You've likely already figured it out from your SPCR browsing but I can confirm that the Zalman 7000 fits fine in my Sonata, atop a ASUS P4P800dlx mobo

My limited understanding is that non PFC switchers have very high short-duration current draw that taxes power generation equipment. Electrical utilities don't like switching supplies because they must oversize their generation equipment to meet the high peak power demands yet (billable) energy cons...

Update! I performed a test with scraps of the skinned and melamine foams and a lighter. Both foams vaporize in the flame and self-extinguish as soon as the flame is removed. Hey, that's a great result; glad you thought it worth the effort! bomba and Ralf raise good points. bomba, though I appreciat...

Product # 5692T13, no Adhesive, is 8.21/ft ...Temperature range is -40° to +225° F for plain-back foams; -40° to +160° F for adhesive-back foams. Plain-back foams meets UL 94HBF and FMVSS-302 flammability requirements... I second Ralf's comment on flammability. Interesting with the above product th...

I've got a cheap Plumaz 5.25 USB2.0 external enclosure with internal power supply and 40mm fan. Fan is quite loud, definitely wouldn't want it used with any regularity. Works fine for archiving & back-ups though. Newegg has an interesting line of passively cooled external enclosures by Speeze. Their...

Perhaps your outlet or surge protector is not wired properly or is faulty, see my post above for troubleshooting

aphonos, please accept my apologies, I certainly have no intent to offend. In regards to risk of fire associated with PC's, I agree it is low. However, the reason it is low is due to the work of safety agencies such as UL. You will find that printed wiring boards (pwb) and all plastic parts in PC's ...

On a side note: It is interesting to me how this homeowners insurance thing comes up from time to time. For those of you who are bored, try searching on insurance and you'll find a few threads.... including one from about this time last year . Didn't intend to rehash old stuff, just thought it a go...

I've had good success w/ the 7000AlCu connected directly to the mobo (no fanmate) and using speedfan to thermally regulate CPU fan speed. In my Sonata, speedfan is set to run CPU fan at 30%. CPU fan tach lead does not work much below 50% so speedfan reports CPU fan speed at 0RPM, but it does spin at...

That's a strange question, why would you want to compare the noise level of the enermax at min speed to that of the papst at full speed? If this helps, I swapped my stock Sonata case fan for the 4412. Both were powered from the TP380S fan only power connector, which on my system normally sits around...

I've read about folks using all sorts of materials to mod their PC's including wood, cardboard, etc. Also cutting holes in power supply enclosures. I am involved with electrical product safety in my daily work and feel it prudent to advise against using non UL flame-rated materials inside a PC case....

After reading thru the responses, I agree that it sounds like a non-grounded PC. In an electronic lab I used to do work in we had a piece of electronic test equipment that we intentionally operated un-grounded (to eliminate 60Hz ground loop noise). This equipment would generate about 30Vac on the me...

You are experiencing electrostatic discharge oe ESD. A body (yours) charged with electrostatic energy comes in close proximity to a grounded surface (your PC case) and the electrical charge jumps the gap cuz it, like all electrical energy, just wants to get to earth ground. Note that ESD most defina...

I second that, Putz. I believe all should fit just fine. In the case of minor clearance issue, just mod it, bend some fins, make it work! By the way, I have an Asus 865PE with a Zalman 7000 and 9600-128 non-pro saphire. No clearance issues at all, nothing close either...and the Sonata is smaller tha...

lenny,
I previously saw both your Zalman 7000 mod and another mod that was much more involved. Perhaps I will try it one day, but for now, the noise level is not bothering me. I'll check out the wav files you posted when I get home. My work proxy server has blocked my access to those files!?

Check out this thread: http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=9693 Looks like this mod was prototyped and the results were a small (inaudible) decrease in PSU fan speed. By the way, I've modded my Sonata TP380S with a Panaflo M1BX and it is very quiet. The whir from the Zalman 7000 AlCu ru...

Try speedfan,
It's free, does the same thing as Q-Fan and more, and on my ASUS P4P800dlx motherboard, works just fine with the Zalman 7000.

For Windows XP: Sure, create a 2nd copy of the Speedfan.exe shortcut on your desktop. Click on START, select explore. The Start Menu folder sould be highlighted. Expand the programs folder and open the startup folder. Contents of this folder will run on windows boot. Drag the speedfan sortcut from y...

I believe the M1A draws 0.4A max. at 12V. Many motherboard fan headers will not supply that much current, and may burn out. I looked into this for my P4P800dlx, and found at least in my case, this is not in issue except with high speed power hungry fans. From the Asus P4P800dlx manual, p2-28, mothe...

There's a lot of great info on this site. Search for posts on the Antec 3700 and Sonata cases, especially Ralf Hutter and Tom Brown's posts for excellent info. on optimizing these cases for quietness. In my Sonata, I've done a Panaflo M1BX fan swap into my Sonata True380 PS. I use speedfan to regula...

I have seen several people say that the 3700BQE is better than the Sonata, but I have looked at both cases and can't quite understand why. Both cases look fairly similar to me, except that the Sonata has a quieter PSU. Care to comment? Main differnces are the Sonata is slightly smaller and the airf...

I have had excellent success with the 120mm Papst 4412FGL installed as the exhaust fan in my Sonata. You can read about my 1st silentPC building experience here: http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=9744&highlight=papst If I had it to do again I'd also go w/ the 3700BQE. Whatever fans yo...

The PSU is still the worst noise maker Are you sure you're hearing the PS and not the case fan? My M1A modded power supply is near-silent. Try shoving a zip tie or plastic straw alternately into both into your case and PS fans to momentarily stop em and determine who the bad guy is. I've read that ...

Thanks to all who have created, maintained and contributed to this excellent forum. In particular, I've gotten the most helpful and practical information from Ralf Hutter and Tom Brown's posts. Initial Build: I knew I wanted a quiet, high-performance media PC, though I didn't know about SPCR. Here's...

Sonata TP380-M1A BX mod, PS tach hooked to motherboard. Nominal PS fan speed is roughly 1200 RPM. PS is near silent. Per Tom Brown, I bent slats @ PS air intake 90-degrees to minimize restriction.

Kingwin has some SATA "mobile racks" with direct SATA-SATA bridge connections. I have a Kingwin 436? EIDE mobile rack in my Sonata. The fan is a bottom mounted fan in the removable part, so you only hear the fan when the removable drive is inserted, and it is a screamer! This is ok with me since I o...

I have the P4P800 Dlx. You should probably start with or revert to the lowest level config that will POST, i.e. Mobo, Pwr, CPU/fan & memory. Then start adding components one at a time, starting w/ the HD with the OS. Look for unknown devices with each addition. Note that I have a strange situation w...