Search found 253 matches

by Mariner
Thu Jun 18, 2009 1:37 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: A future replacement for hard disc technology?
Replies: 7
Views: 4702

A future replacement for hard disc technology?

Still in the development stages but the technology discussed in the following report would seem to have great potential for silencing/low power storage: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/06/15/dataslide_berkeleydb/ No spinning disc, impressive performance and green credentials and I assume the 'osci...
by Mariner
Mon Jun 15, 2009 3:57 pm
Forum: Power Supplies
Topic: Dell DA-2 Power Brick Help
Replies: 52
Views: 155449

im thinking of buying a killawatt device to see how much power they draw, but most i see online dont have the UK power plug on it. I bought mine from a Maplin store, of all places. I've just had a quick look at their web site and see they have a couple available priced between £20 and £25. If I r...
by Mariner
Fri Jun 05, 2009 7:04 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Absolutely inexplicable crashes with my PC.
Replies: 12
Views: 4807

Incidentally, after doing a full clear-out of all NVidia drivers I realised that my brain had obviously stopped working altogether. When upgrading the other month, I did originally intend to buy a motherboard with an ATI/AMG 780G chipset but my mind at the last minute and actually bought one with th...
by Mariner
Fri Jun 05, 2009 6:40 am
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: AMD Phenom II X2 550 BE & Athlon II X2 250
Replies: 49
Views: 31837

Hmm. I'm slightly disappointed with the apparent undervolting ability of the Athlon II X2, especially when compared to the Brisbane Athlon X2s. I suppose I may have been hoping for too much - after all, the core speed of this Athlon II is up to 3GHz - but it would seem that Intel's 45nm process (or ...
by Mariner
Thu Jun 04, 2009 2:24 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Absolutely inexplicable crashes with my PC.
Replies: 12
Views: 4807

Hello again all. I can confirm that nothing on the motherboard is shorting out - I've double-checked everything with both motherboards and have re-installed each a couple of times to be certain yet the problem has continued. If I remember correctly, I probably just cloned the OS when changing the ha...
by Mariner
Wed Jun 03, 2009 2:15 pm
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Absolutely inexplicable crashes with my PC.
Replies: 12
Views: 4807

Thanks for the quick feedback. I've checked the system and there doesn't appear to be any problem within the case itself. Ground in the wall socket is OK or, at least, the electrician who came to do some work at my house the other month said all was fine when I asked him to check that socket! I've a...
by Mariner
Wed Jun 03, 2009 8:26 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Absolutely inexplicable crashes with my PC.
Replies: 12
Views: 4807

Absolutely inexplicable crashes with my PC.

Here's the deal. I've had my homebuilt system for some years now but, throughout most of its life I have suffered a hugely irritating problem which leads to a hard crash every few weeks or so and which requires me to actually open the case to reach a resolution. :? The problem shows itself as the ha...
by Mariner
Tue Jun 02, 2009 7:09 am
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: 45nm amd x2 preview at xbitlabs
Replies: 14
Views: 6458

Hmmm. The LostCircuits figures look very encouraging indeed, assuming their measurements are accurate.

Hopefully these chips will also undervolt well and, if so, I can see one of the Athlon II X2's finding its way into my system as a decent performance upgrade in the not too distant future.
by Mariner
Tue Jun 02, 2009 2:41 am
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: 45nm amd x2 preview at xbitlabs
Replies: 14
Views: 6458

Anand has a reasonably in-depth review of both the Phenom II X2 (harvested from a Deneb at present) and the Athlon II X2 (Regor): http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3572 Regor, especially, looks interesting to me and I'm wondering about power consumption of AMD's 45nm process vs 65n...
by Mariner
Thu May 28, 2009 8:58 am
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: 45nm amd x2 preview at xbitlabs
Replies: 14
Views: 6458

Hmmm. The article seems to indicate that these new processors are 'harvested' from current faulty Deneb chips.

I thought that Callisto and Regor were due to be two entirely new chips?

Admittedly, the wording in the article itself doesn't seem too clear - something lost in translation, perhaps?
by Mariner
Wed May 27, 2009 9:08 am
Forum: Power Supplies
Topic: Will [I] be able to run this on a picopsu?
Replies: 24
Views: 13380

mark19891989 wrote: edit: where can i order a 150 picopsu in the uk reasonably cheap?
I bought mine from www.linitx.com

Not sure if anywhere had it much cheaper - if I remember correctly, nowhere else I looked even had it in stock!

Linitx were good to deal with though - prompt delivery and no complaints from me.
by Mariner
Mon May 18, 2009 3:45 am
Forum: Power Supplies
Topic: Experienced PicoPSUers: Which PicoPSU/Power Brick?
Replies: 17
Views: 10465

As I was replacing the original DC-DC converter which came with my case I actually already had the necessary 'hole' for the power socket. However, I did have to buy an adapter for the floppy power cable which my slim format DVD-writer uses. If you are going to use the PicoPSU in a standard case, you...
by Mariner
Sun May 17, 2009 4:07 am
Forum: Power Supplies
Topic: Experienced PicoPSUers: Which PicoPSU/Power Brick?
Replies: 17
Views: 10465

I'll have a better search for where to buy that combination in the UK and then get it sent to the address where I'll be staying. I bought mine from linitx.com. Very good service actually - I ordered on the Wednesday and received the kit on the Friday. It was my own fault that it took me 8 days to f...
by Mariner
Sat May 16, 2009 11:27 am
Forum: Power Supplies
Topic: Experienced PicoPSUers: Which PicoPSU/Power Brick?
Replies: 17
Views: 10465

I've now installed the PicoPSU 150 in my system and all seems to be working fine thus far. At first, nothing happened when the power button was pressed other than a faint buzzing from somewhere around the motherboard. Using the old tried and tested technique of unplugging then replugging the power c...
by Mariner
Sun May 10, 2009 3:34 pm
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: AMD 45W quads and tri-cores
Replies: 7
Views: 6048

The 45nm dual core Athlons sound interesting. Ample performance and low power consumption. I wonder how well they will undervolt? My 65nm Brisbane does pretty well already so I wonder how much of an improvement 45nm might provide? I eagerly await some figures from somebody with some cash to burn. :)
by Mariner
Thu May 07, 2009 3:34 am
Forum: Power Supplies
Topic: [MiniPC] Alternative to noisy 75w PSU?
Replies: 4
Views: 4242

A PicoPSU ought to be applicable here. I've no experience of using them myself (although I am waiting to receive one shortly), but it you have a search on SPCR, you'll find plenty of people using them and there is also an SPCR review of the 120W version as well.
by Mariner
Thu May 07, 2009 3:29 am
Forum: Power Supplies
Topic: Experienced PicoPSUers: Which PicoPSU/Power Brick?
Replies: 17
Views: 10465

My system is rather low powered: Athlon 64 X2 3600+ (1.9GHz Brisbane) Asus M3N78-VM 2GB RAM 500GB WD Greenpower Slot-loading laptop DVD writer The system draws a little over 70W during boot but I undervolt using CrystalCPUID (1.0V @ 1.9GHz stepping down to 0.8V @ 1.0GHz when idle). Idle power draw i...
by Mariner
Wed May 06, 2009 2:33 pm
Forum: Power Supplies
Topic: Experienced PicoPSUers: Which PicoPSU/Power Brick?
Replies: 17
Views: 10465

I've just ordered a new PicoPSU-150-XT together with an FSP AC adapter which is reportedly capable of supplying 150W. Hopefully I'll receive them before the weekend then be able to install them into my system without any problems. My system draws less than 80W at the very most (during boot) so there...
by Mariner
Sat Feb 07, 2009 5:48 am
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Current northbridge chips with heatspreader?
Replies: 5
Views: 2818

Personally, I wouldn't be too worried with the NB temps you are seeing. I understand that these modern Northbridge chips are specced to run at very high temperatures (similar to the discrete GPUs from AMD/NVidia) and this is why very few of the Northbridge chips have active cooling. I don't think yo...
by Mariner
Fri Feb 06, 2009 2:57 pm
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Undervolting: how low can you go?
Replies: 234
Views: 271832

I tried the INI edit you mention but no option for lower than 0.8V appeared in CCPUID. I've a feeling this might be because my Brisbane is a relatively early revision which doesn't support voltages below 0.8V. *shrugs* I'm not too worried about that though because I've just discovered this poxy moth...
by Mariner
Fri Feb 06, 2009 9:51 am
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Undervolting: how low can you go?
Replies: 234
Views: 271832

After upgrading to a newer motherboard, I've finally found the impetus to look at undervolting. My CPU is an old Athlon X2 3600+ (Brisbane running at 1.9GHz stock) and, in my old motherboard, I was simply undervolting to 1.0V at the stock 1.9GHz clock. My new motherboard is an Asus M3N78-VM which, I...
by Mariner
Tue Jan 20, 2009 9:59 am
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: Apex MI-008: A Cheap Quiet mini-ITX Case?
Replies: 62
Views: 63701

I'm note sure how it compares to the Silverstone cooler, but I use the physically similar Hiper HFC-30820-C1 cooler on my AM2 motherboard and have been very happy with the performance: http://www.hipergroup.com/products.php?lv=3&cate=3&type=13&pid=132 My CPU is a Brisbane X2 3600+ which runs at stoc...
by Mariner
Fri Jan 09, 2009 5:17 am
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Atom/Pouslbo combo information
Replies: 0
Views: 1550

Atom/Pouslbo combo information

Some interesting (albeit brief) information about Atom netbooks running in conjunction with the low-power Poulsbo chipset: http://www.anandtech.com/tradeshows/showdoc.aspx?i=3494&p=7 I understand that power draw of Poulsbo is considerably lower than the current 945G chipset used with the Atom. I'd i...
by Mariner
Wed Dec 17, 2008 9:30 am
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Anandtech: NVIDIA's Ion Platform (Atom+GeForce 9400M)
Replies: 47
Views: 32930

I don't think you can really consider anything more than very, very basic gaming on such a small, low power system so lack of performance in this field doesn't really worry me. IMHO, this 'Ion' platform on a reasonably specified Mini-ITX board would be absolutely ideal for creating a small low-price...
by Mariner
Mon Nov 17, 2008 10:41 am
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: AMD Phenom II
Replies: 59
Views: 25773

I'm guessing they're choosing the numbers precisely NOT to confuse consumers, like the old days when an Athlon 3000+ was supposed to be the same speed as a 3GHz Pentium 4, even though it didn't run at 3GHz. Actually, the Athlon XP 3000+ etc ratings weren't meant to represent the equivalent clock sp...
by Mariner
Fri Aug 15, 2008 1:51 am
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: AM2 Media Server/NAS/Seedbox Mobo?
Replies: 1
Views: 2547

Hmm. How about this ASRock one? http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=A780FullHD I've no experience of this particular motherboard but have been happy with ASRock boards in the past. Only thing I'm not too sure about is the Linux support as I understand NVidia generally have better support tha...
by Mariner
Fri Aug 15, 2008 1:39 am
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: AMD 740G chipset
Replies: 13
Views: 10441

The 740G doesn't have the integrated UVD part. If it did, the various companies selling motherboards containing this chipset would be advertising it as such and they don't.
by Mariner
Thu Jun 26, 2008 7:02 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: SDHC raid
Replies: 15
Views: 10677

SDHC raid

Spotted on a different forum:

http://www.photofast.tw/eng/SSD_CR9000.html

Ooh, interesting. :)
by Mariner
Thu Jun 05, 2008 2:09 am
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: mini-itx 780G board
Replies: 128
Views: 94950

That's a very well-featured board and the price sounds pretty reasonable as well. The main area of concern for me would be levels of support for the BIOS. I assume the standard ATI drivers for the chipset will be fine.
by Mariner
Mon May 12, 2008 2:54 am
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Buy 780G mobo now, or wait for 790GX (or something else)?
Replies: 11
Views: 8057

By better I mean any of these: A) significantly better (lower) idle wattage (not likely anytime soon I guess, and I'm not going for Atom or anything similar) B) significantly better IGP 3D performance (Intel perhaps?) C) more intelligent "shutdown-the-discrete-graphics-card-completely" concept (à ...