Countries with warm climate temperatures there's no question that I'd choose a case with a separate PSU intake. It'd be a basic necessity -- no other type of case would be recommended Not really true ! Where I live it gets into the low 40s (celsius) and after having had both cases with and without ...

Quieting is a viscous cycle. As soon as you've made one thing quieter, you notice something else. Tricools are usually fine, until you've achieved perfection on the CPU cooling front, then suddenly they are way too loud Smile Then you replace them and notice that your HDD or maybe PSU is too loud ....

I have found some ( well one out of the five that shipped with cases ) to be almost tolerable the others have had various annoying noises an one rattles and clacks - so on the whole I believe they are that bad ! Mine have been "donated" to other family members to replace even noisier fans that shipp...

Mine are in NSK 3480 cases and with my load ( one has a Phenom 9850 and a Radeon - Sapphire HD3850 ultimate , passive cooled and a Seagate 80gig hdd the other has a 6000+ , onboard graphics and a Seagate 80gig ) and with these combos the air out of the back of the PSU is pretty hot . That said the t...

I do not know about the older ones , but the current ones have a somewhat whiny fan that , on my machines ( I have two ) are annoying . They are quiet but the sound signature is unpleasant . I am looking at having another go at changing the fans . I have tried a Nexus 80mm the result was that the fa...

The mounting that is used on both the HR01+ and the SI128-se is at best fiddly and at worst unpleasant to use but is better ( by a small margin ) than using the stock clips once bolted up it is almost secure although the heatsink can still be rotated . does the job ! mine do not rattle though once f...

AOpen make a decent slimline case but it would be a challenge to silence and it is a little thermally disadvantaged - ok for a moderate power cpu and onboard graphics .

I am currently using a Sapphire HD3850 ultimate in one of my two web surfing boxes the other one had one too but it has died . So I too will be looking for a low to mid range passive cooled card if I cannot find another Hd3850 ultimate either new or S/H (eBay most likely). I have been looking at the...

The idea looks as though it would work ok but if the fan is noisy , squirrel wheel fans are very hard to replace .

I replaced the NB coolers in 2 Shuttle SB61G2 machines with Zalman passive ones but generally I only swap them out if they have fans or if they do not cool properly due to the lower airflow that I use compared to what they are designed for . I use either Zalman or Thermalright depending on which one...

Yes it is a very real issue ! For some motherboards ( M3N32SLI deluxe from Asus is such a board ) but for most boards you will get away with it . You would have to evaluate the issue on a board to board basis . Even the choice of case and case fans has an effect . Some boards that have onboard graph...

Nevermind a Netburt P4, you should use it with a Phenom 9950

Even these can be cooled adequately in a conventional case - with an SLI setup - without a great deal of noise ! A 40cm fan is ridiculous even a 20cm fan is excessive (eg. in an Antec Mini 180)

don't worry about the mosfets- they only ever get barely warm, and the io shield has holes for cooling. i guess your cpu is fairly high wattage so it might run hotter, but considering that alot of mobos don't even have a heatsink over their mosfets- i'd say it safe enough. The VRM issue is not a he...

I am going to be using an AM2 6400 Black Edition CPU The 6400 runs hot - Very HOT ! It is harder to keep cool than a 9800 Phenom . If you have not bought your CPU yet you would be better with one of the 65nm CPUs for a quiet PC or even a 6000+ and if you can find one there is a 3.1 ghz 6000+ Brisba...

What cooler to use would depend on what CPU you plan to use and in what case ! Because of the socket orientation most tower coolers will face the "wrong" way (they will point at the PSU ) . I would suggest a Thermalright SI-128-SE it has a good , if a little fiddly, bolt through mounting and will ta...

The Arctic cooling PWM fan I pulled apart had a small I.C. connected to the PWM signal input a couple of small surface mount transistors and some other components . It appears to me that it reads the pwm signal the switches the field windings on and off according to the signal . Normal brushless DC ...

I have PWM fans on a couple of systems that I use regularly . I found that some PWM ( four pin header variety ) can have a very obnoxious / gritty buzz , a Zalman 8700 NT comes to mind . The fans I am currently using are from Arctic cooling and although some are very good a percentage are quite bad ...

I have an XP-90 on an Athlon X2 6400+ (running an Arctic Cooling Pwm 92mm fan ) works fine and this is a 125 watt CPU - It is in an SLI machine with a pair of Gigabyte 8800GT video cards so I can not vouch for it's silence - but the temps are decent .

You said When I bring my head down near the hds, I can't hear it as well It may be a resonance issue . I have a lot of problems with resonance with computers placed on my desk . The rear and sides are enclosed an made of solid wood ( 45mm thick ) it echoes and amplifies any case resonance within a c...

I would think so Thermalright usually do .

A Ninja (or Ninja 2) is most likely your best choice if it clears other components on your mobo .

I have used the HR-01+ on an AMD6400+ X2 with an M2N32SLI deluxe (Asus) mobo . This Mobo has the CPU socket oriented so as the cooler faces toward the rear fan and it works brilliantly - with the fan at around 500 rpm ! and a rear case fan at around 800 rpm . But the same model cooler did not work q...

Are you running the 200mm fan? If so , even at the lowest setting it will pull more air through the vents than a slow 92mm fan will ! I personally found this particular case to be quirky in many ways - some of them very annoying . In the end I stripped it out and shelved it . If you really wanted to...

The fact that it had issues with as many controllers as shown , was enough for me to leave it alone . I was intending to use it on an AMD780g chipset Mobo . I will wait a few months and watch and read the forums etc. and when they work properly start buying . So long as they can match the performanc...

I am using an earthwatts 500 in one of my old PCs .It is in an SLK2650-BQE the mobo is an Asus AN8-sli premium the CPU is a Athlon 4800 + The cooler is a TR XP90c with a Panaflo (old school) 92mm fan on a fanmate at the lowest setting it has two gigabyte 8800gs graphics cards (sli) with Zalman coole...

I have a socket 939 opteron 185 in a Shuttle SN25 , it idles in the low 40s and runs in the low 50s at max load - with the stock ICE cooler .(my ambient is 27 - 30 c ) I would avoid the Zalman cooler if you are after silence their fans are annoyingly buzzy and not easily changed . I would go a Ninja...

Most likely it will make one or two deg C difference to temps. If it does not break the Mobo.

I was looking at getting an OCZ 64gig SSD but after reading through all of the links I have decided to hold off and get a Seagate Momentus 2.5 Sata instead - I was more concerned about noise than speed . But my hardware ,and software choices makes the SSD a very risky proposition . I am using Linux ...

I can only comment on the Mini P180 ! It is decently quiet , well made (even if somewhat ill conceived ) , but the 200mm fan is the dominating noise in the case and it is not trivial to replace it . I had other issues with the case but as you are not using a video card they will be a non-issue for y...

Both Gigabyte and Powercolour have passive versions of the card (2 slots). I will have to check these out (a) see if they are available locally (b) see if they will actually fit my machine . They may not be useable in my case mobo combination as it may put the card's heatsink directly on top of the...