A long time ago on the Anantech forums, a guy posted some stuff that said their heatsinks suck (surprise surprise!).
This was in the days of Gorbs and Alpha pep66's and pal6035's.
They tried to muscle their way into getting him to stop.


From that point on, I've hated them.

Try Computer Warehouse Outlet.
I believe they have an outlet in North York.

Never had that happen with my ZM400B-APS on an Epox 8rda3+.

If the Tornado has a 120mm fan, I'd go for it. Otherwise, my Zalman is audible.... probably quieter than most PS's, but not silent.
Definetely recommend ducting it.

mc2wheels wrote:I think I will RMA the Samsung and hope for a better one.

It won't happen, they've all been JVC motors for months.

I agree, my Samsung SP1604N's Nidec FDB is quieter than my Barracuda IV's idle.

Did you guys notice... there's a WD SATA Raid Edition HD, 8mb buffer, and FDB!
Specs to be quiter than a 74GB Raptor and a regular non-FDB JB/SE HDs.

I would send those SilenX's back if I were you. I have 92, 80, and now the 40mm SilenX 14dba fans. They are all quieter then any fans I have tried at their respective sizes. It should be noted that the SilenX 40mm fan does have a resistor wrapped in the wire lead. Sounds to me like you got a bad ba...

My epox 8kha+ did this, it just happened to suck a lot of current through the +5v rail on a XP1700 @ 1.8ghz.

The current draw heats up the ATX connectors since they're a point of resistance and hence the browning. AFAIK the 8kha+ still works today, sold it to a friend as-is at least 6 months ago.

Look for something with a good +5v rating since the Asus MB powers the CPU off the +5v rail.

Gholam wrote:

lenny wrote:Good grief, what do you do at work??

the number of people here who invest $80-$100 in a UPS is nonexistant.

Removed the "nearly" part for you

After playing around with it more, the thermistor indeed controls the blowers speed. I put a hairdryer on high heat low speed and it got the blower moving :D I would assume the white line is a fan RPM monitor, but I didn't bother testing that part. Now all I need is a way to rig this up so it cools ...

Anybody got any ideas as to how I can get the blower running @ full speed all the time?

Check for smart errors using IBM DFT or Maxtor Powerblast diagnostic utilities.
Also, the seagate online utilities might be able to check for smart errors.

Nope, no change at all in fan speed when I huffed hot air into the fan. That's as scientific as I got anyhow.

I picked one of these up from Above All Electronics in Toronto.... now when I plug the red and white leads into 12v power, the fan starts up at full speed but then really quickly slows down to a pretty slow, and quiet, speed. Plugging the white thermistor lead into either ground or +12v does nothing...

Mobile XP2500 @ 2.2ghz
Epox 8rda3+
Sapphire 9600NP 256mb
160gig SP1604N
120gig Barracuda V
Zalman ZM-400APS

Used to get coil whine with my OLD Enermax 300w dual fan passive PFC PS. None now.

Well I got a Zalman 400 watt "B", and it works very well. I can now OC my Mobile XP2500 to 2.4ghz rock solid @ 1.75v (and probably can higher with a better sink) whereas my old Enermax 300w Passive PFC would only take it to 2.3ghz at any voltage. +12v hangs around 11.91 all the time, and the +5v is ...

Enermax Noisetaker 470w, available locally for $125cad PC Power and Cooling Silencer 410w, online for $85usd + shipping + duties etc I'm swaying towards the Enermax because it's local, cheaper and has dual 12v rails, but the Silencer has tighter regulation and overall better as a brand name. Thoughts?

Antec TruePower's are good PS's, but they're not quiet. They run hot and the fans certainly speed up to keep things cool.
I'll probably be getting a 430w Noisetaker soon.

In general, I rarely see HD's rarely go bad. Out of 100 computers, I honestly doubt 5 develop bad HD's within 6 months.

I see your logic Betty, and a 500w PS should have MUCH bigger HS's than a 300w... but usually don't.

I started getting it after installing a ATI Radone 9800SE softmodded to Pro.

Mobile XP 2500 @ 2.0ghz, epox 8rda3+, 2x512mb Samsung TCCC PC3200, Samsung SP1604N IDE, Enermax 300w ATX dual fan (modded) and the Radeon 9800SE Softmodded.

A quick search would reveal that these lines are never used in modern ATX motherboards, and because they have no load on them, they produce erratic voltages.

I got the smallest drill bit I could find and that worked, but requires a bit of skill to not drill too far into the connector.

The one in bold has it's model number inside of the description: "7200.7".
That particular one is loud, dont go for it.

The U series drives used to be pretty dang quiet, but then they switched motors to the ones similar to the 7200.7's, and now they're quite loud... not worth wasting your time over.

Hehe, I don't think my system is quiet enough... and my loudest component is an Evercool 92mm single bearing fan running @ 5v :O

For me, your system would probably be considered loud. But those raptors must be nice to have

mykkk, I don't know how silent I'd consider a system which contains a pair of Raptor's... did you happen to try the fan connected just to the PS with the PS fan stopped?

Officially confirmed, the Samsung is quieter in general use. It's seek noises are a bit queiter, but a bit "crispier" sounding than the Barracuda V's "crunchier" seeks. I'll have to compared idle noise one more time to be sure, but without a single doubt in my mind, seeks are quieter and less notice...