The "Discuss this article in the SPCR Forums" link at the bottom of the article points to the review of an AOpen Pentium M mATX board. The ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe was compared against an ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe and a DFI LanParty NF4 Ultra D. I believe that should read: "The ASUS A8R32-MVP Deluxe was co...

qviri,

Yes, that would be a solution for some of us. Sorry, I was thinking in terms of a new build where one could always buy a full-featured uATX board. (That's becuase I'm planning an HTPC project myself. )

Regards,
KTK

EDIT: Corrected.

In the opinion of this SPCR reader, there is exactly one thing this case desperately needs--an extra 30+mm in height above the CPU. Also, it would have been nice if there were an optional slot in the main partition to allow a full size motherboard to fit. The power supply mounting would have to be ...

Sorry to hear that, but unfortunately, it seems the only way to mount the optical drives is via those rails. Perhaps you can find a source for them. If not, you can always use an external drive (or mount an internal one outside the case)...

Good luck.

the only things i saw i didnt like about the case. i wouldve liked to see vents on the bottom of the case below the PSU. so you can have 120mm fan psu's pull cool air straight from below the case. I don't think PSUs have vents at the top (which would be the bottom in this case). On another note, I ...

There should be some rails supplied with your case (these). Bolt one rail to each side of the drive (with screws) and push it into the bay. It should lock with a solid click.

I find it odd that the plain M2N has VRM heatsinks while the M2N-SLI Deluxe doesn't. The top-end M2N32-SLI Deluxe has them. Hmmm. :? I like the fact that the northbridge fan is dying on this generation of boards, but I'm a little worried about the position of the CPU on some. The M2N, M2N32-SLI Delu...

I can only comment on your second question. The A8N-SLI (vanilla) does indeed have a fan, as do most other nForce4 motherboards (SLI or not). Even with an aftermarket northbridge heatsink (usually, a Zalman) temps are still high. Is SLI a requirement for your build? If not, I would recommend another...

You might want to stick with NVIDIA chipsets for their good Linux support; ATI's is terrible AFAIK. One bit of evidence to support that: Maximum PC's recent $300 PC that featured an S754 MSI mobo with ATI's Xpress 200 integrated graphics wouldn't work on Linux with ATI drivers; they had to use the g...

I have not tried Linksys, but my one D-Link router (DI-524) emits a constant, very-high-pitched noise that is faint but audible within close range (probably several inches) when ambient noise is low. Setup for the D-Link was a bit cumbersome, and I'd like to try Linksys next time around.

CPU : Athlon 64 3200+ Comment: Running C'n'Q seems like the best option at this point. Should I choose the 3000+ for less heat? Or will it just work harder and make more heat. The 3000+ Venice costs just as much (or more than!) the 3200+ Venice nowadays. I suggest you buy the 3200+ and decrease the...

Also consider axiontech.com. I've bought most of my hardware there, albeit through a local retailer.

You can consider the ASUS A8N-SLI Premium , which uses a heatpipe design on its NF4 chip and MOSFETs and would benefit from airflow from your XP-120's fan. It is quite a bit more expensive than the AX8 but has more features. If you can get by with a slower graphics card, how about this passively coo...

You can passively cool these things I'm 99% sure. They eat up 50W less power than nvidia 6800Ultra and Radeon 850XT. Maybe Gigabyte will take up the challenge? Still, I want an even lower-heat card, something like a 7600, that can run stock passively cooled without too much heat. But I'm sure NVIDI...

I have the SLK3700AMB (the bronze one) and, yes, it is a bit understated. But I like it that way. It's a bit big and, I must warn you, quite heavy when loaded up. The Lanboy will undoubtedly solve that problem, but the various reviews I've read of it say that the case is too flimsy, and I wouldn't w...

Does the 3200 compare at all in terms of performance with the 3700?? I would say no. The 3200+ has a 200MHz and 512kB L2 cache disadvantage compared to the San Diego 3700+. Of course, more games these days are dependent on the videocard rather than the CPU, but for older, CPU-bound games and CPU-in...

I've owned one board from each of the following manufacturers: ASUS, Biostar, Chaintech, and DFI. All are still in use except the DFI (a K6 board from their OEM days), which wouldn't install Windows properly. The Biostar KT266 board has done nothing but cause me headaches, so many I don't care to li...

Yes, that board has me excited, too. :D I like everything about the board except for its poor USB 2.0 performance, which STILL has not been corrected in this new SB450 southbridge (though ATI promises it will be fixed in the upcoming SB600). Oh well, at least it's an improvement over the MSI RS480M2...

I've been out of the Intel loop for a while. :D If you can define bang for the buck in terms of price per performance point (in the performance rating), I think the cheapest Venice, the 3000+, takes the honor. The 3200+ isn't much worse in that respect, and may be worth the extra dollars. The 3500+ ...

davids wrote:Have you tried the Freezer 64 for yourself?

Unfortunately, no. But supposedly AC's CPU HSFs are better designed than their recent VGA coolers.

I wouldn't recommend a fan adapter because it adds height and, thus, distance between the fan and the heatsink, making the fan less effective. I have a 60mm-to-80mm adapter, and though the 80mm fan is more powerful than the 60mm it replaced, its airflow is somewhat diminished, which isn't very desir...

How about this passive XFX GeForce 6600 non-GT card at Newegg . It's powerful enough for many games but shouldn't get too hot when passively cooled. I think it's the sweet spot for silencers. (Note: I have no first-hand experience.) Some people here at SPCR like Gigabyte's fanless X800 cards, but yo...

I love my Audigy2 ZS (retail), though it's only hooked up to cheap Logitech 2.1 speakers. Creative drivers are fine for me; I just don't like using their bundled software, especially their PlayCenter media player, which needs some updating. I have not tried the Revolution, which is supposedly better...

Well, Digikey offers lots of price breaks if you order in quantity (down to $4.95 each if you order 100+ , or $7.10 each for 4 of them). Here is the direct link to Panasonic fans in their catalog (PDF).

How about these changes? CPU COOLER: Arctic Cooling Freezer-64 RAM: This. It says it has a CAS latency of 2. That's the best, right? I'm still undecided on the power supply -- specifically, is there any harm in going with the 430W SeaSonic instead of the 380W? I don't care about paying $25 extra si...

lenny wrote:CAS (column address select)

I believe CAS stands for Column Address Strobe.

Anyway, I think you can find CAS 2.5 memory for relatively cheap and which should be a bit faster than CAS 3 stuff. Good luck on your build!

It seems this board does have undervolting options. Look at the BIOS screenshot in this AMDZone review.

EDIT: But why not use CnQ instead of undervolting?

Thank you, Neil.

For me, the front air filter on my 3700AMB helps a whole lot (I still haven't cleaned it out in almost two years :wink:). There's still some dust but much less than what I've got in a non-filtered machine. The exhaust fan is cleaner on the 3700 because it's blowing filtered air, and the dust that us...

Read the bottom of this page for PCStats' comments on the Xpress 200 northbridge on an MSI RS480M2-IL (in short: hot):

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1802

Check out the review of the MSI board while you're at it.