For a good card under $50, Creative is probably the best way to go. I've been down on them though for a while due to driver issues and I'm generally not a fan of all the EAX effects - they sound too fakey sometimes. For my own use, I run an Auzentech and love it, especially for music playback. It al...

It looks an awful lot like a Corsair which we already know is well rated and from personal experience is one of the best power supplies I've had the pleasure of working with. I guess it all depends on what price point the OCZ ends up selling at. From my experience, OCZ has been pretty good with reba...

Shader support is one of the primary differences in the GPU itself, but this board is really more geared towards integrated builds that aren't going to be doing much in the way of gaming, so the shader support is less critical. If someone wants to game with these boards, a dedicated video card is pr...

I recently built a new PC and fell into the 'more power' trap by buying the Corsair HX620. It happened to be on sale, and wasn't much more expensive than the HX520 at the time, and my brain whispered something to me about 'future-proofing' my PC. Ah well. I have to agree though, it's one of the best...

Heh heh... That would be an excellent mod to try. If I hadn't just spent my budget on my new HTPC, I'd definitely consider giving it a shot. The Asus M2A-VM coupled with a Brisbane, a notebook drive, and slimline optical drive is powerful enough for most apps but uses just a trickle of power at idle...

One hard disk (system disk) per machine is usually enough. If you need more storage for multimedia or whatever, use NAS boxes or fileservers put somewhere where the noise doesn't bother. Performance is lower, but for just storing stuff you don't need that much speed as for system disk. I think this...

Thanks to everyone for all the extremely helpful information! I was initially thinking of the nVidia board because I didn't particularly need HDMI and I was planning to use the nVidia Purevideo Decoder which I thought would work better with an nVidia GPU. I've since read that it should work just as ...

I'm starting a new HTPC build that will run 24/7. I want to go mATX and silent, and am considering an NSK1300 and PicoPSU. I'm stuck on the motherboard though and thought I'd ask for opinions on them. The two I'm trying to decide between are: Asus M2A-VM HDMI - ATI Radeon Xpress 1250 http://www.newe...

First: Welcome to SPCR! Alright, on your build: it looks good. If you've got the money for the 8800 GTX, I say go for it, even with the mods required to the Solo case. Also, the Ninja is a great heatsink but some people don't like the push-pin mounting on the socket 775 platforms. I personally have ...

As far as the CPU goes, a Core 2 Duo will be much more than what you need for SD recording and playback. My current HTPC is built in an ancient Shuttle case, the S551g: http://global.shuttle.com/Product/barebone/brb_OverView.asp?B_id=16 It's running a P4 2GHz Northwood with 512 MB of ram and a passi...

Just a note for anyone in the US who is planning to get the 3400 (like me): An Antec rep just told me that they will be released in the US by the end of May. No specific release date has been set yet.

Not to hijack your thread Kaoru, but this might give you an idea of where to start your build as well. This are the parts for the HTPC system that I've been considering, and my needs are very similar to yours. I need to do it cheaply though, so I think I'll have to scratch the C2D line: Case: I'm co...

I've been thinking about building a new HTPC as well lately. I currently have an old Shuttle SS51g as my HTPC but the thing is extremely loud. Actually, the hard drive is extremely loud, the system itself is just moderately so. In any case, I too was looking at the Socket-M processors. Are the C2D M...

That looks an awful lot like my main PC, except I play the occasional game with mine and have an X1950 Pro instead of the 7300. If you do end up going with those parts, please post back with temps on the passive 7300 card. I'm going to be rebuilding my HTPC in the near future and was thinking of a p...

I've been installing and recommending Samsung flat panels for a while now and have never had a complaint on them. I currently own a Samsung 204BW and it works great for gaming (no ghosting) and general use. Color reproduction is somewhat lacking for accurate Photoshopping, but it's good enough for b...

I too am an occasional gamer, usually playing the slightly older titles and only occasionally something brand new. Civ4 and Neverwinter Nights are my gaming staples, and I've been playing Titan Quest a bit lately as well. Using that as background, I just picked up an X1950 Pro and it does everything...

Hmm, unfortunately I can't comment on the P180, but in my experience the location of the optical drive is more a matter of reach and aesthetics than of heat and vibration issues. That being said, I thought about it for a bit and came up with the following: At the top of the case, the drive might be ...

dragmor: You're right, I didn't use TAT for my tests, so I downloaded and redid my tests using TAT. The numbers are slightly different, but not as much as you might think. Core 1 Idle: 35C Core 2 Idle: 33C Core 1 Load: 46C Core 2 Load: 44C Ambient is still 21C. Of other note is that my core temps dr...

Hex: I'm running an Antec Solo with a Crucial 620HX. The Nexus 120mm is the only case fan in the system (the other two are the power supply and video card fans). As for overall noise levels, I don't have a way to measure dBA, but the Nexus is the only thing that I hear at idle, and I can only hear t...

whiic: Wow. Thanks! That was a great and very informative post. My concern was that the host controller used on that particular external enclosure was one of the slower variety, but if I'm reading correctly, even a slow host controller will still give me enough transfer for watching video over my ne...

I can see that you're trying to save a little money by going with 4 matched 512MB sticks of ram, but I would honestly recommend that you get 2 matched 1GB modules instead. It'll only cost you about $20-30 more and you can achieve the same performance while still leaving yourself open to adding anoth...

I've recently gotten the SPCR bug and just finished building a new PC that I am happy to say is almost entirely silent. Now I need to do something about my media storage enclosure. It's ridiculously loud. I read through all the old threads here and based on those + Newegg reviews, I'm currently look...

For intel's 775 socket I agree with you. With the supplied mounting mechanism the Ninja performs about the same as the stock cooler (with the supplied fan at 12v). It also has the hassle that most motherboard have caps in the way so you need to take a couple of mm of the bracket. I have to disagree...

I just built a PC around the P5B Deluxe, an Antec Solo, and a C2D E6600. Using a Scythe Ninja in passive, I have a grand total of 3 fans in the system. The power supply fan (Corsair 620) is nearly silent, and my video card fan (X1950 Pro) spends most of its time at 20% speed which is silent from 5 i...

Just a few temps as promised. Passively cooled with a Scythe Ninja Rev.B, one Nexus 120mm exhaust fan, and a Corsair 620HX in an Antec Solo. Also, a few notes about the install: OCZ DRAM @ 4-4-4-12 timings works flawlessly. Asus 1004 Bios. Noise levels are extremely good, with the loudest fan in the...

Just to resurrect my old thread, I've finally ordered all the parts and should have a new computer shortly. Of course, I spent way more money than I at first intended to, but that always seems to happen with me and computers: Final Build Specs: Antec Solo w/ Crucial 620HX Asus P5B Deluxe WiFi Versio...

The screwdriver itself shouldn't cause you any problems regardless of its price. I myself have a cheapo low power Black and Decker cordless screwdriver that I use for many things and a few hand screwdrivers for fine tuning. My hand screwdrivers are magnetic too which some people say you should never...

Hmm, a good point Steve. I've had mine for almost a year now and will have to keep an eye on it.

For very basic general use, where you don't need a ton of runtime or have a power hungry PC, I recommend a Belkin UPS. I have one their 300W 550VA home units to keep my HTPC running and it's silent, cool, and you can disable the audible warnings. Best of all, it was really inexpensive. Granted, my H...

Actually, more the point, I have some games on DVD that I play, so I'll need a DVD player of some kind in the system.