Search found 233 matches

by JJ
Thu Dec 24, 2015 6:15 pm
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: Fix or repair Arctic Cooling NV Silencer 6 GPU cooler fan?
Replies: 5
Views: 6937

Re: Fix or repair Arctic Cooling NV Silencer 6 GPU cooler fa

The motherboard is an ASUS A8N-SLI Premium, so PCIe.
by JJ
Thu Dec 24, 2015 2:43 pm
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: Fix or repair Arctic Cooling NV Silencer 6 GPU cooler fan?
Replies: 5
Views: 6937

Fix or repair Arctic Cooling NV Silencer 6 GPU cooler fan?

I have an old system I'd like to give away. It's a socket 939 system with an XFX GeForce 6600GT GPU, with an Arctic Cooling NV Silencer 6 Rev 2 cooler. The fan bearings of the GPU cooler gave up the ghost a loooong time ago, and now the system sounds like a lawn mower. Any quick fixes? I don't have ...
by JJ
Tue Jul 28, 2015 2:16 pm
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: Fractal Design Define S Tower Case
Replies: 41
Views: 42890

Re: Fractal Design Define S Tower Case

Are we not cooling hard drives any longer? In this age of very very fast solid state drives, there is no reason to use high RPM hot running hard drives in a "silent" PC. WD Reds run cool enough that unless they are burried, they are fine. Define "buried". Drives mounted in that position within this...
by JJ
Sat Jul 25, 2015 10:41 pm
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: Fractal Design Define S Tower Case
Replies: 41
Views: 42890

Re: Fractal Design Define S Tower Case

What a strange case. I couldn't see needing a case that large these days _unless_ you wanted the hard drive and/or 5.25" optical drive capacity. What I really don't get, though, is mounting the hard drives on the right side, in a space with little or no airflow. Are we not cooling hard drives any lo...
by JJ
Sat Jul 25, 2015 9:55 pm
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: Fractal Design Node 202 Compact Gaming Case
Replies: 9
Views: 13335

Re: Fractal Design Node 202 Compact Gaming Case

Suggestion to the article's author: Wipe your greasy paw prints off the merchandise before taking photos. :)
by JJ
Wed Mar 11, 2015 6:47 pm
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Celeron 1037U vs J1900 for ligthtweight server?
Replies: 3
Views: 7485

Re: Celeron 1037U vs J1900 for ligthtweight server?

There's an ECS motherboard that's very similar in both features and price to the Biostar - the ECS NM70-I2 (1.0). I could just as easily go with that one.
by JJ
Wed Mar 11, 2015 3:32 pm
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Celeron 1037U vs J1900 for ligthtweight server?
Replies: 3
Views: 7485

Celeron 1037U vs J1900 for ligthtweight server?

At home I have a several year old Xeon (65W E3120) powered file server with 15 x 3.5" drives that I'd like to shut down during the day. So I'm putting together a headless, low-powered 24x7 music server to run Logitech Media Server and feed my house full of Squeezebox players. That's all the new serv...
by JJ
Tue Feb 10, 2015 9:45 pm
Forum: Off Topic
Topic: As you get older are you planning for bad times?
Replies: 34
Views: 101391

Re: As you get older are you planning for bad times?

I can't think of too many emergencies where they would not be. Snow would be the most likely, but even after the most extreme snowstorm, major roads are cleared within a day or two Flooding comes to mind. We're now facing rising sea levels and more unusual weather patterns caused by climate change....
by JJ
Wed Feb 04, 2015 10:05 am
Forum: Off Topic
Topic: MikeC's Orion speakers & audio system
Replies: 11
Views: 12070

Re: MikeC's Orion speakers & audio system

Very nice looking. What crossover and amplifier are you using? I've tried dipoles in my listening room, but with mixed results. I love the airiness that they often afford, but their placement is very tricky and sound staging tends to suffer. The require extra attention to not only placement, but roo...
by JJ
Wed Feb 04, 2015 9:58 am
Forum: Off Topic
Topic: As you get older are you planning for bad times?
Replies: 34
Views: 101391

Re: As you get older are you planning for bad times?

You're assuming that 1) the roads/weather are clear enough to allow everyone who has this idea to actually travel to said relatives/motel room I can't think of too many emergencies where they would not be. Snow would be the most likely, but even after the most extreme snowstorm, major roads are cle...
by JJ
Tue Feb 03, 2015 2:57 am
Forum: Off Topic
Topic: As you get older are you planning for bad times?
Replies: 34
Views: 101391

Re: As you get older are you planning for bad times?

1. Planning for weather extremes & power outages. 2. Planning for retirement. 3. Keeping a food stash. Wow. These things may all come under the heading of "planning for the future", but they're almost completely unrelated. > 1. Planning for weather extremes & power outages. Good idea, but you can on...
by JJ
Mon Aug 04, 2014 3:01 pm
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Bay-trail motherboards
Replies: 282
Views: 416873

Re: Bay-trail motherboards

The thing that sinks pretty much all of these board for my consideration is their limit of just two onboard SATA headers.

IMO, SoC from Intel isn't _quite_ there yet, so I'll pass. Maybe the next generation.
by JJ
Mon Aug 04, 2014 2:56 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Anyone use the WD30EZRX?
Replies: 14
Views: 21614

Re: Anyone use the WD30EZRX?

I doubt very much that the current generation of WD30EZRX drives resemble the original version released several years ago. For one thing, I know that WD moved to 1TB platters quite some time ago.
by JJ
Fri Feb 28, 2014 4:08 pm
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: Fractal Design Arc Mini R2 microATX Tower
Replies: 4
Views: 7103

Re: Fractal Design Arc Mini R2 microATX Tower

The reviewer completely misses the point of this and other Fractal Design cases that aren't built to maximize silence. If someone doesn't want the noise suppressing features, then they generally just get in the way. They're not "missing" or "removed".
by JJ
Wed Oct 16, 2013 2:31 pm
Forum: General Gallery
Topic: Update 2 | 1st Build: Define Mini, X-400, i7-2700K, HD7750
Replies: 40
Views: 41155

Re: Update 2 | 1st Build: Define Mini, X-400, i7-2700K, HD77

Nice.

I can't remember the last time I had a motherboard simply die.
by JJ
Tue Aug 06, 2013 9:10 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: batch scripts for turning off hard drives from windows
Replies: 34
Views: 101666

Re: batch scripts for turning off hard drives from windows

Even in the name of silence, I can't believe anyone would bother manually running a script to shut down a drive instead of letting the OS do it a couple minutes later.

To say that you're overthinking this thing would be a gross understatement. Try not to let your OCD get the better of you.
by JJ
Wed May 22, 2013 10:08 pm
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: Intel DQ77KB: A Low Power LGA1155 Motherboard
Replies: 38
Views: 43582

Re: Intel DQ77KB: A Low Power LGA1155 Motherboard

My only question about this board is about the SPDIF... is the 3.5mm jack on the back SPDIF? Is there anyone that is able to test with a 3.5mm mini-toslink to toslink adapter? Can it output DTS for example? It's pretty clear from the documentation that the two 3.5mm jacks are stereo analog out (gre...
by JJ
Sat Feb 16, 2013 3:01 pm
Forum: General Gallery
Topic: Color choice for cables, need your vote/opinion
Replies: 14
Views: 14386

Re: Color choice for cables, need your vote/opinion

NeoGeo wrote:How do I add more depth of field?
Generally speaking, you use a smaller lens aperture and longer exposure. Not sure it's easily doable in many auto modes.
by JJ
Sat Feb 16, 2013 2:40 pm
Forum: General Gallery
Topic: Color choice for cables, need your vote/opinion
Replies: 14
Views: 14386

Re: Color choice for cables, need your vote/opinion

You need more depth of field, and maybe another spot to eliminate shadows. Other than that, nice pic. Maybe could use a little more color contrast.
by JJ
Thu Feb 14, 2013 7:10 pm
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: Nanoxia Deep Silence 1
Replies: 8
Views: 10527

Re: Nanoxia Deep Silence 1

I agree with Das... this case is remarkably similar to the Fractal Design Define R4.
by JJ
Tue Jan 29, 2013 6:57 pm
Forum: CPU Cooling
Topic: What happened to Scythe?
Replies: 0
Views: 2399

What happened to Scythe?

I just went looking for a Scythe CPU cooler and find that very few vendors now carry them or Scythe fans. What happened to them? They were everywhere just a few months ago.

Edit: Nevermind. I see this has been discussed.

[Mod: here is that other thread.]
by JJ
Mon Jan 28, 2013 7:07 pm
Forum: General Gallery
Topic: Color choice for cables, need your vote/opinion
Replies: 14
Views: 14386

Re: Color choice for cables, need your vote/opinion

BTW, where are all the blue accents? For some reason, I don't see them in that photo.
by JJ
Mon Jan 28, 2013 7:05 pm
Forum: General Gallery
Topic: Color choice for cables, need your vote/opinion
Replies: 14
Views: 14386

Re: Color choice for cables, need your vote/opinion

Here's the finished custom stand for the external PSU: I hope you've filled the stand with a non-resonant material other than common play sand. http://www.starsoundtechnologies.com/micro.html And you need to spike it. You'll achieve very few of the potential benefits by placing the PSU on a stand o...
by JJ
Mon Jan 28, 2013 6:18 pm
Forum: Networking
Topic: Is this concept for a custom-built NAS feasible?
Replies: 13
Views: 15106

Re: Is this concept for a custom-built NAS feasible?

Using any type of file system "sync" or disk imaging for real-time backup would make absolutely no sense. It's effectively the same as trying to use RAID for backup, and every bit as bad. Accidentally delete a file? Oops... it's immediately deleted from your "backup". True backups account for state ...
by JJ
Thu Jan 24, 2013 9:58 pm
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: Seasonic Platinum Fanless 520W PSU
Replies: 44
Views: 109483

Re: Seasonic Platinum Fanless 520W PSU

To end on a positive note, the $149 suggested retail price is really a pittance for such outstanding performance, which was not available at any price a few short years ago.
I'm sorry, $150 is far from a "pittance" for a power supply, no matter what it does.
by JJ
Thu Jan 24, 2013 9:54 pm
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: Intel DQ77KB: A Low Power LGA1155 Motherboard
Replies: 38
Views: 43582

Re: Intel DQ77KB: A Low Power LGA1155 Motherboard

Here are a few pics of a DQ77KB build I did recently. I modded the case to support 2 hard drives and a SSD. The thing I love about this setup is that it is absolutely silent, except for the rare click from the hard drives. I'm surprised it's silent with that blower fan. My experience with those thi...
by JJ
Sun Jan 20, 2013 11:53 am
Forum: User Reviews
Topic: First Impressions: Asus P8Z77-M PRO mATX LGA1155 motherboard
Replies: 54
Views: 77747

Re: First Impressions: Asus P8Z77-M PRO mATX LGA1155 motherb

Moving on, I am pondering on going mATX from my current ATX rig... and I am exactly looking at these specs (P8Z77-M Pro, FD Define Mini)... I have a few questions if I may... First off, how's the board performing to date? It's been fantastic for me, as well. Secondly, how's the clearance between th...
by JJ
Thu Jan 17, 2013 3:46 pm
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: Intel DQ77KB: A Low Power LGA1155 Motherboard
Replies: 38
Views: 43582

Re: Intel DQ77KB: A Low Power LGA1155 Motherboard

This seems like an odd product to review for SPCR. There's nothing inherently low power about the motherboard, and more traditionally arranged socket 1155 mini-ITX boards may be more suitable for the typical desktop build. Here's an idea of how a slim HTPC is built using these low profile boards and...
by JJ
Tue Jan 01, 2013 1:06 pm
Forum: Power Supplies
Topic: Power supply for Intel DN2800MT
Replies: 1
Views: 2610

Re: Power supply for Intel DN2800MT

You're only worried about the connector? The connector can easily be replaced in a minute with a soldering gun.
by JJ
Tue Jan 01, 2013 1:05 pm
Forum: Power Supplies
Topic: Power supply for six drive system?
Replies: 2
Views: 2643

Power supply for six drive system?

I'm looking at putting together a server as follows: Fractal Design Node 304 chassis H67 miniITX motherboard Intel Core i3-3220 (Ivy Bridge, 55W) 8 GB DDR3 64 GB SSD 5 x 3.5" HDD (2 & 3 TB) Is there a picoPSU that could power this? If not, what would be a minimal, but safely sized ATX PSU? Maybe I s...