butterfly = win98lite micro (win98se with win95 explorer), office 97, corel 3, pmail, freecell

runs just fine - only small, dim screen is a real issue for me
but I'm thinking about something more robust for my butterfly - puppy linux

I'm a big fan of IBM THINKPADS I have 4 of them! butterfly(486DX2), 600E(PII), X22(low voltage PIII-M), T23(PIII-M) --------------------------------------------- CPU --------------------------------------------- get a T23 instead of T22, or X22, X23 instead of X21 because of CPU T22 = CPU Intel Mobi...

That egg-shaped foam beneath HDD makes any difference?
I know that won't hurt either.

I was thinking about getting 9600XT few months ago to replace my Radeon 9100. I was thinking about "light gaming" too. For me "light gaming" was: a) I want to spend as little money as I can and run Quake4/DoomIII, b) since I don't play much I don't mind playing 640x480 2xAA. So I've bought ASUS nVid...

Thank you for that link.
I have to try it.

hdparm -E won't work for me either

What linux software do you have in your HTPC?
I have linux on my laptop and desktop, but my HTPC is still M$ MCE driven.
I was thinking about giving KnoppMyth (knoppix + mythTV distro) a spin.

It looks like MS IntelliMouse Explorer 4.0

look -> http://tinyurl.com/mxkht

I have asus nvidia 6200 agp
- fanless
- cool running
- you can play quakeIV/doom3 @ 640x480 AAx2, mid details
- 2D/3D different voltage levels (lower voltage @2D)
- nvidia linux support
- nvidia UNDERCLOCKING/overclocking linux program (I've only read about it , didn't try myself)

Why didn't you bought Samsung MP0402H, 40 GB PATA? According to MikeC & others first hand opinions - it is the quietest 2,5" 5400 HDD. After reading so much entusiastic opinion about it (on this forum) - I bought one. It is really silent. My Samsung SP1614N suspended is quietest HDD 3,5" I ever had,...

@ exhaust Maybe you can make cardboard duct from psu fan to cpu heatsink to achieve better cpu cooling with lower fan speed. If you don't want to do this - you better cover your case back air intake (the one with the green fan mount), to prevent PSU from sucking cold air from back intake instead of ...

I have an old thinkpad laptop PII 400 Mhz, 128 MB ram as a second laptop only for web browsing, im, mail. It has noisiest hard drive I ever heard. I'm using puppy linux - diskless (usb pendrive, flash, cd) linux distribution. http://www.goosee.com/puppy/ Puppy linux boot from cheap 128MB usb pen dri...

If you want to use linux - you can use clarkconnect.com (there is HOME free version - which is PROF version without support). It is a linux distribution with point-and-click installation [ok ok ok ok ok - done]. It takes 30 minutes and you don't have to know anything about linux. After the instalati...

cd-bremse.de

But not for all drives. And it's not free (shareware).

Since you already have epia 800 you can try to watch a few movies, and see if it suits your needs. But better do it before you invest some money in epia not-so-cheap cases and optical slim drives. I've also read about the people who had good results with an Epia 800 (as htpc). But it was mostly in a...

You can use CD-throttle (cd-bremse) program to slow compatible (with the program) DVD drives to 1x-2x. ANY dvd drive should slow down to 1x-2x while playing dvd movie, but it's not allways the case. With cd-throttle you can force dvd drive to work with 2x speed which is quiet enough with any drive I...

I noticed that where the serial and rca jacks should be, there are solder points (circles of solder). I wonder if I could place the serial component in that place if I were to get one. I don't know. Sorry. But if you want to use epia800 as set-top-box/htpc - it is too slow (for me). It has a CLE133...

Check www.mini-itx.com. Good source of information about all epia mobos. You can try epia FAQ http://mini-itx.com/faq.asp or even better mini-itx history http://mini-itx.com/hardware/history/ showing all epia boards ever build. I have epia 800 as a linux fileserver in x-box case (1 fan, 1 HDD). Unde...

You can try to set your monitor brightnes over 56 and lower brightnes with your software video card properities to have brightnes @ lower level. If that noise is not related to the real brightnes of your screen, but to the hardware UI settings - it can help.

Just buy some thermal adeshive and glue your old T-bird heatsink (without a fan) to the gpu. That's the cheapest solution. If your htpc case is horizontal (desktop type) you can mount your heatsink with its fins perpendicular to the motherboard for better passive heat disscipation (convection). But ...

Well... lucky me.
I my country we have regulations that specify NO LESS than 25'C in a bathroom.



But I will skip bathroom pc idea anyway.

thank you!

I think I'll better buy a bigger media rack to fit htpc in my living room.

You've got a point.
But I think condensation point is when hot steam hits really cold surface (like bathroom mirror). I never had condensation on my bathroom mdf shelf, so maybe there will be no condensation in htpc mdf case.

I was thinking about putting my htpc in bathroom :D (which is on the other side of the wall than my TV & stereo)... not because of noise (it is pretty quiet), it's because that I don't have space for htpc (even small factor one) in my media rack under the tv. There will be no problem with: - shock h...

My hdd with Zalman heatsink (suspended) is as cool as the same hdd hard mounted to the steel hdd cage.

So it is working, but it is way overpriced.

If you have fan intake (even @5V) near your hdd than you don't have to use any heatsink.

I have epia V 800. I've just unscrewed oryginal fan (without removing oryginal heatsink). I have 80mm fan @5V blowing at the heatsink. When underclocked to 400MHz - heatsink is cool to the touch. @800MHz it is hot to the touch, but not burning hot - say 45'C. I didn't removed oryginal heatsink becau...

bjb wrote: i assume that the a64 2800+ is faster than the sempron 3100+, right?

no. It is little bit slower (according to 2 benchmarks that I found before I bought mine Sempron 3100+).

Sempron 3100+ equivalent will be a64 3000+.

I have sempron 3100+. C'n'Q is working flawlessly.

Maybe crystal case for xbox can make your xbox look a little bit better.

HARDWARE EPIA M12000 motherboard (with cpu, gpu, tv out, lan...integrated) 17x17cm SOFTWARE (windows) Windows XP home + Meedio.com software (htpc frontend) with "play mee" plugin/extension to play img, bin...etc. + ffdshow codec to play all "exostic" movie formats + your favorite movie player SOFTWA...

I have heard it's dangerous to play with the psu (capasitors). Is there anything I can do to avoid that danger? It can be dangerous. If you don't know what you are doing better stay away form opening PSU. High voltage form capacitors can KILL YOU. Although there is a method that I use - pull out po...

Is it necessary to have a fan throwing air at them? Or the case airflow is sufficient? As allways - it depends on your case airflow. I prefer the solution when the temp. controlled fan kicks in when GPU is getting really hot. It is because I have only to fans in my case. PSU fan (exhaust) and hdd f...

Yes, I know that. Thank for the link anyway, but I'm sorry to tell you that nVclock have some serious issues in linux. (I can't give direct link because the site seems to be off-line) "when we last tested the NVClock 0.8 CVS we still experienced several problems when paired up with some of our lates...