Silent PC Review is dedicated to reviews, news and information about silent computers
and components, as well as their energy efficiency and thermal performance.
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Submitted by Lawrence Lee on Mon, 2009-11-16 04:20.
Complete|Mobile Systems
The IdeaCentre Q110 shares the Q100's tiny form factor and Atom 230 processor, but has more RAM, a bigger hard drive and most notably, Nvidia's ION chipset. As a result, it can play most high definition video formats, making it a candidate for the ultimate SFF media PC.
Submitted by Devon Cooke on Sat, 2009-11-14 17:01.
Power
In Enermax' seven (!) lines of power supplies, the Eco80+ is one of two tagged as "eco". The "Love our Earth" tagline on the packaging attests that "eco" stands for ecology, but its position at the low-end of Enermax' lineup suggests that "economy" might also be a relevant tag. How fares this modest PSU in these times of silent, 90% efficiency, $200 models?
Submitted by Lawrence Lee on Mon, 2009-11-09 04:20.
Cases|Damping
The Twelve Hundred is essentially a larger version of the Nine Hundred Two, sharing the same core design, but taller, accommodating two extra fans, an additional hard drive cage and support for the excellent Antec CP-850 power supply. It'll be interesting to see how much difference this combination makes.
Submitted by Mike Chin on Thu, 2009-11-05 14:19.
Storage
Two more half-terabyte notebook drives spin through, a 7200rpm Seagate and a 5400rpm Hitachi: Acoustics and power efficiency continue to improve.
Submitted by Lawrence Lee on Mon, 2009-11-02 04:20.
Storage
The Scythe Quiet Drive 2.5 is a noise & vibration dampening enclosure for 2.5" drives. Can it make a 7200rpm notebook drive quiet enough to take on an SSD, at least acoustically and in storage capacity?
Submitted by Lawrence Lee on Thu, 2009-10-29 04:20.
Complete|Mobile Systems
The Lenovo IdeaCentre Q100 has unimpressive specs: an Atom 1.6 GHz CPU, 1GB of RAM, and a 160GB hard drive. What stands out is its tiny size, fanless chassis and extremely quiet operation.
Submitted by Lawrence Lee on Tue, 2009-10-27 04:20.
Cooling
The Nirvana is the successor to a fairly proficient CPU cooler, the ZEROtherm Zen. It retains much of the Zen's core design elements but sports a new look with nickel-plating and a frameless fan.
Submitted by Mike Chin on Sun, 2009-10-25 23:46.
Power
Power solutions continue to evolve in this era of ubiquitous computing. Electrodacus offers the PC enthusiast a picoPSU alternate: A silent, 88% efficient DC-DC converter module with full regulation to 130W output... at a price made for ultra SFF hobbyists. A close look the Winmate DD-24AX under the SPCR power microscope.
Submitted by Mike Chin on Thu, 2009-10-22 08:36.
Cases|Damping | Complete|Mobile Systems | CPUs|Motherboards
The first Atom-embedded mini-ITX board from Intel to feature the mobile 945GSE Express Chipset. You can hear the cheers from minimalist, green, and silent PC enthusiasts. Along with the lower power profile, the physical profile has also been dramatically reduced, allowing fanless operation in the 1.2-liter Morex T1610 case.
Submitted by Lawrence Lee on Mon, 2009-10-19 04:20.
Cases|Damping
A pair of small form factor cases, from Cooler Master and a lesser known brand called SEED, are the latest to pass through SPCR's test labs. Can either drive an ION-powered system without offending our sensitive hearing?
Submitted by Mike Chin on Fri, 2009-10-16 14:37.
Power
The X-series power supplies achieved 80 Plus Gold nearly a year ago, and they're finally on the market now. Is Seasonic's best also SPCR's most highly recommended? Yes. Read all the details here.
Submitted by Mike Chin on Mon, 2009-10-12 09:59.
Complete|Mobile Systems
The Pro Studio i7 is meant for use as a digital audio workstation in a recording studio, and has the distinction of being Energy Star certified. StoneWave, an audio computing specialist, says it is very quiet, so we took it for a spin in our anechoic chamber.
Submitted by Lawrence Lee on Sat, 2009-10-10 04:20.
Storage
Seagate's Barracuda LP and Pipeline HD .2 series hard drives sport 500GB platters and a rotational speed of 5900rpm, giving them a slight edge in performance over Western Digital Caviar Green and Samsung EcoGreen lines: Is there a cost?
Submitted by Mike Chin on Thu, 2009-10-08 13:31.
Internet News
Intel recently launched a worldwide custom desktop challenge. The challenge is to build desktops powered by Intel Core i7 and Core i5 processors that envision the possibilities of tomorrow's technology. >> Discuss this news in the SPCR forum.
Submitted by Devon Cooke on Wed, 2009-10-07 16:36.
Audio|Video|Misc
Monitors are not our usual review subjects at SPCR. Ironically, the fact that they make very little noise (with a few exceptions) takes them off our radar; they're usually quiet and we like that, but we don't have too much more to say. That said, our interest in power efficiency (and some corresponding environmental concerns) has prompted us to take a closer look at a couple LCD monitors that bill themselves as "low power".
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