Search found 177 matches

by K.Murx
Tue Apr 28, 2009 11:31 am
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: ATI HD 4770: 40 nm, RV740 -- SPCR reviewed
Replies: 285
Views: 222061

I was really, really hoping that ATI would get the idle consumption fixed, but sadly, this does not seem to be the case. The 17.4W from XBitlabs would be okay with me, but 30W ? While it just sits there, doing nothing? I will probably get one anyway. It's still the best card in its price range. But ...
by K.Murx
Sat Apr 25, 2009 3:48 pm
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: ATI HD 4770: 40 nm, RV740 -- SPCR reviewed
Replies: 285
Views: 222061

so again this raises the question whether one should get the geforce 250gts or the hd4770. The performance seems almost equal, they both seem to consume about 80 Watts on load, and both cost around 100$ (the 250 is currently at 110 AR, and will probably drop a bit more during the next couple of wee...
by K.Murx
Fri Apr 24, 2009 11:26 am
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: Quiet / Noisy Monitor Survey
Replies: 272
Views: 506944

Acer X193W+BD
Whiny at first, broke down, got repaired, whine stopped. Silent as of now
by K.Murx
Fri Apr 24, 2009 11:22 am
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition for AM3
Replies: 13
Views: 10912

The Tom's Hardware number for the X3 720 BE is a typo, right?

And it is quite remarkable that the 9650 beats the 720 on power consumption!
by K.Murx
Fri Apr 24, 2009 10:54 am
Forum: The Silent Front
Topic: Multiple or single heat sources (same power dissipation)?
Replies: 12
Views: 10290

But in a crossfire vs single card, I would basically always prefer the single card. My understanding of the algorithms used for multi-gpu real time graphics is that usually alternate frames are rendered on separate cards, which means that while the perceived fps improves a lot, the perceived latenc...
by K.Murx
Thu Apr 16, 2009 10:06 pm
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Where do I go from here?
Replies: 12
Views: 4751

Ifyou live in an urban area with Mom&Pop computer shops, it might be worth a try to just walk in there and ask them to test your CPU for a sec, and then walk out with a ne CPU or Motherboard, depending onthe outcome. Also try taking the board out of the case and run the test on a bench if you want t...
by K.Murx
Thu Apr 16, 2009 4:15 pm
Forum: The Silent Front
Topic: Multiple or single heat sources (same power dissipation)?
Replies: 12
Views: 10290

There's no advantage to running 2 4670s, just greater complexity. Er... but there is a advantage to running two 4670s? 32W less power draw in idle & 2D It's easier to get passive 4670s for those who do want warranties Probably less heat in the immediate vicinity of the cards Redundancy in the event...
by K.Murx
Thu Apr 16, 2009 11:48 am
Forum: The Silent Front
Topic: Multiple or single heat sources (same power dissipation)?
Replies: 12
Views: 10290

Hmm, right. Slightly misleading... better now? However, the question is not necessarily specific to GPUs - another example would be CPUs for applications with ideal multiprocessor scaling. And I just have the feeling that there is a simple answer to that question. All I could come up with are compli...
by K.Murx
Thu Apr 16, 2009 9:21 am
Forum: The Silent Front
Topic: Multiple or single heat sources (same power dissipation)?
Replies: 12
Views: 10290

Multiple or single heat sources (same power dissipation)?

This discussion of a review of Crossfire 4670s raised the following question for me: Presuming you have a certain amount of power dissipation, is it easier to disperse that heat if it is in one place or distributed across multiple devices? Two 4670s in Crossfire draw approximately the same power und...
by K.Murx
Wed Apr 15, 2009 4:21 pm
Forum: Cases and Damping
Topic: P183 or P182?
Replies: 46
Views: 30080

yensteel wrote:However, Those kinds of improvements could be done on a P182 with some DIY mods.
Which is why it would not be worth the $30-$40 price difference to me.

But that depends of course on how much somebody likes modding, and how valuable they consider their time...
by K.Murx
Wed Apr 15, 2009 4:15 pm
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: 4670 Crossfire Performance
Replies: 10
Views: 9544

I think Xbitlabs test is a bit off the mark, because of their system setup. What person in his right mind would go lengths to spend less than $200 on the graphics when the rest of the rig is all state of the art? Me :P I do have uses for CPU and RAM to do actual work. The graphics cards are just th...
by K.Murx
Tue Apr 14, 2009 2:27 pm
Forum: Cases and Damping
Topic: P183 Reviewed
Replies: 41
Views: 21756

Regarding the power buton problem: Have you guys ever thought about simply getting a keyboard with a power button? Works for me. With regards to the case: Nice, if only they would offer a closed door option. The holes do look ugly ("style" certainly does not include integrating little, angled, hyper...
by K.Murx
Sun Apr 05, 2009 9:54 pm
Forum: Networking
Topic: Building a file server / linux box please critique
Replies: 7
Views: 9018

Re: Building a file server / linux box please critique

Well, the goals are a little bit conflicting :) Goals: - To build the most quiet PC as possible that can be left on for 90-95%% of its life - Keep budget as low as possible but high reliability I usually take the more budget-oriented approach. Especially for a server that can be tucked away in some ...
by K.Murx
Sat Mar 21, 2009 9:24 am
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: AMD's Maui HTPC Platform
Replies: 163
Views: 162807

oberbimbo wrote: AMD 780G is horrible under Linux, if you want accelerated video decoding, there is no way around nvidia on Linux, IMHO.
Has this not yet been solved? As ATI opened up their drivers a coupl e of months ago. And if not, I think it is quite likely that this will change in the forseeable future :)
by K.Murx
Sat Mar 21, 2009 9:20 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Quietest non-SSD drive on the market?
Replies: 41
Views: 18125

Goodness I just don't know, I think I might just go with an Antec P180 because I don't think I can go wrong with a purchase like that, it's a sure thing, getting a new hard drive, I don't know. Whoops :) Slow down there! If you have an old, loud hard drive, any of the new HDDs we have been talking ...
by K.Murx
Fri Mar 20, 2009 4:57 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: options for backup/syncing
Replies: 15
Views: 6014

Re: ditto on robocopy....

(I have no idea if my ubuntu has a scheduler). Go to a command line and type "man cron". If you consider it not very user friendly, use Synaptic or apt-get to install gnome-schedule. Tools to back stuff up are rsync (non-incremental) and rdiff-backup (incremental). Both are command-line-tools, but ...
by K.Murx
Fri Mar 20, 2009 10:53 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Quietest non-SSD drive on the market?
Replies: 41
Views: 18125

QuietOC wrote: Why? The Hitachi P7K500s are quieter than any of the AAKS drives, and the entire line from 250GB to 500GB is available for $50 or less.
Because the AAKS has been reviewed by SPCR and therefore is a known quantity to me.
Care to share your data source? Must be pretty good :)
by K.Murx
Fri Mar 20, 2009 9:16 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Quietest non-SSD drive on the market?
Replies: 41
Views: 18125

Jeez, the Caviar Green 1TB is 100 dollars! I don't need ANYWHERE close to that much. But as has been said earlier if I go with a lower capacity drive I might get more platters or what have you and it would end up being louder. Man, paying for capacity I don't need to get silence. The 640GB WD Cavia...
by K.Murx
Thu Mar 19, 2009 5:12 pm
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: AMD's Maui HTPC Platform
Replies: 163
Views: 162807

A couple of questions, which might have alread been answered :) Background: I am in the process of planning a new build. As it so happens, I also might swap/extend/... my audio equipment. Therefore, a later incarnation of the Maui might be an option. There is no mention of a headphone jack in the sp...
by K.Murx
Thu Mar 19, 2009 4:52 pm
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: System & audio setup/parts advice needed
Replies: 10
Views: 6530

Hmm... That's a good idea. I never thought about the Maui (read the review though). 5x100W is plenty enough. And with 93% efficiency, it would not add a noticeable amount of heat (~10W unless I want to blast the doors out). Of course I would need to find a matching center speaker to add to the 4 spe...
by K.Murx
Thu Mar 19, 2009 2:41 pm
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: System & audio setup/parts advice needed
Replies: 10
Views: 6530

I have a 22" at 1680x1050 at work right know, and I have to say I could get used to it - it is quite nice to be able to comfortably fit two terminal windows on a screen. I could do with a lower resolution (hey, I grew up with 640x480). But the future will hold more demanding games, so I would like t...
by K.Murx
Thu Mar 19, 2009 2:26 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Anandtech: Understanding SSDs and New Drives from OCZ
Replies: 45
Views: 24684

Oops. Seems like I skipped over the part that contradicted my too-fast assumption. There are a couple of points, like I still believe that a SSD is the single most effective performance upgrade you can do to your PC; even while taking this behavior into account. While personally I wouldn’t give up...
by K.Murx
Thu Mar 19, 2009 9:35 am
Forum: Green Computing
Topic: Old computer power consumption
Replies: 27
Views: 23747

For other people that are interested into something like this: You might consider this . Specs : 115 x 101 x 27 mm Atom Z530 (1.66 Ghz) 1GB of DDR2 optional 160GB HDD (standard 2.5" - can be swapped) No fan US15W chipset [2.3W TDP] supposedly 6W power draw $245+ Other Options include obviously ARM-b...
by K.Murx
Thu Mar 19, 2009 9:21 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Anandtech: Understanding SSDs and New Drives from OCZ
Replies: 45
Views: 24684

I have to disagree with the article on one thing: They say that the drawback of the reduced random write performance (RWP) is outweighed by the increased performance overall. I object to this if the reduced RWP does result in noticeable stutters. Because I do expect my computer to slow down if I sta...
by K.Murx
Thu Mar 19, 2009 8:54 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Quietest non-SSD drive on the market?
Replies: 41
Views: 18125

The WD3200AA K S has several possible issues. (...) Which are detailed in the review on the main site :) I do not know anything about the AAJS, and it has not been reviewed by SPCR. Most retailers do not seem to have it in stock. And besides, how do you know that it does not suffer from the same is...
by K.Murx
Wed Mar 18, 2009 2:38 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Quietest non-SSD drive on the market?
Replies: 41
Views: 18125

See I don't want that much storage. Like I am surviving on an 80GB right now and it is fine. I mean I don't need a 500GB or a TB drive or anything. So are the lower capacity drives just as quiet as the higher capacity drives? Depends :) As far as I know, you are looking for high information density...
by K.Murx
Tue Mar 17, 2009 6:43 pm
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: System & audio setup/parts advice needed
Replies: 10
Views: 6530

System & audio setup/parts advice needed

Hello everybody. I am currently in CA and will be moving back to Germany in October. As my stay here was only rather temporary (1 year), I currently do not own a desktop system - instead, an EEE900A has served me quite nicely as a replacement (Linux can do some amazing things even with rather underp...