+1 for not removing the fan - even a small amount of airflow will dramatically increase the cooling effect on the PSU, so I'd bear it until you can get a new fan. Unless you have money to burn a PicoPSU probably isn't worth it (and might struggle), you should be able to get it pretty quiet with a fa...

First off I'd point to this thread , which gives a pretty good idea of how much you can actually get on a smallish PSU. I would think that it should run OK, since none of the components are overtly power-hungry. However, I have had bad experience with the Smartpower PSUs, and have had 3 fail on me i...

I had a similar thought a while back, and also considered simply replacing the whole of the heatsink with a copper replica (but then gave up on it because it really wasn't worth the hassle). TBH I don't see any reason why adding more heatsinks would have an adverse effect, so long as you made sure t...

As long as it doesn't idle in the high forties or reach the fifties on a regular basis it should be safe enough - hard drives are pretty resilient - at the worst you'll lose a few months of the lifetime, at which point you'll most likely have upgraded anyway.

Looks pretty promising - however the two platters will probably increase the noise level, if only slightly. Then again it will probably still be lower than that of comparable 3.5" drives. The main issue I would have with the drive would be price - I wouldn't expect it to retail for anything near wha...

If you have a search around SPCR you'll see SilenX don't have a good reputation around here, and from experience I can say that their fans perform nowhere near the stated specs, both in noise and CFM (they're also pretty brittle). And ~10CFM at 23dBa does seem pretty dubious for a 40mm fan. What exa...

Looks pretty good - am I right in thinking this does a similar job to the attenuator available with the T-balancer to smooth out PWM into a more analogue voltage signal? If so that's exactly the kind of thing we need more of (IMO) to fix PWM controllers. Do you have any plans to market these, and if...

Theoretically a 38mm fan should be able to handle the increased pressure of having to force air between the close fins of a heatsink better than a 25mm fan. I use an L1A on my XP-120 and it seems to work well.

If you can get hold of a 200GB lappy drive it will be damn expensive - you would be much better off going for the good old 3.5". As far as drives go for 200GB there seems two be two choices - WD or Samsung. I can't say that I'm unhappy with my WD, but in all honesty the seeks were killing me with lo...

Well these things just keep getting smaller and smaller - first nano-ITX and now this. The technology is really cramming it in, and tbh I would not be at all surprised if in 5 years time PC's are half the size they are now - who knows, MATX could become the new set size standard .

Neil's advice is just what I'd suggest; only other option I can think of is just checking connections (hey it's happened to me )

I wouldn't think it would be an advisable idea if you wanted it to perform as reliably as it normally does - from what I've read, modular cables can have quite detrimental effects on the voltage due to the resistance added on the connector. It would be useful for a cable tidy point of view, but then...

I know of DB, and would order from her but TBH the single panaflo I want is dirt cheap from jab-tech, and plus I need to get the other stuff anyways. If it fails DB will be my first port of call (although she doesn't stock 80mm L1A's). If you can find me somewhere I can get a quiet 80mm, two 120mm a...

Out of the cases you listed I would say the Sonata II is out for anyone except those with a very compact WC system; I have enough pains fitting my components in there without the added problems of a rad, pump and res. The CM Stacker would be my main choice for any kind of high end system, since you ...

Alrighty thanks, as long as it works well I'm not massive bothered about age . I've heard good things about their shipping to the UK, so I guess I'll be ordering sometime soon.

I am thinking of ordering a bunch of fans from Jab-Tech (Yate Loons and 80mm L1A's) and would just like to know the experiences of those who have ordered fans from there. Are they good quality? Is delivery prompt? I've become cautious when ordering from new places now after a few duff experiences. T...

As has already been said, the Seasonic is a great PSU, and you should only need a 430 to power that system (my PC manages to run fine on a 450W PSU). The 7700 may be something to change unless the fans are highly undervolted - perhaps an aftermarket HS with interchangeable fans such as the XP-90c or...

The fact that the PC boots seems to indicate that the components are working..for the most part. Are you sure of the integrity of the installer disk? I have experienced problems with an install (not XP but the theory applies) when there was a a smudge on the disk :?. It may seem dumb, but it might w...

After trawling through more reviews, it seems that some of the features on the ZS do not work as they are made out to, and so from this I am drawing closer to the X-Fi - although it is a more expensive card I would rather pay for something that will last, especially as I am planning to buy a 7.1 spe...

Ah I know why I thought the ZS was more expensive, I was looking at the platinum edition . Well I may go with the ZS from that point of view, I'll have to see what else I need to get in the near future. Thanks

I am drawn towards the X-Fi, as it's the cheaper card, but I would prefer to pay the extra £10 if the ZS will give any better quality.

If I were you, I'd step up the graphics card to a 6800 - for the cost you'll see the difference in games, and it could probably get by with a ZM80D as long as you make sure it has some airflow. Also which Athlon are you thinking of buying?

Well, I finally have enough cash to get a soundcard for my rig, and have narrowed the shortlist down to two Creative Audigy 2 ZS Creative X-Fi Xtreme Music Both of these have very similar specs, but the ZS costs slightly more. From the reviews I have read I have seen mixed sentiments, some say the X...

If you want the best current upgrade potential would also say A - I'm 99% sure some of the AMD DDR-II processors (dual core too) are coming out in the 3rd/4th quarter of 2006, so early 2007 may be a prime time to upgrade. A 754 mobo would just then draw more funds later on when you upgrade your cpu ...

I have to agree and go with the Ninja. Although the 9500 looks cool, from what I've heard it's actually one of the loudest Zalman coolers, and besides, the Ninja is just freaking awesome .

I'm not too sure about the sensor myself, but I guess it just has to wait until I get an Aerogate and have some kind of a third party measurement to give me more accurate temps. Thanks guys.

Do you have good airflow in the case? One reason why it could be ramping up is if the temps in the case are causing it to become relatively warm as it runs. As for the header, I'm not too hot on MBM - maybe it isn't monitoring the header you have connected the fan to?

I am going to try undervolting as soon as I have time, and the base of the HS does not appear warped anwyhere that would adversely affect performance. The AS5 I am using should be pretty pure, as I've only used it three times, and both surfaces were cleaned using Arctic Surface Purifier. Edit - A mi...

That would suit the Ninja perfectly - the P180 (my dream case ) has way enough fan mounting options to run the Ninja fanless, although maybe not with such a hot chip. Still, I doubt you'll hear much from it once you're done. Good luck and happy cooling .

I would suspect some of it is to do with xmas, I bought a HD for a friend a fortnight ago and had no troubles finding one. I've also heard tell of other components being out of stock recently, so it seems to correlate with the festive season. I'd take a harddrive over a pair of socks any day .