Hello On a tiny PC that has an Atom-based mobo with a 2.5" hard-drive and a PCI telephony card, I wanted to replace the original, noisy 75W PSU with a 90W PicoPSU and 12V/60W AC/DC brick (I was told by CarTFT that the PicoPSU and this power brick were enough to power this PC): http://bagofiles.free....

Thanks for the information. As to the AC/DC external transformer, which should I get? I can choose between 60W, 84W, and 120W:

http://www.cartft.com/catalog/gl/13

Maybe there's an equation to know how much power to feed a PicoPSU?

Thank you.

Hello, I need to power a Gigabyte GA-GC230D motherboard (similar to the Intel D945GCLF, ie. comes with an Atom N230) + 2.5" hard-disk + very occasional use of CD/DVD drive (basically, just to install the OS). I guess I could save power by installing the OS from a USB key, and use a CompactFlash inst...

Thanks for the references. I have the options of either keeping the native heatsink and replacing the embedded, noisy fan by a 120mm fan that'll be screwed directly in the case right above the chipset, or replacing the heatsink for something bigger and just go fanless. The Noctua is 85mm high, while...

Hello I'd like to build a really silent compact computer based on the Gigabyte GA-GC230D mini-ITX mobo, a PicoPSU power unit, and either a 2.5" HD or a SSD. This is meant to build a small PBX to handle one or two phone lines, and not much else. The mobo ships with a small, noisy fan to cool the 945G...

You have to specify which 5200+ you own (ADA5200IAA6CS, ADO5200IAA6CZ, ADO5200IAA5DO). I don't know, but Belarc says this: CPU 2,70 gigahertz AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 256 kilobyte primary memory cache 1024 kilobyte secondary memory cache Board ASUSTeK Computer INC. M2N68-AM Plus Rev X.0x Bus Cloc...

Hello

Using the fan that came with the AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+, the temperature is around 50°C.

Are there some brands that offer better performance, in terms of temperature and quiet?

Thank you.

Hello My work PC is getting a bit slow, but I don't have the courage to spend a whole week-end building a new one. This host is only used for light development (Delphi, web), and to watch the occasional movie in AVI. Silence is important. So I'd like to just replace the mobo + CPU for something fast...

A PicoPSU ought to be applicable here. I've no experience of using them myself (although I am waiting to receive one shortly), but it you have a search on SPCR, you'll find plenty of people using them and there is also an SPCR review of the 120W version as well. Thanks. After reading the FAQ on PSU...

Here are the elements I'm thinking of using.

If you had to build a case yourself, so that it would be as compact and affordable as possible while keeping it professional-looking... how would you do it? Acrylic glass? Aluminum?

Thank you.

Thanks. It looks nice, although I was thinking of something more compact. I'm thinking of using a nano-ITX motherboard and a flexible PCI riser to stick the PCI card underneath the mobo. I have no idea if a case exists for this type of setup, though :-/

But you are right about the PSU... The first step after getting this case would be to take out the PSU and replace it with a DC-DC one, like PicoPSU. Second step, of course, would be to replace the fan with a Nexus. :) I just bought this case with the 75 watt PSU (Comstars KT-T75FX-06A) . While the...

Alternatively, would it be a crazy idea to find some flexible ribbon to stick a PCI card underneath the mobo so as to get a thin, compact box while still leaving enough room for the CPU fan?

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/2152 ... itxbox.jpg

Hello I'd like to build a compact PC with a mini-ITX motherboard and with enough space to have a regular size PCI card laid down at a 90° angle with a riser. I like the type of cases used by IBM for their retired Netvista 2800 , or those sold by Soekris with their motherboard. Does someone know whe...

Hello I just bought this tiny case for use with a mini-ITX mobo. The case itself is nice, but the PSU that comes with it (Comstars KT-T75FX-06A) is quite noisy. Do you know of a good, affordable alternative, considering that there's not much room in there so its dimensions shouldn't be much more tha...

Here are a couple of (crappy, sorry) pictures: http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/9308/gigabyte1.jpg http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/4479/gigabyte2.jpg Do you mean the Zalman ZM-NB47J Passive Northbridge Heatsink ? Is Enzo a competitor to Zalman? Please excuse the newbie question, but is this indeed ...

Hello I'm looking for a < 40€ SATAII silent hard-disk to build myself a very compact box based on the Gigabyte GA-GC230D mobo. Here's a list of disks I can get at a nearby PC store. I'd be grateful if you could recommend a brand and model: Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 SATA 3Gb/s - 40GB 7200 RPM 2 Mo S...

Hello I just bought a Gigabyte GA-GC230D motherboard. The 40mm fan that cools the 945GC is a bit loud, and doesn't stop running (I'm using Ubuntu 9.04 for testing; maybe there's a way to have it slow down when under low use). How can I lower the noise? Run a utility to slow down the fan? Install a b...

Hello, I'd like to build myself a compact, quiet PC to act as telephony server + LAMP server. The Gigabyte mobo looks very nice, even better than its Intel equivalent because the heat sink for the GMA 950 seems lower and should let me have a PCI card laid down with a riser. I'd like some advice abou...

Hello, I need to build a series of compact hosts using Intel's D945GCLF(2/2D) or D201GLY2(A) whose price is around 50-90E, but the price of cases is ridiculous (150E!) The only one issue I have is that I need to insert a PCI card, and lay it on its side using a "riser", ie. parallel to the motherboa...

Just stumbled on the review of this neat motherboard. I'd like to build myself a compact PBX with Linux + Asterisk, a 2.5" hard-drive, and a PCI card to handle a PSTN line. Do you think it's possible to put all this together in case, using a PCI riser so I can lay the PCI card on the side, or is the...