Hmm, I've never heard of not being able to run two burners on the same channel before, and I've never had a problem with my setup, although I've never tried to burn a CD and DVD at the same time. I suppose I could though - I have the DVD-ROM and CDRW on one channel, and the DVD-RW is by itself on th...

Alright, this is kind of a silly question. I have three optical drives, all of them IDE and all of them about the same in terms of noise level. I have all of them because I added capability over time: Plextor PX 116A DVD Drive Plextor Plexwriter Premium CDRW Plextor PX 708A DVD-RW Drive So now, I'm ...

I just purchased a P5B Deluxe myself and did a ton of research on which RAM to buy. The first thing you might want to look at it the Asus Qualified RAM Vendor List, located here: http://usa.asus.com/100/download/products/1179/1179_10.pdf Those parts are specifically tested to work with the P5B, howe...

Excellent tape job on the video card. That gave me quite a chuckle. :) Something you may want to consider, if it's going to be a while before you can get your new vid card, is to buy some Arctic Silver thermal adhesive. It's basically a heatsink epoxy that will permanently bond the GPU and the heats...

My HTPC is built around an old Shuttle running a P4 2GHz. It has 1 GB of mem, 1 hard drive, and 1 PCI and 1 AGP slot. And it is powerful enough for recording SD and playback of DivX and Xvid .avi files on my TV. It's fairly silent, the worst offender being the Shuttle power supply which is running 2...

I suppose it depends on who you're doing this for. I build computers for friends frequently and while yes, they do bug me from time to time for tech support, they almost always compensate me for the time. Selling computers to every Joe Schmoe off the street is one thing - most people could care less...

I was actually just taking the time to read about OCZ and it seems to work fine with the Asus P5B according to the OCZ forums. And it's quite a lot cheaper than Crucial. The only thing I'm concerned about is that OCZ isn't listed on the Asus QVL, not that the list is conclusive in any way. So unless...

Omega: I was initially going to get Corsair ram, but I read a lot about how the Asus P5B can be hit or miss when it comes to Corsair memory, especially when trying to run them at cas4. The Crucial seems to pretty solid though with the P5B, at least according to the forums I've read through. I'd be h...

Nick: A good point. I have a DVD-ROM, CD-RW, and DVD-RW because I slowly added them over time, but I don't really need all three of them. I suppose I could pull the DVD-ROM or the CD-RW and be just fine. I'll also look into that silent X1950. I'm assuming it's a Pro as the R570 chip draws a lot less...

After reading SPCR for ages, I finally decided to do something about my extremely loud PC recently and replaced my case and power supply with an Antec Solo and Corsair 620HX. Even with the same guts, the noise level dropped amazingly. This of course made me want to replace everything else to achieve...

I'm not sure how true that is about quiet drives. I have 3 Plextor drives (DVD-ROM, CD-RW, DVD-RW) and they all make a ton of noise when they're spinning. Mine are a bit old though, so I'm sure that has something to do with it. Some Plextor drives have a variable speed setting using their config too...

I'm just using the free version as well. The problem with the free version is that it runs at 1280x1024 fixed, so it's a hell of a test even on a decently powerful system, which mine is not.

Mesc: I ran some tests today and recorded temps. Ambient temp is 23C. Using just the 120mm Tri-cool on low, my hard drive (Maxtor 250GB Sata) holds steady at 37C during copying and loading tasks. CPU (3500+) averages 33C idle, 45C under load using a Zalman 7000Cu. My next step, before my planned upg...

how long till you upgrade to PCIe Unknown at this point, but probably at least a month. I'm trying to decide if I should just buy a PCI-e socket 939 mobo and keep my CPU and mem to save cash, or if I should replace everything and move to a Core Duo or socket AM2. It all depends on how much money I ...

Sorry, I should have posted a pic: http://www.sharkyextreme.com/img/2003/12/asus_9800xt/card.jpg And yes, I've double and triple checked the power connections... they should be spinning. I would see if I could expose more of it or remove the fans (maybe those 2 screws on top?) and try blowing an 80m...

Most refrigerators have a large fan at the bottom that keeps the compressor cool. They also have fans internally to move cold air between the compartments. So, I think you should recommend to your neighbor that he replace those fans with some nice large size Yate Loons. Failing that, a Scythe Infini...

I find it best to search for specific product numbers nowadays. And often it's good to leave off any extra letters and tags on the model number so you can get multinational versions of the same product. As an example, when searching for a review for the Canon printer I wanted to buy recently, instea...

I'm pretty new to quiet computing, and recently replaced my old case and power supply with an Antec Solo and Corsair 620. The difference in volume is amazing, even when running all the same components on the inside. One thing though: as I was looking inside the case to identify which parts were stil...

Installed everything into the Solo + Corsair 620 last night and it's already quieter even with the same components on the inside. Honestly, I didn't expect that much of a difference without replacing any parts, and I am very pleased. And thanks for the very prompt answers nici! Unfortunately, this '...

Strat, glad to hear you went with the Solo. I too am new to SilentPC and just replaced my old case and PS with a Solo and Corsair 620. Even with all the same parts on the inside, it's already much much quieter. The best thing is that I can now actually identify which parts are making the most noise....

If you just want to build the occasional computer for friends and relatives and people you know who contact you, then no, you don't need any sort of license to do so. Nor do you even need to register as a business, although if you're going to be doing a lot of it (say, more than 7-10 PCs per year) t...

That looks a lot cleaner. Nice work!

Greets! I've been lurking for a while and reading articles and posts about quieting down my aging PC, but I've found a few areas that I'm a bit fuzzy on. So I thought it was time to come out of the shadows and join in. After reading through the testing stuff here, I've identified my old 300W Enermax...