I clicked off some quick snapshots of my Server 2003 build and stuck them on Flickr. See http://www.flickr.com/photos/10625552@N ... 138962843/ to see how the SilenX heatsink fits in the case.

I've built three boxes now with the Apex MI-100 case http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811154084 which is almost identical to this case. I figured out the 120mm fan trick early on - I think a NewEgg product review mentioned it. I used the D945GCLF2 and of course hated that 40mm h...

If you want the old mounting system you can buy the Scythe Universal Retention kit SCURK1. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835185022. Newegg shows out of stock at the moment, but I think I saw it there the other day.

My new P180 build has a Ninja on a Pentium D 830, aka 3.0ghz dual core prescott. CPUs don't come too much hotter than that :) I'm running it with the top fan removed and Yate Loons on the ninja and in the back. I've settled on running ~1000 RPMs on both, temps rarely go above 60. Probably I could tu...

I've cut off the end beyond the slave connector before, and I also cut off the segment from the motherboard to the slave connector for a really short cable for an antec minuet build, i.e. slave connector to the motherboard, master connector to the dvd drive. And yes, as mentioned in the other thread...

Thanks for the info guys! I found another local store that's selling the S12-430 for 87, so I think I'll just go with that. I care a lot more about quality and silence than bling and detachable cables

Fry's Electronics has the Ultra X-Finity 500 on sale for 69.99 - 10 rebate at their store near Portland, Oregon, and perhaps others. I really haven't been able to find much of anything about that particular power supply noise characteristics. Thanks for any info about that unit. Trying to decide if ...

Bah sorry I forgot to follow up on this. It works very well actually. I'll pull it out & post a picture soon. Temperatures dropped 5 degrees immediately. With no front fan the drive idles at 30-32, with a fan it drops to the mid 20s. Idle noise is virtually inaudible, and seeks are dramatically muted.

Nefarious, I bought it from Sharka Computers for $34.95 US. I'm not sure if they ship to Canada or not... I have a Sapphire 9600XT in another box myself, so I'll probably use it for that one. I'm still debating whether to go to ZM-80D on my 6600GT or stick with the VF-700. I'm sure that it will do f...

There was a mini-review of the VF700 posted a while back, try a search for that. I just got one last night, installed it this AM on my 6600GT, so far so good. I can't hear the fan over ambient/background from more than 12-18 inches away on 5V. But I haven't stress tested or checked temperatures as o...

EDIT: PM'd MikeC, he already has one, so this is no longer relevant. -------------------------- I noticed that there isn't a Zalman VF700-Cu review up yet. Would it help if I donated an an extra Zalman VF700-Cu that I decided not to use? It's still in the package unopened. If you're interested, PM m...

Guys, Thanks for the input! As I was leaving for work this morning I hit upon a new idea. I noticed that I have 2 old Pentium II Xeon procs laying around with massive passive heatsinks on them. The dimensions are approximately 4in x 5in x 1in, or 100mm x 125mm x 25mm. So my new idea is to sandwich t...

I'm sorry, I don't have one. But others have had success with dyeing or painting. That may be an option for you. See this thread for more details.

I've been looking at my 3000B drive cage & thinking that if I stood my Raptor on edge, i.e. oriented it vertically, there's plenty of room to suspend it in the center of the 3000b 3.5 drive cage. Has anybody tried this? Any caveats? I was concerned about drive longevity in a vertical orientation, bu...

Personally I'm not impressed with the 3520. I used two of them for machines I built for my mom & my sister. Subjectively Both seemed signficantly noisier than either my Pioneer DVR-108 or my Samsung TS-H552. Also the 3520 would not boot my Partition Magic 8.0 CD which boots fine with either the Sams...

Hi all, I'm looking for some ideas for low to moderate cost/effort upgrades or mods for an Antec Aria. I know that the Aria is a difficult case to quiet down, but I'm hoping to buy a little time until the P180 comes out at which point I'll waterfall the Aria out of my environment. This system is my ...

I just jumped on the TekGems bandwagon, hopefully I'll have them this weekend

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1748720,00.asp

I love the looks of that P180 - I have a feeling there's one of those in my future

I have a similar set of 3 machines - Win XP box, Win 2003 server, Gentoo. Currently I'm using an Aria with intel mobo for the 2003 box and shuttles for the rest, in a nice lil stack under my desk. But they are hardly quiet as built, which is why I started hanging out here ;) I was having thoughts of...

Hi all, Apologies for cross-posting this from the noob forum. It was my first post on this board & I kinda got the initial impression that I should start there. But after I did a bit more reading I realized that my question is quite specific & therefore IMO appropriate for the case board. I recently...