The 6 cores will indeed be 1136 exclusive, but if they are at the >$1k price point as some news sites say, I couldn't care less. And it's not like intel has a rep for releasing new CPUs with backwards motherboard compatibility, so even when 6/8 cores are mainstream, it'll probably be tied to a new s...

Sure, you'd have silence, but given that it's just an Atom/950 combo, this is no major feat. Looks nice but the target demographic is pretty small...

If anyone else wants a look: http://www.moneual.co.kr/us/sub09/sub2_1.php

swivelguy2 wrote: at 20C ambient (which is pretty chilly)

Couldn't help but chuckle at that part. My ambient in a basement suite might peak 21 on the hottest of summer days, otherwise it's usually 15-18. I need to move somewhere warmer

Totally agree with the rest of your post, though!

^ Agreed. 3 120mm fans @1000 RPM is way overkill for a low-power HTPC. They have that design to have overhead for those running a gaming-rig with hot vid cards. You should be able to get those fans down to <600 RPMs without compromising temperatures. That's where I'd start.

The top fan in the P180m case

Thanks for the review, and especially for continuing this new trend of testing/guesstimating noise levels if the PSU is fed fresh air rather than air from the inside of the chassis. I modded my regular ATX case with a "cold air intake" for the PSU, and going forward, only consider cases that either ...

On the AMD side, the 780/785G chipsets can do everything that the GF9300/9400 can with the exception of 8ch LPCM over HDMI (they are limited to 2ch LPCM, DD, DTS). The performance and power envelope is very similar to the nV chipset, and value favors AMD heavily in this area if the prices at newegg ...

Haha, no apologies needed, and your counterpoint back then was perfectly valid (I had just searched the original thread to double check what I've gotten myself into). As much as I don't want to look antagonistic with this trend of disagreement, I have to say that you're getting way ahead of yourself...

^ I would have suggested the same, but since he has since decided to go P55, it's not possible anymore.

If the 2 others haven't convinced you already, my X-FI Platinum is the biggest mistake I've made in electronics purchases ever! Horrendous driver support and crappy build quality. Read up on the pops and crackles many complain about. More recently, I get random channel remaps while playing back musi...

I was wondering the same thing as you a while ago and messaged MikeC. Here's the exchange: ME: Hi Mike, I was wondering if you plan on reviewing any internal Blu-ray drives in the future? If not, can you tell me what your experience with them has been so far (noisewise)? I'm a bit reluctant to get o...

I second SebRad's recommendation of the 5770. You can't beat the idle power/temps without dropping down into the ultra-low-performance cards. The performance is near the 4870/GTX260, but with the benefit of a newer feature set and a LOT better thermals. The 4879/90 might be relatively good bargains ...

If you want a cheaper alternative to the Xigma that is 1156 compatible out of the box, I'd recommend the Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus (don't know how the fan compares, but the heatsink and mounting setup on the 212 is very good). Also, FYI I've had issues with system stability and the CPU throwing er...

370 is more than enough. I built a i5 750 rig with a more power hungry vid card than yours on an Antec 380W PSU for a friend recently and only used the 4pin P4 connector on one end of the 8pin mobo exactly as Uday described and it went without a hitch. The adapter shouldn't be necessary though it mi...

That doesnt make any sense. I see lots of systems all day at best buy sams club walmart that has 6-8 gigs of ram. Something doesnt add up? A few family members bought Acer/Tosh laptops during the last year with 4GB RAM and both came with Vista x64, so the major players seem to have jumped on the ba...

If you're at 1280x1024, the above recommended cards would be good enough, but if you want some longevity or run higher resolutions, I'd recommend something newer/faster.

We need more info about what kinds of games you'd want to play, at what resolution and gfx settings to make a sound recommendation.

One more little question. Which GPU should i choose to make a hibrid crossfire on 785g? AFAIK, only the 34x0 cards will work, but to really answer your question- you shouldn't choose any card for hybrid crossfire because unless your goal is to run simple/older games at slightly higher settings than...

I disagree about the quad comment above. Personally, I keep the CPU+mobo a lot longer than vid cards, so buying a more futureproof CPU is tops on my list of priorities. While a X2 is good enough today, 2-3 years from now the OP will drop in a better vid card and he's golden again, while you will pro...

I don't think that the 5850 can be run passive unless you never stress it. It's a good card at idle, but the load power consumption is still really high, and that means you're probably going to have as much fun trying to keep the VRMs and RAM cool as 4870 owners (as you already seem to know). Other ...

AtW, if I were you, I'd worry a lot less about being able to cool the i5 with a minja and more about fitting the S1 inside the Antec Fusion/2480 cases. The S1 tends to be "taller" than the vid card, and there is only about 1cm from the top of the PCI bracket to the case 'ceiling'. I had to bend the ...

Thanks for the "review". It's a neat looking case, but it's a shame about the fans and PSU shortcomings. Things definitely look tight in there

You mentioned you removed the RAM, try a known-good stick instead, as a computer can't complete POST without RAM present. It's a long shot but maybe it may be that easy... It seems to come down to either the CPU or the motherboard has failed (or both). I have 2 older systems stuck at the same troubl...

I built an i5 system in the Antec 300 using the GigaByte P55 UD2 board a weeks after the i5 was released with a Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus (120mm tower), and it runs semi-passive (using the nearby top case fan, rear 120mm fan moved to front, added extra 120mm fan @5V). The vid card is a 4770 (didn'...

I've used isopropyl alcohol with qtips in the past. I've heard of others using acetone as the solvent. Call me lazy, but I wouldn't be too hasty to reseat the heatsink if it felt like it was on tightly to begin with. I just mentioned it so you can check if it is not attached securely/making good con...

Are you using on-board audio and have speakers/headphones on while the noise occurs (even if they are muted in software- not sure what you mean by "sound box")? Quite a few on-board audio chips play squeeky/high-pitched sounds when other things are going on such as USB or SATA throughput, CPU changi...

Underclocking is one thing you can try, but I think the more relevant one would be undervolting (or both if you can't lower temps by undervolting alone). You do not risk damaging anything by doing this, but you do risk making the system unstable if you go too far. What you should do is perform a sea...

I recently used a Cooler Master Hyper 212+ in an i5 build for a friend and it was the cheapest big 120mm fan based tower cooler I could find. The build quality was good and the mounting mechanism was excellent and really versatille (fits all modern intel sockets; but with backplate). I can't say any...

Whoops, got my #s mixed up. I meant the 860 which costs only US$10 more than the 920. The link I posted above RE: cpus show the 860 consistently beating the 920 at stock speeds. Also, I'm assuming that 3GHz OC is a typo since pretty much any 45nm cpu will be able to hit those speeds with ease.

I'd recommend against the Creative sound card. I have an X-Fi and Creative is horrendous for providing functional drivers. Also they use really cheap capacitors, and you may get random pops and crackles. Read up on the issues with X-Fi cards before you waste your money. Also, since you're getting a ...

Of all the people that suggested using the original plate for VRMs, etc., does anyone have any before/after temps? Or even reference cooling temps? I'm currently using the heatsinks that came with the S1 and a 120mm S-Flex running around 1200rpm, stock settings except for mem underclocked to 600 (fr...