Search found 332 matches

by frank2003
Fri Feb 27, 2009 5:24 pm
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Zotac 9300 mini-ITX
Replies: 2
Views: 2928

Zotac 9300 mini-ITX

The Egg just listed this board:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813500022

Would love to see comparisons between it and the Intel G45 mini-itx board.
by frank2003
Sun Feb 22, 2009 8:49 am
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Undervolting program that I can run as a windows service
Replies: 7
Views: 4309

I've been running CrystalCPUID as a scheduled job that starts at system boot up time. It is set up to run as administrator. You may want to give it a shot with RMClock.

When setting up the job, just make sure you uncheck the option to kill the job if it's running longer than some amount time.
by frank2003
Sat Feb 21, 2009 7:34 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Slimline DVD drives, inherently quieter?
Replies: 11
Views: 6282

With slim drives it's hit-or-miss when it comes to quiet operation. I have a Sony/NEC Optiarc slim DVD burner (IDE) and it's very quiet. Recently I bought a Lite-On slim DVD burner (SATA) and that thing was noisy as hell. I found the noise level unacceptable even when I was watching DVD movies from ...
by frank2003
Fri Feb 13, 2009 6:05 am
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: Apex MI-008: A Cheap Quiet mini-ITX Case?
Replies: 62
Views: 63717

I just finished this mod and turned an external USB IR receiver into an internal unit. It involved some soldering to extend the IR receiver module (that's the 3-pin device with dome shaped lens) and the status LED (a total of 4 wires - Vcc, Gnd, IR module signal out, and LED out), enlarging the hole...
by frank2003
Tue Feb 10, 2009 5:07 am
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Mini-ITX: MSI IM-GM45 or Intel DG45FC (unusual perspective)
Replies: 12
Views: 8133

I don't have experience with turning off the IGP in BIOS. But I can say that the IGP on this board could be powered down to a state that the power consumption dropped by as much as 5W. I observed this when I set the power management in the OS to power off the display when the system was idle. The po...
by frank2003
Mon Feb 09, 2009 10:12 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: What's everyone's favorite 1TB drive?
Replies: 37
Views: 18278

In terms of quiet operation, I think Seagate had seen better days with their 'Cuda-IV's (I owned both the 80GB and 160GB varieties). I believe they were the first to introduce FDB (fluid dynamic bearing) drives. I was a buyer of Seagates for a long time (up to 750GB) before I switched to WD after re...
by frank2003
Mon Feb 09, 2009 10:01 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: What's everyone's favorite 1TB drive?
Replies: 37
Views: 18278

I've been happy with 4 WD10EACS drives purchased from 3/2008-9/2008. These are all 4-platter models. I've just purchased a 3-platter WD10EADS. Time will tell if it will hold up. Reading through this thread, I can say that almost anyone who upgraded drives over the years is likely to come across one ...
by frank2003
Sat Feb 07, 2009 7:32 am
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: Apex MI-008: A Cheap Quiet mini-ITX Case?
Replies: 62
Views: 63717

I discovered a potentially cool mod to this case: The green power LED behind the power switch can be removed and inserted into a socket conveniently located on the piece of clear plastic on the right side of the case that transmits light. So you can get you power light on the right side. But that's ...
by frank2003
Wed Feb 04, 2009 6:29 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: WD Green Power WD10EADS vs WD10EACS
Replies: 7
Views: 9143

FWIW, Tom's gets lower power consumption with the newer 1TB drive. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/hdd-terabyte-1tb,2077-13.html Thanks for the link. The idle consumption numbers reported by Tom's for both the WD10EACS and WD10EADS are in line with the specs. So I'm really puzzled as to why I'm...
by frank2003
Wed Feb 04, 2009 1:45 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: WD Green Power WD10EADS vs WD10EACS
Replies: 7
Views: 9143

I'm curious, what did you do with the old drive? My old drives that are "unfit" for 24/7 online uses are relegated to off-line/archiving duties. I put them in a disk draw/caddy system on a server; they are brought online only on a need-to basis. Here's an example of a draw/caddy system (you need on...
by frank2003
Wed Feb 04, 2009 1:27 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: WD Green Power WD10EADS vs WD10EACS
Replies: 7
Views: 9143

Re: WD Green Power WD10EADS vs WD10EACS

Vicotnik wrote:The current version of WD10EACS also has three platters, so the amount of cache is the only difference really.
That's interesting. I thought WD10EADS replaced the WD10EACS. Any idea when the WD10EACS/16MB changed from 4 platters to 3?
by frank2003
Wed Feb 04, 2009 10:06 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: WD Green Power WD10EADS vs WD10EACS
Replies: 7
Views: 9143

WD Green Power WD10EADS vs WD10EACS

WD10EADS is the updated version of the old 1TB model (WD10EACS). On paper the new model uses 3 platters vs 4, 32MB vs 16MB cache, is supposed to draw less power, and runs cooler and quieter. So it's a better drive in all respects. So with great excitement I replaced my WD10EACS (from a retail kit WD...
by frank2003
Tue Feb 03, 2009 11:56 am
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Anandtech - "NVIDIA's Ion Platform: Performance Preview
Replies: 34
Views: 14823

From my recent experience with Intel's flag ship IGP, the G45, I can't help but to say that I'm not optimistic that the Atom based on the Intel chipset can provide a better solution than the Ion. The reason is that Intel will only support Vista and won't support XP for their IGP in terms of hardware...
by frank2003
Sat Jan 31, 2009 4:28 am
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Anandtech: NVIDIA's Ion Platform (Atom+GeForce 9400M)
Replies: 47
Views: 32965

Intel insists Atom only for Intel chipsets, does not want to share nVidia's Ion Update: "There is nothing preventing vendors from using the Ion platform. We sell Atom as a stand-alone processor, or as package with chipset," said Bill Calder, an Intel spokesman, in an e-mail sent to InternetNews.com...
by frank2003
Fri Jan 23, 2009 5:59 am
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: Apex MI-008: A Cheap Quiet mini-ITX Case?
Replies: 62
Views: 63717

From experience the Intel stock low profile HSF that comes with the Celeron 440 and Dual Core E5200 will fit inside a case with 60mm interior space with about 3mm to spare (e.g. Casetronic 2699), and will definitely not fit in a case with 50mm interior space (e.g. Silverstone ML02/LC19). According t...
by frank2003
Sun Jan 18, 2009 7:45 am
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: Zotac GeForce 8200-ITX WiFi: A Compact AM2 Solution
Replies: 65
Views: 43120

Re: How much power is required to run this board anyway?

Am I the only one here who thinks that a 350w power recommendation for a mini-ITX system is a bit steep? Tech support's job is not to sell products. Anyone with the right mind will not build a mini-ITX system using this board if it really requires this recommended power supply. So the marketing fol...
by frank2003
Sun Jan 18, 2009 7:32 am
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: Apex MI-008: A Cheap Quiet mini-ITX Case?
Replies: 62
Views: 63717

One glaring omission under the "Pro" column: It accepts full height 5.25" ODD :)

This is one of the few, if not the only one, inexpensive, good looking, compact mini-ITX cases that accept full height ODD. It's perfect for housing a 5.25" Blu-ray drive and was one of the reasons I bought it.
by frank2003
Sun Jan 18, 2009 7:18 am
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: Apex MI-008: A Cheap Quiet mini-ITX Case?
Replies: 62
Views: 63717

Great review. I have this case and have found the PSU fan to be completely ineffective in removing the heat from the case. I don't feel much heat coming out of the exhaust vent. I read somewhere that the fan actually turns off under low load but I have not verified this. I didn't know you could put ...
by frank2003
Sun Jan 11, 2009 1:27 pm
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Say Goodbye to Abit
Replies: 26
Views: 11850

It's indeed bad news to see Abit finally bowing out. But didn't they disappear for a while and was reincarnated as a different company? I knew Abit back in the old days of P-III dually boards. Their VP6 was the board against which all other duallies were judged. IRRC they were the only company darin...
by frank2003
Sun Jan 11, 2009 5:28 am
Forum: Fans and Control
Topic: Where to buy orignal FanMate?
Replies: 2
Views: 2198

I did search for 'FanMate' and got endless results for FanMate 2. It didn't occur to me the original model was called 'FanMate 1'! Who would have thunk it? :oops:

Thanks for pointing that out.
by frank2003
Sun Jan 11, 2009 5:11 am
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: New 8200 mini-itx board
Replies: 12
Views: 7066

One would assume support for HybridSLI also means support for HybridPower. But that's not the case. While the 8200 supports HybridPower, the 9300 does not. I recall reading somewhere the 9300 could be made to support HybridPower, but as a special option available only for OEM box makers. So this fea...
by frank2003
Sat Jan 10, 2009 8:04 am
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: New 8200 mini-itx board
Replies: 12
Views: 7066

Story from hothardware:

http://hothardware.com/News/ZOTAC%2DAnn ... DPlatform/

It supports HybridSLI but too bad nvida dropped support for HybridPower after their AMD 8200/8300 chipset.
by frank2003
Sat Jan 10, 2009 6:00 am
Forum: CPU Cooling
Topic: Looking for a quiet CPU cooler that will fit a small desktop
Replies: 5
Views: 2721

You may have some luck in quieting the system with a fan controller like the FanMate if you don't ever plan on doing anything CPU intensive with this box. If your work requires running tasks that use even 50% of the CPU (i.e. equivalent of 100% usage on one core), then I'd advise that you don't wast...
by frank2003
Sat Jan 10, 2009 5:37 am
Forum: Fans and Control
Topic: Where to buy orignal FanMate?
Replies: 2
Views: 2198

Where to buy orignal FanMate?

I'm a big fan of the old FanMate. I recently bought some new FanMate II's and don't really like them. They are bigger and more cumbersome to connect (the original model has a slimmer shape and has a cleaner in-line connection design).

Any idea who's still selling the old model?
by frank2003
Sat Jan 10, 2009 5:16 am
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: New 8200 mini-itx board
Replies: 12
Views: 7066

. Why is it that only a few (expensive) boards have a full size PCI-E slot. I wish the board makers would realize there really are people who want to put a better graphics card on these boards instead of using whatever onboard one is there. Absolutely right. I hope also for more mini itx mb with pc...
by frank2003
Sat Jan 10, 2009 5:02 am
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: Zotac GeForce 8200-ITX WiFi: A Compact AM2 Solution
Replies: 65
Views: 43120

Also for those looking for an Intel-based solution, we'll have our 9300-ITX WiFi next month with PCIe x16 and an MSRP of $139.99. This is great news. I've been waiting for ECS to release their 9300 mini-itx board. It sounds like you guys may beat them to market. From the specs the products sound si...
by frank2003
Thu Jan 08, 2009 5:21 am
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: Zotac GeForce 8200-ITX WiFi: A Compact AM2 Solution
Replies: 65
Views: 43120

How does the DVI-HDMI adapter put audio onto the HDMI cable? The HDMI adapter is not what puts audio on the cable. With most IGP solutions that support HDMI and/or HDCP (the latter required for Blu-ray playback) they also come with a built-in HDMI audio chip that can mix the audio stream with video...
by frank2003
Wed Jan 07, 2009 6:59 pm
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: Zotac GeForce 8200-ITX WiFi: A Compact AM2 Solution
Replies: 65
Views: 43120

Mike/Lawrence:

p5:
Video memory was set to 128MB and SpeedStep was enabled (unless otherwise noted).
I assume you meant CnQ.
by frank2003
Wed Jan 07, 2009 6:46 pm
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: Zotac GeForce 8200-ITX WiFi: A Compact AM2 Solution
Replies: 65
Views: 43120

Speaking for myself, I like building mini-itx systems in part because I like the challenge of squeezing a lot of features into a small package (don't we all like challenges? :D ) If you think the Silverstone ML02 and LC19 mATX cases are tight, well, I can build a comparable mini-itx based HTPC in a ...
by frank2003
Wed Jan 07, 2009 12:12 pm
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: New 8200 mini-itx board
Replies: 12
Views: 7066

SPCR has just published an excellent review of this board:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article902-page1.html

The price is now $120 AR.