I am 6'-4" and 245 pounds, and in decent shape; and I drive a small car: a Scion xA (see the pictures I linked to above). I tried a little EOC (engine off coasting) at about 3mph (in line at a toll booth) and it was all I could do to keep from hitting the car ahead of me! :shock: The handbrake was ...

The crazy hypermilers do what they have dubbed EOC aka engine off coasting, so they get the best of both methods -- but at a pretty high cost, of loss of steering and brakes! Have you ever tried to stop a car w/o vacuum assist for the steering and the brakes? It ain't fun -- the handbrake is far mo...

Damn! I wish this review had come out BEFORE I bought my TRUE :( almost as well and it's only $35. Must be that HDT technology working. Wonder when Thermalright will start using that technique as well. Since the HR-01 is already showing such great results I want to see the performance of a HDT versi...

the chipset cooler was HOT, couldn't hold my finger on it. I took it off and found the factory thermal crap looked literally like baked pink dirt. I used my finger nail and scraped it off the chipset. It came off in crusty layered chunks. I used razor blade to scrap it off the heatsink, cleaned the...

Did you try the Scythe connected to the PSUs fan controller or the standard fan connected to the 5V line?

Just curious to know how the fans compare, noisewise.

NeilBlanchard wrote:It's gonna' make the loudest things quieter, so you can then hear the next loudest things.

Amen to that - you end up chasing noise sources you didn't know existed.

If the video card had issues in a C5, then it might be worse in the Solo unless you put in a lower front fan.

This case has actually been reviewed by SPCR and in there are some comments about quieting it down. Personally, I have found these cases to be very easy to work with and to cool very well but the noise issues are the standard fans (easy to replace, though) and the fixed HDD cage which allows drive v...

the front panel resonates creating a humming sound, which are it's only downsides sound-wise. I think the front panel is a tad flimsy which is why it resonates, and if I push my finger against it, it'll stop, so I reckon putting something behind it to keep it firm would stop that little issue. I'm ...

murtoz wrote:I'm confused. The specs on page 1 of the article say it's a Q6600 cpu. But page 2 keeps referring to a Q9600. Which one is it?

I expect it's a Q6600 since page 1 states the clock speed is 2.4GHz (and there is no Q9600) but this does need to be clarified.

of course to really find out one must take a Corsair HX, subject it to a small load but a very high ambient temp and see if it ramps up; does anyone feel like torturing their very expensive power supply to satisfy our curiousity? :lol: JonnyGuru do this with all their PSU tests. http://jonnyguru.co...

I didn't find the 4480 too bad to work with, although most of my experience haas been with generic cases. The lower fan mount is pretty useless though, unless you need to cool a video card or other heatsink down near the bottom, since the drive bay is above the fan mount. Also, there is no easy way ...

Mike Chin recently posted that the Enermax fan control circuit is only compatible with the Enermax fan. It's a PWM controlled fan so it would be interesting to see what would happen if it was replaced with a PWM fan that was known to be reasonably quiet like the Artic Cooling or Scythe 120mm PWM fa...

When starting up from cold, the vCore can be dropped down to 0.88375V if I run with the multiplier set to 6 (1.6 GHz). :D It still seems to run hotter than the E4300 when that was running at 0.99375V but I guess the extra L2 cache will draw more current. OK, I forgot that the E4300 would drop back ...

MikeC wrote:CoolerMaster iGreen Power 500 (R) - $25 - SOLD

Just wondering when this PSU was reviewed and where the review could be found....

You still risk desoldering the lower fins from the heatpipes plus what stops the solder from flowing right out of the other side of the base? Especially when trying to fill the voids around the upper set of heatpipes?

Those "liquid steel" type pastes have 2 issues. 1. The liquid in the emulsion may water based (some are solvent based) but also contains binding agents to set the mixture and these are not particularly thermally conductive (think of metallic paint). 2. The viscosity of the "liquid steel" is rather t...

The HDD drives are not suspended in any way. Classical mount in CoolerMaster Wave Master case. As the WD GP has almost no vibrations, I don't see the need of suspending them and on the other hand, I don't really like the hole suspended idea, it just doesn't feel safe to me, as I move the case few t...

You should try the fan on a direct 12V connection to gauge it's potential CFM. The fan controller in the PSU will speed it up pronto if the components start getting hot since it is thermally controlled - not hardcoded to run a particular voltage at a particular output level.

innomind wrote:you never know how many more hard drives I will add in the future.

An Antec EarthWatts 380W would easily power as many HDDs as you are able to fit in a small case.

Could you use a lower powered video card like a 8400GS or 2400Pro?

Even a quad core system won't use over 200watts. Yep. Also, getting a non-modular PSU would probably give you slightly smaller options. I would think about the Antec EarthWatts 380W for your system else the Seasonic 330W. I think with that heatsink/CPU combo, the fan noise from that will swamp PSU ...

Hmmm. I wonder if a ghetto mod could be done by running a bead of silicone across each side of the base, except in each direction to seal up the base into an open box, then filling the base with water before sealing it all in with more silicone on last side of the base. Just a thought..... Would be...

Actually a restricted intake is a liability to both positive and negative pressure cases......from a noise and cooling perspective. This case looks particularly bad because of the closeness of the drive cage to the intake fan. You will get a terrible back-pressure effect with this sort of setup, wh...

I guess the unmentioned factor is that Bluefront likes positive pressure systems so he needs an intake that is less obstructed than most people's systems (which tend to run negative pressure.

So for him, any obstruction to the intake fan is a major liability.

The single front intake fan, completely blocked by the HD cage, is cause for concern. Fill the cage with drives and the airflow will be severely blocked. Even with one or two drives, you'll have problems with intake noise. The side shots of tha HDD cage shows that it is far less restrictive than mo...

With the NT06, I've seen its possible to mount a fan underneath the body of the cooler, so that could work, but there won't be much clearance above it. That shouldn't be a problem since the case has vents on the top - hopefully some are right above the CPU. I'm wondering if the SI-128 can be modded...

I would think that filling all the voids with solder would be the best bet. Possibly. Water has VERY good thermal transfer properties as it is liquid at the temps we are talking about and the convection flow would help vs just relying on thermal conductivity as in a solid. But the big advantage of ...

NeilBlanchard wrote:[Edit: Silicon? No, I think that would harm the heat transfer?]

My idea was to fill the voids in the base unit of the Ninja with water to enhance the heat transfer to the heat pipes. The silicone would just seal the water in.

Hmmm. I wonder if a ghetto mod could be done by running a bead of silicone across each side of the base, except in each direction to seal up the base into an open box, then filling the base with water before sealing it all in with more silicone on last side of the base. Just a thought..... Would be ...

The biggest problem I see in resoldering or brazing the base to the heatpipes is that the amount of heat required could damage the fins + the secondary heatsink. To heat the base sufficiently for solder to flow and attach properly could cause the soldering of the heatpipes to the fins to flow as wel...

The Solo will be fine and really isn't noisier than the P182. The P182 was designed to stay quiet with more components than would fit in a Solo.