all of these numbers flying around enticed me to think about the problem myself :) so here's my crack at it. instead of putting a single number to the probability of failure for a hard drive, i thought about it as a curve over time, i.e. probability of failure over time, where p(fail) = 0.5 @ time =...

lm wrote:And shouldn't this be about silencing stuff?

yeh that's something i've been thinking about and is one of the drawbacks of my plan to go raid 5 - seeks could potentially be much noisier because all of the hdd's will be active at the same time.

PositiveSpin wrote:I think you'll find that the software RAID 5 is only (officially) available in Windows 2003 server - XP doesn't offer it.

yeh that's why i linked to the thg article that shows you how to enable raid 5 on xp. only have to change 3 files

apparently raid 5 can be faster then raid 0. but hardware raid 5 controllers aren't that cheap

nevertheless, winxp has a built-in software raid 5 that offers about half the performance of hardware raid 5, that's the route i plan to take later on (it's free!!)

yeh maco pccg and auspcmarket are all great retailers :) i got my latest psu from auspcmarket and actually drove out there cos i needed it asap. i think once pccg starts listing seasonic power supplies, other retailers (like the aforementioned) will follow suit. just give it some time :) Tim: at lea...

my coffee table will be drawing 1200W. :shock: There's a new Prescott out? ROFL no it's not a prescott, it's just that i'm building a number of other peripherals into the coffee table as well so the max peak power draw (e.g. during startup) will be somewhere around that mark. sustained power will o...

hmmm poe would be really nice for small devices or maybe even really light-duty computers, but my coffee table will be drawing 1200W. the PoE standard (which i know not all companies comply with) seems to have a maximum wattage rating of 13W. :? but yes i forgot to comment, that leather pc is really...

hehe i used nulon ultra cool off the shelf of the local department store and i've been running the same water in there for about 1.5 years now without having to change it. it's still mostly clear :P but as much of a watercooling fan i am, i have to admit it definitely is like being in pc-upgrade/mai...

Seasonic S12 power supplies will be available in Australia from http://www.pccasegear.com.au within 3-4 weeks.

This wouldn't totaly get rid of the cable, but it would make it smaller and easier to hide. Power-Over-Ethernet http://www.hyperlinktech.com/web/what_is_poe.php This way you wouldn't have to deal with the slow speeds of wireless also. hadn't thought of that before... probably because my power cable...

yeh i'll definitely be paying more attention to rug shops when i walk by them from now on :) especially since most of them seem to be holding sales and/or going out of business... a similar idea that would be cheaper is to just have a strip of rug for the cable, about 4-6 inches wide. it'd look nice...

yeah sounds like a nice idea, it'd work well in my home but i don't think it'd work well for other people who might not like rugs... also rugs cost quite a bit :( i don't like the idea of making people feel they have to get this just so that can work - if i make a coffee table computer for someone i...

very impressive i think cathar's storm g4 killed the waterblock performance race so it's good to see people are still headed in the direction of innovation and bling

thought i'd add another voice to this rather lonely thread :) now that i don't use my crt anymore, i can hear the same kind of high-pitched noise you describe. on for a few seconds, off briefly, on for another few seconds. for me, it seems to happen only when windows is idling. when something's happ...

awesome! thanks for finding out, Halo. anyway back to LBadvance's problem - i suggest asking pccg to ship out to NZ, if that's not an option then i guess someone from aus can send it out. shipping for a <3kg item will cost $30 minimum though (roughly $60 max, according to austpost.com.au). if that d...

not entirely certain myself, obviously the sooner the better. from what i've heard they've probably already committed to bringing them in... perhaps email pccg for info? the more urgent we sound the quicker they'll get them in! maybe..

if you happen to live in australia, you'll be happy to know that pc case gear will be stocking seasonic psu's in the near future. otherwise i'm not sure...

that's good to hear wim! :) my silverstone's been going strong for almost 2 months now and until i got the topic reply notification for this thread i'd pretty much forgot about my psu altogether. i let my psu run with the cpu at stock speed for a month to make sure everything was ok - now i'm back u...

About water cooling Water cooling is in no way really more efficient in dissipating the heat. The water is just used to transport the heat to the radiator, where a fan is needet to transfer heat into the air. It only means one more step for the heat to be transfered. The real gain is that you get t...

DG, the kits usually don't provide the kind of performance hardcore overclockers and silence freaks are looking for. ... If you can order waterblocks, and they've got cars and aquariums where you are, you can probably build something that will put that kit to shame. well said. same goes with comput...

this is strictly my opinion only: i would stay with aircooling for the time being. a decent aftermarket aircooler will give you the same (or better) temps at the same noise level, but at a cheaper price and with much less hassle. watercooling is powerful when you have good components, but until thos...

in that case then chances are it'll be quite alright, but don't expect your temperatures to be much better than aircooling. a black ice pro, like all radiators, can only get rid of so much heat because it only has so much surface area. when you factor in the need to increase the airflow to reach the...

i guess an important factor to point out is the noise level. being spcr, the pertinent question is: will you be able to quietly use *this* radiator to cool *that* setup?

i'd also recommend a 2x120mm radiator at least. i know from experience that a black ice extreme breathing case air won't give good results with an athlon xp 2500+ cpu w/ radeon 9800 gpu (both at stock speeds), i'd imagine a black ice pro with a hotter gpu wouldn't fare well either.

Just a thought, but couldn't you rig a lead that looked like it was part of the overhead lighting, that dropped down to the table...? Would satisfy or bypass all of the points listed above (well, except maybe point one, but if you had it on a retractable reel - kindof like those kitchen lamps on bu...

hehe well refridgerated beer cooling solutions tend to cause data loss and all sorts of interface problems so i'll have to stick with water for the time being :) another idea that crossed my mind briefly was to incorporate the power cord into a 6" wide piece of clear plastic with LEDs along its leng...

2. Camoflauge in the form of a more socially acceptable reason for a power cord - like making it appear to go to a table lamp but actually go into an internal power strip which also powers the lamp. that's gold :) but in all seriousness i think this is close to the best way to get power to a coffee...

induction panels - i hadn't considered that, no. it's a very interesting suggestion and had me thinking for a while, but there's the same problem of ripping up the carpet (and god forbid having to move the coffee table around and ripping the carpet up again!) hard floors wouldn't exactly be easy eit...

glad it worked out for you

If you put the rad drawing air in (so it gets its own cool air) then you are dumping heat into you HDD, mobo, mosfets, graphics card, and psu (ramping up fan speed). very true. i have a plastic box situated near the exhaust of my radbox and it's much warmer than anything else around it. the carpet ...