775 holes are 72 mm apart, 1155 etc. holes are 75 mm, AFAIR. This is only 3 mm. Also, pushpins / pins / screws are not thick enough to occupy the entire diameter of the holes in the mobo. So, they can be a little askew. Given their length this can buy us the 3-ish mm. Also, the oval holes in the met...

I need a 3.5" fan controller that can handle 2 regular fans and comes with USB 3.0. And is in white or silver - to match my ancient P150. And it would be cool if it's available in Polandia. So far I've found that Akasa AK-FC-06U3BK is only available in black. I now have the previous iteration, with ...

You don't really need to go for the K. E.g. with 2500K, the chip had (apart from unlocked upwards multiplier) a slightly stronger graphics chip. So maybe 4670K also has beefier graphics. But that's not really a point to buy it :) For your needs, I'd suggest picking a regular, non-K chip (if only to ...

On one hand, as long as the memory is DDR2, 800 MHz CL 5 or 6, 1.8 - 2.0 V, it should run OK on any 775 chipset. But, the seller's tip sounds more like a warning to me. Maybe he has actually checked it? I dunno, I've never heard of such limitations for mem sticks. Your call. As long as your board ca...

Bottlenecking might depend on the game - there are some that require pure VGA power, and some are CPU intensive (e.g. Civ V). That said the GTX280 is not really overkill, after all it's quite old itself. For Q6600, especially OCed, many ppl recommend 7850/7870 (or equivalent Nvidia) as a good match....

It's got to be metal, otherwise it would defeat the purpose. No plastic (read: in this price range) will even come close to steel's rigity. All backplates I've seen, even the most generic ones, were metal. Heck, even budget PCBs in motherboards are way more sturdy than plastic. Needles to say all ba...

I wouldn't worry about that at all. "Very hot to touch" could just mean 60 C. 70 C would be scalding, really. Anyway, such temps won't hurt your chipset. Chipset chips (hurr durr) are quite resilient to hi temps. BTW, have you measured how hot it actually gets? Speedfan, AIDA64, HWINFO? Anyway, for ...

even if you take other sites' dB measurement with a grain (or cup?) of salt, this is still very unimpressive - @ TPU VGA makers, why so much noise in idle? Please, understand that a card that draws 10-15W in idle really doesn't need that much cooling force, the fans (2 or 3, whatever) really don't h...

linky a fresh review

a pity they didn't at least measure RPM - it could just give us a hint of what to expect (not that I'd care to read non-SPCR dB measurement )
I mean, c'mon, at least make a screen shot of what GPU-Z shows in the sensors tab, please?

I'd say in terms of pure performance Noctua would be the winner here. It's bigger, has a 14 cm fan, it's mounting mechanism will provide better contact. Still, I'd myself be very tempted to just give it a try. I'm pretty sure the temps would be OK and safe and that you wouldn't have to run the fan a...

I'd guess it's pretty unavoidable. Unless perhaps you're willing to polish or somehow treat the fins & pipes?

Some pics here

Yes, it's easily doable. Just follow this - the copper Ninja has the same mounting system. You would only need a new 1156/1155/1150 backplate. I don't know if you can adapt the fixing system from Ninja 3 Rev. B, though. In absolute terms, yes, copper is superior to alu. Still, in practice, the diffe...

Scythe FTW :) Nice to see they still have what it takes to be on top(ish) :) I've had lots of Scythe products, for many years, and was never disappointed with any of them. BTW, just browsing through some "reviews", too much spare time, I guess. Here's a brainfart from one of them: "The thing i reall...

Thanks, lodestar, for your explanations and links. So, the new card has arrived. First thing to clarify - the cooler on the 1GB version is not the same as in 660 or in 650 Ti Boost 2GB. These have in fact 4 heatpipes, while mine has only 1. It's beefy and touches the chip directly, but it's only one...

My mobo also squeals, piggy-like ;) Actually, it's a faint sound, but it's nature makes it clearly audible and awfully annoying; just like in your case, it's the VRM; I've been able to pinpoint the source by playing with energy saving options. I only have to disable C3/C6 and the noise is gone :) Al...

That's correct. And good! I wouldn't trust any other site but SPCR to test it for noise. Especially with WD's dB hype and all that. Would you? As for power - perhaps there is 1 or 2 other sites I'd trust with that.

I'm about get this one - Gigabyte GTX 650 Ti Boost Windforce 2X OC, 1GB (GV-N65TBOC-1GD). Due to it's 1GB it's priced really much better than any competitor, not to mention 660 models. And for 1600x1200 I certainly don't need the extra RAM. Asus and MSI are both recommended here, I know, but as I'm ...

better late than never :) "Recently when we've tested power supplies we regularly received comments about the fact that we test the efficiency of PSUs beginning at 200 watts. That's because the energy consumption of modern desktop PCs with Ivy Bridge or Haswell processors is typically a lot lower. I...

this is way too general; in the end, it all boils down to a specific model; have you had the time to read SPCR's PSU reviews, at least, say, a dozen newest reviews? this could be a good start to verify also, I seem to remember such topics / thoughts surface here from time to time, so you might use t...

Well, too bad for them. Given its level and direction of focus, SPCR may be a slightly niche review site, both for users and manufacturers, but a trusted company with a good, proven product can only benefit. As for me, I don't really trust other sites on noise issues. I'd rather trust most users her...

dan As to the losing of the magic stuff inside heatpipes - well, I guess we will be very well able to verify if Ninja, or similar ancient cooler, can still work all right after 10 years. Mine dates back to early 2006, so gimme some more time and I'll report back. I'm sure SPCR could also produce a m...

Good

Also, I recently learned there is a new backplate by Scythe - clik

We already PMd with t31os, but just to clarify here - I used the bolts that came with the Ninja, same as I would with the Ninja's backplate. My grandpa cooler is still fine, not going anywhere and will be probably cooling my next build, whenever that is.

Another thing to beware - websites that aggregate free/trial/shareware soft now usually sport their own installers. Say, you want install a generic PDF reader. You're not taken to the website's homepage, you're not starting to download the proper installation/zip package, but rather the aggregate we...

Here's a short note from Scythe EE - clicky - seems all gonna be OK, hopefully... About Tt and Zalman and similar - yeah, they do suck, but they're very aggressive in terms of marketing - could explain while they're still afloat. Signed - happy owner of THE Ninja, Shuriken, over a dozen fans, 3 SQD'...

Yes, all 1155 boards have it. No, you can't remove it. Most importantly - no, it will not interfere. The SCURK 3 backplate has its middle part properly recessed so it nicely accommodates the native 1155 backplate. Go ahead, buy the SCURK 3 and enjoy proper mounting (no pushpins!) on your new platfor...

Arctic includes this with their new Twin Turbo 690 http://www.arctic.ac/p/images/articles/3f60ffd2115025eb35fba06e0c727741.png Prolimatech really needs to do the same. Are these in any way adjustable? If no, then what about cases that have bottoms at various, hmm, depths? And for the brand aware lo...

My friend also got the 670 model recently (ASUS GTX 670 DirectCU II) and he too says approx. 1040 RPM is the lowest both fans will go, either manually or automatically. Given the similarity between the 660Ti and 670 there's no wonder even the cooler is the same. Perhaps many of us would really prefe...

Not to derail the occasional trolling fun, but I'd guess it's all down to quality of workmanship behind individual coolers - how fins are pressed/soldered onto heatpipes, base finish, perhaps even heatpipe quality. The legendary "original Ninja" seems a fitting example. Now do carry on with merry tr...