Ah, excellent, thanks! Couple HDDs and I'm set, cool!

I need to build a small 64-bit server that will be running some form of Linux (CentOS, Ubuntu, etc.). Some of the specific requirements have already been passed down: - relatively inexpensive, so no crazy boutique parts - quiet, but not necessarily silent - microATX desktop or tower form factor - Co...

BTW, the 7200's are bloody hard as hell to find right now.

I'd be very interested in seeing a review of the new 7200.1 100GB hard drives. It would also be nice to quantify the difference in battery life that extra watt makes. If it means I go from 4 hours to 3:50, I'm fine with that, but if I go from 4 hours to 2:30...not so good. The 4200RPM drive I have r...

MikeC: fair enough, It just seems like there are numerous different qualitative assessments for noise, i.e. overall "quality" of noise, minimum noise level, average sustained noise level, noise level for high powered machines, etc. For example, I imagine that there is an HSF out there that is the be...

Given the negative comments both here and in MikeC's article regarding noise, why does it get an "8" for noise?! Seems rather misleading.

Has anyone tested the 320W version?

The LCD is cheap, but it's a $20 unit... I don't expect a fan controller REALLY needs to have a photosensor hooked up or, say, the ability to play Fur Elise, so I never considered those features particularly important to retaint =) AVR/Studio isn't used for anything but downloading, and I believe th...

Goosrider, I don't have all the answers to those questions (I'm not sitting next to it), but I think at the limit if you get the software working and you find that you like it, just doing a custom board will fix a lot of the issues. I thought the speaker was slaved off one of the PWM channels, which...

DigiKey sells these kits, and I think they're the exclusive distributor. They've been backordered a lot lately because of a contest that Circuit Cellar has been running, but they should have more in stock again. It's a fun little thing to mess with, and worse comes to worse you could code something ...

For those that have been messing with doing their own fan controllers, I've found an extremely handy low cost dev board based on the AVR ATMega169 -- it's the AVR Butterly, and for $20 you get LCD, thermistor, photosensor, speaker, 5-way joystick, 4-channel PWM, 8-channel ADC, etc. etc. It's an amaz...

These are 80MM L1A, don't have them handy but I bought them in bulk from BGMicro back when they were $3.60/ea. =)

They are much, much quieter at 12V than at 7V. The squealing and ticking is just out of control, and it's definitely not my circuit anymore.

Just a quick update, but we discovered that both my Panaflos generate the same ticking/squealing noise with a DC of 7V from a standard power supply, so it may not actually be our circuit! GAH! Any ideas?

I'll definitely have safeguards (watchdog timers that control a global switch that will force all fans high in the event of software crash, etc.) I spent more time trying to get my circuit to work. The old method was basically uC -> PWM output -> mosfet -> FAN, and that was causing a lot of noise ir...

After I finish my next project, I'm hoping to build a case mounted thermal imager sans actual imaging apparatus. Basically a network of thermopiles that allow you to sample the temperature inside the case over a broad area without contact. It's probably not cost effective, but it could be done as a ...

Kind of neat article

I just realized that an LM317T just accepts a voltage for its adjustment leg. What this means is that I think I can use an LM317T to provide "smooth" (i.e. no PWM) voltage to the fan, but use PWM to control the LM317T. The downside is that it's one extra part and waste heat, but I think it will fix ...

Fancontrol, I can't find the schematic and specs for your board, are they in this thread and/or can you summarize? A linear voltage controller has a lot of advantages. The main problem is that it generates a lot of waste heat potentially, and it's also more difficult to control from a uc. If there w...

Fancontrol, Using a dedicated fan controller would definitely make my life a bit easier, however if I can remove that component, that drives down board cost even more. Since I'm using a microcontroller, there is no reason for me not to leverage that and try to get as much functionality into the soft...

Silverarg, I'm trying to determine if the problems are due to something I'm doing wrong, e.g. bad circuit design (although I've tried two different ones now) or bad software implementation, but I don't think that's the case. I have a scope on order that will let me look at the waveforms directly to ...

The thing to watch for is to make sure that the PWM is actually quiet. I'm having a royal problem with this right now (see thread Custom Fan Controller) -- once I get that solved, I'll be 75%+ done with my current project.

Here's a quick update on my software. I'm really, um, frustrated with the tools I have to use (BasicMicro C/C++ environment, which is buggy and poorly supported), but nonetheless, I've managed to get something sort of working. I've got hacked PWM working right now, but the growl problems is a really...

http://amdzone.com/releaseview.cfm?ReleaseID=1163

Um. Doubtful.

MikeC, I don't think the articles need revising, just that the recommended sections could have a one-line caveat. For example, the Papst fans are well liked, but EVERYONE knows about the clicking -- that type of caveat is easy to put in. Even recommending the SS is fine, like I said, it's just makin...

Wow, that review seriously gushes over the SilenX (although once again, it's built on a Fortron chassis). The heatsink is frickin' huge.

Is this the same SilenX that was the source of much consternation on these forums a few months back?

JVM, Thing is, I don't mind if SPCR doesn't review everything -- they have limited time and resources. I'm just bugged that they've reviewed something, know about complaints, but don't acknowledge this. This is problematic, because a lot of people probably come here to read the Recommended, see the ...

Trip, The thing is, out of ALL the PSUs that have been recommended, the Seasonics easily have the most complaints on here. Given the relatively small population here, the sheer # of complaints should be considered alarming. I don't doubt that a functional Seasonic is a wonderful PSU, but the lack of...

I'm with nutball on this one -- look at how many people here have reported problems, and yet there is NO mention of this, at all, in the reviews. I could see a lot of people buying the Seasonics based on the glowing recommendations, but given the sheer # of this "bad batch" floating around, I think ...

What I find confusing is that a lot of people swear by Seasonic, yet Seasonic is probably the #1 PSU complained about in the forums -- is this just tragically bad QA on their part? From squeals to weird nosies to oscillating fan RPMs to general noisiness to fan start problems, it seems like Seasonic...

Home Depot and Lowes both sell sheets of lexan/polymer sheeting in many different sizes, although I don't know what the thickness is like.

JVM,

Correct, I got those backwards, sorry for any confusion!

Hopefully a clear consensus on both 92mm and 120mm fans will come about in the near future.