Congrats, nice story. Great temps too. I'm also at the point where my 7000a is the loudest part of my system (which I think is a good place to be). Considering a CPU duct to the 120mm exhaust fan cutout in the back of the Sonata so I can spin it even slower. I hope you know that it will never end th...

The A64 is currently the best choice for gaming, OVERALL application speed, and heat. Only the Intel bandwagon would disagree (I have two AMD and two Intel systems, this statement is from experience). The K8N Platinum is a great board, but consider a Zalman passive northbridge heatsink, as the stock...

mr_pickles wrote:I picked up a Matrox G450 on ebay for about $20 shipped a few weeks back. Passively cooled. Great 2D. It's in my Linux server now.

x2, the perfect server card if there is such a thing. Have one in my email server and second PC. The one in the PC is at least 3yrs old and runs perfectly well.

-Evan-

Buy a FeK Pro and put the Fek+raptor on top of some foam, its what I did. With it placed infront of my case with a 120mm papst @5v as the intake, I get 38oC from SMART and 40oC from a thermal probe attached to one of the lead heatsinks on the side of my raptor. Neat product, might try it if my susp...

Wow! Neat product. x2 for more info.

-Evan-

Hello, and welcome to SPCR! I would use a decent (Antec, or something off of the SPCR recommended list) 400w PS because of the amount of HDs and the A64/9800 combo. I wouldn't debate too much between quiet PSUs with that many spinning platters. I hope you have a need for several terrabytes of storag...

sthayashi wrote:BTW, 300W will easily be enough for you.

x2, a quality 300w unit that is.

And welcome to SPCR!

-Evan-

I'd pick the Antec 380w and mod it with a 80mm Panaflo (or other quiet 80mm fan). I have one, and it performs quite well. Like most Antecs IME it can run quite hot and still be rock solid. If you aren't into modding, there are better options available and are discussed all over this forum. Best of L...

I don't quite see the point of these fanless PSUs. Seems like you're sacrificing reliabilty for "silence". I put that in quotes because most ANY current PC is still going to need a single fan (or more) to provide airflow for the other PC components. What's the difference if you design the PC with a ...

I have a PentiumM 1.6ghz in my HP ZT3000... great laptop (for being prebuilt). Swapped the harddrive with a 7200RPM model and installed 2x512MB Crucial RAM (1GB total). It's a terrific desktop replacement, and still thin and light. Terrible folder though. ;-) I'm an AMD guy otherwise, but I'd love t...

I have the 7NIL1, as used in this link: http://www.convertingvideo.com/mymachines.htm Take the crappy northbridge fan off and replace with a Zalman passive as soon as you get it. They didn't even use any thermal interface material (gum or paste) between the sink and the chip! Kind of shoddy. Otherwi...

I have the Pioneer 106 in an ADS external enclosure. Drive runs cool enough to use without a fan. I usually can't tell that it's even burning, it's that quiet. Have to trust the burning software and the single green LED. Not at all like my Lite-On drives. I've set up several friends with 107s and th...

Thanks!

-Evan-

As far as I know, there should be no difference in any video editing application. I haven't personally sampled the SE but it should perform similarly. I decided to go with the "regular" 9200 since the card was already inexpensive enough for my budget. I worry about the SE cards possibly having subst...

burcakb wrote:... So there ARE other fans out there that outperform the Stealth series in many ways.

Didn't say there weren't. Merely stated my good results with the Stealths.

-Evan-

The Sonata is the biggest mistake I ever made in computing... probably. I can't believe it is rated so highly by hardware sites. Makes you wonder... Your system is almost exactly like mine. If you still have the chance, return the case. If not, check out the mod thread as suggested. Best of Luck, -E...

Hi. Great suggestions from other forum members. I'd pass on that case if you will keep the door closed most of the time. I don't know about you or anyone else on this forum, but I reboot often as I'm tweaking my machine (noise and performance). The Antec cases have the power switch inside the door a...

I bought my Sonata about a year ago on the advice of plenty of online reviews, sites I trusted. Big mistake. This case is far from silent. The $38 shipped "Powmax" case I just bought for my second PC is far quieter. The only thing I like from this case is the power supply... yep, that's right. I don...

I've had excellent results with Vantec Stealth 80mms when used in conjunction with Zalman Fanmate controllers. No louder than 120mm Panaflo L1As IMO. Maybe I have quiet Stealths and noisy L1As, who knows. Anyway, I'd get a Spire Falconrock II. Excellent cooler. Very cheap (less than $20 shipped). He...

I'd definately take the side of the case off. Point a room fan at it (I've done it before, it works wonders).

Stay Cool,
-Evan- (Florida)

I'm using a Sapphire (ATI Radeon 9200) AGP adaptor with 64MB RAM as my primary video card. Passively cooled, doesn't get hot (have a 120mm system fan that blows across it and some other components). Handles all the video editing I do perfectly well. Inexpensive too. 1 DVI connector, 1 HD15. I use tw...

http://www.convertingvideo.com/mymachines.htm My second machine's specs would be perfect for what you are considering, and it is damn close to silent. The IV Seagates are definately less noisy than the 7200.7s, but the 160GB 7200.7s I have are still pretty good. The case is more than classy enough t...