Those power figures are indeed headless. However, connecting a VGA monitor doesn't seem to make a difference. Keyboard and mouse add about 0.5W AC. Another power saving tip is disabling the Realtek audio chip in UEFI, I gained about 0.5W AC. [OT] The PSU setup is nothing special: it consists of four...

Okay, after reading this thread I upgraded my home server to a Gigabyte GA-J1800N-D2H motherboard. System components: - GA-J1800N-D2H - RAM: KINGSTON 2GB 1600MHz DDR3 - SSD: Kingston SSDnow 60GB (used for the OS so the data disk can spin down whenever possible) - HDD: WD20EARS 2TB Green (data) - PSU...

Any stock car can be quiet?! Some are, but many are not! @ topicstarter, as you're from Europe just like me, let's focus on European cars :-) First of all, if you're talking smallish cars, avoid diesels at all costs. In a car the size of a VW Polo / Opel Corsa / Peugeot 206 etc, any diesel will be A...

Apparently their RMA service works well for HD's. I can tell you it does not for monitors. Two months ago, I bought a 2494HM 24" TFT. It arrived in the box with a big fat scratch on the screen surface (!). Sent it back to the Samsung RMA service - after struggling 30 minutes on the phone to spell my...

Apart from the discussion whether the head parks are a problem or not, I'd like to share some numbers about my WD 10EACS in my homeserver. With just windows XP and occasional fileserver usage, I'd get about 8 to 9 head parks per hour. Please not that I turned indexing service + warn on low diskspace...

CCFL backlights are always dimmed using PWM circuitry. It's the cheapest and most reliable way to dim a CCFL. They could be dimmed using current control, but this would increase the complexity of the circuit quite a lot. With a CCFL backlight, it's usually the inverters that are humming. Each invert...

Acer AL2423W 24" S-IPS monitor. Whines when brightness is set below 80%, audible within +/- 1m (3ft).

Samsung 2493HM 24" TN monitor - couldn't discover any whine yet, except from the built-in speakers which become quiet when you turn the volume on the monitor to 0.

Looks like both power supplies might use the same electronics. At least, the numbers and test results are virtually identical. But damn, I want one of those! This is ideal for a low-powered PC. For a PC consuming about 30W (DC), this would save you 3 to 4 watts (AC) compared to a VX450 or similar PSU.

Already 4 years ago, I started a thread on a dutch forum concerning this problem. It seems that Seagate implements a periodic self-check in the disk's firmware. Every 7 minutes, it will check the first GB of the disk - this is where usually the operating system files are located. Annoyingly, most Wi...

With the amp sharing the same power supply as the rest of the system, every drive seek, every mouse click, and every spin of the scroll wheel was amplified audibly as the electrical effect of each action propagated through the system. Using a power supply with lower ripple and better voltage regula...

Now I have another audio question, on a different note: What exactly does the groove of a vinyl record consist of? I tried looking around on wikipedia, but I couldn't exactly figure it out. is it the sine curves of every frequency added on top of each other? or how can one single curve contain the ...

Dutchmm, those are absorption fridges, not compressor fridges. Absorption fridges are terribly energy-inefficient, their efficiency is easily 3x worse than compressor fridges. An average 170l compressor fridge consumes about 180KWh a year. A decent one, about 120KWh a year. So 400KWh a year for just...

Too loud? You must be kidding. TWO Eheim 1250's, that's enough capacity to fill a swimming pool in a few hours. Both pumps together need 56W, that's more power for cooling alone than a complete low-power PC should consume at idle. My experience is that if you don't care about one degree more or less...

Isn't your CPU overheating? Most motherboards will shutdown when the CPU overheats. Other failures (memory, graphics, ...) usually cause just a reboot. PSU's usually don't have a temperature shutdown. When they do, it won't shutdown until you notice various kinds of funny smells. I once put a pen be...

Most (if not all) consumer PSU's have just one 5V line. This means that all 5V cables are tied together internally. As a result, the hardware sucking current on the 5V line can indeed be on another line. What would happen if the load on the 5V were too low? The PSU can only source current, it can't ...

Aris, it is possible to silence a water pump completely. I am running an undervolted Eheim 1048 - it runs on 65V / 20Hz instead of on 230V / 50Hz. It's not even softmounted, and I can only hear it when it's completely quiet in the neighbourhood, and I'm putting my ear right next to the pump. The 20H...

If the fans are identical, you could try wiring 2 of them in series. Each of them will receive only 60V, causing them to run much slower and quieter.

Well that sounds nice but....If you rent, you have to depend on your landlord to pay for a wiring upgrade. That might/will be difficult. Indeed, that's a problem. Maybe there is legislation about this in your country, do some research about what your rights are :) The cold water pipe is used for a ...

Of course, you should turn them off when not in use. But you shouldn't give them powercycles every few minutes.

In contrary to TFT's, CRT's do contain components which are stressed on each powercycle. Especially the heating filament in the tube.

I'm astonished some people actually defend the "neutral becomes ground" circuit. This kind of a circuit is a VERY bad idea and can be lethal if anything goes wrong. I would not like to be liable for an accident of that kind. Especially not in the USA. Also, using central heating pipes for grounding ...

I'm afraid this one has a TN panel. Hence, low viewing angle, poor color rendition, etc. Personally, I hate them, especially on large monitors: because of the low viewing angle, the top of your screen has a different color than the bottom. Indeed, your viewing angle towards the top part is quite di...

LCD monitors are basically 'instant on' and therefore there is no state change for anything in the monitor surely the backlight undergoes a state change? When you turn down the brightness on an LCD monitor, the backlight changes state 250 times per second. It is dimmed by means of turning it on and...

burebista is right. A typical APFC is "only" about 96% efficient. A conventional rectifier, without any kind of PFC, is about 99% efficient. yes, but a PSU is not just a rectifier. are you telling me the removal of the APFC would increase the efficiency of say, a Seasonic S12, by 4% over its entire...

Lanx wrote:(...)
dyson vacuum 120w
microwave-105w
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I think you've missed a zero at the end in both cases. Or your power meter was priced $1.8, not $18.

That's not correct. Your electricity meter measures real power (in Watts). This number is independent of the power factor. If your PC draws 100W of real power, you'd have: - 100W real power, 100VA apparent power at PF=1 - 100W real power, 200VA apparent power at PF=0.5 - 100W real power, 1000VA appa...

burebista is right. A typical APFC is "only" about 96% efficient. A conventional rectifier, without any kind of PFC, is about 99% efficient. Non-APFC power supplies are usually older. They date from the P3 era where we didn't need a lot of power, and efficiency of the PSU was not a major concern. AP...

MoJo, does your Sharp produce ozone? I've read reports of users concerned about 'sweet odors' emitted by the machine, and 'irritated eyes' in the neighborhood of the exhaust. Try running it in your closet for an hour, with the plasma function on. If it emits ozone, you'll smell it easily. It smells ...

I'm using an Acer AL2423W since a few months already. It is (was?) one of the cheapest non-TN 24" monitors out there. Pro: - image quality, color reproduction (S-IPS panel, and a good one) - smooth screen surface, but not too reflective. Very smooth colors. Cons: - Screen stand is el cheapo, and ver...

Come on guys, getting a new PSU to save a couple of watts? If you'd really care about green computing, you wouldn't do it. If you'd really care about energy costs, you wouldn't do it either. If I assume 15W of power savings, 24/7 use, and my local energy prices (about 0.15 EUR/KWh), it would take at...

This is silentpcreview, right? No HDD suspension isn't really an option then, is it? :) I can't comment on the differences in seek noise/vibrations between my Samsungs and WD's, as I don't use AAM. My HD's are suspended in a solid, heavy harddisk enclosure, which is in its turn suspended as well. Th...