Unfortunately the web has been getting slower and slower, and harder to use (less standard) of recent years, as more and more sites have gone to using scripts. Used to be one could fairly reliably open a link in a new window by right clicking and select menu item. Now half the time it isn't a normal...

A couple of years ago I replaced the loud northbridge cooler on my MSI K7N2 Delta ILSR with a Zalman NB47j. Just recently one of the pins holding the Zalman cooler popped out. Fortunately neither the cooler nor the spring seems to have shorted anything, so the machine was still working. (Sheer chanc...

The article did sort of miss out one category - people killing their machines with software. e.g. get so much mallware/viruses/just general cruft built up that the machine won't run, or the operating system won't boot, or crashes, etc. While that is technically different; from a user's perspective i...

Somebody is trying the idea of running copper pipe through the floor to cool their PC. Here is their posting/thread.

Concrete Slab water cooler loop
http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showt ... p?t=800958

So under load the Quad core most efficient (672 watt-seconds to do the job), then Atom (1476 watt-seconds), then Celeron (2772 watt-seconds).

Thank you for the link to article using the Pico-UPS http://e.molioner.dk/projects/ups/ as I suspected, not as easy to use as it should be. In general how efficient are DC-DC converters (e.g. stepping 12 volts up to 14.4 volts, or vice-versa)? I would have thought that since battery charging current...

Recently the battery in my APC Back-UPS 300 died (no longer holds enough charge to power my desktop). I am trying to decide whether to replace the battery, get a new unit, or what. (This is a home office computer in a city with pretty reliable power - just needs to power long enough to get over the ...

For a graphical operating system, on P1 or P2, Win 98SE is pretty good choice. Have an old P1 (233) that connected to a cheap scanner to use as a photocopy machine (copy receipts and rebate forms and store them on disk). Runs Win98 SE. It has served well. Boots faster than many other machines around...

The Dell Mini 9, Mini 10 and Mini 12 are all fanless netbook laptops. A Dell sales associate just told me that all of their notebooks and minis have fans. Information was from looking at reviews, etc. on the web (haven't checked them myself). Don't have the bookmarks for the sites I found informati...

Small note: The captions on the graphs are confusing. On page 2, both graphs that list SPL output for the Samsung are labled " Samsung HD502HL in idle." Assume from the surrounding text that the second graph so labeled should say "Samsung HD502HL seek." Looks like an interesting product. Thank you f...

I mean then we could take these big beasts that put out like over 100W of heat and convert some of that back into power... This is the closest I can think of, a bit gimmicky and not a major power regenerator: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/02/29/msi_stirling_cooling/ You could use a peltier or p...

I would be hesitant to clip a 120mm fan onto the heat sink - might put extra twist or stress on the heat sink clips or CPU mount. Instead you might consider how to mount the fan nearby so it provides airflow over the heat sink. You could use something like a Zalman FB123 to mount a larger fan to blo...

Thank you for giving me the chance to try the IC Diamond. Short version: Got 3 to 4 degree lower temperatures with IC Diamond vs. Zalman thermal grease. The particulars: System: CPU: Athlon XP 2200+, at 1,350 MHz (Thoroughbred B core, underclocked, standard voltage 1.6v). [Addition - turns out the C...

To update this thread a bit.

The Dell
Mini 9, Mini 10 and Mini 12 are all fanless netbook laptops.

The XO-1 is also fanless.

Anybody know any other recent fanless laptops?


Is there a thread for listing/keeping track of fanless desktops/nettops?

The Lenovo H200 is supposed to be fanless.

There was such a device, I remember reading a review of it a year or two back. It think it used USB. Unfortunately I don't remember where I read about it. I thought it might have been on this forum, but a quick look back at old posts hasn't turned up anything obvious. Come to think of it, it may hav...

Also consider toxic/hazardous chemicals. PCs contain lead (e.g. solder, CRT, stabilizer in PVC insulation (power cords, etc.)) Small amounts of mercury (CFL backlights, coin cell batteries) etc. Chemicals and residues from manufacturing processes. (Silicon valley has quite a collection of Superfund ...

The ideal power consumption would be 0 watts. (Negative infinity would be good too, except for the size of the power conduits to connect it to the grid. ;-) ) Approaching the ideal - something that will hibernate when not in use and wake up from hibernation reliably (e.g. on timer, wake on LAN, etc.)

So assuming it is on 24/7, no activity most of the time saves about $8/years, so the payback time for the $40 (after rebate) switch would be about 5 years, not including tax, shipping, etc. (if active 24/7, payback in about 6 1/3 years.) But nice to know about if one needs a switch; or has a limited...

FWIW, Hack a Day featured a DIY fanless PC build.

http://hackaday.com/2008/10/11/passivel ... -computer/

The build - on MetkuMods

http://metku.net/index.html?path=mods/passive/index_eng

Sorry if this has already been mentioned here.

Sounds like it needs a lot of juice and may generate lots of heat as well. Flash drives do not produce much heat at all. Looking at that heatsink, something obviously takes a bit of power. (Probably the controller). Actually I have been wondering about the power consumption question for flash drive...

Other OS on C (or in one case on E) Data on D Programs on F Games on G Backup drive Partly a holdover from older filesystems that had smaller size limitations. D for Data is semi-nemonic, means I can share that drive and access data in the same location on various machines, and that is the way I did...

Do you use it (or not use it) on a regular schedule? e.g. could you set it to turn itself on from a timer, so it shuts down at night, and wakes itself up when there is something to tape, or when people are likely to want to use it. (Even if it just shuts off for 8hrs/day while people are sleeping - ...

On the other hand, that $100 if invested in standard CFLs could save a whole lot more energy. (Not outstandingly cost effective as a way to save energy.) $100 for a 15w bulb that replaces a 75w halogen, lifetime 50k hrs. Lifetime energy savings: (75-15)w * 50k hrs = 3,000 kw-hrs Standard CFL $3 for ...

Helps to know what the server will be used for. How much will it be on? How much will it be idle? If it will be idle for long periods of time - look for something that will reliably suspend (or hibernate) and wake up in your operating system. (Saves a lot of power over having it on and idle). To mot...

So something I have been curious about - what are the pros and cons of dusting the computer? Anybody seen any study/research of what best practice to recommend to end users? Sure I can dust my systems, and the dust hares (too big to be bunnies) that come out of some machines are amazing, but I alway...

What Plekto said, plus a few more: Consider/reduce standby power (transformers/appliances that use power when they are "turned off"). (e.g. wall warts that you leave plugged in and are warm to the touch). Estimates are this can be 7-10% of typical home electric use. (e.g. see Wikipedia entry on Stan...

May depend how dead it is. If motherboard/processor/video & networking work, could use as VNC terminal. (e.g. Boot it from USB drive or from network.) (e.g. dead disk/disk controller/etc.)

I was going to suggest adding coil whine for modems as well, but I am not sure if it applies to internal modems, or just to external ones. (Like the USR Courier that is annoying me as I type this :-( ). Since you are only dealing with parts inside the box, not sure if you want to include or not. (Oh...

Are you sure that getting it loaded is the problem?
Idle power looks a little high - is speedstep, etc. enabled?
Checked that don't have much running in background, etc.

Speaking of heat - it occurred to me to wonder. If this room won't have ventilation, how will you control the temperature while testing? Or are the test runs short enough that even a beefy PSU won't heat the room much. (I know, the build details will come in future articles ...) i was under the imp...