It's just a shame that orientation is limited on the S478 & K8 platforms, unlike the Scythe Ninja. What's impressive is how good the smaller of the 2 varieties performs. I wonder if this might give Scythe the idea of making a smaller version of the Ninja that would fit in a great many more peoples' ...

Following on from Mike's article "Quiet PC for Thailand" (http://www.silentpcreview.com/article293-page1.html) it got me thinking about the problems I have with my systems, and it sort of stems from the exhaust system of the graphics card (i.e. Artic Cooling VGA silencer kits). I love their design p...

If anyone is interested in the build cost, at todays prices my setup would cost under £1500. If I had a more pared down setup (i.e. 1 tuner + 1 hard-drive) it would be under £1250. Further savings could be made by not choosing best of breed components (e.g. Seasonic PSU). This final total may rise i...

A couple of months ago I rebuilt the PC using the Asus P4C800 E Deluxe along with a Northwoord P4 2.8GHz. Although the motherboard chipset remains the same, the Asus version of the i875 chipset has proved to be more stable. It also gives me the option to switch to the Pentium-M with Asus's adaptor. ...

Would it possible to have 2.5" drives setup in this (i.e. with 2.5"-3.5" brackets). Apart from the noise/vibration advantages, it's the lower power consumption of the 2.5" drives I was primarily thinking of. On the Netgear forums there is a lot of concerns about heat issues. Netgear's FAQ says that ...

I'm not quite sure how Sonic can turn a DVR-MS into a DVD file, since I had thought that DVB-T can be 1280x720, 1920x1080 or occasionally 640x480. Since the first two are not DVD resolutions, a recompression is necessary in order to scale it to DVD resolutions. In the UK, DVB-t is only used to broa...

I thought DVB-T was broadcast in Mpeg-2 and that all it did was capture the stream. Ah yes you are right, which would explain why DVB-T cards aren't hardware based. As in MCE will lighten up on the requirement to encode into dvr-ms or that Sonic will force a re-encode on already Mpeg'ed files? If i...

The door is still the same as before, it sticks onto the optical drive fascia. Whoever designed this system needs to be shot! The redesigned door you mentioned hasn't made it to market yet. Unfortunately all DVB-t cards do not do hardware encoding, only software. This doesn't really tax the system a...

Still haven't finalised hardware choice, but I have now installed 4 digital tuners (Hauppauge NovaT PCI), and hacked the registry to get them to all work with MCE2005. You would be surprised how many times I've recorded 4 programs at the same time! Bought an NEC 3540 drive, but I'm having some issue...

I know what you mean. I'm recording more programs then I can ever get around to watching! I did an MCE2005 build on a P4 2.2GHz + Abit TH7II-Raid (intel 850) + RAMBUS (512Mb). I found it to be too slow, but maybe that was more to do with either the cpu's bus speed (400MHz vs. today's 800MHz) or the ...

I've been mucking around with building a system using this case. Still trying to determine which cpu architecture to pursue (AMD 64, P4 Northwood, P4 Prescott, PentiumM). My use of this HTPC, would be to use it as a PVR (so a large hard-drive is a must), and predominantly using MCE2005's suite of ap...

When I look back at the old PC's I've owned: my first 286, my 386, two different 486's, two Pentiums, and on up to my current PC's, they've each gotten quieter than the previous generation even though they've gotten more powerful. I imagine that's how the trend will continue - they'll find some way...

Read these: http://www.seasonic.com/new/twevent20050510.htm http://www.seasonic.com/pdf/datasheet/01PC/S12.pdf I don't know what the older revisions had, but the newest revision is supposed to have 2 PCIe connectors on the S12-500 & S12-600. According to the first link, this revision won't be releas...

I agree that some inroads have been made into more efficient designs, but I don't think that "quiet" is their primary design brief. Intel's original roadmap for the P4 had clock speeds of up to 10 GHz, but limitations in material science has seen them abandon the GHz race. Once they find a process, ...

I don't know exactly were to post this, but I wanted to discuss what the future of silent computing what with the onslaught of more and more powerful CPUs & graphics card. Whenever a new and (typically) more powerful CPU comes out, production of slower and more quieter CPUs is stopped. Gradually the...

Some of the confusion arises from the fact that the S12-500 comes with PCIe power connectors, and the S12-430 does not. You can purchase molex to PCIe converters, but you'll need two molex every PCIe plug (so for SLI setups, you'll need 4 molex). According to graphics card manufacturers, when a mole...

Storagereview awards are based on their reviews, and as such they only "live" with the drive for a relatively short time, certainly not enough time for faults to develop. Unfortunately Storagereview's editorial output isn't as prolific as it once was, which can be frustating for people wanting to ha...

Hitachi bought the IBM storage division, so they probably bought the personnel + plant. This isn't Hitachi's first drive under their name, in their desktop range it's more like their 3rd generation. And furthermore, the whole debacle about their deathstars were specific to the IBM's 75GXP range whic...

Any updates on the Aria 2 if such a thing is planned?

None of the power supply calculators I've been able to find, include a breakdown of the rails.

Scanning the ABIT forums, a lot of people have been having stability issues with their AMD systems, and I see a lot of ABIT forum regulars recommending hefty PSU's. There seems to be a bit of confusion surrounding the amount of amps required on the 12V rail(s) for an AMD system, and even more confus...

Serial number : D04115401xxx Received : 13/04/2005 Failed : 18/04/2005 Supplier: Komplett.co.uk Today the PC was just idling (case temperature was 31C) when it shutdown without warning. Ruled out everything else, because the PC works with another PSU. Several hours later and the Antec Phantom still ...

Brilliant!

Took your advice MikeC and bought an Antec Phantom 350, fingers crossed that I've got a good'un!

I recall seeing somewhere the maximum amount of Watts that this thing can absorb but I can't remember the exact figure. I have seen a review where this thing was tested with a P4 3GHz (overclocked to 3.8Ghz) PLUS an ATi 9600 AIW, and the temps were 44C (idle) and 61C (load). I also read another revi...

I decided to go for the Antec Phantom 350 and see how that works out. Might end up buying the S12 for my other PC.

kojak71 wrote:BTW, has any manufacturer entertained the idea of building a PSU that could be watercooled?

Doh!!!! Must learn to look before talking http://www.quietpc.com/uk/watercooling.php#wcpsu

kojak71, I would seriously consider a Zalman Resarator for a system that powerful. It would get most of the heat directly out of the case leaving the PSU to deal with only its waste heat and no extra heat from the CPU and graphics card. ;) I was just thinking of that the other day, and I might seri...

Thanks to those patient enough to help me out, especially for the clarification MikeC. It goes to show that rankings should be used in conjunction with the reviews. I spend a lot of time pouring over the individual reviews, and pay particular attention to noise levels/signatures at different power o...

Yep, the 150W+ range is that part of the PSU that never gets used in a silent PC. So why weight it in the rating? You didn't just skip over the first pages of Power Supply Fundamentals & Recommendations , did you? On page 4 is explained how much power the typical machine uses. No. I use my rig for ...

I'm not sure if I'm perhaps misinterprating the SPCR ratings of reviewed PSUs, but I find it odd how the Seasonic S12 is rated an 8+ and the Nexus 4090 is rated as an 8. I'll explain. Here in the United Kingdom, availability of Seasonic PSU's is extremely rare, so I've been considering other alterna...