I've done a few 2-in-1 builds, and the are quite fun; certainly worth the challenge. Typically I just use foam mounting tape to attach a VIA motherboard with PICO and flash storage to the door, with an internal KVM switch. There are a number of cases that support a second EPIA system already, but I'...

A good 350W PS is more than enough for that load. The most demanding element is the 2600, and that isn't bad.

I would do some more research on consumption on the 5V rail. It looks like the PicoPSU is a bit light on this rail, and it wouldn't show up as much on the watt meter.

I'll likely be getting another UPS soon, as this one will only give me a few minutes before it is completely drained. Which ones give you a load rating?

The general impressions I receive for 3.5" drives from people who should know, and my own experience (800-1000 drives in 10 years) gives me this impression: Samsung > Seagate > Hitachi > everyone > Western Digital Of course, these "track records" move more slowly than actual quality control, but I t...

If you want a drive that is durable, get an SSD. They are completely solid state, and don't care if you slam them around.

the problem is almost certainly the spin-up current (although staggered spin-up should have solved this problem; don't know why it didn't work). Those 750GB 7200.10's have a monster spin-up current of 2.8A on the 12V!! each!! also how much is it overclocked? CPU and GPU? I have staggered spin-up se...

As far as I know, any RAID array in XP will require a floppy disk (yes it must be a 3.5" floppy), with the correct files on it. You then press F6 during the initial stages of the setup and it detects the controller for you. The same ports when configured as single drives don't require this step.

if it's the system in your sig, no way it draws >650W. more like 350W. Power supplies that failed to drive it: Seasonic S12 430W Antec TruePower 550W PC Power & Cooling 610W Antec TruePower Trio 650W All of these were in use at some time in the past, and as I added components/overclocked, failed to...

drees is correct that all the benefits of RAID cannot be achieved with the onboard controller, but that doesn't make it a bad idea. You won't see the 4x read, 2x write benefits; it will be more like 1.8x write/read with ~3-5% CPU load, but that isn't really a big deal. It will still be faster and mo...

I've probably bought 20 or so of the 80W bricks from mini-box, but they are deployed to client sites...not really practical to test them...

My system draws over 650W before PS inefficiency, and it's only going to get worse. I can see it going over 1kW within a year. Just keep in mind that "640k of memory should be enough for anyone."

Intel Pentium M Dothan 1Ghz

Minimum (600Mhz): 0.7v (lowest possible)
Stock (1GHz): 0.748v

This is in my ASUS R2Hv-A1. Using "Notebook Hardware Control", great program.

Originally it ran @ 0.940V @ 1Ghz...a significant improvement!

Raid 1+0 == RAID10 RAID 0+1 is different (striping mirrors opposed to mirroring stripes) From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID#Nested_RAID_levels The key difference from RAID 0+1 is that RAID 1+0 creates a striped set from a series of mirrored drives. The array can sustain multiple drive...

Doubling power and noise almost doesn't matter with 2.5" drives in a desktop; they are so quiet to begin with. By doing RAID10 you will get 60-90% more transfer rate, but will get an ~5% hit in access times. 5400RPM drives already have a pretty lame access time as it is, so this will not be fast. Th...

I've noticed the design of the laptop and usage has a lot to do with it. Ones where there is a "squirrel-cage" type fan intaking on the bottom are the worst in my experience, and of course, if you use it someplace that isn't a desk (your lap, a blanket, etc) it is more likely to suck up fibers. Pets...

Just to muddy the waters a bit more here ;) Vista may be a red-herring. I've found that my laptops have gotten distinctly noisier over time due to dust/fur. The heatsinks are small with narrow spaces between, and the fans are tiny. Really small amounts of dust can significantly impact it's ability t...

Single factor with a relatively low maximum load.

I live about 15 minutes drive from mini-box.com. If they were interested in submitting devices for testing, I'm happy to test.

So we need someone to test the efficiency of power bricks? Great...

Cleaning off the thermal compound is a good start. Be sure to do what you can with the socket as well. Did you try re-seating the CPU first? Or a straight swap? The Opty might work after being taken out and put back in.

One last question regarding the P190: Would it be possible to use the Seasonic M12 700W instead of the stock PSUs? Would it fit properly in the case? I don't really like the thought of two PSUs with a 80mm fan each. Sure. They are 2 standard form factor power supplies, you would just need to block ...

Do you think this would work in the P190? Yes, it would work fine in a P190. My 2 concerns are: 1. If the 140mm or 200mm fans aren't quiet enough, you are kinda screwed. I assume the 200mm fan is the same as I have here on the Nine Hundred, and it is borderline quiet. I'd love to get the spcr take ...

Valein wrote:Btw - what would be a solid, quiet and powerful enough PSU to be used in a P182 for two 2900XT cards + Q6600, 4GB Memory and 2 HDDs?

I would get a Seasonic of at least 600W. The same power supply that I am running now would work great: Seasonic M12 700W.

oops. dupe.

The most difficult thing to cool will be the video cards. There is the brute force approach, where you blow a lot of air into the case hoping that air will be cool and that it will escape somehow. And there is the finesse approach. By using cardboard/plastic/whatever to make all the air to the fan c...

Besides the issue with holes in the side panels letting out noise, my other complaint is with non-standard fans. They usually aren't quiet enough and are not replaceable. This is one point against the Antec Nine Hundred, the 200mm fan is quiet, but it is still the loudest thing in the case. Take a l...

I've used dozens of Gigabyte boards in my builds, and never had one go wrong. I've used about 6 ASUS boards, and they all seemed to have a trick or quirk; usually easy to find on forums or fixed with a BIOS update, but not worth it when a simpler solution is so easy.

Screw it. Here it is, whether you like it or not ;) @echo off echo smartctl 3Ware Port 0 smartctl -A /dev/tw_cli/c0/p0 pause echo smartctl 3Ware Port 1 smartctl -A /dev/tw_cli/c0/p1 pause echo smartctl 3Ware Port 2 smartctl -A /dev/tw_cli/c0/p2 pause echo smartctl 3Ware Port 3 smartctl -A /dev/tw_cl...

I wrote a batch file to get the info on my drives from smartmontools. It's not very sophisticated, but I'll post it if you like.