X-bit Labs has a review . Kind of disappointing... Disappointing? Well, it is disappointing from a silencer's perspective, but every review except for SPCR's are disappointing for the silencer. I thought this was one of X-Bit Labs' better articles. They tested a dual fan configuration and they incl...

Unlike Matija , I seem to have had a good stroke of luck. My X1950 Pro is the revised design without the scorching hot VRMs. It is currently cooled by a passive AC S1. It idles at around 48C and loads at 70C. While the load may appear to be high, it is well within the card's thermal specs. Also cons...

Download HDTune. That program will tell you what revision you have. As for the ticking, I can't say for sure, but it doesn't sound good.

There are interesting options in the 640GB capacity point. I would look at the Caviar Blue WD6400AAKS for speed and Caviar Green WD6400AACS for low power/heat. I would second this recomendation. The WD6400AAKS should be your first choice. It's the only 640GB made by Western Digital. But if my only ...

<snip> If you take AMD line: 5000+ BlackEdition or 4850e are are excellent choices. They lose intel's E7x00 and E8x00 series but you win in chipset side. You have AMD's 780G, 780GX, 780GFX, 690G and nVidia's 8200 and 8300 lines. Ninja might be good for AMD systems. <snip> Intel line cpu: E7x00 or E...

Welcome to SPCR!! No fancy rig, no beige box either. Something that will be inconspicuous on the outside and really nice to work with on the inside. * Reasonable silence (or "why I'm posting here in the first place): I hope to have a system that can sit on the hard floor next to my desk and make so...

I would simply buy a cheap GFX such as an AMD 3450/3470, I've got an 3470 which should be able to send both video and sound though the HDMI (haven't tested it since my tv does not have a HDMI input), and it runs nice and relatively cool in a setup similar to yours. I second this idea. You could pic...

Not quite, I was reading some people who did some tests on this (I can't find it right now). It suggested that the 8200 and 780G may struggle unless you put in a CPU faster than 2.3GHz dual core. This would appear to do it: http://www.very-pc.co.uk/?section=home-pcs&subsection=home-greenpc&system=3...

SKeptical Thinker wrote:Coretemp is another that I have used.

I think he misread the topic. CoreTemp doesn't do anything but CPU temps AFAIK.

For a general GPU tool, RivaTuner.

Ouch!

Those results are surprising. That drive performance is significantly different from the "normal" B3 revision drive. I would email WD Support and ask how your drive differs from the other B3 drives.

Q1 : If i go for an Intel C2D 8400 CPU, with a FSB at 1333 should i get DDR3 RAM at the same bus speed or would it be ok to go with the cheaper DDR2 RAM at 800 or 1066 MHz, respectively PC6400/PC8500? How much difference would it make if i got the cheaper DDR2 performance-wise, if any? Right now, D...

This is a bit unrelated, but still helpful. Why are you using a Core 2 Quad Extreme ?? The only difference in the Extreme version is an unlocked multiplier. You may think that this will help you overclock more. This is not true! First, most P35/P45 motherboards have excellent overclocking abilities,...

Download HDTune, run a test, and post the results. The single platter version is noticably faster than the dual platter version. Because the model number has a the "B3" in it, I suspect that your drive is some sort of OEM variant of the single platter version.

aSASa wrote:Well thats great to see that they are similar. Have you checked if AAM was on the other?

Another WD response:

.......

Ask them what are all of the OEM variants and why are there variants to begin with.

Hi, and Welcome to SPCR! The two cards that I would recommend are the nVidia 9600GT and the ATI 3870. In terms of performance, the cards are essentially equal. The most notable difference is the 3870's excellent idle power consumption. SPCR has estimated the idle power draw of the 3870 to be a mere ...

Wow! This is really cool!

I love how you used the original eject button. I'd love to do a similar project one day.

Nice work and I can't wait for the finished product!

The same drives are in Netgear's ReadyNAS product, and lieky a few others. If I had to guess I'd say the 'V" stands for "Vendor" and are likely OEM units shipped for use in other companies products while the "C" stands for "Consumer" and are shipped for end-user purchase. Does anyone know the diffe...

Hello, The RAID level you are describing is RAID 1 , aka Mirroring. Windows will see one hard drive but in reality there are two containing the exact same data. Raid 0 and 5 are different! How you enter the setup differs from mobo to mobo. It is likely to be in your motherboard manual. Is your OS al...

Ok this time no stipulations. Just which one is the quietest. I'm leaning pretty hard on the F1 right now.

Your opinions are appreciated.

• 500GB Samsung F1 HD502lJ
• 320GB WD3200AAKS (assuming I get the "quiet version")
• 500GB WD500AAKS

Angelkiller - did the signal split work ? It would be nice to have my fan controller and Speedfan know the speed. Please let us know Thanks Ok, I've been really busy lately and this was low on my list, but I got around to doing this. Sorry for the delay. :oops: Anyways, I didn't want to cut any wir...

How much more should I expect to pay for a CPU and memory that at least equals the computing power of my pre-existing parts? Ah, :oops: I forgot about DDR2 RAM. Thanks for mentioning that. Assuming you have a $150 budget for a CPU and RAM, I'd recommend a Athlon X2 4x50e CPU and 2GB of DDR2-800 . Y...

Hi, It need not have on-board video since I will eventually add a video card (passive cooling likely) that provides more outputs such as HDMI, S-video and DVI. I'd like to talk about this. Newer motherboards and chipsets already support these features. What kind of output do you need? Many modern mo...

Hi. Both graphics cards will work with your system. The only difference is their power. The 8600GT is more powerful than the 3450, which explains the price difference. As far as I know, Photoshop is a 2-D activity and won't require 3D acceleration. The onboard graphics doesn't support 30in monitors....

First you do realize that the CPU heatsink in the link is a Scythe Ninja. A Scythe Mugen is different. Ok, so the Ninja is a 110mm square. That's the guarenteed clearence. The Mugen, blowing to the rear, will be 15mm longer than the Ninja in the picture. Blowing upwards, (with a fan below the Mugen)...

Enough about the punctuation. You're on the internet. Xigmatek X-1283 looks good, a copy of Thermalright's tower. I don't know of any benchmarks on it. The Xigmatek HDT-S1283 is not a Thermalright clone. It has direct touch heatpipes which is significantly different. Have you read SPCR's review of it?

I will read your, eh... thing. Topic? Not sure what to call it. Brain fart. Thread. :wink: Now about your system. First, fix that cabeling. You said you did, so I'll wait for pics. Second take the fans off the VRM, the NB, the memory, and under the GPU. The VRM and NB have giant heatsinks. I doubt ...

I thought I read in the review on frostytech of mini ninja that in order to cool well the fan has to spin too quickly to be quiet. I'd go with it if I could (can't find the original anymore) but I was concerned about noise. I can't speak for how accurate the Frostytech article is. However, I can te...

from what I've read the Scythe Ninjas are noisy. :? Where did you read this? The Ninja is a longtime favorite of SPCR because of its excellent low-airflow performance. And the Ninja currently ships with a Slipstream, which is one of the quietest and most efficient fans ever. Six inches is 150mm, wh...

The E8400 and E8500 are the same chip and the E8500 is rated to run faster. What that means to me is that both chips will have the same maximum frequency at any voltage. No. Every CPU is unique. If you test two E8400s they will (probably) not overclock the same, even if they come from the very same...

Hm. :? I disagree. Unfortunately, I don't have facts to back myself up, but here's how I see it. The E8400 and E8500 are the same chip and the E8500 is rated to run faster. What that means to me is that both chips will have the same maximum frequency at any voltage. This is explainable. Lets say the...