If you're moving to mATX, you could consider the NSK3480 - it could save you some cash if you used the included 430w PSU too, which I hear is very quiet. I think the cheapest option for controlling fans would be to use a Zalman Fanmate and/or use the fan undervolt adapters included with the Noctua h...

In my opinion I think AMDs are very underpowered for DAWs. I could be wrong about this, but my last experience from moving between a dual core 3 Ghz Athlon 64 X2 to a 2.66 Ghz C2D Intel was actually an upgrade. I use Ableton with lots of CPU heavy plug-ins. I have no idea how the Phenom II competes ...

Thanks for posting this, I wasn't sure if the 65W PSU could handle an i3 and all the other parts, pretty impressive that it can!

Hey stefancrs, did you ever end up building this PC with the 65w PSU? I'm also thinking of a low power i3 530 + IGP + SSD + Zotac H55-ITX.

Let me know

A shame the HDD cage isn't removable! Great review, however.

I imagine the cooler could be effective in an upside-down motherboard type layout.

I'm fairly sure you can achieve something similar by modifying your GPUs BIOS. I've underclocked/undervolted my 4850 at idle (but with aftermarket cooling) and it dropped temps by about 10c.

Corsair. I've owned 3 Cooler Master PSUs and all of them weren't very quiet. One of them was unbelievably loud. Corsair is a trusted brand and they're renown for their silence and reliability.

Perhaps you could post the specs of the computer in order to estimate the wattage needed?

I purchased a secondhand Dell Mini 9. It has no fans and uses an SSD - completely silent. The only sounds I can hear are some high pitch beeping and whine when I hold it up against my ear. An alternative option could be the Dell Mini 10 which uses a larger keyboard but has a regular 2.5 inch HDD (of...

I've been looking for something very similar and it seems you won't find what you're after unless you start modding.

FWIW one drive says it has had 225GB written to it and the wear indication says 99% left. The second drive says it has had 8GB written to it and also 99% remaining. Hey where did you find this information? I backed up my drive too before the firmware upgrade but thankfully didn't need to use it. ED...

I'm not sure about future updates - not sure what another firmware update could provide as the drive seems completely functional already.

Oh and by the way, Kingston will not be releasing their own firmware updates for this drive.

Firmware updates are now possible on the Kingston-rebradge of this drive: http://www.overclock.net/ssd/656984-how-get-your-kingston-40gb-ssd.html Done it myself and it's working great, you can even get the Intel SSD toolbox working: http://www.overclock.net/ssd/660723-using-your-kingston-40gb-ssd-in...

Yep, I imagine that setup wouldn't use over 125w at full load.

It's pretty strange, it only seems to happen at certain RPMs. What fan did you use as a replacement?

I'm in the process of selling it and buying a Corsair HX520.

I think the difference between E6xxx and E7xxx would be the fact that they're manufactured at 65 nm and 45 nm respectively. This might have an impact on cooling, not sure.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_In ... processors

I think you would be able to run the CPU fanless if you undervolted the CPU and you may even be able to run one 120mm fan. I've used the E8400 and E6750 Core 2 Duos and you can reduce the tempretures very easily once you find a stable undervolt. I have the Antec Fusion (very similar case) and have t...

Yeah I have the kingston 40gb drive, and as my first SSD, I'm loving it. It's a shame about TRIM, but I don't mind the write speeds considering the majority of what I use the drive for is read orientated. It cost me $130 AUD all up to buy it from amazon, which is about $50 cheaper and two weeks eali...

DAve_M wrote:Firmware has to come from Kingston though. You can't flash it with X-25V firmware.

Are you sure about this?

Hmm, I know it's identical, but the competition comes from only being slightly more expensive (you can find the kingston drive cheaper - even on amazon) and supporting TRIM. I'm trying to find now any retailers that stock the SSD and also ship to Australia.

The greenest laptop you can buy is a secondhand one

SSDs just keep looking more affordable. I was seriously considering the Kingston 40GB drive, because it's $20-$30 cheaper but I've been waiting for TRIM support through a firmware upgrade (which sounds it could come along even sooner thanks to competition from this).

You'll be fine. The reason the recommended wattage for video cards is so high is to cover themselves against all the low quality, no-name PSUs. Seasonic make quality power supplies and you will have plenty of headroom. As long as you don't do any crazy overclocking you should be fine, however the ca...

Looks fine to me.

I think I'd rather get something modular, as the Signature (although it's semi modular) has heaps of cables I don't use, so I'll go the HX520 with the money used to sell the Signature 650. Although it's a downgrade I can't stand the 80mm fan in this PSU. Thanks for the recommendation.

I have a 7200.12 1TB drive. It's fairly fast and pretty average (modern hard drive-wise) when it comes to sound. Has a kind of, 'windy' sound to it which is noticeable when suspended, and hard mounted it gives off a low hum and loud clicking.

Thanks for the reply. Okay that makes sense, I still haven't entirely gotten my head around this whole airflow thing. My ATi 4850 seems to float around 44c-48c idle at desktop and Everest shows 65/70/75 for 'DispIO/MemIO/Shader" at load using Furmark for 20 minutes. It seems you're right about not n...

Okay so I've installed my system into the Solo, and it's much quieter :D Noctua NF-P12 was very loud on the heatsink so I took it off, and it didn't change temperatures much - CPU Load 50c/Idle 24c, GPU Load 70/Idle 50c. Much quieter now with only two Nexus at 900RPM, but I may try a bit of ducting ...

Okay I just bought an Antec Solo on eBay for roughly half the price of it new. The two front 92mm fan holes and the rear 120mm hole both have been cut out too - score! RoGuE; I did some research on the Scythe S-Flex 120mm, and it seems it has a sleeve bearing? I heard sleeve bearing fans are not goo...

This is going to sound very vague but you can get SATA PCI/PCI-E cards that delay the start up of drives so there isn't a huge power spike when they all try to spin up at the same time.