Search found 157 matches

by MoJo-chan
Fri Jul 06, 2007 12:56 pm
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: Corsair HX520W & HX620W Modular power supplies
Replies: 79
Views: 91234

nutball wrote:
MoJo-chan wrote:Would it be noticeable from >1m with the PSU in a case?
No. It's utterly silent in S3/STR.
Thanks, that's really helpful.
by MoJo-chan
Fri Jul 06, 2007 12:29 pm
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: Corsair HX520W & HX620W Modular power supplies
Replies: 79
Views: 91234

I have a question about the review.

It says that there is some buzzing at low power levels. I might want to have my system in S3 sleep mode (basically everyone except the RAM and NIC turned off) so this kind of thing worries me.

Would it be noticeable from >1m with the PSU in a case?
by MoJo-chan
Sat Jun 30, 2007 4:22 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Kurobox/linkstation and other low power Linux servers
Replies: 4
Views: 2959

Thanks for the comments. I am wondering about laptops now. Since the idea is to keep the cost and power consumption down, an older laptop might be ideal. By nature they are low power, and USB2.0 ports or SATA PCMCIA cards allow for expansion. Plus, built in keyboard and screen. The only down side is...
by MoJo-chan
Thu Jun 28, 2007 9:55 pm
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Kurobox/linkstation and other low power Linux servers
Replies: 4
Views: 2959

Well, since no-one replied I will share the information I have found in case it is of use to others thinking along similar lines. On the low power NAS front, there are a few options. The Linkstation and Kurobox are basically the same thing, except that the Kurobox is oriented towards experts and you...
by MoJo-chan
Mon Jun 25, 2007 4:15 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Kurobox/linkstation and other low power Linux servers
Replies: 4
Views: 2959

Kurobox/linkstation and other low power Linux servers

I am looking to build a low power NAS, and was looking at the Kurobox/Linkstation. Basically a low power ARM/PPC box which can accept multiple HDDs either via SATA or USB. In particular the KuroBox Pro has SATA and a PCI-i slot, so should be fine for at least six drives plus USB. I am having real tr...
by MoJo-chan
Thu Jan 05, 2006 10:42 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: New Samsungs no longer quiet
Replies: 73
Views: 53357

I have five 200GB SATA Samsungs, model SP2004C and firmware VM100-33. NIDEC motors. My system is very quiet, water cooled with only Panaflo 92mm and Yate Loon 120mm fans running at 4.5V. Three of the drives are suspended vertically, and the other two are mounted horizontally in suspended SmartDrive2...
by MoJo-chan
Sat Dec 31, 2005 9:35 am
Forum: CPU Cooling
Topic: Cyrix 6x86 too hot to touch but stable
Replies: 13
Views: 4916

jaganath: The UBCD is interesting, certainly... unfortunately, there is no way of monitoring CPU temperature in real-time from the diode on the chip in DOS, only via the BIOS. I'm going to look into porting CPUBurn to DOS too, I can't see any technical reason why it shouldn't work. For now, the best...
by MoJo-chan
Sat Dec 31, 2005 3:39 am
Forum: CPU Cooling
Topic: Cyrix 6x86 too hot to touch but stable
Replies: 13
Views: 4916

One other reason for running fanless is lack of maintenance. No fan = nothing to get clogged up. Of course, there is the PSU, but oh well... I'll probably just try it, see how it goes. Anyway, I'm looking for a good way to stress test a machine for a long time without installing an OS. So far, I hav...
by MoJo-chan
Fri Dec 30, 2005 3:16 pm
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: Anyone tried Zalman ramsinks with z 7800gt?
Replies: 0
Views: 1334

Anyone tried Zalman ramsinks with z 7800gt?

I'm now just waiting for the hold-down bracket to install a Maze4 on a 7800gt, but of course the Maze4 only cools the GPU and not the ram. I have some Zalman ZM-RHSI heatsinks for the RAM, but will they be enough? I can't find any info at all on these being compatible or not with the 7800. I could p...
by MoJo-chan
Fri Dec 30, 2005 11:17 am
Forum: CPU Cooling
Topic: Cyrix 6x86 too hot to touch but stable
Replies: 13
Views: 4916

Thanks MikeC. I did that and got a reading of 62C, so the core is probably 72 or there abouts. Will running it this hot be a problem? I can't see why it should be really. CPUs rarely fail, even if pushed hard. In fact, a lot of Dell machines seem to rely on the P4 termal cut-out to keep from crashin...
by MoJo-chan
Fri Dec 30, 2005 9:16 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: RAID arrays: Portable between chipsets of the same Family?
Replies: 16
Views: 9707

i would argue that if a system has a bad RAM, data corruption may occur whether RAID is in software or in hardware. after all, a program writing a corrupted memory block through a robust hardware RAID controller isn't going to leave data in any better shape than the same program writing a perfectly...
by MoJo-chan
Fri Dec 30, 2005 7:40 am
Forum: CPU Cooling
Topic: Cyrix 6x86 too hot to touch but stable
Replies: 13
Views: 4916

Fair comments there dakla2000. I tend to agree for the most part.

How hot is too hot? I have a Pentium III 500Mhz without a fan at work, and it doesn't get too hot to touch either. Maybe a K6 or something would be a better bet for me?
by MoJo-chan
Wed Dec 28, 2005 2:10 pm
Forum: CPU Cooling
Topic: Cyrix 6x86 too hot to touch but stable
Replies: 13
Views: 4916

Cyrix 6x86 too hot to touch but stable

Oh, my poor burnt fingers :) I have been trying to make a silent but reasonably powerful machine to run pfSense, a software firewall. I have a Cyrix 333MHz 6x86 with 128MB RAM, 10Gb HDD and two NICs. It has a virtually silent FSP power supply with a 120mm fan. I've been trying to run the CPU fanless...
by MoJo-chan
Wed Dec 28, 2005 5:20 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: RAID arrays: Portable between chipsets of the same Family?
Replies: 16
Views: 9707

xarope: Sounds like a nice setup, I'd love to be able to do something like that myself. I don't really know enough about Linux though, and never had much luck with Samba. smilingcrow: Yep, the Areca cards use ECC RAM for that very reason. Ultimately, RAID isn't really about security. You still need ...
by MoJo-chan
Mon Dec 26, 2005 2:45 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: RAID arrays: Portable between chipsets of the same Family?
Replies: 16
Views: 9707

Simlingcrow, your situation sounds similar to mine. I have just built a new PC, and I want it to last. My current one is an XP2100 with 1GB RAM, which has lasted me for 3.5 years. The new one is a 4000+ single core Athlon 64, with 2GB RAM and an Areca 1220 PCI-e SATA2 RAID controller. I hope it will...
by MoJo-chan
Sat Dec 24, 2005 2:39 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: RAID arrays: Portable between chipsets of the same Family?
Replies: 16
Views: 9707

With RAID cards, arrays are usually highly portable. You can upgrade to a new model without problems. On-board RAID controllers are a different matter though. For example, Promise on-board arrays are not usually compatible with Promise PCI cards, or even different chipsets. One alternative is softwa...
by MoJo-chan
Wed Dec 21, 2005 11:30 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Gigabyte's RAM drive card w/battery backup...
Replies: 348
Views: 214165

Interesting idea, carvecream. The simplest way would seem to be a PC running Linux with a Firewire connection. Linux has a program that simulates a firewire drive, which could use a RAM drive. Firewire 800 isn't too slow. As for SATA, I don't know of anything that emulates it. One option I suppose m...
by MoJo-chan
Mon Dec 19, 2005 10:19 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: New Samsungs no longer quiet
Replies: 73
Views: 53357

just bought a 250gb samsung sata2 against my better judgment. i'm hoping somehow it's quiet. it'll be sold again for a loss rather quickly if it turns out to be another heavy seeker :/ Make sure you give it some time. The Samsungs seem to take a little while to "burn in". After a week of heavy use ...
by MoJo-chan
Sun Dec 18, 2005 3:45 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: New Samsungs no longer quiet
Replies: 73
Views: 53357

We use a lot of Maxtors at work, and they all seem to be quite loud. We even had one customer complain when we used one in a repair, because it wasn't as quiet as the drive Dell originally used. Out workshop is quite loud (with 10+ normal PCs on) so the Maxtors must be pretty bad for us to notice th...
by MoJo-chan
Thu Dec 15, 2005 4:03 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: New Samsungs no longer quiet
Replies: 73
Views: 53357

The default setting was "performance", value 255. I changed it to "quiet", value 128. It did certainly make a noticable difference. All mine are NIDEC motors (thanks to QuietPC for that, they picked them for me) so motor noise is virtually non-existant anyway. Seeks are now dull and muted. Once I ge...
by MoJo-chan
Wed Dec 14, 2005 3:07 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Xilencer HDD Silencer-Cooler or Smart Drive 2002C Enclosure
Replies: 46
Views: 33945

I have two SmartDrive 2002 enclosures and I can tell you they are damn good.
by MoJo-chan
Wed Dec 14, 2005 3:06 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: New Samsungs no longer quiet
Replies: 73
Views: 53357

I just bought 5x 200GB Samsung SATA drives. With AAM enabled they are very quiet, especially compared to my other two Seagates. Perhaps not quite on the level of the Barracuda IV when it comes to seeks, but close.
by MoJo-chan
Tue Dec 06, 2005 2:25 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Seagate 7200.7/8/9 Survey
Replies: 45
Views: 35509

I think all you can say about Seagate drives is that there is a lot of variation in the manufacturing. Some a brilliant, some are horrible. Personally, I'm going to ditch my two 200GB drives and get some Samsungs instead. Seek times for the Samsungs are comparable to Seagates, better in some cases, ...
by MoJo-chan
Thu Dec 01, 2005 11:07 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: 200gb Samsung P120s at PC World for £58inc (UK only)
Replies: 5
Views: 4134

I'm gonna order some, I'll report back if they have NIDEC motors. Fingers crossed, otherwise I'll have to sell them :(
by MoJo-chan
Thu Dec 01, 2005 11:05 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Maximize storage space at minimal sound cost
Replies: 16
Views: 6156

What you need is a way to have lots of drives cooled properly at once, in a quiet way. So, you need a case that will let you cool at least two drives (500GB each) with one low speed fan. How about some Samsung 200-250GB drives, in an external enclosure. With some modding, you could cool them with on...
by MoJo-chan
Sat Nov 19, 2005 5:27 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Quiet Raid?
Replies: 14
Views: 6414

SebRad: Your calcuations are correct, of course, and you are right, it shouldn't be a problem. I used to have a six drive RAID0 array of Seagates which started without problems. None the less, it would be an interesting project. Even a simple two output staggered delay would be interesting. A simple...
by MoJo-chan
Fri Nov 18, 2005 4:20 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Quiet Raid?
Replies: 14
Views: 6414

Areca 1220 supports staggered spin-up... :) Yep, but only if you have a backplane :) As revolt goes on to explain, a backplane has multiple drive connectors. Because it has power connectors which can be individually switched, it is possible to turn each drive on and off in software, thus allowing s...
by MoJo-chan
Fri Nov 18, 2005 12:47 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: PATA to SATA in a SmartDrive?
Replies: 0
Views: 1163

PATA to SATA in a SmartDrive?

Hi everyone. I want to use two 200GB PATA drives with a SATA RAID controller. Problem is, I want to put them in SmartDrive 2002 enclosures (which I already have) so the usuall "piggybacked" PATA->SATA converters won't fit. I'm sure I saw converters with short ribbon cables once, but can't find them ...
by MoJo-chan
Fri Nov 18, 2005 12:23 pm
Forum: Cases and Damping
Topic: A "silent" case design / mod idea (with pictures)
Replies: 28
Views: 17038

HD : Samsung SpinPoint P120 Series - 250GB / SATA 3.0Gb/s / 7200rpm Fans : 2 x Nexus 120mm Real Silent case fans Finding Samsungs with NIDECs is hard. Let us know if you find a good source! As for the fans, are the Nexus ones rebranded Yate Loon? If not, you can get orange Yate Loons from eBay quit...
by MoJo-chan
Fri Nov 18, 2005 11:24 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Quiet Raid?
Replies: 14
Views: 6414

Ah, in that case, I may get one before you anyway! I am planning to have one before xmas, so I can put a machine together over that period. Festive spirit? Bah, humbug! ;) Well, I am planning on getting an SLI board and using one slot for a PCI-e graphics card (water cooled) and the other for the RA...