If they integrated a 4670, then who would buy the discrete card? Depends on what the motherboard cost compared to the card, I guess. Even if the integrated setup were to cost more, lots of people want to upgrade their video cards and not their motherboard. I doubt anything like that will ever happe...

Heh - that didn't stop TT form sending us a bunch of stuff awhile back. I don't think we've gotten anything from them since... That's what a company gets for claiming their products are quiet, without ever actually testing the competition to see where they stand. I have absolutely no sympathy for c...

Hi, I'd get them a 20" iMac with a 2 or 3 year Apple Care Protection Plan. No muss, no fuss. I second this. I've been looking at computers for both my parents and grandparents, and although I've looked at building dual-core 780g systems, I keep coming back to the iMac. It's a bit more expensive up-...

AZBrandon mentions something that's been giving me hope lately (after my hopes were crushed by 130-watt Core i7 chips). Although we're in a distinct minority in looking for silence, we're actually looking for exactly the same things that work well in a laptop, with limited cooling capabilities. I d...

Mech0z wrote:...But no screws fits those holes!

Erm...

tehcrazybob wrote:You actually need to leave out one of the thermal pads and one of the silver inner pieces. If you do that, you should have no problem closing the SQD and screwing it together....

You actually need to leave out one of the thermal pads and one of the silver inner pieces. If you do that, you should have no problem closing the SQD and screwing it together. However, you're probably going to be disappointed by the noise if you screw it into your case; it's not going to be much qui...

This is the case I was suggesting, and it's reviewed here. Finally, here's the style of build I'm suggesting.

I agree with Mark that small computers are awfully fancy, but I don't think it's entirely necessary considering that most home theaters are connected to fairly large receivers.

I'd suggest abandoning the idea of a totally fanless computer. A single high-quality 120mm fan spinning at 500-800 RPM is essentially silent at one meter in most rooms, to say nothing of 2-3 meter TV-watching distances. Adding this single fan, though, makes the difference between a nigh-impossible, ...

It's remotely possible that the Enermax will be louder than the Silencer, at 750 watts. 750 watts is something along the lines of a heavily overclocked quad-core, quad-SLI, and a huge stack of hard drives. If you're building a system like that, it's not going to be quiet anyway. Enermax is 625 W. H...

The point I was trying to make was the distinction between blocking noise transmission, like panel damping, and blocking the vibrations which actually cause the noise, as in this situation. Whether or not it worked well is another point entirely; what's important is that you're actually stopping the...

I mean "quieter" than others (yes, and on the same level of the Enermax at "idle"). But at full load Silencer was quieter, according to that review ...image... So increasing the load, it could be quieter. So, as I've already said, globally, it could be reasonably quieter than the Enermax. I am abso...

There are two popular sets of software for forums, VBulletin and PHPBB. PHPBB, which the SPCR forum runs on, is free and open-source software. VBulletin is non-free software, adding to the operating costs of the website. Unfortunately, I'm fairly sure the feature you're looking for is only available...

LucB, you might want to update the captions on your Flickr photos. You've got the real and fake PicoPSUs labeled as each other (either that, or the cheap knockoff is significantly better-made than the genuine original). You have captions saying "Right: real PicoPSU. Left: fake." when in fact the rea...

Actually, that pretty certainly qualifies as fixing the problem. You're restraining the parts so that they can't vibrate and therefore don't make any noise in the first place. Your example of mass-damping a case is a flawed analogy, because sealing the coils doesn't block the transmission of the noi...

When I retire a drive, I just format it once and throw it into a drawer, in case I need a spare drive for something. If a drive gets old enough that I can't read its capacity without laughing, or if it's totally dead, I pull it apart to harvest the magnets and platters. The magnets are fun, and the ...

I've toyed with the idea of building a server running a big stack of laptop hard drives. In the end, though, I come up against two issues: First, the price per gigabyte is ridiculous when you're looking at a large amount of storage. Second, the noise of modern 5400-rpm desktop drives is almost as go...

In almost any situation, you need to have a case fan. This is totally separate from whether or not the motherboard has fans - the heatsinks and/or fans on the board move heat from the components to the air in the case. The case fans are responsible for keeping the air inside the case fresh and cool....

With a budget like that, I'd strongly recommend you not buy computer speakers. The 2.1 systems typically sold for computer use are less than ideal - the satellites are generally of only moderate quality, and the subwoofer is therefore being asked to pick up some fairly high frequencies which should ...

I'm another one with a loud VR, but mine wasn't as bad as AuraAllan's. I've got it out of the IcePak, in a Scythe Quiet Drive, and suspended in my Solo. I haven't bothered with AAM, so I can still hear seeks at one meter, but I have to be unrealistically close to the case to hear spindle noise. Basi...

You can get a PicoPSU 12 with a P4-power connector, at least I was under the impression you could back when I bought mine from Short-Circuit. The Pico can hand that system easily. If you think you're overdoing it, you could always just power the atx p4 connector directly from the 12v power brick, a...

I'm looking at building a few systems for general internet and word processing purposes, and I'd like to use PicoPSUs. The hardware is likely to be almost exactly what was used in the first SPCR test of a 780g motherboard , with a standard DVD burner instead of a Bluray drive, and double the RAM. Ho...

Just a note on all those using mobile CPU temps for comparison, though -- don't! Mobile CPU are rated for much higher temperatures than desktop parts. This is one of the reasons they cost so much more money. Safe temperature on a Barton 3200+ is 85°C, not far below the threshold for many laptop ch...

Not only will you not notice a difference between those cards, you won't notice a difference between those cards and a modern integrated chipset. The most demanding application you mentioned was CAD, and CAD software requires a workstation graphics card in order to enable hardware acceleration. You ...

Computer components can take some terrifyingly high temperatures. My laptop, for instance, idles at 50-60°C and loads well into the 70's, and has been rock-stable for almost five years. In general, if the component is hot enough to cause any damage, the computer will also be extremely unstable. The...

Running large coolers fanless is a pretty common situation around here. If you read through some of the SPCR articles, you'll see a fair few systems with that configuration. My computer used the same arrangement, with a Scythe Ninja, until I had to upgrade the cooling to deal with 100°F ambient tem...

I've taken a look at the Lian Li PC-a05 in the past, but it's actually fairly large. I've been comparing my options to my Solo, which I consider the upper limit for reasonable case size in most situations. The PC-a05, at 15"h x 19"d, is only two inches shorter and actually an inch deeper than my Sol...

Yeah, that happens a lot. Technically, the processor is supposed to stay in the socket when you remove the heatsink; I've never heard of pins being pulled out but I suspect too many removals like that could give you problems. Unfortunately, it's more or less unavoidable - that's one of the reasons I...

A typical SPCR system using modern hardware only requires 100-150 watts at full power. That's not likely to change substantially in the next few years, so even the low-rated options should serve you happily for a long time. The current Core i7 chips are akin to the Extreme Edition processors of old,...

I can't cite any specific sources, but my general impression from reviews over the years has been that integrated graphics chipsets draw a watt or two at idle, and maybe a half-dozen watts at full load. Granted, it's not zero , but unless you're building a solar-powered computer or something like th...

The power supply recommendations on video cards are based on the power supply ratings provided by the manufacturers of the $5 power supplies bundled with computer cases. Various white-box, stamped-steel units are... optimistically rated, and are liable to release the magic smoke or even catch fire i...