I use the Logitech Illuminated Keyboard and find the tonality of it to be very quiet and muted. The space bar is a bit noisier, but not enough to ruin the product. It has illuminated keys (obviously) which goes hand in hand with the quiet requirement and working at night possibly in a dark room. The...

Using HDDScan 3.3 I'm able to change the AAM setting on my WD10EALX without a fuss. I'm using the Asus P8H67M-LE motherboard on Windows 7.

http://hddscan.com/download/HDDScan-3.3.zip

A driver update ... released through Windows Update today and it changed my WEI scores quite a bit. Raises the question whether the update just change the evaluation or if it actually changes the performance. Have you run any other benchmarks to see if there's a difference? Well the WEI score didn'...

I like the Noctua NF-S12B ULN. They run at about 700rpm at 12v, at which point they are inaudible from 1m and likely much closer as well. They're design lends to them being more of a case fan than a HSF. They don't move a lot of air, but just one of them as an exhaust for my modest system keeps it c...

A driver update for the Intel HD Graphics was released through Windows Update today and it changed my WEI scores quite a bit. I'm using W7 HP x64 with an Intel i5-2500 (HD 2000) on an Asus P8H67M-LE clocked with a max freq. of 1600MHz and 128MB shared memory. Before update (ver. 8.15.10.2219): Graph...

I haven't been to college/university for decades but I would assume today many/most profs have their lessons in some digital form. I wouldn't be surprised at all if students can actually sit and listen to entire lectures without the distraction to themselves and others of clicking keyboards, by hav...

Just wanted to update my previous post. Now that I have built my new silent PC the ambient noise in my computer room has gone down dramatically. Tonight I noticed that I could hear a very faint buzzing and confirmed that it was from the monitor. I can only hear it with my ear 6-8" away, pointing my ...

According to those datasheets, my kit of Kingston ValueRAM (KVR1333D3N9K2/4G) is 1.18", or 30mm tall.

Why did you choose the EVO motherboard from Asus over some of their other H67 boards? I couldn't justify the price of the EVO as the LE has everything I need at a much cheaper price.

You know, I was looking at the discrete GPU as I installed the Noctua HSF and to be honest it seems like things may be somewhat cramped. The heatsink itself definitely leaves more than adequate room for a GPU, but the fan overhangs a little bit making it less definitive. The position of the fan on t...

What about the Noctua NH-C12P SE14? It seems more or less the same as the C14 if you're just going to use one fan on the top. The SE14 is about $20 cheaper and should provide adequate clearance for most RAM. I use basic DDR3 with no heatspreaders in my system and my SE14 probably has about an inch o...

Thanks for the tips. I really liked Helium Music Manager when I had it. I have a problem in that I have about 60GB of MP3 files right now. I try to keep these files current in 2 places at the same time. It is a pain to sync them both up though. I may get helium also. That godfather program looks pr...

I've posted a picture and specs of this system here: viewtopic.php?f=14&t=62001

Sounds like a fun weekend: ripping tons of CDs and converting them to various formats, then editing the tags, organizing them, and backing them up. If you're doing something like that I would HIGHLY recommend using this program: http://www.jtclipper.eu/thegodfather/ or one like it for batch editing...

The parts are as follows: Antec Solo Seasonic X-560 Asus P8H67M-LE Intel Core i5-2500 Noctua NH-C12P SE14 w/ ULNA Noctua NF-S12B ULN 4GB Kingston 1333MHz DDR3 WD10EALX (suspended) WD10EARS (suspended) LG GH22NS50 Asus Essence STX http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/682/silentpc.jpg It's even faster a...

I think it would mostly depend on whether on not your onboard sound card is simply passing the digital bits through, or if it's converting it to analog and then back to digital. If it's the latter then I would say that an upgrade would definitely improve quality. On the other hand, if it's the forme...

I got the parts for this system and built it yesterday. It is so quiet! I can't believe how quiet it is.. The loudest component is the Caviar Blue drive when it's seeking, but even then it's incredibly quiet. I'm glad that I went with the Solo, it looks very elegant in real life. The i5-2500 seems t...

Those idle sound levels from WD are not accurate, especially considering the fact that they don't state the distance at which they measured from. I use a WD5000AAKS as the primary drive in one of my PCs and is inaudible beneath the sound of the fans in the NSK3480 housing it. The seek noise is quite...

I was looking at the 2500 but according to the intel spec page it has a 95W TDP while the 2500T has a 45W TDP. They both idle at 4 watts. That is where they will be most of the time. They are so muscular that even when in use neither will push much more than 10 watts. They are the same except the 2...

I'm now considering the Fractal Define R3 quite seriously. I like that it has better expandability options over the Solo for future upgrades. and that it implements a bottom mounted PSU design. I also like the fact that the paint isn't glossy and how it places the front panel buttons on the top. The...

I have a question for Define R3 owners.. how do you find the silicone HDD cage grommets for isolation? Would they be able to keep HDDs with relatively little vibration in check?

Note - Athena speakers are the owned by the same company as Paradigm. Just more boutique-ish. Note 2 - Energy Speakers are also made by them. Other than the finish and the top-end models, the mainstream speakers are the same thing but for less money. Neither of those companies are affiliated with P...

I really like Paradigm speakers. Made in Canada by skilled craftsmen. Are you sure they are still made in CA? I recently bought some rather expensive PSB speakers that at one time were also made in Canada, but now made in China. The design, of course, is still from CA. They are, for the most part. ...

The trouble with speakers is that there's no substitute for listening to the stuff for yourself unless you know exactly what you want, technically speaking. Stay away from chain stores, you may have a chance. If you follow the advice of these two quotes you'll be in good shape. Personally I like th...

the article i referred was written by people who had visited the cebit event. they explicitly make statements about the amount of fingerprints that this case draws... you should let google translate it for you and read it. they say it does an active job of keeping fingerprints away due to some spec...

That new Silent Chassis M looks good to me, although I have a few gripes about it: 1) the door is glossy and appears to be a fingerprint magnet, -1 2) the hard drive mounting system doesn't appear to utilize any sort of vibration isolation 3) the case looks really slick overall, but the Coolermaster...

You could consider a combination like this one: Amplifier - NAD C315BEE: http://nadelectronics.com/products/hifi-amplifiers/C-315BEE-Stereo-Integrated-Amplifier Speakers - PSB Image B5: http://www.psbspeakers.com/products/Image-Series/Image-B5-Bookshelf They should match very well as the two are sis...

Very nice and clean looking build you've got there! I may have to reconsider the Fractal R3 for my build.. the cable management grommets are an immense help.

That SSD in the bottom of the hard drive cage looks awfully lonely.. haha.

I use this enclosure myself:
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/ ... No=3804512

It has both eSATA and USB connections on it. I'm sure you could use a 2.5" to 3.5" adapter that comes with most SSDs now to make one work in this enclosure.