I've been running this card since August, and have been very impressed with its quietness. I have it in a Bitfenix Prodigy case that is sitting on the left side of my monitor. So the VGA fans are directly up against a vent, but on the far side of the case. All my components are best-of-breed in term...

Hi Phantasmo, - There's no way you need anywhere near 807 watts for that setup. Those online power calculators are ridiculous. A Corsair 520HX would do you just fine, and be much quieter and cheaper, too. That Corsair model is made by SeaSonic, so will be very solid. - You don't need the 24-pin exte...

My testing of a 10% overclocked X2 4200+/Zalman 7700AlCu w/ Nexus mod in my P182 w/ 850RPM FDB Scythes shows very little difference in temps when the filter doors are off. Just opening the main door makes a far bigger difference. I'm not quite done obtaining all the numbers yet, but I do have best a...

One should be aware that the current bios for the Abit IP35 Pro does not fully support the E8x00 line of CPUs. It reports temperatures incorrectly which causes warnings in the bios and any system monitor programs that you have. You can still install Windows, but without accurate temperatures, the b...

I'm also trying to decide between these boards. Do all of the Gigabyte DS3P bios allow you to set the voltage for every fan header independently, depending on current temperature of the CPU/NB/VRM? That's one of the best features of the Abit IP35 Pro. The ability to run any fan header at 6w while i...

jtr3030 - I'm thinking of upgrading my system to something almost identical to yours sometime in the next few weeks. Basically just a different PSU and more HDDs on mine. Please let us (or at least me ) know how it goes.

nick705 wrote:

victorpst wrote: Does the IP35 Pro give a kick start to the fans on power-up before activating the fan control?

Yup - from a cold boot they're all "goosed" at full power before throttling back a second or two later.

So are the fans maxed out briefly during a reboot or resume from standby/hibernation?

Oh wow, I had no idea this board was anything more than vaporware! <drools>

I guess the only big question with it is which big HSFs will fit with the RAM so close.

Nevermind, SMART now explicitly says it's RMA time.

Apparently all the weird noises did have to do with the sector reallocation warnings. The number of reallocated sectors increased each time I heard the buzzing.

I just got a new WD5000KS from NewEgg, along with an Azio eSATA enclosure. I started copying 400GB of DVD rips from my existing 2x250GB Hitachi array to the WD over the eSATA connection. After a few minutes, the drive started making occassional short buzzing noises, sort of like the sound a barber's...

It's safe, but doesn't look normal. It looks like you don't have CnQ enabled properly. My overclocked 4200+ idles at around 35C using a Zalman 7700AlCu that is modfied to use a 120mm Nexus. The BIOS keeps it running at 650rpm until the temp passes 55C, and then the fan goes to full speed. It only ha...

I'd go with a single 7900GT + aftermarket HSF long before going with dual passive 7600GT cards.

SLI/Crossfire is for FPS bragging rights, not quiet performance.

I vaguely recall some people complaining about this mobo's component out quality, when it first came out. I'm not sure whether it has the same problem with s-video, or whether a solution has been found, but if there is a solution, you'll probably find it somewhere in this thread at Anandtech.

A lot of people like the Aspire X-Qpack cases (which look to be a shorter version of the Micro-Fly), although with those, you're stuck with hard HDD mounting. Also, it just about has to be sitting on your desk, much closer to your ears than a floor-standing tower would be. I dunno about the Micro-Fl...

If you can find the RC-540, it's a better one than the RC-541, because the RC-540 only has the mesh screen in front of the intake fan, rather than covering the whole front bezel. Both of them come in multiple versions - one with a 380-watt power supply (of unknown quality), and one without a power s...

Oh, it's on now, buddy! :P Open front panel? Yeah, on the RC-541 version. But I did find a couple places on Froogle, who are still selling the RC-540. It has an unperforated bezel except in front of the intake fan. And no drive suspension, eh? What's this, then? http://www.surfmechanic.com/image/cen...

I love my CoolerMaster Centurion RC-540-SKN1 , so I'm glad I bought an extra one to have on hand before they were discontinued. There's one with a different bezel still available, though. With this case, you bring your own fullsize ATX power supply, your own 120 or 92mm intake fan, and your own pair...

I wouldn't pick an IGP chipset based on graphics speed. None of them are good for playing much of any games. Just pick one to get the features you're looking for. For me, that was DVI, SPDIF, and four SATA ports, so the MSI K8NGM2-FID was what I got. It's been running quite solid for me for several ...

What's wrong with running at 65C? I built a system with this board for my dad a few months back, and it runs solid at 73C.

My MX 610 cordless laser mouse has the whine, sort of like a CRT TV whine, although not as loud. Luckily, I can just turn on my Logitech Z-680 speakers, and the idle hiss from them drowns out everything else in the room.

Aftermarket NB heatsinks will not fit on the K8NGM2-FID. There are capacitors in the way. The only option is to cool it with airflow from the CPU HSF.

the xp-90 doesn't stretch over the nb so air has to bounce out towards it. maybe 7700 stretches over it, providing more direct airpath? The 7700's fins just barely reach the IGP heatsink, and the fan is not directly over the IGP, but it still makes a remarkable difference nonetheless. I used to hav...

My guess is that the 6150LE will be used in boards that skimp just a bit on features and/or included accessories.

On many of the 410/430 boards, there is no southbridge heatsink at all, so I don't think extra cooling capacity for it is all that necessary if it has a small heatsink, like on the MSI K8NGM2-FID. As for the northbridge on the MSI... as I mentioned, a Zalman 7700 on the CPU takes care of keeping it ...

speedfan 4.29 beta 7 shows that sensor too. things is though "nForce" is actually the southbridge, the chip with the black heatsink closest to the sata-connectors, nForce 430. Well, that's good to know. It would mostly explain the results I was getting from the MSI 6100/410 box I built for my dad l...

QuietOC wrote:May I suggest the Biostar Tforce 6100?

No DVI on that one, or any other 6100 boards.

I built a system around the Tforce last year. It only has a couple advantages over the MSI - vcore adjustment and price. The MSI is much better in the features department, and MSI also made a better layout.

I've been running the MSI 6150 board since the beginning of the year, and it's been pretty good for me. Lack of SpeedFan support sucks, but the BIOS has pretty decent control over the CPU fan speed. I actually like using the BIOS better than a Windows program to control the fan. If you need to check...

My PC has three 250GB Hitachi T7K250 SATA drives. One is used as the boot disk, and the other two are in RAID 0 via an nForce 430 southbridge. The array is only used for storing my ripped DVD collection, which is only accessed when I'm viewing movies in Media Center. The problem is that Windows XP i...

The bigger question in my mind is how easy is it to replace the fan with something quieter. Zalman fans are reasonably quiet at low speed, but they certainly can't match a Nexus.

The VF900 looks like it uses an 80mm fan. If so, there's hope.

Sudhian did a roundup of VGA coolers , which included the VF900-Cu, VF700-Cu, and AC Accelero X2. Quick summary: the VF900-Cu smacked the crap out of the other two coolers, regardless of whether the fan was at high or low speed. The roundup unfortunately left unanswered the question of whether the n...