Thanks for the explanation; I thought that's how you did it. However I was hoping to see a photo

Would be nice to see a close up picture of how the motherboard is bolted to the heatsink.

If money is an issue, and noise isn't, then you may as well use the stock HSF (unless your CPU doesn't have one for some reason).

Looks ok to me. However, I'm wondering why you want to run the heatsink fanless, as I suspect it won't make any difference to overall system noise. Having said that, I always try to build systems with minimum fans, just for the fun of it.

I've recently listend to the Seagate and the WD (both 500GB), and they're both pretty quiet drives. The WD's seeks were basically inaudible, so this might be a good choice. You shouldn't need to surround it with foam, but it would be a good idea to lay it on some foam to prevent vibrations from reac...

I've noticed something whacky about icons in Windows 7 (I believe Vista does this also). I downloaded a small .exe file that has its own icon, but W7 replaces it with some other random icon. I've tried playing around with some settings, and each time it seems like W7 picks some other random icon, an...

And I suppose you donate to the site to make up for the lack of ad revenue? Over the years, a lot of us have contributed significant technical knowledge and experience that lends credibility to the site. It's not all about money. The forum is this site's greatest resource, and everything in it is p...

I made a duct to the rear exhaust fan out of a single piece of cardboard:

I've got an OCZ Vertex and I've been trying to follow the firmware updates but after initial high hopes, it seems like the whole thing is descending into a mess. I don't have the time or inclination to get to the bottom of it all. I also find the atmosphere on their forums a bit stifling. There is a...

Thanks for the suggestion, but I don't think that has anything to do with it. IE also has the same problem as I described above. Opera is the only browser I know of that does not have this behaviour (unfortunately it has other shortcomings).

Those temps are great. I'm more of a "set and forget" guy, and tend to hardwire my fans at 5V, which will be fine for the scenario I mentioned above. The only fan controllers I've ever used are one I built myself, or the Zalman Fanmate (set to minimum) which is really cheap.

Yeah, I know I'm not the only one. All my non-geek friends think it's stupid and ask me how to fix it. All I can do is shrug my shoulders. I'm astonished that this hasn't become more of an "issue". It's bizarre.

I've been back and forth between browsers and have settled on Firefox because of Adblock, which is the best implementation of this feature than any other browser. The one thing that I find completely stupid about FF (and every other browser apart from Opera) is that when I hit the back button, it re...

I'm happy with my OCZ Vertex even though it doesn't have the latest firmware. I've had a few HDD failures and delicate mechanical stuff has always felt flaky to me. I'm beginning to trust SSDs more now, although backups are still a must!

I would've liked to get one of those too, but white keys? What are they thinking of? Not only do they get dirty, but they don't even match with Apple products like the iMac. But then the keys on their laptops are black! Dumb.

As Mr Rubenstein said, the modern E6300 is a faster version of the old one, running at 2.8GHz using 45nm technology. The new E6300 will run cooler and they're pretty cheap. You can easily run the Ninja without a fan on it, but I would definitely use a low speed rear fan to exhaust heat out of the ca...

I find it bizarre that new systems are being shipped with 32bit W7. I thought the 32bit version was only for legacy purposes. It's time to move on.

I've got my SSD in one of these. It works well, however the SATA cables that came with it were poor quality and caused problems with the SSD so I replaced them.

Try it without the fan and check temperatures. There won't be any problems at idle. Then try some stress testing. You won't break anything, and temperatures won't rise so fast that you can't just shut it down if necessary. I've often done these kinds of tests.

I'm also having problems with a 320GB Caviar Blue which I bought around April last year. Tried to install Windows 7 RC to it but the installer told me the drive is about to fail. Also, tried to benchmark it but that failed half way. The drive had been suspended, running about 12 hours per day and us...

I agree with Neil. Many people use fans on their heatsinks when it's not entirely necessary. Please give us a description of your configuration.

I go to yoga classes 4 times a week. Not only does it make me more flexible and less prone to injury, but it also increases strength and balance. It will make you better at any sport, as well as life in general! However, it can be tough going, especially in the beginning. You quickly realise your ph...

I got one of these for my girlfriend recently, but I haven't tried it myself yet.

I used duct tape (funnily enough!). Seems to work.

I made a simple duct that worked well
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Note for those guys that are curious how effective a SSD would be: You might want to give Puppy Linux a spin. Just install it to a USB drive and boot from that. Upon boot, it copies it's data into RAM and runs from there, which means you have even faster access times than a SSD. Btw, if you have en...

You might be better off going over to the OCZ forums. There are a lot of people there who will be able to help.

JamieG wrote:... it takes a few seconds for Firefox to start once I click the launch icon from a cold boot

That's strange, it starts instantly for me.

OCZ has just released new firmware which could be worth trying.

Sorry to hear of your problems. It might be a long shot, but make sure there is nothing shorting the motherboard or anything else. I once had a similar problem and luckily noticed the video card was just touching part of the case.