Search found 473 matches

by mb2
Fri Dec 22, 2006 7:57 am
Forum: CPU Cooling
Topic: Sempron 3000 AM2 passive cooling
Replies: 4
Views: 3334

the stock heat sink is totally adequate assuming you'll have other fans in the case. u'd probably be best with any fans facing the cpu though (guessing it would OK the other way). click sig for some context of mine.

and aren't 65nm semprons quite a bit off?..
by mb2
Fri Dec 22, 2006 7:30 am
Forum: Off Topic
Topic: Things that will damage SPCR's reputation
Replies: 7
Views: 4751

nici wrote:LEt's just forget about the blinking thing... :!:
cocktease.
by mb2
Fri Dec 22, 2006 7:06 am
Forum: Off Topic
Topic: Is the death penalty unconstitutional?
Replies: 35
Views: 21387

personally i don't see how u can call the organised killing of someone (often after a long period in a jail waiting to die), anything but cruel (even if u feel it is just). and does anyone think it isn't unusual? besides, isn't this case more about the 'method' of death, not the death penalty itself...
by mb2
Wed Dec 06, 2006 1:58 pm
Forum: Off Topic
Topic: dual volumes on a PC, how to regulate???
Replies: 34
Views: 28419

*sigh*. winamp takes over one of the mixer channels of the main volume control (I don't recall whether it's wave or master), rather than doing that itself before send it to the OS' mixer. winamp has options to change it either way. you could always up the volume levels using the equaliser in WMP or ...
by mb2
Mon Nov 13, 2006 8:58 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: turning hard drives off
Replies: 8
Views: 4311

turning it on and off endlessly isn't great for the drive, as it has to accelerate quickly when u turn it on. that said, its not going to kill a drive if its not too often. personally i'd set it to turn off if u can pick a time that means it won't spin up more than 10 times/day. its good for power c...
by mb2
Mon Nov 13, 2006 8:54 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Anyone here boot Windows off a USB flash drive?
Replies: 3
Views: 3494

booting windows (atleast anything from the windows 2000 base onwards), from USB is a PITA., as the OS sees it as a removable device. CF needs a very cheap adaptor and it essentially is a hard drive to your system. 10MB/s isn't a very impressive transfer rate; u'd probably get that off any (good-ish)...
by mb2
Mon Sep 18, 2006 8:10 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: SSD's and Ramdrive questions
Replies: 14
Views: 6984

About the comment that with enough memory, the swap file isn't used: That's not how I have read that the Windows swap works. You would expect that the driver that manages swap would wait to write anything to disk until the real memory is almost full. It doesn't do that. It mostly looks at how long ...
by mb2
Mon Sep 11, 2006 7:23 pm
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: AM2 X2 based HTPC for Standard Definition material ?
Replies: 18
Views: 9708

meh, can't u schedule it to archive stuff to Xvid at 3am or something? as a bonus u get less seek noise while you're there too. assuming that, then a sempron 2600+ would be a good idea. u say the X2s are cheap but have u seen the price of these? anyway, u can undervolt to 0.something and be far cool...
by mb2
Mon Sep 11, 2006 6:39 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: SSD's and Ramdrive questions
Replies: 14
Views: 6984

well i've used my PC off a CF card but it was a)128MB and b)40x .. (ie, allegedly 6MB/s) it was quite quick, but then firefox was the biggest app on there. the ultimate speed bottleneck for CF is that i think they all use PIO..whether or not that will restrict them @ 40MB/s or not i don't know.. as ...
by mb2
Thu Sep 07, 2006 7:50 pm
Forum: The Silent Front
Topic: Anyone else running diskless?
Replies: 19
Views: 10627

iirc, running puppy (linux) from CD with 128mb ram.. basically (what i think was) running out of memory (offenders being mozilla and their disk mount util) simply lead to the system grinding to a halt. it did recover if u closed the offending app, but its far, far quicker to just restart (ie, gettin...
by mb2
Sun Sep 03, 2006 9:20 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: What is the NICEST computer you could build?
Replies: 31
Views: 14992

Re: Quiet vs. Fast I have no rules. I'm fully aware that certain "nice" features are at odds with one another, but I'm just asking y'all's opinion of nice. You strike the balance where you think it fits best. Goals: fast, quiet, storage, video @mb2: That sounds like what I'm looking for, but you lo...
by mb2
Sun Sep 03, 2006 6:45 am
Forum: General Gallery
Topic: Centurion 5 / Athlon XP / Katana / 1.6 MB of pix
Replies: 19
Views: 30540

must say i love that case.. i'm sure coolermaster had a really good (iirc similar) mATX one at the trade shows once but never surfaced.. i'd suggest a couple of minor adjustments; -seal the cardboard duct, a sealed duct works a lot better than a vague 'guide'- put tape along all the joins between th...
by mb2
Sun Sep 03, 2006 3:04 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: CHEAP and quiet computer for the kids
Replies: 8
Views: 3366

i'd reccomend the Athlon64 3400+ + mobo deal at newegg. $100 and u get a free motherboard (choice of 3), as well as a 2.4ghz, 90nm K8. should be significantly cooler and faster. worth the $20 more. doesn't come with a HS, but i think u'd need another one with that 315 anyway. didn't know u could get...
by mb2
Sat Sep 02, 2006 6:48 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: What is the NICEST computer you could build?
Replies: 31
Views: 14992

rather depending on 'money no object' or 'money no object, within reason'... i'd get a TNN, fill it full of iRAMs maxed out, a 30" apple cinema display, connect to a gigE [if possible] (or FW800) NAS, maxed with raptor 150s, cloned (samsung t133s would probably be most cost effective). +BT mouse/kyb...
by mb2
Fri Sep 01, 2006 10:01 am
Forum: The Silent Front
Topic: Anyone else running diskless?
Replies: 19
Views: 10627

nice. i'd give it a try if i had a wired LAN. perhaps for a print server but then the old mobos u'd use for that don't have PXE. i'm right in thinking its impossible to get it working with wireless? So how long does it take to boot up via network, compared to on HDD? When (fast) CF cards (and the ad...
by mb2
Fri Sep 01, 2006 8:18 am
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: QMicra from PC Design Lab: SFF Super-sized
Replies: 33
Views: 31072

The exhaust vents are much better, using unrestrictive wire grills. Whilst i appreciate the fact they they are probably the least restrictive grills any retail PC/case is supplied with, i rememeber reading a post here (which included MikeC) which stated that they reduced airflow by ~30%. 'relativel...
by mb2
Thu Aug 31, 2006 9:42 am
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Confused about lowest-power AMD CPUs
Replies: 41
Views: 26769

TDP may aswell be witchcraft, they just don't seem to consistantly make sense. especially when u factor in the supposed rules of underclocking and undervolting (why do u say more than the square of the difference QuietOC?). Eg, i have just got a via C3, its TDP is 12W. it stays in the 50s when primi...
by mb2
Wed Aug 30, 2006 3:52 am
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: will there be a celeron-priced Core2 architecture CPU?
Replies: 5
Views: 2427

iirc there are going to be 800fsb C2Ds also
by mb2
Mon Aug 28, 2006 9:23 pm
Forum: Consumer Advocacy
Topic: Funny/sad SilenX story....
Replies: 69
Views: 61338

They are in a market without standardisation; if they aren't saying how they get to their noise figure, then u can't prove they are lying. sure they may need to be 100m under the fan in an underground bunker to get those figures, but legally that wouldn't matter. The PSU market is just as bad (atlea...
by mb2
Mon Aug 28, 2006 8:07 pm
Forum: The Silent Front
Topic: desktop Nvidia 6150 power efficency
Replies: 32
Views: 22540

Does this mean that the average S939 X2 have a lower individual TDP than the AM2 counterpart? Confused unless some major OEM starts making SFFs with EE X2's, then i really doubt it will make any significant difference atall. are these even available in retail now? as iirc, they weren't last time th...
by mb2
Mon Aug 28, 2006 12:34 pm
Forum: Quiet Prebuilt, SFF and Barebones Systems
Topic: is there a mATX Small form factor with 5 1/4 bay minimac?
Replies: 4
Views: 4269

- micro ATX is as 24cmx24cm. much bigger than a mac mini . you'd want miniITX if u want to approach the size of a mac mini.. - the mac mini does not use 5.25" cd drives; it uses smaller, slimmer drives as used in laptops. theyre way too big for a system the size of the mac mini. -you will not find a...
by mb2
Mon Aug 28, 2006 12:27 pm
Forum: CPU Cooling
Topic: PIII Coolers
Replies: 7
Views: 3645

any socket A heatsink with the mounting clips will work for s370. it sounds like either your temperature sensor is bust, or you have no thermal paste or a very bad thermal pad. but i'd imagine the previous is much more likely. an si97 seems rather overkill for a PIII; its going to cost a good propor...
by mb2
Thu Aug 24, 2006 7:58 pm
Forum: General Gallery
Topic: Silent Aluminum Point Of Service Terminal
Replies: 9
Views: 6947

very cool. quite a range of OSes there. i'd love to run winCE on a 'normal' computer (or even XPe), i wonder whether its any more efficient than windows98 can be- if not, begs the question; why don't we see win98 on portable devices?. also the 650mhz celeron M is nice. any idea what this system draw...
by mb2
Thu Aug 24, 2006 11:11 am
Forum: General Gallery
Topic: Totally Positive Antec Aria...Ver. 2
Replies: 53
Views: 71419

They run at 12x.. so on 800 fsb that would be 2.4ghz. There have been directions posted on this site however to bend a pin off which makes it work @ default multi. i'm pretty sure they do work on all 478 boards, and are (iirc) <$20 on ebay. valid point that UV mbs are hard to get, but i'd have thoug...
by mb2
Wed Aug 23, 2006 9:54 pm
Forum: General Gallery
Topic: Totally Positive Antec Aria...Ver. 2
Replies: 53
Views: 71419

just wondering; why not a P4-m? not only do they use less power, but can be picked up much cheaper than the desktop variety on ebay and such.. admittedly u may lose hyperthreading (not sure?)..
by mb2
Wed Aug 23, 2006 5:57 pm
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Fastest, lowest power single core system?
Replies: 9
Views: 4339

for your situation i'd suggest, assuming you are in the US, newegg's deal for a 3400+ with a free motherboard for $99.00. you're getting a 2.4ghz K8. Its therefore going to be pretty similar in speed to the S939, 1MB 4000+, which is $36 more, and with an AMD wallet instead of a motherboard. i don't ...
by mb2
Wed Aug 23, 2006 3:01 pm
Forum: General Gallery
Topic: Cheap, quiet, one fan, micro-ATX PC. *update*
Replies: 11
Views: 22401

http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/5179/cpuzgf9.jpg It actually undervolts below that (ie below what is selected in the bios); atleast, according to the readings. its at 1.024 half the time too. I knew there was a voltage lock but i just assumed in my head that it must have been 1v, and that select...
by mb2
Wed Aug 23, 2006 2:03 pm
Forum: Off Topic
Topic: What are you WATCHING right now? ~Voted #1 Thread~
Replies: 62
Views: 37631

What are you ''looking at'' right now? Inane posts..... have to agree. even if it was said with irony. blantantly u are all looking at ur computer screen (more specifically SPCR). or your keyboard. whats happening in the background (as the posts so far have proved) isn't exactly interesting. 'What ...
by mb2
Wed Aug 23, 2006 1:17 pm
Forum: General Gallery
Topic: My lightly modded Sonata
Replies: 8
Views: 8978

i don't know why more people don't duct their ninjas.. especially with a p180.. its only 5 mins and a couple of bits of cardboard/tape or something. as the fans take air from a large area on the intake side, u'd think it would make quite a difference.
by mb2
Wed Aug 23, 2006 1:11 pm
Forum: General Gallery
Topic: DIY Diskless PC on the wall
Replies: 6
Views: 8550

i'm guessing that the C3 isn't removable judging from the pictures? if it is, then would not a celeron 600 @1.5v not be both cooler and faster? (whats the relative area of strength of the c3s?) personally i'd just have left the case off and ran it passively; 73*C is ok for a via.. and u won't be str...