Thanks for the replies, everyone! The feedback has been very helpful Cost is definitely a factor, but given some of these suggestions, i'll try to harvest some old parts to make this work. 1. I bought a 120GB Corsair SSD for my laptop a few months back. I'll swap the old HDD back in and make use of ...

Hi all Wanted to get my hands dirty in making an HTPC. The purpose would be to play local media (no plans for network storage yet) and stream HD videos online (Youtube, etc...). Secondary purposes include general web browsing and light gaming (D3, SC2, some shooters from the past 2 years) at low or ...

Hi, everyone, I'm putting my SB gaming rig for sale, for the fact that I probably won't have much time to make good use of it in the next few years. It's been a pleasure to work on and play with - I hope someone else here will enjoy it as much as I did. Original Post @ SPCR Changes since OP: added a...

I'm not sure what the context of this discussion is, but are there any P4's that weight 3lbs and have battery lives of 6+ hours?

Not that I'm a fan of the Atom. But... just sayin'!

are you sure you aren't simply hearing your GPU? Have you successfully modded the bios, or is it unchanged?

Yes, but can you get better single-thread performance going from 4 cores to 2 cores, as you apparently can going from 6 to 4? that's a good question! I'm not familiar with it, but if you check what people have been able to achieve with let's say the Phenom II X4 955BE versus the Phenom II X2 550 BE...

the savings from a 4-core BE to a 2-core BE are pretty slim. I would keep the extra 2 cores! games are already starting to take advatnage of 3 cores. a 4th will be helpful down the road

So, does your old computer (the athlon) have integrated graphics aside from the hd4650? I would presume it has to, otherwise, you wouldn't consider switching out the 4650. But just thought I'd ask in case As far as your new build is concerned, I would just keep the 4650 if at all possible. This is m...

Hello, everyone! I have a question on behalf of a friend of mine, using CM's 690II. Theyr'e a little loud for his tastes, and i was wondering if those fans will start at 5V if i do a 5V rewiring trick? They're molex, as far as I can tell. Alternatively, I also thought about a 7V trick. However, we h...

Hi, Ksanderash

If I recall correctly, AM2 boards will support AM2 cpus and AM2+ cpus. Not AM3 cpus.

You will probably do best with an Athlon 64 or some Phenom processors (9000-series, 920, 940)

Hello! What are your specs exactly? What coolers are you using? Do you have a budget? Just based on what I hear now, I would agree about Fractal Design's Define series. The R3 for example, is spacious, quiet and offers the potential for really good cooling. Just note that whatever case you get, you ...

However, I'm not certain it would be right for me to shut off this future avenue for extending the life of the machine (at least in terms of how long it continues to be viable spec for what I want to do with it). I don't know what other people's experiences are with this. But in my experience, I us...

Sorry for double-post...

but http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1143-page6.html confirms that speedfan doesn't work on this board

What happens when you try to adjust via Speedfan? I'm not an expert on this, but one solution would be to get a PWM Y cable splitter and hook your CPU cooler fan and the case fan onto the same pins. Usually not too expensive. Definitely cheaper than a new fan. Also, the splitter is just a handy acce...

I'm using the Gelid Icy Vision and it works pretty well on my 6850. The 5850 is a bit hotter, but I don't imagine it to be that huge of a deal.

I also heard good things about the Twin Turbo PRO by Arctic Cooling.

1. get a P67 board 2. get a K-series cpu I can understand a P67 is you intend to use a video card. I can understand a K series if you don't. I don't see wanting to get both. P67 allows for easier overclocking = better value on your money Besides, nothing wrong with using a K-series CPU + a GPU (whi...

What RAM would you suggest at the moment? I would personally go for 2x2GB DDR3 1333MHz or 1600MHz @ cas-9 timings. 8GB of ram is typically overkill for any application... most people don't report a significant improvement with it. Just get well-timed sticks and you're good to go. Plus, you save a l...

What else are you putting into the case? Might be useful info

Hello, everyone! This is the PC that I sought advice for a few weeks back (first attempt at a quiet PC). I just wanted to share my thoughts/experiences with everyone to contribute to the SPCR community. Thanks for all the help! For reference, the original post Pictures at the bottom of the post Part...

When playing games I think upping the voltage on the fan controller for the CPU, intake and exhaust fans should be enough, especially with the huge fan cooler on the graphics card. And when playing games, don't really care about sound. Do you think this is enough cooling? Or should I have gotten an...

Hello I have a similar build with a similar problem System i5 2500k @ 4.4GHz MSI P67A-G43 mobo Scythe Mugen 2 Rev. B w/ stock Scythe cooler Antec P183 V3 with a single Slip Stream 120mm / 1200rpm exhaust in the back Tweaking Both scythe fans are set to 700rpm at idle and to ramp up to 1100rpm to kee...

That's my CPU temps at idle : With MSI Afterburner, you can setup the fans to 23% (so 700rpm) ?? Someone knows if i can flash my gpu bios to downspeed the fan to 30% for example? what i did was hook up the Gelid Vision to my motherboard and use Speedfan to set it to 23%. Works like a charm for me! ...

Sweet build! Looks very similar to mine, and I was thinking of all the parts you used I used an Antec p183v3 and a Radeon 6850 instead of the Define R3 and GTX 460. If you want to make things quieter, you could consider replacing the stock cooler of the 460 with the Gelid Icy Vision. I spin it down ...

If you're afraid of the HS ripping off your socket in the car, then put the computer on its side while in transport :) As far as installation of the HS+F goes, on my motherboard, I had trouble putting the fan header in with the cooler in the way. Take that into consideration, since it might be impor...

Hey

FYI, eyefinity on a single card requires at least one display port monitor OR a monitor connected via activedisplayport.

http://www.amd.com/us/products/technolo ... et-up.aspx

activeDP is expensive, just so you know, but it's required

Hi everyone Just wanted to post my experiences with MSI's P67A G43 motherboard. I installed a i5 2500k + SCMG / Radeon 6850 + Gelid Vision system into it, with the SCMG default fan on the CPU_header and the Gelid vision on a motherboard header (The Powercolor Radeon 6850 has a 3pin header that is cl...

Great comparison! I'm looking to buy a p183 v3 myself with similar fan setup myself. This was very helpful

what are the specs of your machine? or planned specs?

Hello again, everyone, I just wanted everyone's advice on one more thing. I've been waiting for a sale on the Radeon 6850. It typically goes for 150-200, but rebates/sales have taken it as low as 135 in Canada. However, I saw the EVGA 01G-P3-1366-TR GeForce GTX 460 SE . It's going for 120 after MIR....

thanks for the replies, everyone