Update: since starting this thread, I've been through quite a bit with my A8N-SLI Premium(s). I RMA'ed my original one to Asus. Not wanting to wait for it, I went ahead and ordered a second from newegg. The one from newegg came in. I put it in the case, powered up... and it didn't work. So I RMA'ed ...

FYI, to all. I finally snagged a S754 Sempron 2800 and a Biostar Tforce 6100 (newegg had a special on the combo not too long ago, $90US for both). So I went to work on my fileserver. My notes are posted below. In short: I went from about 220 W running to about 130 W. I made many other mods too (not ...

I had a similar experience.....turned out the MB was shorting to the stand-offs on the new case. I fixed the problem with a few pieces of tape. :lol: good luck.... How did you determine that there was a short? I think I have similar problem. I just got a new motherboard. First, I did a minimal hook...

Matt, try removing the mobo from the case and trying again with it on an inside out anti-static bag. I would also remove and re-seat the CPU, don't worry about new goop/TIM as all you need to do is prove a point. ... Good Luck and keep us up to date Okay, just finished with that experiment. I still...

I'd guess your ram or video is slightly unseated. Reseat both! If the problem persits, disconnect everything except: cpu one stick of ram video Does it post? No luck! Check that the 4pin and 20(24)pin connectors are properly attached to your motherboard. Check... no luck! Any other ideas? I just ha...

So I sold my Antec Titan550 to a friend at work, and promptly went out and bought an Antec Solo to replace it. I took my time transferring the contents from one case to the other. I gave the components a light cleaning with some compressed air. The system went back together exactly how it was origin...

The power kit you linked to only supplies 80W and doesn't have 12V output. However, that website also carries the picoPSU, which does output 12V. SPCR even reviewed it in an actual setup for you :wink: http://www.silentpcreview.com/article601-page1.html The spec table on the linked page shows that ...

I have yet to satisfy the "building jones" mentioned in this thread . But I'm now even more motivated to build a low-power system: I just calculated that I'm spending about $30/month in electricity on my power-hungry computers. So I'm thinking I'll replace my Althon XP 2500-based HTPC. This thing pu...

Looking to replace my 6800XT PCI Express video card for something lower-powered. (I can't quite find power-consumption data on it, but I'm thinking it's similar to a 6600GT or so.) I looked at the video-card power draw sticky, and it looks like the 7300 GS would be my ideal. Why are these cards all ...

Beel, Thanks for the detailed feedback! I actually have two of the bigger version (the 601), but Antec branded. (Anybody want to buy them?) I forget the model number (they were the previous generation of the "Performance" line, 1080 maybe?). Anyway... I should dig out those old cases before I buy a ...

Even with all the features and some posts indicating Gigabyte's power hungry tendencies, I am quite happy with my power consumption numbers. Using kill-a-watt and rmclock to undervolt in windows, I'm getting 52W idle @ .85v & 1ghz, 77W cpuburn @ 1.2v & 2ghz. What are the specs on the rest of your r...

Any word on the power draw and under-clockability of a S754 versus AM2 Semprons? IMHO they're probably near identical in this respect, with the AM2 chips maybe being a little cooler. One thing that's not yet clear is whether AM2 Semprons have the 1.1V Vcore lock which was applied to E-stepping S754...

You might want to look at what components each board uses. Gigabyte tends to use junky components. Yeah, that's kind of what I was getting at. What components are good, and which ones are junky? How do I tell which kinds of components a certain mobo uses (short of buying one and personally inspecti...

So... bump. :? Any word on the power draw and under-clockability of a S754 versus AM2 Semprons? Right now I'm leaning towards AM2, if only for future compatibility. Surely AMD will continue the Sempron line when they have a 65nm process. I'm (wishfully?) thinking that in the future, I can get a low-...

What I haven't been able to discern is underclockability of the AM2 board. Has anyone had a chance to test this yet? I'm this -> <- close to building a Tforce 6100 system. Obviously the S754 gets me the lowest power draw. But how low can I go with AM2? FWIW: The S754 Tforce 6100 is not underclockab...

Have a look at the Gigabyte GA-m55plug-S3G . I haven't used one myself, but they do look promising. I got the reference from this thread , which also has a link to that board's manual. If you work the filters right on newegg, you'll find there are a handful of boards that meet the "full ATX" plus "o...

Looking to put together a budget-oriented, relatively low-power PC (Tforce 6100, S754 or AM2 Sempron 2800). This Chenming 501AWBU-F-0 looks promising. I believe these were OEM cases for Antec at one point. What I like: "old skool" heavy-duty 1.0mm steel, 120mm rear case fan, no side vents, plain-jan...

Hmmm... that S754 Biostar Tforce 6100 has tons of praise. They also have a socket AM2 version. As far as I can tell, the S754 and AM2 versions of that board are pretty much the same. What I haven't been able to discern is undervoltability of the AM2 board. Has anyone had a chance to test this yet? I...

Bump. Anyone have any experience with this board?

Of course the NB fan would have to go---but would a big passive northbridge heatsink (e.g. Zalman NB47J) fit with a Scythe Ninja? Looks kinda doubtful.

Matt

Edit: did some more research, answered some questions. My 1.4GHz "E6" revision Sempron 2500+ ran great off 0.88V . Power usage/heat generation reduces more than the square of the voltage difference. So, basically the 2500+ runs at about 5W at full load. That was for a S754 Sempron, right? Yes Was it...

I've got the ol' "building jones" and have started thinking about replacing the nforce2 ultra+athlon xp 1800 on my home fileserver. Of course, I don't actually need to replace anything; it's plenty powerful as-is. But if I can improve the processing capability to power draw ratio, then it's worth it...

I recently got interested in this board. Here's another review at Anandtech and the resulting discussion . The pictures on newegg show it as having a passive northbridge heatsink. (That probably means you could get either, so order and pray.) :) I'm quite tempted to buy this and a Venice 3000. If I ...

I say that you should do a quick sanity check: can you afford to drop out now, and support yourself until your movie is done? If so, go for the movie! Of course, inspiration level is a personal thing, but I wanted to do stuff like that before and during college. My thought was, I'll get my degree, t...

Has anyone found a vendor that sells "custom" or otherwise "non-standard" heatsinks? What I'd like to do is build a hard drive enclosure of sorts using heat sinks---I want to suspend two hard drives vertically in an Antec Titan 550 case. I want to keep the two hard drives at a fixed distance (and co...

hmm... you'd have to be pretty unlucky for two or more drives to fail simultaneously . Hopefully you'd be alerted to the failure of a single drive, and you'd be able to replace it and rebuild the array before the laws of averages caught up with you and another drive went pop. Indeed. After posting ...

I have gone against popular opinion about case and gone for the Akasa Eclipse 62 - simply because it offers good cooling (120mm fans), good space (about 7-8 hdd slots + 5 5 1/2 bays) and size (reviews indicate good space internally to work with). D'oh, I had hoped to contribute to this thread befor...

I don't think I know the answer to this one, but just to clarify: You mean you want a duct that runs from the front of your case (or wherever) to the underside of your PSU? Yup, that's exactly what I want. My guess at this would be that the duct cross sectional area should be at least the same as t...

So, with these 3 options - new sempron, mini-ITX, or used P3 - which would you use? I'm personally a bit hesitant to buy used computer parts off ebay. You never know how the stuff was used: maybe somebody overclocked the heck out of their CPU and played games nonstop--- that CPU probably has a lowe...

How much clearance is needed, or, how big of a duct is needed for a PSU with a 120mm fan? On my next build, I'd like to create a duct for my PSU (which has the bottom-facing 120mm fan). However, there won't be much clearance between PSU and the CPU heatsink. My plan is to build a duct ala MikeC's Qu...

Any comments on the above configuration? I've since updated it with what I hope is my "final configuration". Major changes include the following. (1) Motherboard: changed the Tyan to the Asus A8N SLI Premium. Would have loved to stay with the Tyan, but I'm pretty sure the Ninja would overhang the on...