thanks for the review, perplexing though it is. This was the one review I was looking forward to as it's 1st on the list of drives for a thorough upgrade, though now I'm not so sure. There's already the confusion over the 2 platter vs. 1 platter drives (none of the net shops in Oz distinguish betwee...

I liked the 92mm fan one (SD964), wonder how it compares to the TR Ultima90 and Noctua UH90(?). The S1283 is very impressive too, though probably overkill for any system I'd build.

congrats to the winners, be very interesting to hear back how they got on.

I will win a draw one day, I will!

AMD have big plans for their next generation GPUs which they predict/hope will hit 10W at idle even for the top end single chip cards. Combine that with the hybrid graphics (or whatever it’s called) which disables the external card when in 2D mode and uses the IGP and things are looking good. tha...

The best part about state sponsored revenge killings is that it miraculously brings murder victims back to life while teaching that killing is wrong at the same time. awesome - that's the sound of a hammer hitting a nail on the head. I think the best way to prevent murders is to kill everyone - tha...

tell you what, why not go to the extreme that Bluefront is advocating - murder (sorry, execute - murder isn't murder or is it?) everyone in prison. That'll clear out expensive overcrowded prisons, reduced recidivism (SP?) to zero and prevent almost every murder that might happen in the US. Then appl...

AFAIK the main problem with diesel hybrids (along with the additional weight of the often iron blocked engine) is that due to their high compression diesels are very hard to stop start, which is the main approach to petrol hybrids like the Prius. I think that diesels emit alot of particulates on sta...

I have to agree with Neil - given the number of wrongful convictions in any criminal justice system, how can you really justify killing as a punishment, aside from any moral argument along the lines of "thou shalt not kill". The fact that capital punishment doesn't act as a deterent (the US and Chin...

I think we're at around 7000kWh a year, so between 550 and 600kWh per month. That's for 2 1/2 people, 3 bedroom bungalow with gas ducted heating and stove (hot water's electric). Haven't been in Melbourne for a whole year yet, but we'll probably use the gas heating for ~3mths and aircon intermitentl...

just to add a note about the DS12SL-12 I have - the lowest I can get it idling using Speedfan is ~570rpm, which is inaudible at my ambient noise level (pretty quiet after 10pm). A DS12SM-12 set at it's lowest level using Speedfan was perhaps a smidgen noisier, but not a reliably detectable differenc...

The Radeon 38*0 series run very cool at idle/ 2D, so either a 3850 or 3870 would be the way to go for a good gaming card that doesn't draw too much power when not gaming.

is S2 workin' on leadtek 7600 gt AGP.? i ask because i saw on their site that it supoused to have 3 bolts but, the card has only 2 houls that i measured and came close with the describtion (scuze my bad english). most aftermarket coolers aren't compatible with AGP cards because they have a second c...

yikes, it's only a hard drive guys, no need for such vitriol. Until all the current 1TB are tested and compared here or on another reputable site, there's really no need for such fanboyism. As for reliability data, however reliable forum posts may or may not be, the simple matter is that they're far...

I wish they would publish pollution specs of 50cc 2 cycles engines used for weed whackers and chain saws. They really suck. Small engines in garden tools are a huge source of pollution relative to their use - most are 2 stroke and very few are maintained properly. My 2 stroke lawnmower (hand me dow...

if it's heat (card or PSU), just turn up your exhaust fan. If it stops freezing/ gittering then that's the problem. Happened to me recently when it hit 35C inside - my 7300GT only has a 80mm S1A @5V pointed at it, so it doesn't get alot of air. Upping the DS12SL exhaust from ~550 to 900rpm solved th...

I wonder if it's power regulation circuitry or RAM cooling that's caused the artifacts at 5+7V in the passive test? The VF900 comparison made me think this might be the case as at 7V the VF900 cooled card had a higher GPU temp but lower card temp (without artifacts) than the S1 passive/ case fan at ...

I'm not sure about the E4600, but I've heard plenty of people getting a simple overclock out of the E4500 at stock voltage by simply changing the FSB from 200 to 266MHz - which'll give you more or less the equivalent of a E6550 (or whatever's around 2.6GHz now), but with a nice low idle. The E4600 s...

I'd probably go with a Solo for the case, E4600 (or 4500) for the CPU and overclock it as and when you need to, Scythe Minja or whatever Thermalright EXXXtreme Ultra etc is top of the pile, a 3850 (plus S1) for graphics, a single Samsung F1 320GB drive (you could get 2, but I don't need that much sp...

great review - I always like seeing the power consumption figures, especially when MBs tend to be very similar performance wise. Is there any kind of consensus as to whether mATX boards consume less power than full ATX boards of a similar spec? Eg. basic P35 vs. basic G33, without IGP enabled? I'm n...

Bathman wrote:" No decent drivers and lno innervation with their line up (no PCI-X for example).

I though innervation was what nerves did?

hmm, looks pretty good. For personal preferences I'd go for a E4500 or similar and clock it up to what ever level you need - the extra cache of the E6750 isn't going to make a huge difference and the higher multiplier of the E4xxx chips means you'll have a lower idle speed and power draw. 8800GT - h...

Do you have any power consumption details of your HD3870? I've just been using one of those mains plug in devices to measure my entire system draw. Idle 87W ATI tool 3D view on 195W (Seasonic S12 rev1A) beraring in mind that idle uses Cool'n'Quiet and that ATi tool causes CPU and GPU both to 100%; ...

The most efficient way to do the computational work is to cram 64K Power5 derived processors in one location and skip the distributed circle jerk nonsense. From transmission line loss alone (energy waste) and considering the lack of published results accomplished, the folding at home project needs ...

nice review, though "You could toss on a gaming graphics card and turn it " seems to be an orphan phrase in the Final Thoughts section. TBH, as soon as I saw the BIOS page I pretty much gave up any interest. Throw in lack of Speedfan support and I'm just not interested. However, it would make a good...

thanks for the review, I'm idly looking into HTPCs and this would be an ideal board. The HDMI on a riser isn't an issue for me as there's very little chance I'll get a TV with that input within the lifetime of this board.

I'd go with an X2 4000 though and spend the money on a wireless card

hey, who knows?! Perhaps HDD manufacturers are trying to find the limit of geek fatigue (if it exists!) with crazy conflicting specs?

I'd be dead keen on something like this for an HTPC I'm thinking about building.

from the Samsung site spec sheet it's a 5400rpm drive, though the HD251+2HJ models are 7200rpm, one with double the rated power draw, 1 with the same as the HD250HJ. Confusing or what? Going through Samsung's HDD webpage with all the differet product codes made my head hurt

gotta say that, judged on looks (as it will be, being a lounge room item), I almost passed this review by. All the technical aspects may be fine, but it really does look like a PC maker trying to ape a stereo maker. Surely a neat clean elegant look shouldn't be that hard to achieve? Other than that,...

This review is WAY TOO LATE. The newly released 8800GT obsoletes basically all the other nvidia cards by being fast, cheap, quiet and low power . Who in their right mind would choose any 8600* over the 8800GT now? It's worrying how you nowadays tend to review stuff only when it's totally obsoleted ...

a nice addition would be some kind of cats cradle suspension tray (there's a company that do them, just can't remember their name) to suspend a HDD in the upper chamber. DIY suspension would be a bit awkward due to space constraints. Otherwise, this is a pretty neat case, certainly one I'd consider ...