Idiot: Sorry you had to be the smoke test beta for the case.

Antec rep: Thanks for the quick response!

Rather than spend $'s (or pounds) on all of these changes, I'd lean toward just getting the Seasonic and see what happens to system temps. You're existing temps are reasonable, and while getting them lower would be a fun hobby to pursue, it just doesn't matter much. I'd hope the high efficiency rati...

me, too.

The GV-N66T128VP comes with an adapter cable/dongle for the VIVO connector. it has S Video in, composite video in, S Video out, and component video out. Haven't tried 'em as I'm just hooking up to my CRT.

Testing diodes:
http://www.elexp.com/t_test.htm

The GV-N66T128VP manual says it supports AV / S-Video input through the VIVO DIN connector....but then only shows output devices (HDTV, NTSC/PAL TV and a projector) in the one illustration. No other details. You can download the manual at Gigabyte's site. http://www.giga-byte.com/VGA/Support/Manual/...

I'm guessing the reason for speed is gaming....Doesn't it seem like the biggest bang for the buck is to just get low latency RAM and mess with the FSB timing? Also, you might look into getting more than 2x512MB...newer games are becoming system RAM hogs....or consider getting a 1x1024MB now and gett...

if all they are doing is email, surfing, word docs, etc...I'm thinking the learning curve is pretty minimal to switch to the mac mini....just get em a two button mouse so they don't have to mess with the apple hockeypuck. the point of the OS is that you don't notice the OS....not that you need to ge...

Buy an iMac and get the 3yr support. Or go with a mac mini and separate display. While I have both macs and wintel platforms, I went Mac for my folks. I never get a "this isn't working call" from them....my brother with the wintel platform however calls at least once a month with issues.

bah - stuck in a double post lag...

As a point of reference, I have the same cooler on my barton 2800 and am running 54C/33C idle for the CPU and mobo temps....56/34 or so when playing a game. Current setup: Sonata case with stock psu Abit mobo with zalman chipset heatsink Gigabyte 6600gt passive Note that when my 9600XT with AC silen...

As a point of reference, I have the same cooler on my barton 2800 and am running 54C/33C idle for the CPU and mobo temps....56/34 or so when playing a game. Current setup: Sonata case with stock psu Abit mobo with zalman chipset heatsink Gigabyte 6600gt passive Note that when my 9600XT with AC silen...

I had silencers on my two ATI branded 9600xt's. Less noise than the stock ATI fan and ran cooler. Then they both died (no post) after 2-4 months of installation. I tried a reinstall on one of them and after futzing with the seating of the card in the agp slot, it came back to life only to die again ...

More on Venice and strained silicon.

http://techreport.com/reviews/2005q2/at ... dex.x?pg=1

mwave usually has decent prices for mobo/processor combo's.

http://www.mwave.com

I got around to doing an autopsy today on my dead ATI branded 9600XT with Arctic Silencer. Contacts on the SGP card looked clean. After removing the heatsink assembly, I pulled out a jeweler's loupe for a closer look. - Good coverage for the Arctic Silver 5. A little bit of it between the GPU and th...

Thanks for the addtional info

Um...thanks...I guess that was slightly better than saying "try google".

I'm shopping for a replacement AGP card and am leaning toward either a Gigabyte GV N66T128VP - GF 6600 GT - 128 MB or an HSI Radeon Ice-Q preassembled with the Arctic cooler. Try as I might, I can't seem to find warranty information on either of the mfgr's sites. Anyone out there have this info or a...

http://tw.giga-byte.com/VGA/Products/Products_GV-N66T128VP.htm should be added to the agp list. It's been reviewed on Tom's hardware http://www1.graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20050404/geforce_6600-34.html and is available from multiple sources. http://www.shopzilla.com/buy/noncat_prod_details.xp...

I installed the vga silencer on two different 9600xt's in two different systems. Both cards are now dead. The first after 3 months, the second, a month later ( aweek or so ago). I haven't done an autopsy*, yet. Both were working fine, at lower than stock temps, until they just decided to die at boot...

I wasn't expecting to get a new reply notice a year later

g/l with the refit. can't answer the sp97 q.

EDIT: A little theory I just made.. Porhaps the Pata -> Sata converters can affect the idle noise? :!: highly unlikely. It's just a mux/demux scheme at the heart of it. Nothing that would affect idle noise (given the same buffer memory size and similar data transfer rates - not like your motherboar...

My Sonata PS is very quiet. Current build is:

Sonata case/fan/PS
Barton 2800 on Abit NF7S mobo.
arctic-cooling copper silent 2TC for processor and zalman NB heatsink
samsung 1614C HDD
old asus geforce 3 ti200 card

the only thing I hear is the vid card fan

Cerb - thanks for the info!

some games I run are not compatible with Radeon....sad development by the game companies, but true...otherwise I'd be using my 9600XT with a rev 3 arctic cooler.

Anyone mess with the nvidia 5900xt?
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 185&depa=0

Sort of a fishing expedition, but wanted to get some opinions... I'm looking to update my graphics card to a newer NVidia based card. Looking for middle of the road or better performance with low fan noise. I'm willing to retrofit an acoustically challenged card with aftermarket cooling, but has to ...

I opted to go cheap! $20 for both the Arctic cooling copper TC2 and the zalman NB heatsink @ newegg. More info when I build the system. Crossing my fingers newegg ships me a samsung drive with an fdb motor

I am building up a new system with an Abit NF7-S and a Barton 2800. What would you choose for a CPU heatsink/fan and a replacement for the NB heatsink/fan? I'm looking for an easy remove/replacement quiet solution - not one that requires boltcutters to trim parts, drilling holes in the Mobo, etc :-)

shathal: Well, I was setting some guidelines - need at least GeForce 3 performance and need something that is available today. I don't WANT to pay $200, I was just setting that as an upper limit for a completed/installed/quiet card. Wumpus: Unfortunately the game that's my current addiction (Horizon...