In my new system I got 4x512 Corsair Value Select DDR400. But, when I start my system up it says that the RAM is only DDR333. I don't know if this is still a problem with newer systems, but a while back some memory controllers couldn't reach ddr400 speed with 4 memorysticks in the system. This can ...

Hi do you think that the Enermax 535w PSU will be good enough to run my system. Did you read the recent article about power distribution ? Even the most powerhungry setup (P4 3.8Ghz) in the test only used some 183W combined under load. And the powerdraw on the 12V rails was 13.7A combined. That Ene...

What I need is a replacement card with two analogue outputs (neither monitor has a dvi input). Most cheap cards that have dual-head capability seem to have one dvi and one vga output. However there are adapters for connecting a normal vga monitor to dvi, so you should be able to use most cards on t...

Most PSUs achieve their best efficiency at around 66-75% load. This means with a power draw of 200W a 300W PSU would actually run cooler than a 600W one. Although when we are talking about quality units the differences wouldn't be big.

BenW wrote:I think graphics cards are generally ok upto 120C

I wouldn't count on that. Atleast not for all cards in existence. There might be a specific card that is ok to run at 120C, but really anything above the boilingpoint of water would make me uncomfortable. Personally I try to stay between 60 and 70C.

Compucase 6A21 is internally almost exactly like the SLK3000B, but doesn't sport a door in the front panel. I recently did some work on a system built in this case, and I could hardly recommend it less. Obviously, since the Compucase versions are cheaper, it can be expected that they have skimped o...

Slide wrote: I'm still dithering on the case, was going to go for an Antec 2700BQE / 3000B or P180 but have one major misgiving with all these cases - the drive bays are hidden by a door.

Compucase 6A21 is internally almost exactly like the SLK3000B, but doesn't sport a door in the front panel.

My question is : would upgrading to a slk3000b result in less noise and/or better airflow in my system? Are there any other benifits to upgrading? Difficult to say without any pictures of your current case. What are the fan grilles like ? Are the airflow paths clear of obstructions ? These kind of ...

androgeny wrote: ambient temperature is about 33C
at 7v, I'm idling at around 40-41C, load is 60+C

Still sounds reasonable. Unless you are seeing video artifacts or other signs of overheating, I'd say 60C under load is acceptable for a GPU.

pablopc wrote: By the moment I have "split" mode selected. All problems are out, only brilliant-colored points are still appearing sometimes.

Those kind of video artifacts can be caused by your GPU overheating. Have you checked what temperature your GPU runs at ?

if you mounted the hard drives on the bottom assembly on the p180, dont run rounded cables to them! the opening through the bottom of the main compartment is made to take ribbon cables to close off the bottom compartment from the rest of the system. Ever heard of duct tape ? ;) Seriously, there are...

But these cards just don't seem very exciting. How can you put in such little memory when Adobe is recommending video card that has greater than 128 MG of RAM ? The on card memory plays a very small role in 2D mode. Even if you happened to have a 1900x1440 screen, you'd still only need a bit more t...

Some drives you got there, although I have no experience with the Sonata II maybe a 120 mm fan at the drive cage would help a bit . This is a good point. But I'm afraid just putting an extra fan in might not be enough. The Sonata's drivecage already impedes airflow from the front and filling the ca...

So yes, I DO need very good airflow ff I want the temps to stay low enough for my system to remain stable. OK. I think this should really be in Off Topic section then. For whatever it's worth, in that kind of configuration it's entirely possible that the Tricool fans set to run at low in the front ...

forgotten2 wrote: I have also a lot of scsi-devices connected to my system so it needs power.

You didn't list any of these scsi-devices ?! Anyway, looking at the rest of your components you shouldn't need anywhere near a 550W PSU unless you have 10 scsi harddrives or something like that.

with minimal noise (30 dBA for 68 CFM, each). 3) What do you think of this setup? Overkill 8) I seriously doubt you will need all that airflow, especially as the in the P180 you have the PSU and harddrives in a separate compartment. btw. 30dBA is not minimal noise ;) (maybe you planned to undervolt...

looking at newegg's stuff for 400g drives.. hitachi deskstar (deathstar?!), wd caviar, seagate 7200.8 I believe that the Hitachi 400GB drive had 5 platters originally. Not sure if they've upgraded it to have fewer now that 100-133GB platters are available. In any case more platters means more mass ...

2 - on each out fan. put a Muffler to lower the noise I assume the fan on top is supposed to blow out ? Anyway, having that fan seems redundant to me. Your setup doesn't seem to be hot enough to really need it and you already have a 120mm in the back and the PSU that are drawing air out of the case...

the amd xp1900+ normally runs at 1.75. it doesn't seem to make any noticable difference to the temperature! Did you check the temperatures under load too ? anyone know if this bios can be updated to support a larger vcore range? You still failed to mention which motherboard you have, so far you've ...

I'm wondering whether this is due to the 'natural varience' in qualty of manufactured products, or whether being next to the P180's exhaust grill is changing their sound characteristics. Obviously no manufacturing process produces exact duplicates, so yes there is variance. The best way to compare ...

To clarify, I would have: Internet connection > router > server Client PCs > router I have a ZyXEL Prestige 660HW router with 10/100 mbps and 802.11g Wireless. Would that suffice to get me going? Hmm... Basically you want to just plug everything in the Prestige, right ? Your Zyxel should have some ...

JEN wrote:ok so is there a company out there to whom i can sent my cpu to get its multiplier unlocked as i cant seem to do it myself. i have already tried 3 times and failed.

Didn't you just finish stating that you want to run your CPU at its default fsb and multiplier, just with a lower voltage ?

I note that the seagate is a OEM drive, with model number ending in 'ACE', and was wondering if commercially available drives would be compatable. It's too expensive to make incompatible drives just for PVR use, so yes swapping it for another drive should be no problem. However, I don't know what k...

kruimeldief wrote: can the front fan suck in enough air this way?
http://www.hard-h2o.com/reviewimg/cajas/cavalier/22

I doubt it. That looks to be the serious flaw in that case.

I've never actually had a problem with hard drive heat that I know of. They're usually just a little warm to the touch, I don't have anything to measure the temperature though. Modern drives should all have an internal temperature sensor. You should be able to read it with any SMART compatible tool...

Hello, I'm thinking about getting a quieter PSU, e.g Seasonic, which also has a high efficiency. Does this mean if my computer requires 100w, and the psu efficiency is 80%, the real power used will be 125w? And if the psu efficiency is 60%, the real power used will be 167w? This could lower my elec...

If you want to do video editing, you might be better off running the dual core EE processor intel has out. Even the plain 3.2Ghz Pentium D should do better at video encoding then the single core P4 EE. In fact what is truly interesting is that the plain dual core even beats the EE dual core accordi...

Maybe I'll just break down and get a SFF and put my raid in there and make a cute little NAS box. But gigabit is sloooooow. You figure Gigabit is slow ? ;) Have you actually tried to use it with a decent protocol ? SMB (Windows file sharing) is bad on so many levels. If you really need performance ...

Roughly how much power will I need at the most for this? Power requirment seems like a shady area. This is shortly discussed in the FAQ: http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=14231 Look at the three questions beginning with 'Q: Can someone recommend a quiet or silent >500W power supply?'...

pontypool wrote:no "reccomended" lists.

Did you look under the 'Recommended' section

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article28-page6.html