Acaurora - does your NX-4090 ramp up when playing games? My NX-3500 is great at idle, but dreadful noise-wise when playing Thief 3 or Far Cry with my 9800XT Ultimate. The NX-3500 does do a great job at handling the CPU temp @ 52C max. (using a Heatlane Zen NCU-2000 and Nexus 120mm case fan). Much be...

There are (at least) two new PSU's just coming out, with huge 140mm fans inside them. 1) Superflower SF-450TS (27A, 12V) http://www.techangel.co.uk/reviews/sf450ts/ 2) Coolmax CR500B (28A, 12V) http://hi-techreviews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=754 They will probably be the best PSU's ...

Yesterday I tried running the NCU-2000 with a single Nexus case fan, and a Yesico FL-420ATX (T) fanless PSU. Temps were fine at idle, but load temps shot up to 66C. AMD's max. limit for an A64 is 70C, and an AMD spokesman has said you should aim to keep it under 60C. Today I swapped the PSU for my E...

I've been experimenting with the case door open today. The NCU-2000 gets warm (not red hot) to the touch @ 52C, but there isn't a great waft of hot air being sucked into the NX-3500. Not enough to cause the ramp-up. Curiously, running CPUburn for half an hour didn't seem to make any difference. But ...

I installed an NCU-2000 yesterday in my gaming rig: Asus K8V Deluxe, Athlon 64 3000+, Arctic Silver 5, Nexus NX-3500, Nexus Real Silent 120mm. It was a snug fit with the Corsair XMS3200. I wanted the noise levels to match my quiet net box (which uses a Celeron 2.4 & NCU-1000, and only has a single f...

My PC has been on for over three hours (at 25C room temp) browsing, writing, file managing etc. CPU: 38C SYS: 31C HDD: 33C There is no ducting. There are no mods. All components run at stock. The acoustic insulation seals it tight. I'm getting excellent through-flow from the single (passive) front a...

I built a quiet PC a few months ago, and can vouch for the components, temps & noise level for anybody else interested in building a similar one. Here's the spec, along with today's prices and upgrades: Chenbro Gaming Bomb / Xpider case £44 Nexus NX-3500 350W PSU £38 (Nexus NX-4090 400W £49) Vant...

Now, this one looks promising: micro ATX, onboard GFX... Specification: http://www.aopen.nl/products/mb/MX4GER.htm Big mobo pic: http://aopen.jp/products/mb/large/mx4ger-l.jpg The "SilentTek" feature implies a Vcore range of 1.2 to 2.1, and the 1MHz stepping sounds good too. And it can all be done w...

Thanks - I'll have a look at all the Aopen boards. I think I've hit a major stumbling block, though. It seems none of the cheaper boards (especially mATX) offer underclocking as an option. Only the more expensive enthusiast-overclocker boards have them. For instance, this is the best one I've found ...

Can anyone recommend a good Pentium mobo (preferably mATX) that lets you undervolt and underclock? (I want to pair one up for a cool near-silent Office PC with my P4 2.4 Northwood, a new Heatlane Zen, and a Nexus NX-3500 120mm PSU). It should be a budget model (£50-£75) with onboard GFX and passive ...

Where can you buy SmartDrive 2002C's from in the UK? I was thinking I might have to import one from Canada. (Repeated Google UK searches revealed nothing). I've already got a SilentDrive, but don't rate it at all. It's very crudely built, and it didn't seem to make any difference with my 3.5" Barrac...

The PC's on a beech veneer desk - about 3ft away from my head.

They've got felt pads on, so you can glide the case a little bit, but you're better off carrying most of the weight so they don't slide off.

My QuietFeet (medium size, 1-1/4") arrived this morning... http://www.quietpc.com/uk/caseacc.php#quietfeet ... I removed the horrid solid plastic ones on the bottom of my Chenbro case, and stuck these on in their place. (I also inserted the 7v resistor in the Acousti 120mm chassis fan, and turned do...

I'm planning on building a cheap cool & quiet PC as an experiment. Using this excellent article as a starting point, and doing lots of research over the past week, I've settled on the following spec: Chenbro Gaming Bomb, silver w/ side panel £49 AcoustiFans - 92mm front & 120mm rear £36 (optional) N...