That setup should do alright for you. If you can get the Seasonic for cheap, then go for it. Just a quick question though... how are you going to connect 6 drives to that motherboard? It only has 4 internal SATA headers. As for an OS - I'll recommend plain old Debian Etch. I've recently been convert...

Why not call the PSU idle 16-18? Do you really need a single number? If it idles in a range, it idles in a range, and that's what you should say. We do usually indicate oddities like this in our writing, but the purpose of the tables is to provide a quick source of data to the readers. The engineer...

I'm using Catalyst 8.10 for Vista x64. I have not installed a separate package for Hydravision, but I believe the CCC is included with the drivers. I'm actually quite pleased with the stability of the recent Catalyst driver releases. I doubt that your problem is specific to using an ASUS motherboard...

My point is that I don't think nVidia is run by druggies. Now Microsoft, sometimes I wonder. What if someone were to say that the vast majority of Vista crashes since it's release have been due to nVidia drivers? Microsoft has done all it can to increase system stability (for example - moving video...

Go back to basic troubleshooting procedure. You said "in single card configuration, everything is ok". Did you check each card in the first PCIe x16 slot? Each card in the second PCIe x16 slot? With two cards and two slots, there are four test cases to check. Have you updated the latest drivers for ...

I would definitely avoid parity based (e.g. RAID 5 and 6) RAID solutions for that set-up: If you'd like a painfully detailed explanation of why, google for BAARF or "RAID5 is evil". Also, aside from performance issues, RAID5 has a size limit of around 1.5 Terabytes- and rebuilding an array that siz...

Regarding the load/unload count speculations (since that's all they are at the moment*), has anyone contacted WD about the issue? Most of my WD10EACS drives are reporting load/unload counts in the 250K-300K range after a few months of use. However, I'm not really worried. The load/unload count isn't...

While the Mini9 is interesting, it's also been reported to run quite a bit hotter than it's competition. I'm not sure about you, but I don't want my palms to be constantly resting on something that's 40C, do you?

The 6 pins in a PCIe connector are all 12V or ground. The reason for the separate wires is to distribute the current. The less current you have in a single wire, the less it heats up. Resistance increases with temperature, so the cooler your wires, the less power loss you have. Same reason for using...

You'll need to plug both in. However, most cards come with adaptors to use the power from molex plugs into 6-pin PCIe connectors.

I'm ont he fence myself actually... Nick, do you have access to a wacom tablet? Does it work 'trough' the screen? Been trying to find out about this for ages, want to try a diy cintiq.[/i] Sadly, I don't. I've heard somewhere on the echoes of the internet that the next generation of netbooks will c...

Excellent...

For all you XKCD readers out there, this is how I feel right now.

*refresh* Aww... still in Memphis...
*refresh* Aww... still in Memphis...
*refresh* Aww... still in Memphis...

The bottom line with servers is that you dont mess with them, dont install anything you dont need, dont install the latest drivers, dont play, games, use MS Word and dont watch videos. Yes and no.... specifically on the point of drivers. In certain cases drivers can bring significant performance be...

I've been digging around, but I can't find any decent looking custom RAM/VRM heatsinks for the 4850... I really wish they would, since the heatpipes on the S1 overlap the last memory chip.

I've got a Gigabyte motherboard based on the 780G chipset (CPU is a 5200+). I can confirm that the system can play 1080p H264 content without a hitch (CPU usage is in the 40-ish range - haven't played with any hardware decoding settings).

If you're serious about making a powerful file server, I'd recommend 3ware RAID cards over Perc 5/i. The support and performance is second to none. As for the underlying system, I'd recommend using a basic AMD setup. Something built on the nVidia 740 chipset should be sufficient for your needs. For ...

Anything connected to USB can draw a maximum of 2.5W. Your printer is going to be powered by it's own power supply. A 380W PSU will be PLENTY for that system. My workstation setup (see signature) draws 300W AC from the wall when at full load (CPU and both GPUs stressed) - making it about 250W AC. Ge...

To expand on what bgiddins said: In a RAID10 set, you have multiple stripes, each of which is mirrored. As such, you can lose one drive in each stripe without losing data. In RAID01, if one drive dies, that entire stripe is lost. As such, your fault tolerance is a single drive. If I remember correct...

I'm not sure about brands of quiet coolers, but if you are looking at getting it as quiet as possible, then you'll definitely want to get an aftermarket cooler. The Accelero S2 would be able to cool the 4670 without a hiccup.

Ditch the old RAM and get a 2x2GB kit. There's no need to fill all 4 RAM slots, and the P5B series supports a maximum of 4x2GB IIRC.

I'm not sure how much CPU power dreamscene requires (I'm installing it now), but I'd be fairly surprised if an E6xxx and an ATI 4670 couldn't handle it.

Just make sure it's RAID 10 and not RAID 0+1. There's a suubtle, but significant, difference between the two RAID levels.

If your CPU is a Core Duo or C2D, then it should be 64-bit capable. Which model CPU do you have? The P5B-VM just uses standard DDR2 RAM - find your favorite 2x2GB kit and you'll be off to the races. If you do want to upgrade the video, then I'd suggest installing something like the ATI 4670. ATI dri...

I guess I fall into the group of people who are "saving PC sales". :) My girlfriend and all of her roommates are jealous, since my brand new, teeny little $500 machine (including taxes) can do just about everything that theirs can (except gaming), and it gets 5-6 hours of regular usage battery life ...

Just out of curiosity, are you using the stock RAM heatsinks that came with the S1? Likewise for the VRM heatsinks?

I've also got the EEE 1000HA, and while it's not silent, it's definitely quiet enough to use in a classroom environment. The keyboard isn't obtrusively loud (a standard quiet-ish level), and the main source of noise is the system fan. However, even when running at full speed, I doubt that anyone wou...

How about we ask another question... do you need 1.5TB? Just on the basis of noise and power consumption (from which heat follows), the WD is the clear winner. You'll also save a few quid over the "brand new and shiny" 1.5TB drives.

If you're going to run this on an onboard chipset, then I'd suggest you go with RAID10. You'll only get 1TB of usable space, but the data security is about as good as it gets, and there's little to no computational overhead involved with running the volume.

The TV will send the audio associated with the currently selected input onwards through the optical cable. If you're watching TV, the TV audio will go to the speakers. If you've selected Input 5 (which is the HDMI from the HTPC), you'll get the HTPC audio to the speakers. Since everything is selecte...

Our TV has an optical output to connect to speakers or a reciever. We've got the HTPC and a PS3 both connected via HDMI to the TV, but because of setup issues with the PS3, only it is connected to the speakers via optical cable. If I were to get the PS3 to transmit audio over HDMI properly, we could...

I haven't had a chance to hook the system up to the Z-5500's yet, but audio-over-HDMI on the GA-MA78GM-S2H works right out of the box, so you can transfer the audio to your reciever without any troubles whatsoever. I need to find another optical cable to connect the TV to the speakers....(but they'r...