I actually ran something like a Kill-A-Watt on a lot of appliances in my apartment. Found something interesting. Here in the Southeast USA (I was in NC at the time, but now I'm in VA), the A/C and the washer/dryer amounted to over 80% of my electricity bill in the summer... and the heat and washer/d...

Some people actually use them for WORK. Performing computational mechanics for my research, I can use every scrap of speed I can find. Short of being able to afford an Itanium2, I'm building a pair of P4 2.8Cs... and expect to see the 30% improvement over my P4 2.26B (when you measure computational ...

Saw this review of the Thermalright XP-120 at SystemCooling. Yes, its supports a 120mm fan. yes its huge. Its made of all aluminum, however... and supposedly weighs 250 grams less than the SP-94 (so it can utilize the standard P4 clips!). Interesting. No reviews yet... although, the people at System...

Eh. I tried some benchmarks on a P4 3.2EE on an Intel D875PBZ, with and without hyperthreading (we're making "workstations" for our computational group here at VT). Didn't see a whole lot of difference between the two with XP and NONE with Win2K. It MIGHT have made XP a tiny bit snappier when severe...

Dumb question: at the supplied link (thanks, Edward Ng!), they come with a 3-pin motherboard connector. I've heard various comments about plugging in 120mm fans into 3pin connectors.... would it be ok? Obviously, this is nice in that one could use a Zalman Fanmate... but would the current draw be to...

Of course, Dothan is rumored to put out 35W or so. I would have NO problem if they doubled the thermal output to put it in desktops (if there was a commensurate increase in speed). A lot of SPCRers have pretty quiet systems (without horrible difficulty) for 70W processors. Its the 130W (or 150W like...

The Antec True430 isn't horribly loud.... but its definitely above what the people here would call "quiet". Check out the "recommended" PSUs here if you really want something quiet. (if you're just looking for "quiet enough", use an ATX tester and see how loud it is) As far as the Zalman vs Panaflo,...

hey macklin01 -- i see you're doing CFD. I do a lot of computational solid mechanics (penetration/impact simulations mostly), so I completely understand the "running 24/7 for days at a time". I would recommend you download MBM and watch your temperatures..... some people still see the temperature "r...

Unless you're a compulsive upgrade-r (and you like to pull out your components often), I think this would be great. I have a 3700AMB and while I like it quite a bit, its actually a bigger case than I need. I was turned off by the standard 2600AMB because of the rear 80mm... but this fixes that. I cu...

Both the Antec SLK3700s (AMB and BQE) have front 120mm fans and dust filters. Mine stays very clean compared to my Antec 1080B (with the side fan). With the Sonata, I would be concerned with the "Antec" holes.... but others may be able to give you a better idea (since I haven't personally used one).

I personally have a "standard" Antec SLK3700AMB in my "quiet" server here. There are a few "problems" that can easily be remedied by elbow grease: 1) the exhaust grills are restrictive: cutting them out and using a wire grill helps. 2) the purple fan "holders" only accept 25mm thick fans--so you can...

Personal opinion: I haven't built a hundred quiet PCs like some of the gurus around here... but I've probably built a dozen "quieter" ones. The BIGGEST noise contributors always seem to be hard drives and the CPU cooler. So: the SLK900A is fine, as is the CNPS7000A. I've used both (actually, I've us...

One note on multiple CPUs: this is completely assuming that all of the programs you want to run are fully parallelizable and you have fast enough "cross talk" between the CPUs to ensure that information that is being processed in one CPU is ready for the other CPU (if/when it needs it). I'm definite...

Try the Samsung SP1213N... the 8mb cache version of the SP1203N. They can be found at Newegg (if you're in the US). At least as quiet as the Barracuda V (and most would agree, quieter)... and its approaching the speed of the WD SEs (oh, and nix that off your list--if it doesn't whine mercilessly out...

Just checked the prices on newegg.com for fun. P4 3.2GHz extreme edition retail $1045 Ahtlon 64 3200+ including HSF and ASUS motherboard $529 I just can't see any good reason to buy the extreme edition at the price difference. Pointless comparison. The P4EE is MUCH faster than the plain old Athlon6...

darkroom: I haven't used one of the HighPoint SATA enclosures... although I'm seriously thinking about getting one for data storage. As far as how "quiet" they are... they don't have a fan, so they aren't any louder than the hard drive itself. That has benefits AND detractors, though--I wouldn't wan...

darkroom: yeah, most of the external SATA enclosures I've seen have been horrifically expensive... at least the ones that support standard SATA cables. The HighPoint version (seen here at Newegg) seems to be MUCH cheaper. They even have a "bracket" that switches your internal SATA port to a firewire...

darkroom: ever thought about one of those external serial ATA solutions that HighPoint offers? Its just a PCI card with an external port (it actually takes a FireWire cable) that runs a drive in an external enclosure... supposedly throughput is 1.5Gbps (standard SATA). The enclosures DO require a po...

Mr. Zed: I recently built a Celeron Tualatin 1.3 system... and I couldn't be happier. I personally used a Thermalright AX-7 (which can be had for around $15 new) with a Panaflo L1A--its barely audible. This coupled with an Intel D815EEA2U motherboard (who needs overclocking for a machine of this typ...

I recently put an AX-7 in my quiet rig, errr, twice (don't ask). The first time, I actually followed the directions (its a PIII-S with the heatspreader) on Thermalright's website. They claim that you should "clean" the heatsink with the thermal interface material.... then you just put a grain-of-ric...

Just a bump--I'm thinking of ordering a pair of NMB fans from Dorothy (hardwired to 5V), and I'd love to know a way to decouple them (since the EAR mounts appear to not work).

Anyone tried the "fan sticks" from Directron?

techie cool --> if you're going with the Fortron PSU, you might want to consider ordering from www.directron.com . They'll let you "swap out" the stock power supply for the Fortron (and actually take 6 bucks off the price!). that way, you don't have to "eat" the cost of an Antec PSU.

pingu... yes, i'm aware... and if you actually get into it, the P-M is 1MB of L2 + 32K of L1. :) But I was speaking, in general terms, that its a LOT more than we're used to seeing. :) Harry Azol... yes, I put one of the new Toshibas in my dad's T40. His battery life also went down by approximately ...

Actually, what I personally want to see is a Pentium-M in a small-form factor. My Dell i600M laptop has a P-M 1.3, and I'm very impressed by computational speed (although, the laptop hard drive is, ahem, slow). I would love to have a Shuttle-sized box with a Pentium-M, a decent hard drive, and with ...

Just a hint (in case you're interested in the 3700):

http://www.directron.com sells the 3700 with or without a PSU--OR, it will mount a PSU of your choice in the 3700. BUT, you'll have to search for it... for some reason, its hard to find on the main site.

Here's a little info I picked up from a friend: He has a CoolerMaster ATC-620--the steel sided (read: cheaper, $90 at Directron), ATX PSU, desktop case that takes a Micro-ATX board. He chose the VIA C3M266 motherboard--an interesting board btw.... a Socket 370 designed for the Via C3, but it will ta...

No, you're not. :) Also, I've seen several really nice cases that had only low-profile slots... which definitely limits what you can put in it. Also, several of the cases are ridiculously expensive. Two possibilities: The Lian-Li PC9300 (does take a SFX PSU, though).... and the Coolermaster ATC-620 ...

Beyonder: If money really IS an issue (it is for me too, I'm taking the $628 I'm getting back in taxes to make it), then I would consider getting a Tualatin Celeron. Specifically a 1.1A (and try to overclock it), or just get a 1.3 and leave it stock (or undervolted). They offer NEARLY the performanc...

Thanks for all the help, guys. :) I'm still planning on going with the Intel motherboard--I've just had really good luck with stability. For most of what I do (computationally-intensive work), stability is key--so overclocking is out. When your machine runs at 100% CPU and 80% RAM capacity for a wee...

Has anyone use this fan: http://www.svc.com/arcoolarfant.html?

I am currently looking at putting a Thermalright SK-7 on a P3-S 1.26... and I'd prefer a fan with RPM monitoring/throttling. The specs indicate something VERY similar to the Panaflo "M".

Any advice/suggestions/experiences appreciated!