Striping is only used for performance gain and you don't gain any safety from it, as far as I know. If the array fails to reconstruct part of a striped sequence, all of the striped sequence would be lost. In contrast, any loss in an unstriped array would be limited to data in the failed drives, unle...

While RAID5 and similar solutions such as Drobo provide redundancy without wasting space from mirroring as in RAID1 or WHS, the problem is that multiple drive failures will destroy the entire array. I also had experience where a RAID5 array in Linux was apparently taken out after the OS drive failed...

The Gigabyte GA-MA74GM-S2/H has six SATA ports, has pretty low power consumption (~58w at the wall) and will take a wide variety of CPUs (inc AM3). I've got a Sempron CPU in mine and 4HDDs connected. I should manage to get that consumption a bit lower with a picoPSU. So are you geting 58w for your ...

how many watts is the system in idle or load?

Looking to run a file server with minimal power requirements. Ideally should have 6 or more SATA ports for hard drives. Mainly need advice on the motherboard and CPU. Integrated graphics would be ideal.

I just received this email response from WD's support after bringing up the discussion here: This information is not accurate. The unit will not reach its designed park lifespan due to the IntelliPark feature. No such DOS program [re: wdidle3.exe] has been created or provided by WD in order to enabl...

Nothing more fun than losing your controller and HAVING to wait for a back ordered replacement for 3 weeks. You could have tried Linux or something like FreeNAS instead. No hardware to buy, and you could have had the array back and running in no time. I just set up a RAID 5 array in Ubuntu. It's ea...

I am trying to go software RAID in Linux but read this: "WD is still having the compatibility issue with EVERY non-RAID edition model if used in RAID... and compatibility issue with RAID edition model used in non-RAID." http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=51688 The drive I was consi...

I was just reading the recent review by Anandtech and discovered the same model. One thing I noticed in the review was that the two Seasonic units reviewed, S12-II 330w and SS-400ET, were not quieter than most other models tested.

What's the quietest PSU that's widely available for under $50 (say USD)?

Something fun I read: "Japanese researchers have found three young chimps that can beat people at a numerical memory task. ...a game that involved touching numbers from 1 to 9 in the correct order. The numbers were randomly scattered across a computer screen [and then hidden]. ...The chimps had to r...

Thanks. Can you fit a standard sized PSU in there too?

Anyone knows other cases with removable hard drive cages?

Looking for a case that can work with many (6+) harddrives easily. It doesn't need to be too quiet. The cheaper and larger the better. Ideas?

I emailed Enermax about the situation and received a typically curt suggestion to contact Comtronic. I faxed two notices to Comtronic, the Ontario central office and the local BC office, regarding my displeasure over the delay and my willingness to discuss with those willing to listen. The next morn...

It's not Enermax's fault (other than giving the contract to Comtronic). Comtronic is the regional distributor for all of Canada. Your best choice is to contact Enermax USA by toll free and voice your displeasure with the quality, then with the shady service by Comtronic. They can to some extent inf...

Well the 8800 series has worse acceleration compared to the 8500/8600 series and the new ATI cards but it's still better than doing rendering in software mode. If your CPU is fast enough videoplayback should be ok. 8800 is more intended for gaming. For info on noise levels check out the 8800 GTS noi...

I've had my share of Seagate HDD failures but their RMA process has been simple and painless each time, if not necessarily fast but the same can be said for other manufacture's RMAs I've done.

My Enermax EG495P-VE Noisetaker 485W PSU broke down after a year. I dropped it off with Enermax's warranty service provider, Comtronic, in BC, Canada on April 11 2007. They took the PSU and gave me an "RMA request form". The rep wrote down a note on the form saying "takes about 6-8 weeks" and said I...

No one can claim that getting an Ultra 120 Extreme will necessarily result in poor temperatures, but the probability of defects will matter to some. Over 1/6 of users on Newegg have rated the heatsink 2 out of 5 or less, a non-trivial portion, in conjunction with other reports. To be fair, the recen...

I also think it's silly to discount an excellent product because of some initial bad units. Just be sure to buy from a place that has a good return policy in case you get a dud. Quality control will play into consideration of computer system builders. Customers in many industries will avoid product...

No issues here with mine, and the results were fantastic. You can't use online posts as a gauge of the percentage of failures... A huge percentage of people who have problems will post to complain about them. A tiny percentage of people who don't have problems will post to say so. The idea is not r...

There have been some quality control issues with the Ultra 120 Extreme. A fair portion of the units had bases that were not flat, resulting in very poor temperatures: http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/t259086.html Based on Newegg reviews, I assume at least 10% had serious problems such as one si...

There is one benefit of going the 8600 route... it can decode HD DVDs in hardware, while the 8800 does not. Just something to consider if that matters to you. Seems to me all the cards out now have a shortcoming: - 8500/8600 not fast enough for games, and doesn't accelerate VC-1 video. - 8800 doesn...

It can sometimes make things slower:
http://www.overclockers.com/articles1361/

any news on power consumption of any of these cards? From http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=39090 8600GTS: GeForce 8600GTS-based cards still require external PCIe power. NVIDIA estimates total board power consumption at around 71-watts. 8600GT: NVIDIA rates the maximum board powe...

8600 GTS (overclocked) about as fast as 7900GT:
http://www.vr-zone.com/?i=4883&s=2

8600GTS slower than a X1950XT:
http://hardwarezone.com/articles/view.p ... =2231&pg=2

8600GTS faster than a X1950XTX (?):
http://forum.donanimhaber.com/m_13340017/tm.htm

yacoub wrote:I don't know that I'd go on one review for each. Maybe if you had like half a dozen opinions of each (which you're approaching now at this point in the thread hehe).

My bad. Next time more hard numbers first. Some people reporting GTS cards being loud may have quieter setups, and vice versa.

In any case I'd go for the Corsair HX620W since it was tested to be 29 dBA@1m at 400W which would be borderline quiet.

Your system is quiet now because it's under 300w load so the PSU noise stays under 25 dBA@1m. But after you add the 2nd GTX the power will hit 400w. That will spin the fan up to 9V and the noise will be 36 dBA which is quite loud: http://www.silentpcreview.com/article656-page4.html So as far as the ...

so oneils how loud is the GTS really?