Search found 47 matches

by SoopahMan
Wed Jul 29, 2009 8:13 pm
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: Questions over High Performace Video Card for an HTPC
Replies: 14
Views: 7351

I picked up a run-of-the-mill Radeon HD 4890 (the Diamond, non-overclocked version). Stock cooler on it is LOUD at boot but then I don't hear a peep from it - even after gaming for a few hours. I don't know how it manages to be so silent for such a massive card (the thing is a massive beast... pictu...
by SoopahMan
Wed Jul 29, 2009 5:14 pm
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: VGA card power dissipation
Replies: 136
Views: 338046

Yes, the Radeon HD 4890 seems to be the current efficiency winner, at least if your goal is playing modern games... which if it isn't... why are you buying a 3D card? I went over the performance numbers and power consumption for about 80 different cards on various review sites, and found not only th...
by SoopahMan
Wed Jul 29, 2009 4:14 pm
Forum: Power Supplies
Topic: How much will a 300w power supply run?
Replies: 284
Views: 966052

I'm using an Antec Phantom 350, which oddly enough if you google brings you to THIS site because Antec discontinued it! Which is cruel given how amazing this part has been. You can't even visit the support page for it on their site anymore - they've put a Javascript redirect on it to their homepage....
by SoopahMan
Sun Sep 16, 2007 9:02 pm
Forum: Green Computing
Topic: White power reduction
Replies: 11
Views: 11592

This is an important issue with LCDs. Do not use black screensavers - they aren't saving anything! You do save 1watt, but much more importantly you preserve the life of the liquid crystals, leading you to not throw that monitor - or laptop - away as soon. That has a very significant savings to the e...
by SoopahMan
Sun Sep 16, 2007 7:37 pm
Forum: Green Computing
Topic: is power management bad for your monitor?
Replies: 20
Views: 15821

This is not true for LCD monitors. LCD monitors are basically 'instant on' and therefore there is no state change for anything in the monitor and therefore almost no wear and tear from turning on and off. Whoever sold you this was selling you "Whatever's new is perfect," and just like last decade's...
by SoopahMan
Sun Sep 16, 2007 6:10 pm
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: GeForce 8800 Ultra - great silent card potential?
Replies: 20
Views: 12629

Follow-up: The price has in fact fallen - $595.19 from that link above.

I realize the card is expensive, but it seems it's also the most efficient. If I want to think in terms of being green rather than minimizing costs, it still seems like my best bet.
by SoopahMan
Sun Sep 16, 2007 5:50 pm
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Considering a new (budget) PC
Replies: 44
Views: 15372

Careful with the Sonata. Had a friend buy that and put some higher end parts in it, cooked the hard drive like an oven. It's kind of an oven design in there. Pretty though. YMMV
by SoopahMan
Sun Sep 16, 2007 5:44 pm
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Noisy LCD Monitors (high-pitched backlight whining)
Replies: 17
Views: 17218

That means it's broken. Send it back for a replacement.

I had a TV that didn't whine for a year and a half. I moved it without padding it well enough and it got smashed about. Then it whined.
by SoopahMan
Sun Sep 16, 2007 5:25 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: 740ADFD Raptor 74GB vs Spinpoint T166 HD321KJ in Antec Solo
Replies: 19
Views: 9212

RAID0 is a contested solution for single-user desktop systems. StorageReview.com has a lengthy article on why they think it's a dumb idea. I used to use RAID0 with 2 36gb Raptors and noticed an improvement in speed especially when loading Photoshop, but the experts say I didn't. So, word to the wise...
by SoopahMan
Sun Sep 16, 2007 5:21 pm
Forum: Off Topic
Topic: Anyone measure their computer usage
Replies: 5
Views: 4347

Look around. Sites like Anandtech already do this for you, with a lot of free resources you don't have.
by SoopahMan
Sun Sep 16, 2007 5:20 pm
Forum: Fans and Control
Topic: Intel QST?
Replies: 2
Views: 2058

What temps are you getting? You can probably adjust the boundaries of when the CPU fan kicks into maximum. Mine happens to be done in BIOS.

Are you overclocking? If you are, stop that.
by SoopahMan
Sun Sep 16, 2007 5:17 pm
Forum: Cases and Damping
Topic: P182 Biggest GPU ?
Replies: 13
Views: 5997

The P180/182 is freaking massive. If you've never seen one in person I bet it's much larger than you think. And the P182 adds even more steel so I bet it's much, much heavier than you think. With the VGA vent gone I doubt there's a graphics card on the market that won't fit in that case. By the way ...
by SoopahMan
Wed May 23, 2007 9:22 am
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: GeForce 8800 Ultra - great silent card potential?
Replies: 20
Views: 12629

Are you finding that ATITool is the best underclocking option despite it being an nVidia card? Any worries that "ATI"Tool could mess up an nV card?
by SoopahMan
Tue May 22, 2007 2:20 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Recommend a Silent Mouse and Keyboard?
Replies: 481
Views: 816819

Surely an optical mouse uses more energy - I mean afterall, a ball mouse is actually getting free electricity - you're providing it. Moving the mouse means your arm is physically turning the wheels and creating the electrical signal that ultimately tells the computer what your mouse is doing. The op...
by SoopahMan
Tue May 22, 2007 2:15 am
Forum: Off Topic
Topic: How Do I Set the Priority Settings for Mouse, Again?
Replies: 6
Views: 3968

The mouse doesn't have its own process, it's one of many items on your computer governed by a driver, and drivers are represented in Task Manager as "Kernel Time." You need to enable Kernel time separately in the View menu. If you see the red bar spiking frequently you've got a runaway driver proble...
by SoopahMan
Tue May 22, 2007 12:18 am
Forum: Quiet Prebuilt, SFF and Barebones Systems
Topic: Specifying/configuring a media server
Replies: 25
Views: 14286

TomsHardware.com is one of the worst hardware review sites online. Stop wasting your time there, it will help you a lot. I've read reviews of theirs on hardware I've had in my system and the details they miss or dwell on are ridiculous, and often just factually incorrect. For hard drives look at Sto...
by SoopahMan
Mon May 21, 2007 9:42 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Best 500GB SATA
Replies: 10
Views: 6419

alfred wrote:I'm using 8 HD501LJ and 2 WD5000AAKS
Good god that's a lot of drives! Can I ask what you use to hold them all? I've been looking for an enclosure for a 5-drive setup (actively cooled by a quiet fan ideally, especially with an air filtered intake).
by SoopahMan
Sat May 19, 2007 12:32 pm
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: GeForce 8800 Ultra - great silent card potential?
Replies: 20
Views: 12629

What's the point of buying $800+ card if you are going to undervolt/underclock it and therefore lose all of the performance perks? Well, that's the beauty of hardware - sure it costs $800 right now . But people clicking the below link in 6 months will see a dramatically lower price: http://www.goog...
by SoopahMan
Fri May 18, 2007 6:40 pm
Forum: The Silent Front
Topic: Is there a use for Peltiers in Silent computing?
Replies: 35
Views: 30634

SoopahMan - yes you can use it to generate electricity but what for? ... peltiers can be used as a voltage source like batteries, but here we are solely interested in cooling right? For keeping things cool! If the electricity that comes out is fed back into the system to power it, then you reduce t...
by SoopahMan
Fri May 18, 2007 6:33 pm
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: Western Digital drives: Raptor 74 & Caviar SE 250
Replies: 64
Views: 63795

I have a 74gb and 150gb Raptor running side by side right now. The 150gb is audible when busy, while the 74gb is almost impossible to hear in my Antec P180. That doesn't mean it's silent, it means the massive steel enclosure that is the P180 blocks out the 74gb one well but the 150gb is just a littl...
by SoopahMan
Fri May 18, 2007 6:07 pm
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: GeForce 8800 Ultra - great silent card potential?
Replies: 20
Views: 12629

GeForce 8800 Ultra - great silent card potential?

The GeForce 8800 Ultra is one of those 2-slot cards that doesn't LOOK quiet, but I ran into the following article: http://techreport.com/reviews/2007q2/geforce-8800ultra/index.x?pg=1 Which notes, "Nvidia says the Ultra packs a new revision of G80 silicon that allows for higher clock speeds in a simi...
by SoopahMan
Thu Jan 18, 2007 9:29 pm
Forum: The Silent Front
Topic: Is there a use for Peltiers in Silent computing?
Replies: 35
Views: 30634

I've read up more on Peltier chips and found the primary reason they generally aren't used: they're inefficient. If you have this big GPU heating itself up towards disaster and put a Peltier chip on it, what you're implicitly not doing is putting a heatsink and fan on it - and it turns out most Pelt...
by SoopahMan
Thu Jan 18, 2007 1:53 pm
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: Reduce GPU fan speed?
Replies: 19
Views: 12269

I ultimately used RivaTuner to solve this once I figured out the impressively confusing Profiles feature. I'm yet to figure out what appears to be the other Profiles feature that will launch settings automatically in response to temps - right now I just manually switch on the Launcher. If I had the ...
by SoopahMan
Thu Jan 18, 2007 1:38 pm
Forum: General Gallery
Topic: P180 Success Story
Replies: 8
Views: 9556

Just a follow-up to this old thread - first, anyone else build a system with a similar plan? My system continues to run nicely. I've since moved to Los Angeles and even in 110F this minimal cooling solution did the trick. The worst it's gotten is 43C on the hard drives and 80C on the graphics card, ...
by SoopahMan
Thu Sep 01, 2005 10:14 pm
Forum: Cases and Damping
Topic: P180 + external HDs = A64 X2 system 100% fanless at idle
Replies: 11
Views: 5327

If you've got an nVidia card, the nVidia drivers can manipulate the clock speed and fan speeds for you automatically.

You can modify what fan speeds the drivers select with an additional tool, "ExperTool".
by SoopahMan
Sun Aug 28, 2005 9:50 pm
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Upgrading current computer...just want some second opinions.
Replies: 13
Views: 5011

I'm running a DFI nForce4 LanParty and its heat is a non-issue. That same board will let you skip bothering to get a soundcard; the risers it uses for the sound ports combined with nVidia's sound (even without SoundStorm) gives me the best audio quality and performance I've ever had. Its primary adv...
by SoopahMan
Sat Aug 27, 2005 9:23 pm
Forum: The Silent Front
Topic: Is there a use for Peltiers in Silent computing?
Replies: 35
Views: 30634

Peltiers are really making the rounds after that Utah science fair article hit Slashdot... . As long as I have the eyes of some people who know something about Peltiers can anyone riddle me this? Would it be possible to use the massive heat created by a GPU to generate electricity? Peltier chips hav...
by SoopahMan
Sat Aug 27, 2005 9:17 pm
Forum: The Silent Front
Topic: Intel Blows Hot for Cold
Replies: 4
Views: 3839

I slam Intel a lot for the awful 197 Watt sucking Pentium 4 Extreme Edition, but really they're a company that tried to make a highly efficient CPU (Itanium) and failed, and so went with clock speeds and anti-competitive practices (Dell payoffs) scraping to survive. Itanium is still their ace in the...
by SoopahMan
Sat Aug 27, 2005 8:31 pm
Forum: General Gallery
Topic: P180 Success Story
Replies: 8
Views: 9556

Natural Convection and Hotter Cards I continue to not be a Thermal Engineer and can check in with my dad again, but this ought to accomplish 2 things, I suspect: 1) Increase the rate of flow of air up the chamber. 2) Increase the temperature of that air as it passes over the remaining parts - CPU, ...
by SoopahMan
Sat Aug 27, 2005 7:58 pm
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: Reduce GPU fan speed?
Replies: 19
Views: 12269

Start by monitoring the temps to see what you get without messing with the fan. If you have an nForce board you can do so with nVMonitor - it's a part of nTune, which you can download for free from nVidia/drivers.