A comparison of power bricks with similar ratings (100-120W) shows miniscule differences: http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story3&reid=207 Perhaps the larger Edac unit is less afficient at low loads? Other possible explenations that come to mind: the fans using a little more po...

It could be the software indeed. I see considerably higher power consumption under linux, though it is a fairly outdated version (ubuntu 10.4).

The Intel D945GSEJT Mentawl mentioned should get you close to your target although a brazos system could possibly achieve the same thing. There is a roundup of such boards at THG: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/e-350-motherboard-brazos,2958-16.html The best one manages 15 watt idle which isn`t ...

Laptop optical drives have a lower speed rating which should further reduce maximum power consumption. When idle, I doubt either kind would use more than a watt or two. I measured mine at slightly under a watt.

I`m a fan of Lian Li cases and you can tell by my previous comment that I do find the case in question a bit overpriced. However, the Origen m10 is built of much thicker aluminium and more importantly, the main shell is an extruded piece, unlike the bent sheets used by most conventional cases, inclu...

If price is most important to you - get ITX7. If quality is what you are looking for - M10 is the answer. Look here: http://perfecthometheater.com/perfecthometheater/M10_in_angle_silver.jpg and here: http://perfecthometheater.com/perfecthometheater/itx7-6%20Back%20corner.jpg Do you see difference? ...

It`s possible that your motherboard has a spare header which can throttle fan speed so you could use that to further slow down the tricool.

95W for 8 cores doesn`t sound particularly impressive if you take into account that each bulldozer core is relatively thin. Having said that, the llano chips (at least the ones used in laptops) made in the same process proved quite an improvement over amd`s existing lineup. I would certainly expect ...

What`s the size of your p4 board? If it`s uatx then the coolermaster elite 342/343 has a removable 3.5'' drive cage. Otherwise it`s pretty hard to find such a feature at this price range, you might have to move up to a case like the nxzt beta. Still, of all these cases, I think the nxzt source has b...

If your existing motherboard covers your needs, a better solution, if not the only solution, would be to replace the two 4850s with single card. You need 3 slots for each video card and another 2 for the pci cards putting the total at 8. That`s one more than what you can fit on an atx motherboard! Y...

Aside from the broken mounting mechanism it very likely that the socket is damaged as well. The cpu pins are probably bent too, though if you have dexterous fingers and lots of patience you could probably fix that. Unfortunately there`s not much you can do to fix the motherboard. This has happened t...

How about nexus real silent fans? They aren`t too expensive and their performance is well documented. Cables could be better though..

I can`t name a specific site right now, typically it`s sites loaded with flash ads or with a poorly engineered flash user interface. Granted it`s not the cpu`s fault, it`s bad design (I blame both web designers and adobe) but it can be a problem, depending on your browsing habits. Flash games can be...

Low power normally doesn't mean low idle power consumption but low maximum power consumption, for the same reason that maximum CPU power consumption (after any disabling, underclocking and/or undervolting done in BIOS) is the relevant variable for designing or choosing a cooling system. I don`t see...

NFG said "silent", not low power consumption at idle. Perhaps you are referring to a different thread, the post I replied to did mention low power. As for cooling the SB cpu passively, if it ran at 1.2-1.6 ghz it`s likely that a big shuriken or similar cooler could do it. Of course most people don`...

OK, so the Atom is not an option for a silent desktop system. Which low-powered modern CPU is? Regarding idle power consumption there is little to gain by using a low power cpu. If you want to limit power use at load you could take a regular i3 cpu and underclock/volt until you reach your target. A...

IMO, the best way to deal with this is to use a case with a bottom mounted psu. This way, even if the ambient temperature reaches 40c, the psu will work well within spec and shouldn`t behave any worse than in the hot box tests done by SPCR, where the psu intake temperatures are probably even higher.

Have you compared the Kama PWM to the Arctic Cooling F12 PWM? I've been using the ACF12 fans for a while, and they are very quiet when new, but seem to get noisier after a year or so. (BTW, I tried a Nexus PWM and it was awful.) So far I haven`t although I`m tempted to try the F12 out. The build in...

I hope you get a lower power consumption idling in an OS. I would be tempted to install windows on it if only to take real time temp measurements. That would also get you more easily comparable power consumption figures. As for your temperatures, do you see your system staying at this kind of load ...

Apparently I`m not alone in recommending the Nexus black and white and S-Flex fans. Skythe also makes my favorite pwm fans, Kama pwm.

Talking about 1u power supplies, I would also recommend the seasonic ss-250su, in case you need more than 150 watts. It is suprisingly quiet and stays so even at load (in my case load equals around 150 watts). There is some typical ball bearing fan buzzing noise audible at low load though, which cou...

The PC-A04B (better than the PC-A5 imo) and the define mini are rather similar in design. The Lian Li is probably a little lighter but once you add in the weight of the psu and disk drives you`re not looking for a particularly light system no matter which of the two you choose. If you`re willing to ...

I think Dr.jim is right. I`m not aware of any other tower heatsinks less than 80mm tall either and I have been looking for a while (we can ignore older btx designs without heatpipes). The origen cooler looks efficient enough. Lack of lga 1155 support is a minus. I doubt it would affect cpu temperatu...

I wouldn`t right it off as a solution though it probably will be noisy at load. The problem with the m350 case is the position of the disk drive. Iven if you manage to mount a decent heatsink part of the airflow will be blocked. A case like the antec mentioned will be better suited for the job. I al...

With all those fans and a 7200 rpm hard drive, a passive video card is the definition of pointless. Try these first; 1. Make sure it is the VGA fan that's making the noise and not the PSU or CPU cooler. 2. Change the fan's response curve if you still have temp headroom at load. 3. Disable/remove th...

What are the borderline temps you mention? I have to agree with the others, 40, 50 even 70 degrees should not be a cause of instability. A usual suspect could be the ram. Are you able to run any benchmarks like prime or memetest? Don`t know if you can do that in freebsd, maybe you could on a linux l...

Question 1: is it bad? Question 2: I have a lot of spare small heatsinks left from Accelero S1 cooler, maybe I should just install them directly on the PCB (on the "back" side of it) to cool it? 1. While the vrms don`t seem to be too hot, excess heat on the pcb could lead to problems, wearing out s...

A friend's computer showed very similar symptoms, turned out it was the ram. It wasn`t faulty though, choosing more relaxed timings in the bios was enough to solve the problem.

Of the boards listed here I think the Asus E35M1 is the best suited for the job, unless you need the built in wifi on the deluxe board. Otherwise, it has a passive heatsink and all six sata ports are available for internal storage. If you can`t find it in the UK it might be worth getting it from Ger...

The dust problem seems to depend a lot environmental factors, ie how much dust there is in your apartment. To deal with this problem properly you would need a fairly elaborate positive pressure setup, with easily removable filters (since you will need to wash them pretty open). Personally I prefer t...