & GT240 with that DC-DC converter and a 150W brick for months. 120W on load and no problem. On higher loads it...

This seems like the perfect cooler for all those socket 1156 M-ITX motherboards where the socket is close to the pci-e slot.

I used to have this motherboard. Didn't bother finding a proper PSU so I just took the brick from an external HDD. 12V and 2A was plenty.
I had to cut the connector off and solder back another one that fits.

Has been working well without problems.

Having worked with this, how would your say it compares with designing / building your two DIY chassis? When I did those cases, it was nice and fluent. Everything went well despite the fact that I didn't design them that well from the start. Problems kind of solved themselves. I guess I was lucky. ...

Hi all. The Windows 7 RC time was running out so I thought I'd just buy an ssd and buy the 7. BUT THEN! I had the chance to buy HFX mini bundle pretty cheap. Of course I had to buy it. I also bought a slightly used Asus M-ATX mobo and an e5300 CPU. I took the memory from my now old computer. I later...

I have a totally passive build. HFX mini case, heatpipes from cpu and gpu to the case. It was the most horrible thing in my life to put these parts together. Anyway, here's some results. Load tested with Everest. (e5300 @ 2,6GHz & 1.05V, GT240, 4GB RAM, SSD) Ambient temp: 21C GPU idle: 36C SSD temp:...

What about a low profile socket 1156 heatsink? This might be a good one. I'm currently thinking about upgrading my DG45FC for this motherboard. I'm just not sure how my picopsu would handle an i3 + a proper graphics card. I probably should just make a whole new case for it. I already have a spare N...

UPDATE! I swapped that crappy Asus fan for a better one. It's from some laptop and it has maglev bearing so it's pretty quiet. The problem was that it runs on 5V. I tried it on 12V and it went nuts. I put some of those Noctua ULNA adapters to it and it seems to run fine with that. Still, it never st...

Just curious, what kind of monitor is that on the desk ? It's a BenQ FP241VW. 24" with a good MVA panel. I bought it about 2,5 years ago mainly 'cause it was different and unique looking. (and it has brushed aluminum on the sides of course. mmmmm brushed aluminum...) It cost a fortune but it was wo...

Out of interest, what was your design considerations for this choice of form factor? This particular motherboard made it easy to "design" the case. It has most components integrated and it's really small so I could use any scrap materials I could find. Most design choices were made on the fly. I ha...

Hi all. Time to start 2010 with a new computer. Ta-daa: http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/9365/slimmain.jpg So here it is. Specs and cost: (Yes, I'm such a cheapskate) MB: Intel D945GSEJT ~60€ Cpu: Single core Atom 1,6GHz Mem: 1GB DDR2 so-dimm ~25€ Wireless: Wlan ~free from and old laptop Bluet...

you know, the other way to effect the same outcome would be to carefully slice out the end of the PCIE slot, modding it to be like some are made. that way any card you put in there will still be able to be used to it's full potential in the event you remove it.. I know this, but that would void the...

frenchie wrote:Are you saying those pins are useless ??????

I think this is SO weird...

Only those first pins are actually needed. The rest are just extra bandwidth.
This kind of mod would cripple any gaming graphics card, but the effect isn't that big on one of these "regular" cards.

Even more updates! I got sick of that damn Quadro NVS graphics card. It was simply too slow for my needs. It was the only pci-e 1x card that I knew of at the time. Well, I had to try something different. I sawed a bit off from an extra (free) GF7200 graphics card so that it would fit in the pci-e 1x...

Update! I bought a new HDD 'cause I got it cheap. 160GB Seagate Momentus 5400.5. It's quite a bit quieter and it doesn't vibrate that much. The old HDD was pretty lousy performer. I got about 39MB/s with it. The new one reads ~68MB/s. It's a HUUUUUGE difference. I also swapped the Silverstone fan 'c...

I recently tested a 500GB Samsung M7 HDD and it was unbelievably quiet.
Practically no vibrations. I couldn't hear it even on a hard surface.

It should be damn fast too.