I was just listening to a lecturer describe how the only bioregion on the planet that has not been subject to notable selective pressure for many thousands of years from humans who find plants and animals tasty, useful or attractive is Antarctica. This includes supposedly pristine ecosystems such as...

What about just using silicone sealant? That stuff should be fantastic, either using 4 blobs, one in each corner, or even around the entire perimeter to completely seal it off. X Exactly right. I've been using a thin bead of silicone around the perimeter of my fans for a while. In my case, I combin...

Well a 6200 if you can find one. If not, a standard 6600 should be easy to find. The thing is that the "everyone" on the Net usually means gamers or other folks who buy into the "more is always better" philosophy. SPCR is an anomoly, as there is a significant contigent of "less is more." If you thin...

I can't imagine why you would need a 6600GT for HTPC use. The 3d core will not help in any way with video streaming or recording, and the idle draw of the GT is higher than I'd like for a full-time server. Running HD will tax the system, but mostly it means having enough CPU, system memory, and vide...

I saw this HS in Akihabara while recently visiting friends in Japan, and it looked like the best low airflow design I've seen yet. Sadly, I'm still running socket A, so I had no good reason to pick one up. Now I'm even more gutted after seeing my suspicions confirmed. People should really not worry ...

Just as an example, the ATI X300 series does 1920 x 1200 at 100Hz ATI specs DVI connections are very common on PCI express low end parts, sadly, it's true they are still rare in integrated systems. I'm fairly confident that nVidia's low end offers similar capabilities. I'm also quite sure that for s...

I think it needs to be repeated that for the original intent of this thread, all talk of 6600, X800, and 6800 cards is massive overkill. If you are not gaming, do not buy a gaming card. Period. Any modern low end card will be able to deal with 1600x1200 resolution at good refresh rates. Anything wit...

FWIW I would not take any stock in a drive review from Tom's Hardware or Anandtech. They both rely far too much on synthetic benchmarks that have little relation to realworld performance. Storagereview is another story. They thouroughly explain their methodology, and while they do use synthetic benc...

Not sure if you tried this, and I can't imagine why it would give that error from running in an enclosure, but have you tried putting the drive back to a normal IDE internal channel?

Mass loaded vinyl is also a pound per square foot, and according to some (maybe that one not sure) sites it is more effective than lead. Just looking at densities though they would be about the same. Plus its not a poison and it is probably (dont know from experiance) easier to install. Edit: spell...

I'm suspicious of the fin spacing on the Shogun there. Looks too dense to work well with extremely low airflow fans.

I'd be happy to be wrong though, and hope that we'll see a review here eventually.

I think it needed to be said in part because so many hardware sites still talk as if they are the up to the moment, edgy alternative to the print media, but this has not been the case for a long time now. When the bubble burst, and the hardware sites began to consolidate, a lot of the old ways of do...

thx for the ideas, the inwin link looks good, the 120 stock power supply dosent look bad. Basicly I want the pc to be unobtrusive. Not quite quiet to our standards but good enough. Do you guys think it will be up to those standards stock with a little fan undervolting? That looks like an excellent ...

I used an Inwin J500 for my mom's computer and it was very decent. They come with a Sparkle PSU, and the 92mm exhaust grill on the back is a honeycomb style - very open. In her quiet home office the system with 2Ghz celeron is not at all noisy. That or the 2650BQE would be near the top of my list. I...

how about this?

It's not the most well-regarded brand, but my rule of thumb is go for the most common chipset you can find, it'll make getting things to work with older hardware that much easier. It's also $13 cheaper.

If the Inquirer is to be believed, it looks like Intel may be finally seeing the light. Not just as a niche-market afterthought, but as the standard desktop config: article here The more bigger faster days seem to be finally coming to an end in computing - as the only way the big boys can continue t...

sigh Well, I for one am dissapointed. That site always seemed to pride itself on objectivity, but yet another silenX review with unsupported conclusions. Despite not actually comparing this 120mm fan to any others, the "author" feels confident to conclude Compared to other low noise fans, I think S...

Very timely. I just ordered that same drive today, there was one previous post here saying it was fairly decent, and CDRInfo gives it top marks for burn quality, so I figured it was a safe bet. Should be a wonderful change from the Lite-On CDRW it replaces. the best thing that unit ever did was die ...

I'm with burcakb on this one. Computer hardware information from forums has to be taken very critically. I trust the advice/analysis of a few of the long standing members here more than most people on most hardware forums because: They clearly state the basis of thier conclusions/comparisons They av...

Yes the 900A really has clip mounting. It also works nicely on anything less than the hottest socket A CPU's with a low flow and fairly quiet fan. I'm sure the si97 is better, but at least around here, it's twice the price too. I'm currently running a 80mm antec fan pulled from a psu on mine, at 5v,...

I'd just glue on a really big HS and give it a try, assuming at least modest airflow nearby. Those older CPU's are much bigger, so you can cool better passively than you could with a modern CPU of the same wattage.

Tom's even describes some of the test conditions - 50cm, half the standard 1m distance usually quoted here or other reputable sources of noise information. The funny thing is, maybe the barely audible statement is quite true. Human hearing is very attenuative (is that even a word?) meaning our sensi...

Yeah, unless there is some really wierd quantum effects I'm unaware of in silicon chips, all power drawn must become heat.

By the time this review is published, SilenX's iXtrema Pro may already be on the retail market Why is he getting review samples before retail release if he's not affilliated with the company? Well he (whoever he is) did mention Peter Kim as the source of the review unit at the end of the article. I...

I had the FalconrockII until recently. Depending on your noise tolerance it should be fine. I was running an AthlonXP1700+ at 2200+ speeds on it, undervolted with Zalman Fanmate to about 9v. At full speed, it was a bit too loud for my taste, but less than most stock HS units. The fan that comes with...

IDE RAID 1 - probably beats SCSI in cost, noise and reliability. Power consumption - ? - performance would go to SCSI but I doubt it would be a big difference.

Should have read the thread more carefully - oops - So a better answer would have been that you cannot change your revision but you may be able to flash to a BIOS from a different revision and thus enable certain features. Same as soft modding a Video card. I'd do some serious investigating before t...

That's because you are looking at two different things. The BIOS version is what you just patched. The motherboard revision is a physical thing and cannot be changed with software. It is the same overall design, but tweaked for performance or to enable new features. It is printed right on the mother...

I second the recommendation of the SLK900A/Quiet 92mm fan option. This should be all you need to cool that beast, and won't be heard over the other components. If you look around, you might be able to pick one up on the cheap. I think they're discontinued, so it'll likely be either cheap or impossib...

In that case, go for the GC/Speeze/Spire units Ralf mentioned. Anything more expensive is just overkill. Any biggish aluminium HS with 80mm fan should be able to cool that chip at a slow enough speed to be nearly inaudible. I was until recently cooling a Xp1700+ overclocked to 1900Mhz with a Spire F...