If your performance is fine for your current level of use (i.e. whatever games you play), then I wouldn't upgrade. I would just get a quiet VGA cooler and wait for a cheap mid-range DX10 card in a year or so. An aftermarket cooler will most likely quiet it down alot, but I wouldn't recommend it if y...

I just found an interesting case and would like to know everyones thoughts on it. http://www.nexustek.nl/istyle.htm Um, where's the intakes on that thing? Also, that rear exhaust fan area looks constricted and weird. I think this follows the Nexus TNN (totally no noise) case philosophy. It closes u...

Thermaltake is generally very poor when it comes to noise. I would second the suggestion for either a Fusion or NSK2400. The switch to mATX would be a hit for overclocking, but if you're just using it as an HTPC, it probably won't make a difference. For the video card, I'd suggest a cheap, passive 7...

I'm not so sure that using on-board video is such a good idea for TiVo capabilities. Personally, I'd at least get something like a cheap 7300 card. I think it would help alot in the video playback. For the CPU cooling, the stock cooling should be adequate, but it may be noisy. A good option on repla...

Have you considered a Case/PSU combo like the Antec NSK5600? The Antec NSK4400 is also a fairly inexpensive case with a PSU (less than $50 from newegg after rebate), but only has a 380W PSU, whereas the NSK5600 has a 430W. Neither of them are as good as a Seasonic S12 in terms of noise, but it shoul...

Am I reading this issue incorrectly? Am I missing something? If so it would be good to know. I will be posting my own thread soon enough but, for the time being, can one of you experts clarify? . Yes, AM3 chips will work on AM2 motherboards, but not vice versa. The same is true for the AM2+ which i...

Hi there and thanks, but that is an AMD board I believe, and the CPU has been chosen as the Intel E4300 ;) Two questions about the Asus P5B, which seems appealing for its various features and 3-year warranty (unlike the Intel's 1-year): 1. any known compatibility issues with the P5B and the TT Big ...

Great points made on the philosophy of SPCR tests. I think I made a similar point somewhere in the forums when someone was wondering why SPCR removed the supposedly better stock TIM and used Ceramique. Is this new Arctic Silver Lumière something new or just for test labs? I know that many if not mo...

Welcome to SPCR!! For the most part, your setup looks fine, but I have a few suggestions that might improve it some: 1) 550W PSU is in the range of doing SLI. If you're not planning on doing that, a 430W should be plenty to future-proof your system from any DX10 cards. I'm not sure if Seasonic make...

Welcome to SPCR! Three main problems I see with your system in terms of noise: PSU, Case, and graphics card. 1) Your system will not use more than about 200W maximum, maybe 325W if you're running two 7600GT cards in SLI. That's the max, which probably will NEVER happen. Save yourself some money and...

Unless you're planning on using SLI, I'd suggest getting the P5B Deluxe since its on the P965 chipset rather than the older 975X. There's even a Wifi AP edition of the Deluxe that adds the same WiFi capability as the P5W DH delxue. It also has firewire and all the other features you have listed and ...

Hi guys, I have been trying desperately to look for a small case that will be able to fit my full size atx motherboard. The main requirements are: 1. less than 40cm in height 2. has at least 3 internal 3.5" drive bays 3. 1 external 3.5" drive bay 4. at least 1 5.25" external drive bay Am I asking t...

I'm at work now, but I have a Athlon64 3000+ on my home computer and it idles around 38-40 and gets up to 55-60 after playing games for half an hour. Yours should not be at 57°C while surfing the internet unless 1) something intensive is running the background or 2) You're in a very warm/hot room. ...

No, the 'EE' or energy efficient X2 chips are independent of the 90 to 65nm die shrink. There are regular and EE versions of the 90nm Athlon64 X2 chips. The newer 65nm chips don't differ from the 90nm chips by much in perfromance or heat generated. Its essentially the same chip, but maybe very sligh...

I just looked at the thermalright si-128 and it does not fit a socket 478 according to their website. Add to that that I cannot pick one up at a local store and it does not seem it will work for me. I also figured that if I find the stock thermaltake fan too loud I can swop it with a much quieter v...

... I never heard of anything that could require this much power, I see they mention 30A video cards, which I'm guessing means 360W. I don't think I want to know if that's accurate. Don't worry, its probably not accurate. Corsair showed off a system at CES that had 2 8800 GTXs in SLI running on one...

Windows isn't the only OS, and you can find alternative light versions of Windows... True, but most people aren't willing to sacrifice the versatility and ease of use of Windows. I'm not saying Windows is good, I'm just saying everyone's used to it and every program conforms to it (most of time). T...

Welcome to SPCR! Generally, Thermaltake products are horrible in terms of noise and misleading in their numbers for cfm and dBa, but the BigTyphoon is one of the few that they did well on. The main reason for that was because they put a Nexus 120mm fan on the thing, which is inherently very quiet. ...

If it really is MX-1, I wouldn't bother changing it. The performance difference probably won't be that big. I'm just a little skpetical that its acutally MX-1 compound. Personally, I just use Ceramique for all my builds, and it works fine. You'll have to talk to some of the more experienced people h...

The Ninja will cool your CPU better, especially passively, but the SI-128 has the advantage of providing cooling to components near your CPU when a 120mm fan is attached. It really depends on your setup and how cool you want your processor running.

Now, the big question: is it possible to build a high-end PC without noise? Is there some way to throw to the garbage all those fans and replace them with heat dissipators? IMHO, you can build a pretty awesome system with aircooling. A Corsair 620W PSU can handle two 8800 series cards and should be...

It looks bad for airflow, especially with the positioning of the one exhaust fan (near the southbridge?), lack of intakes, and the TFX power supply.

Why don't you just get the Antec NSK2400? Is the Chenbro case that much cheaper?

Ebuyer Extra Value KG-8830 ATX Middle Tower Case Ebuyer Extra Value 500w ATX Power Supply in Blue With Dual Fans Gigabyte GA-K8VT800 PRO Socket 754 K8T800 AMD (Newcastle) Athlon 64bit 3200+ 512kb L2cache 754pin Retail Boxed Processor With 3 Year Warranty and Fan Included Maxtor 6Y080M0 Plus 9 80Gb ...

The MHz race is over Who won?! Nobody won except maybe the consumer. AMD kinda won since they ended the Mhz race first and got a slight advantage, but that seems to be gone now. AMD proved with the Athlon64 that Mhz != Performance. The Pentium 4 Prescotts which had netburst could get higher speeds ...

How about changing the motherboard & CPU to this? Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 ASUS P5L-VM 1394 The difference is exactly 60 dollars. That would give you a pretty hefty perfromance boost. I think the E6300 performs about as well as an Athlon X2 4600+ in many tests. Personally, I think its worth $60, but ...

You can disable WD's TLER functionality fairly easily. Just do a google search for TLER utility or check out this forum: http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/message ... did=660910

I don't think the YS is faster, but I'm not sure about that. I think the YS is built to higher tolerances and specifications since its the 'server' version of the WD drives. The only difference I know of is that the warranty on the YS (RE2) drives is 5 years and the KS is 3 years.

Hmm, everything looks good as far as noise goes except maybe the DVD drive, but all DVD drives are noisy without software control. Just make sure you set the included Antec Tri-Cool exhaust fan on low or else it won't be anywhere close to quiet. Personally, I'd get a motherboard with a parrallel por...

1) Install/Connect both drives and make sure the BIOS sees both drives. 2) Make absolutely sure that you've set the BIOS to boot to your PATA drive, and not your new SATA drive. This might show up as the drives part number (i.e. WD#### and whatever the Samsung is) or it might show up as SATA control...

I skimmed the thread, didn't get it, tried again, and still didn't follow. Dang, now I know why I don't come in here much :lol: I think jaganath is right, we need to figure out what situation you're in now, and where you want to go. Hopefully, that will clear up any confusion and avoid any mistakes.