arctic cooling L2 Pro. surprisingly silent @ 5v and even @ 7v
2nd hdd (first is suspended) is once again the loudest device in the case

I would not recommend a fanless tower on your machine unless you're experienced enough to know what you're doing. You'd have to have good case airflow, undervolt your cpu, be careful about the heat generated by the videocard and hdd's etc. My suggestion: undervolt the fan of your CPU cooler; if this...

Take a good look at the GPU core. I once chipped a 6600GT with a VM-101 (and that was a much lighter heatsink), though I also installed once successfully on a 6800. From my experience with the VM-101, it tends to lose contact with the core, which means one is tempted to put too much pressure on the ...

How about this one? http://www.arctic-cooling.com/fans2.php?idx=101&data=2&disc= The only thing is that, while AC bill it as a 120x38mm fan, it has the same airflow and rotational speed as their common 120x25mm fan. The major difference being that the 38mm version is in fact mounted on a special fra...

I realize this is not a recommendations thread, but if anyone's looking for a cheap, solid, well-built, good-looking case (but I suffer from a "flashy anti-bias"), and possibly a fake brushed aluminium front, I think I've found the perfect candidate: Chieftec (www.chieftec.de). Weight will be a prob...

2. What about overclocking AND undervolting? As in P4 2.4 @ 3.0 @ 1.25v? (Yes, I know 2.4 is not exactly a high standard from which to start oc-ing, but it can be done, and it's a 25% increase in performance at 15% less power).

Thanks, this is reassuring.

Ed, can you please tell me what is the span between the two heatsink mounting holes on your MSI PCB? I fear the distance between the two holes on the Leadtek may be too large for the mounting arms of the VM101.

I've read at least two German reviews that clearly indicated the VM101 is considerably more efficient than the Zalmans. However, the former's main advantage seems to me to be weight. Especially with such a card as the AGP 6600, where the chip is mounted toward the upper part of the PCB. A Zalman mig...

One review I've read that did a direct comparison placed the Tt in front of the Zalman. But we need more comparisons and I am not aware of any others. The Tt is pretty nice in terms of construction and to me it seems a more stadfast design than the Zalman (I've owned several Zalmans). Another plus i...

My concerns:
will not the PCI-e -> AGP bridge get in the way?
will not the elevated position of the video chip make the card + cooler a danger for the AGP slot (too top-heavy)?

I've read this review and it fared better than the Zalman HP80D. Except for its weight (425g), it seems a smart design.

http://moddershq.net/reviews.asp?reviewid=56

Yep, I realized as much, but I planned to use it in my shuttle instead of a similarly cooled passive 8500.

I figure that since the 425-MHz non-LE part works with a small heatsink+fan combo, the LE-part might work with a fairly large aluminium P3-heatsink and no fan. But just to be sure: did anyone ever try this (or anything similar)?

The 9700np and the 9500pro use in fact the same chip (R300) running at precisely the same speed (275MHz). But do not worry, the HP80-series can take much more. After all Sapphire markets its 9800pro Ultimate with a passive ZM80C. So do not worry - unless you plan to venture into 9800XT or X800 terri...

Of this I am sure, but - unsurprisingly - I wanted more. I am already running a 92mm Panaflo at 5v on a TR 948U with the CPU @ 3GHz @ 1.287v and it does its job very well.

Anyone with an encouraging experience in this respect?

I mean in a normal case.

It seems to me the device is quite effective in principle and the design makes it quite appropriate for passive cooling in a midi case, as the heat of the elevated part could be sucked outside by the 120mm case fan.

Hi! I was lucky enough to get a P4 2.4B which runs at 2.4GHz @ 1.037v prime-stable (3GHz @ 1.287v). I'm thinking it might be a good idea to try 1.8GHz and hopefully achieve 0.9-0.95v. Would that be decent enough for passive cooling? I have a fairly large case (Chieftec BX - the new, deeper version, ...

The irony is that my external USB soundcard (M-Audio Sonica Theater) is more sensitive to the house's electrical grid than the internal sound card (Terratec Aureon Space), which however is more sensitive to EMI.

Hi! I've had the chance to play with one for a few hours. I was amazed at how quiet it was when the PC was going on about its usual tasks. It's barely audible with the fan spinning around the 1000rpm threshold. I did manage to make the 12cm fan spin at ~ 1900rpm, and it was pretty noisy, but I had t...

I've had the version reviewed by Tom for more than a year, and my experience is consistent with his findings. It's reasonably quiet (esp. under load) and quite stable. Highpower is the same as Sirtec, Chieftec, and Thermaltake (the 360W and 420W models). In Europe they're pretty popular and regarded...