"gaming" case. Right. Totally. I'd take the Node 304's bulkier form any day of the week for that.

Nice!

I still love my Mugen 2, although this i7-4770K is the first CPU I can hear the fan ramp up on. Too little contact area heats up much faster than anything before. :-/

As someone who still employs the original P180, good move. Due to the hinge and cabling problem, not great, but still, a step in the right direction. I do agree with all the conclusions. Maybe a 8 and a 24 pin PSU extender cable should have been included as well, and the back side clearance increase...

What is your intended usage? If its gaming, you don't need an i7 as games generally aren't that well multithreaded. For gaming i5 makes the most sense. Actually, now that the new gen consoles are also heavily multicore, the PC games are becoming increasingly multithreaded. Granted, they only have 6...

It's not the only 600W fanless. There is the very niche SilentMaxx 600W watercooled PSU: http://www.watercoolinguk.co.uk/p/SilentMaxx-Fanless-Watercooled-600W-PSU-108mm-G18andquot;_20802.html Thanks for pointing it out. Unfortunately that one looks like a fake 600W unit: apparently on its label it'...

...and to believe Zalman was one of the innovators in the past. :-/

Granted, they were never did it in the budget category IIRC.

Hmm, I wonder what results would a pair of 290X + Arctic Xtreme IV custom cards like my single would get. Then again, I wonder what case and motherboard they would fit with a slot between them.

How the heck does a heatpipe work in that arrangement? All that I've played with transport heat from 1 tip to the other, not across the diameter. Think of it as a hundred heatpipes. AFAIK, heatpipes actually transport from the hotter to the cooler parts. If the heatpipe could only transport from 1 ...

I have their air-only cooler on my R9 290X, and it also leaves the VRMs without any additional cooling. There is however a way to deal with this: take the original heatsink and a metal saw. That lowered my VRM temps to ~70 on load. I'm not sure about the "they can take a lot more" comment, do you h...

I have their air-only cooler on my R9 290X, and it also leaves the VRMs without any additional cooling. There is however a way to deal with this: take the original heatsink and a metal saw. That lowered my VRM temps to ~70 on load. I'm not sure about the "they can take a lot more" comment, do you ha...

Nice one. I have a slightly different rig, with a modded R9 290X, an i7 and a fanless PSU in my R4, (see sig) with that nasty front grille removed of course. What can I say: it works great!

Another two examples for the immense sample variation: As a heavily modded "reference" 290X owner, luckily my card does not produce whine. It was a Sapphire tri-cooler, which uses a reference design plus a manufacturer-custom 3-fan cooler. I simply replaced that with an even better one. My previous ...

It certainly is a novel idea, but I think I'll stay with my air cooling solution... Then again, I modded that to hell and back too. Still, I can only hear my R9 290x very occasionally.

Hi guys, I just popped in to talk about my Arctic Xtreme IV equipped 290X I finished a couple months back... So, the main problem is that the Xtreme IV doesn't have really adequate VRM cooling (only some passive cooling by the backplate through the PCB and some thermal pads directly between the PCB ...

Nice! On the future VGA cooler update: I have the Accelero Xtreme IV, and there is one big problem with it: VRM cooling. Many users go ahead and cut the original heatsink in half, and put it under the Xtreme IV, and then cooling is absolutely a beast. Seriously, in most games you won't hear the fans...

Hey there, just popped in to say nice review and good idea.

I really want to ban the phrase "future proofing".... :D Feel free to throw the extra $100 at the CPU. I think you are better off with the i5-4670K and then just OC it a bit a few years down the road if you need the boost. Most games benefit from higher clocks more than extra threads. OK, then I'll...

Thanks for the quick answer :) An i7 is overkill as few games make use of the 8 threads. Heck, many still run on 2 cores. Get the i5-4670K. It's more future-proofing than "I need it now". See my ancient 550 BE that I still use. :) Plus, I MMO a lot, and neither the Phenom II nor the A8 are enough (b...

Hi, Thanks to some changes in my life, I've decided to start building a new PC. The problem: it has to be both silent and powerful. A bit of a background: I'm quite a big gamer, plus love silence, and because of this, for the last couple years, I had two main PCs: one for 24/7 "office" work, and one...

Dell U2414H:
No PWM and utterly silent. Just bought it, and as the TFT Central review stated it, it does not emit any sound at any brightness. (It is a relief after having a Samsung F2380 that was only quiet at 100%)

Hi there, Surface Pro 2 owner here for a couple months. Till this day, I've heard the fan exactly 2 times. In a game, and during pre-boot Windows update. Other than that, it is dead quiet. The fan does not run on idle, and browsing the net does not require the fan either. That said, I didn't notice ...

#corrections
1st page, last image:

* EOL. Price of closet current comparative used.

You mean closest, not closet.





Also: Great article, but why take only the i5-2500k and not a newer i5?

Just an update: the folks at Fractal Design have already replied to my concerns. Well, it isn't that long, so I'll just post it here.

Hi,

Thank you for your feedback, we'll try to improve the threading/painting.

Regards,
Fractal Design

4. The top screws holding the drive bays were already worn from the factory, so I'm sure they won't last more than a few shuffles. I had a bit of trouble there too, at least that they were overly tight from the factory. I removed those screws and threw them away, not being a necessity short of ship...

I'm glad to see your testing showed that the drive cages really are as good as my impression of them were. I found that the front fans does not turn on with the built in controller set to its lowest, but that could both be good and bad depending on your needs. The 140mm exhaust is so effective on i...

Sharkoon Silent Eagle 800 . They claim the golf ball dimples on the blades "reduce air resistance and turbulence, resulting in particularly quiet operation while maximizing airflow volume." On the face of it (pun intended), this seems laughable. I've seen these used in many builds. I've a number of...

My second problem is of course Windows 8, which I abhorr from the moment I tried it on my home PC. The best word I can use to describe it is scyzophrenic. One hand does not know what the other does, and the dual-GUI is just pure madness. I had the same reaction to a W8 desktop, but the tablet-noteb...

Correction for first page: The basic problem with either Apple or Android tablets is that they don't run a full-fledged operating. Missing a "system" after operating. To the topic: as a tach savvy and long-time (from around 2008?) user of a wacom stylus equipped tablet PC, I was waiting for the Pro....

Nice!

Also: bad link at the last pic:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/files/ima ... oad600.png

should be

http://www.silentpcreview.com/files/ima ... c-load.png

I don't know. No-one is complaining that current SSDs were too slow. The key issue is they're too expensive. Making one x times faster at a slightly higher price point isn't exciting news to me. Making it decidedly cheaper at the same speed point, now that would be awesome. SSD prices have been a l...