Antec NSK6000 - 48 € (although I don't see how it's any better than my SLK3000B) Agreed. Coolermaster Centurion 5 Black - 61 € (same as above) Ginormous window. It's actually not that bad once you completely cover it with a layer of Dynamat Extreme, it looks pretty cool ;) Coolermaster Centurio...

Interesting PowerPoint presentation can be found here.

It may be best to make another block and then bolt that block to chassis, using thermal compound in between. That is my current plan for my next gaming system. Motherboard, SSD, GPU, DC-DC PSU, all surface-mounted to a huge aluminum plate with heatpipes as needed. Then wall-mount the plate on the w...

Don't worry about it. Drives do not need to be perfectly flat. Many, many computers in the world sit on uneven floors and uneven desks and get along just fine.

I'm really appreciating all the thoughts and info here. What are the thoughts WRT the length of a heatpipe and it's efficiency?

The way to test whether positive pressure/negative pressure makes a difference would be to put the same fans at the same speed as either exhaust or intake and measure the temperature difference. To test whether convection works would be to remove the fans entirely. Even if the fans are serving as ex...

Frequently prices/availability of products varies significantly from one country to the next. Why don't you post some links to cases you can get that are in your range, and we'll help you pick amongst them?

It looks like the m-cubed PSU's DC-DC boards are attached to a backplate that fits where a normal PSU would go (4 screws to the backplate). I'm quite interested in that as 280W is enough for a really solid workstation.

Great idea. You have inspired me. I'm going to crack into my old laptop and build a dedicated computer for my HTPC out of it

Ah, but he said he wants a "hidden" paper tray. Which rules out 90% of budget printers otherwise, I definitely would've recommended the Samsung lineup...nice cheap printers. Ah, I assumed he meant that the paper was covered. More importantly, that is was stored horizontally. As opposed to the infam...

I really like Samsung products; never been dissapointed. And this color laser brags of "Whisper Quiet Operation".

Looks like it is in your price range as well.

I like ducting the GPU heat out of the case as well. But I haven't seen any aftermarket coolers that perform as you specify. I think the best thing to do would be to put a HR-03 underneath the card, and build a duct of the appropriate dimensions. Mount a 120mm fan to the front of the duct, and call ...

IIRC, the new mounting mechanism lets you mount it either way. Try rotating the mounting plate on the heatsink.

My woodworking skills are so bad, I based my chassis on a file cabinet from IKEA. I still wasn't able to make the mods subtle enough to pass inspection.

What do your mean when you say "do well"? I did TONS of mods to my Aria when I had it; including swapping the fan, opening up the chassis around the PS, and ducting airflow to the critical components. There was simply no way to use the stock PS to build a quiet system. Once I replaced it with a PICO...

A64 X2 6000+ Stock Speed, 4x1GB DDR2 800 5-5-5-15, see sig for more details. Results: ---------- RUN1PASS1.LOG encoded 1749 frames, 75.25 fps, 1850.89 kb/s ---------- RUN2PASS1.LOG encoded 1749 frames, 75.21 fps, 1850.89 kb/s ---------- RUN3PASS1.LOG encoded 1749 frames, 75.57 fps, 1850.89 kb/s ----...

Intel Pentium M Dothan 1Ghz Minimum (600Mhz): 0.7v (lowest possible) Stock (1GHz): 0.748v This is in my ASUS R2Hv-A1. Using "Notebook Hardware Control", great program. I just checked and this entire system (including screen at max brightness) draws only 11W! No wonder the battery life is so huge!

fas_k wrote:Anyone underclocked a pentoum d 945 if so please show clock settings.
vcore settings etc. fsb etc. !!!!!!!!!!!!

You are the one with the chip. Why don't you do it? It isn't rocket science...

I've had a passive 7950GT since they came out. In my previous case (Lian-Li V2100 or something), temps regularly broke 100C during gaming without ill effect for around a year. I just recently changed my case for other reasons; I don't know what the temp is these days, I don't worry about it anymore.

The "power" connector on a motherboard is 2 pins about 1-2mm apart. When you short them momentarily, the system turns on. Any wire/momentary switch will work.

The problem with PVC pipe is that it resonates like crazy. I suppose you could dynamat the outside, but it would still not absorb any sound at all.

All of my plans that used exceptionally large fans (>200mm?) involved an air box of some kind. The air was filtered, then accelerated through a large fan, then sent someplace useful. Ducting is one way to do this, but making the exit point for the air opposite the intake works pretty well, too. Most...

Damping is an interesting question. Are you just trying to prevent the sound from escaping via vibration/resonance? If so, the plywood itself should do just fine. If you are trying to absorb the sound inside the chassis, so less escapes through the openings, that is a much bigger problem. Different ...

That looks pretty good. The only thing I would recommend right off is to move the HDD somewhere near some airflow. Suspending it in the air duct underneath would work better. Be sure that your GPU gets some of that direct fresh air as well, perhaps with a small duct?

I think the problem is with the Gemini and not the fan; those fins are just too close together to deal with low-speed airflow. Better to use the Scythe, and mod a mini for the NB.

(see sig) I have the array spin down when not in use, that helps a lot. When the drives are needed, I'm streaming video or audio anyway. To get much quieter, you will need to insulate the drives and therefore be proactive with the cooling solution. Insulating and cooling many drives individually con...

None of the hot-swap enclosures I've tried are quiet. I'd recommend looking into 2.5" SATA drives.

Yep, it was big enough that I had an AC power strip (small UPS, actually), gigabit switch, USB switch/hub and KVM mounted on the same side as the EPIA system. The plugs visible from the outside (IIRC) were the UPS' power plug, an Ethernet cable, KVM extension cable from the KVM switch, USB extension...

My computers have for some time now been just component boxes. I don't like reaching over to deal with optical drives or power buttons, so the tower itself lives behind the couch; with optical drives, USB hubs, and a power button extender sitting on my desk.

Do you have a preliminary component list? It would help to know how much heat will have to be dealt with.