Search found 101 matches

by Lifecycle
Fri Jun 05, 2009 4:35 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Light duty workstation microatx quiet build
Replies: 11
Views: 4267

Thanks again for all the feedback! I'm getting close to nailing this all down now. I saw the Anandtech article on the AMD Phenom - the power consumption seems comparable and the performance a little better. The cost of the chip here in the UK is about £20 more, so not a big deal but I really like t...
by Lifecycle
Thu Jun 04, 2009 8:57 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Light duty workstation microatx quiet build
Replies: 11
Views: 4267

I'm leaning towards getting the Gigabyte nVidia 9400 IGP board as this looks (very) nice although it is a bit pricey. 1) I'd like to run the E5200 passive with just the rear 120mm fan venting via motherboard PWM control from the CPU header. i.e. single fan only (excl PSU) Does this seem like a good ...
by Lifecycle
Mon Jun 01, 2009 10:03 pm
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Light duty workstation microatx quiet build
Replies: 11
Views: 4267

Thanks very much for the tips.
by Lifecycle
Mon Jun 01, 2009 7:19 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Light duty workstation microatx quiet build
Replies: 11
Views: 4267

Light duty workstation microatx quiet build

Hi, I'm looking for advice on a new quiet PC build. I've been out of the hardware upgrade cycle for quite some time now but my aged (ancient) Athlon XP-M is in need of replacing. I spent a fair of time and effort getting this machine quiet and want the same low noise level from my new build. Usage p...
by Lifecycle
Mon Dec 12, 2005 11:20 am
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: SNAFU
Replies: 7
Views: 6235

It's the graphics card gone - had the same thing happen to a Ti4600 some time back. I suspected then it was a cracked trace although mine was intermittant - same problem though.
by Lifecycle
Mon Apr 11, 2005 4:02 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: SilenX Luxurae Hard Drive Silencer - any good?
Replies: 27
Views: 13500

Hey atomidude - what's your current system spec like? Just curious as to what your current noise-floor is. before i could slightly hear the drive if i put my ear like 1 foot from the case, but now is completely silent. and trust me, i should hear it, What mounting method were you using before with t...
by Lifecycle
Fri Apr 08, 2005 7:43 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: where to buy general heatsinks for electronics
Replies: 4
Views: 3079

Not sure where you are, but I found this beauty available at Maplin in the UK. Dimensions are 3.7" x 6", so almost perfect for fitting on top of a 3.5" hard drive. With a small amount of hacksaw work, you could also chop it up. There are also a load of other general purpose heatinks of various sizes...
by Lifecycle
Fri Apr 08, 2005 7:37 am
Forum: Power Supplies
Topic: UK Seasonic S12 retailers?
Replies: 9
Views: 4587

There aren't many Seasonic retailers in the UK at all, from what I can gather. www.xcase.co.uk do a couple of Seasonic models, like the Super Tornado. www.koolnquiet.co.uk also do Seasonic PSU's but only give the Seasonic product codes for the PSU's they list, not the actual names, so you definitely...
by Lifecycle
Thu Apr 07, 2005 2:59 am
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: PSU Fundamentals & Recommendations
Replies: 200
Views: 231168

Just wanted to say what an excellent last update this is. Top notch Mike - keep up the good work!

I also see the glitch on the final page with the vertical bars, like niels007.
by Lifecycle
Wed Mar 30, 2005 7:11 am
Forum: Cases and Damping
Topic: Need help with my slk300b and noise vibration
Replies: 7
Views: 4090

What have you got inside it? Is this a problem with say, a DVD drive?
by Lifecycle
Fri Mar 04, 2005 5:42 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: 2.5" HDD silenter
Replies: 5
Views: 2655

Welcome to SPCR kcg! The problem is that I'm not able to find any appropriate HDD silenter which is also suitable for 2.5" HDDs. Do you know about any? I've not heard of any such product. All the HD silencers I know of are only for standard 3.5" disks, not 2.5" notebook drives. I'd be very interest...
by Lifecycle
Thu Feb 24, 2005 2:22 am
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: Gigabyte X800 XL Silentpipe!
Replies: 93
Views: 57988

I'm quite surprised at how fast the X800 really is - seems great value for money. In absolute terms, the performance delta between the X800 and X850XT PE is so small there is no justification for the large increase in cost - it's very rarely the difference between playable and unplayable. Bolt on a ...
by Lifecycle
Wed Feb 23, 2005 3:36 am
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: Gigabyte X800 XL Silentpipe!
Replies: 93
Views: 57988

Just wanted to bump this, as although it's not quite the same card, I found this review of the Gigabyte X800 Silentpipe yesterday. A standard X800 with fanless cooling. It's typically only a few frames behind the faster X800XL but it is currently available in the UK and quite reasonably priced (at a...
by Lifecycle
Wed Feb 23, 2005 1:29 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: New A64 system
Replies: 6
Views: 4390

Welcome to SPCR Jademonkey! [/size] I think your Lian-Li PC68, while being a very nice case aesthetically, is not so great from a quiet computing viewpoint. A couple of points: - Its aluminium construction is prone to vibration and resonance, especially with high-speed case fans and hard-mounted di...
by Lifecycle
Thu Feb 17, 2005 8:14 am
Forum: Quiet Prebuilt, SFF and Barebones Systems
Topic: Silent XA SFF "silent 4-in-1 thermal jet"
Replies: 8
Views: 5971

BTW, looks like what is sold in the US as the Chenming "Game' barebones. Yes - well spotted. Looks like there is also a S462 version available too (nForce 2, though). Would be great with an XP-M, if it supports it. Northbridge looks passive. I am now getting a little tempted but can't seem to find ...
by Lifecycle
Thu Feb 17, 2005 8:04 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: "Cool" new WD drive (sorry, bad pun)
Replies: 7
Views: 4545

Barracuda IV ........ that’s steam powered isn't it Lifecycle?
A golden oldie :P I just keep putting coal in the back and she keeps ticking along, nice, smooth and quiet 8)
by Lifecycle
Thu Feb 17, 2005 7:17 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: "Cool" new WD drive (sorry, bad pun)
Replies: 7
Views: 4545

Welcome to SPCR Green Shoes! Although WD and other manufacturers like Maxtor have traditionally made SPCRer's shudder at the thought of the noise level of their drives, it's clear that they are now putting in more effort to producer quieter (if not silent) units. They're still playing catch-up, but...
by Lifecycle
Thu Feb 17, 2005 7:03 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Toshiba MK4025GAS has surprisingly loud read/write noise
Replies: 3
Views: 3340

That doesn't sound too good. I'd guess the seek noise is mainly something to do with the mounting in your laptop. The constant disk access is a Windows problem that someone else on here was also talking about (in an entirely unrelated thread). I'm quite surprised from the reviews and discussion on h...
by Lifecycle
Thu Feb 17, 2005 2:21 am
Forum: Quiet Prebuilt, SFF and Barebones Systems
Topic: Silent XA SFF "silent 4-in-1 thermal jet"
Replies: 8
Views: 5971

They all still have 40 or 50mm fans which are a right biatch to quiet. I'm not sure it does. I can't seem to find any pics of the internals, though so I'm not sure :x It certainly doesn't look like there is a 40mm whiner in the PSU, which seemed nice (and different to most Shuttles). If there is a ...
by Lifecycle
Thu Feb 17, 2005 1:51 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: My first build
Replies: 6
Views: 3730

I don't have any useful input on your first two questions, as they're quite specific. Generally, your setup looks pretty nice but I would agree with wooglin that 2 (!) Raptors aren't doing you any favours in the silence department. The real question of whether the noise level is acceptable or not is...
by Lifecycle
Wed Feb 16, 2005 12:45 am
Forum: Quiet Prebuilt, SFF and Barebones Systems
Topic: Silent XA SFF "silent 4-in-1 thermal jet"
Replies: 8
Views: 5971

Probably quite good but I just couldn't get over the blatent PS2 styling rip-off! Very true but it still looks good IMHO... even if it is shamelessly copied... :P Really I was wondering about that single-fan cooling solution. Does Shuttle do something similar or do all their (internal) PSUs still h...
by Lifecycle
Tue Feb 15, 2005 9:51 am
Forum: Quiet Prebuilt, SFF and Barebones Systems
Topic: Silent XA SFF "silent 4-in-1 thermal jet"
Replies: 8
Views: 5971

Silent XA SFF "silent 4-in-1 thermal jet"

Has anyone seen or heard of this Silent XA barebones ? It's socket 754 A64 (Via K8T800). There's also the Silent I barebone which is socket 478 (865G). Both claim to have a spiffy Silent 4-in-1 thermal jet which seems to be a reasonable effort at single fan cooling for the whole SFF, although it loo...
by Lifecycle
Mon Feb 14, 2005 8:32 am
Forum: Cases and Damping
Topic: General impressions of the Chenbro SR209? (aka. which case?)
Replies: 4
Views: 3287

Welcome to SPCR Halo! [/size] I think your questions will be better answered in the cases section. I'm not too familiar with the Chenbro case you mention but I do know the Antec BQE is something of a favourite around here and is generally well regarded. You might want to have a dig through a search...
by Lifecycle
Wed Feb 09, 2005 5:53 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: new 3 disk SCSI RAID system making my computer LOUD
Replies: 11
Views: 3657

Good effort J Dogg - looks like you've done a great job there and glad it has positive results for you. 8)
by Lifecycle
Fri Feb 04, 2005 4:56 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Banis on S478 motherboard possible??
Replies: 1
Views: 1762

In short, no. Pentium-M will not function on any current P4 motherboard as it is not pin-compatible (physically) and also requires a specialised chipset to operate, so there is no chance of a end-user hack either, sadly. There are handful of not-too-expensive P-M motherboards although these will not...
by Lifecycle
Fri Feb 04, 2005 4:31 am
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: Low power AGP card - nowdays ?
Replies: 8
Views: 5482

Go for the lowest end ATI or NVIDIA card you can find. E.g. ATI Radeon 7000 series or NVIDIA MX4000 series . These are passively cooled and have very low power consumption (not sure of actual figures though), are very cheap although only have 3D capabilities suitable for playing old games (2-3 years...
by Lifecycle
Fri Feb 04, 2005 3:44 am
Forum: The Silent Front
Topic: Oh no! A nightmare motherboard from Abit...!
Replies: 15
Views: 8795

... and not just any five fans, but what look like five 40mm screamers... :evil:
Dual OTES™ keeps the system cool in the heat of battle.
But what about that ringing in your ears? :P

The irony is that the board would most likely still run great without at least 4 of those fans... :roll:
by Lifecycle
Thu Jan 20, 2005 4:35 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Unusual silencing proj idea - enclosed 2x wall custom rack
Replies: 8
Views: 3820

Why dont u just get some quieter drives ? For many SPCRers, the challenge lies in both the art and science of silencing a machine and is just as important as the end result itself. If this were not the case, we would all simply buy the quietest components available (obviously, cash - or wife - perm...
by Lifecycle
Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:35 am
Forum: The Silent Front
Topic: µATX P-M Motherboard : DFI 855GME-MGF
Replies: 38
Views: 21472

Welcome to SPCR!!

Here are some English translations of those pages, thanks to Google:

Review in English

Overclocking/underclocking in English
by Lifecycle
Fri Oct 15, 2004 12:48 am
Forum: The Silent Front
Topic: Reserator + Fanless PSU + 2.5" HDD?
Replies: 14
Views: 5382

Wow, thanks for all the feedback guys. 8) Some really useful tips and stuff for me to think about and chase up. I guess this seems feasible then, although I will need to have a long, hard think about using a case fan. I know that there will be an issue with heat build-up without one but I would real...