If I had your system, I would just save money for a large SSD . It will make your desktop application work a little faster, and it will lower the total noise level of your system. Bigger is better for SSDs, I recommend a 256 Gb or larger SSD. This way your magnetic disk is only media files, not prog...

It's priced at $60 USD without the window. Seems like a great budget option for all the features & drive space (8x 3.5" internal bays). I think it looks good, but the metal is thin. The door really needs a layer of sound dampening material. You can use sheets that are meant for cars, or you can buy...

But by then it will not be important. Hardware capability is outpacing software burden on the desktop. Yes, the whole IT industry is worried that people no longer need more power each year. Virtualization was and now SSDs & clouds are cutting server sales, as no commonly-used applications push hard...

[quote="MikeC"] The circumstances that made Silent PC Review a viable project for me in 2002 no longer hold sway[/quote] 2002: The Pentium 4 era The stock heatsinks from Intel, and the heatsinks that were used by OEMs, were not chosen with any idea that users care about noise. Power supplies were us...

Uses LAN file sharing (streaming to a WDTV box), music streaming on LAN via Squeezebox, FTP daemon, long term file/media storage and possibly torrents. Will be running 24/7. Nice! It is rare that someone tells you what they want, other then "advice". Rough specs OS: Linux (probably Ubuntu) Storage:...

Thanks for your suggestion, but I'm strictly an AMD user (well, in the CPU arena anyway). I think that AMD makes a lot of sense for netbooks and full-sized notebooks. AMD is making the best graphics cards for mobile and desktops. For CPUs AMD DOES NOT win the single-threaded race. It would be fooli...

I currently have an athlon 64 x2 7750BE (2.7ghz) [...] build a brand new rig with a phenom II X6 1090T black edition and 4gb of ddr3 1333, and That A64 x2 7750BE is a fine CPU, but you might be disappointed with the performance of the PII x6 1090T. Your single threaded performance is only 30% faste...

I will likely buy a CPU cooler a few months after, and will rely on the stock cooler at first. If you are going to use the stock cooler, then you should not waste money trying to make other components quiet. The stock cooler will make the most noise of any part of your system. A good cooler cost $2...

Intel Core i5 Desktop Processor Turbo Boost Frequencies It took me a few moments to find this. I thought others would be interested in it also. It is in the order: base, 4C, 3C, 2C, 1C. i5-2400 (95 watt part, Intel2000 gpu, All VT-stuff) 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4 GHz i5-2400S (65 watt part, Intel2000 gpu,...

Once I figure out the 2600 vs 2600K issue (and what motherboards support VT-d, and whether this would really matter in terms of performance) I'll go on a spending spree - but it seems I have some more research left to do before then. One more option just came out a few weeks ago: Core i5-240 5S . I...

I have two 7200RPM drives in my rig, which are suspended in my Fractal Define R2. Fractal Define R2 cases are trendy, but the steel is thin. Thick steel and thick foam cuts more noise then thin materials. I would sell the Define R2 while it is still the hot case, and get something with thicker wall...

Thanks guys, but I wasn't looking for product suggestions. People here are obsessive shoppers, and everything looks like a nail to a hammer. I was just asking whether you felt the current crop of video cards contained wind turbines as stock coolers or have they improved to the point where getting y...

The "K" over-clocking processors have some of the vitalization features disabled. The "K" series lacks VT-d and TXT features. Yes, I have to thank ces above, and you for making me aware of this. I didn't know that, and I have been reading about this this evening. I'm not quite sure how important th...

I am trying to build a *quiet/silent*, but yet powerful system (i7 2600K) in a relatively compact package (mATX/mini-tower). I am in the US. While I've replaced most components in a computer over the years, this will be my first "from scratch built" :) Why do you need the compact package? (Larger a...

Go with just the 1GB stick of RAM. That should save 5 watts. I'll go with the low power video card and remove the extra fans. Yes, your extra 120mm fans are each taking 4-6 watts. Just use the 240mm fan and the CPU cooling fan. Turn them off or remove the 120mm fans completely. Speedstep will only c...

My story: I am already behind the times (Core Duo), but I decided to skip another laptop generation. I spent my saved money on an Intel 320 600GB SSD and a new name-brand battery. My work for the drive is hard on SSD's; the Thinkpad T61 only ever shipped with XP and Vista. I want to run XP. I also r...

Wow, you guys took a crap in my thread. Now I'll never get any answers. Jim Is what is happening is that you are trying to set up a smaller partition... and it is just not setting up? Or is it that you are able to establish a single smaller partition, but you are attempting to do more? One of your o...

Yoghurt wrote: Final thoughts? (Will probably order tomorrow)

Did it all come in yet?
Is it working?
What part making the most noise at idle & at load?

1. [...] SSD Extreme Overprovisioning = 5X Intel IOPS/Endurance??? http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=62174 If you are eventually successful, would you please leave a message in that thread indicating whether or not you are able to obtain any benefit from over provisioning... ...

I don't know if the 3 pages of discussion of specific components from 2005-2008 is really useful. I guess SPCR does not mind boring the snot out of newbies. Info: In music recording, you need to sample twice as fast as the highest frequency that you want to be able to reproduce. CD music only sample...

Story: I got rid of my WD Black 320gb drive as it was the loudest thing in my laptop. Decided to skip another generation and spent the money on an Intel 320 600GB SSD and a new name-brand battery. As I use VMs and older OS's w/o trim, I wanted to increase the spare area (AKA over-provisioning). Prob...

Your case and power supply will outlast anything else in your computer, and so they are a good place to spend your money. Graphics cards have the shortest lifespan (in my systems), so they are a good place to save money. I like an always-on fan in my PSU, that leads me to buy the Seasonic-made Corsa...

Fox is just about causing distractions from the real issues. You can't go an evening on Fox without them brining up religion or religion-proxy issues. CNN never talks about important issues, it is all about horse-race in an effort to look fair. It saddens me that so many people are distracted by all...

Deucal wrote:Pictures or it didn't happen.

Drive mount pics. Note that two drives in lower cages are not hooked up.

Ok, I have pics, but need to crop & post them. I have taken a few measurements and done some calculations that I will post before I forget. Using a kill-a-watt, the system uses about: 65 watts at idle 90 playing videos 130 watts in 3D games The fan is about 18 mm from the duct. If we use an idealize...

I was able to build a really cheap and quiet HTPC/720p system, and I wanted to share details on the experience. The main thing that made it all possible was cutting the middle out of a 120mm fan, then mounting the ring/frame at the back of the case to duct the HSF exhaust out of the case back . This...

CPU cooler - I looked at the store you posted and they have this cooler - Xigmatek Gaia SD1283 Heatpipe Cooler 120mm - for only 32 CHF including a good fan. That seems very low price for a very good cooler (a steal really). Absolutely the best bang for the buck in that store. Unless you can go 60+ ...

It is really hard to help when you have left so much undecided. The three big questions are: 1 --> What tasks and programs that you want to use via the remote desktop-style connections? This decides what OS you might want to run, how much RAM, etc. 2 --> Will this be in an uninhabited space, or in y...

Drive suspension systems always make me nervous. I worry that the drives could work their way out of the straps over time. Desktop hard drives would not survive a 7" fall to the floor of the case while reading/writing. I also expect that a falling drive might also damage a drive below it, leading to...

Anything "Soloish" out there that would work for me? Nothing is more "Soloish" then your Solo! Why not try to make the card fit with a little work. You could drill out the rivets that hold in the hard drive rack. This is much less work then cutting the sheet metal (as someone on Anandtech forums di...