Thanks, Luca! Always helpful. :) The SSD caching and Virtu features look too compelling for me to pass on. After looking around a bit I'm leaning toward a low-end Asrock board 'Z68 Po3'. Reviews are favorable and this report looks promising: http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=54913...

I'll be ordering parts in the coming days. Have decided on and found sources for: Fractal R3 i5-2500k,RAM Thermalright U.120eX. Rev. C Scythe Kama Flex PWM fans Still undecided on the motherboard. What's the word on current Z68 offerings? I hear Asus has superior fan speed control. Also for a PSU up...

Does the improved thermal headroom help with cooling an overclocked i5-2500k at low fan RPMs?

I can't help but wonder if I should consider retiring my Solo for PSU on the floor case such as Fractal Define R3. From what I gather it seems more in-line with the 'silent and high performance by many low spinning fans' approach I want to realize. Any comments on this one? @ quest_for_silence: Than...

[quote=""quest_for_silence""] *Something like a Scythe Kama Bay except for two 5.25 bays and a 80mm fan (still looking, would consider DIY). For getting more fresh air in the case and help it reach the top vent I guess. To do what? You don't need any intake, and without ducting no 80mm fan flow woul...

The MSI GTS 450 Cyclone OC would be enough quiet: I have a couple in a Raven, but I've tested into my Solo. Thanks, I'll check it out. Two drives? Why? However, performance-wise, the WD Green drives are a tad outdated with reference to last Hitachi ones. If you suspend them (as I think), you should...

A top cutout would act as a intake. I had no idea that would be the effect. Completely blows my mind! Does this change at all depending on the PSU design? what is the purpose of increasing the airflow? Same reason all enthusiasts (or enthusiast wannabes like me :lol: ) obsess about these things. Bu...

I'm considering ways to improve my old Antec Solo case. Here the system I have in mind: CPU: Intel i5-2500K, Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme Rev.C or Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus, mild overclock GPU: Single Geforce GTS 450 w/ aftermarket cooler Storage: Crucial m4 SSD, 2x WD Green HDD's, 2x optical d...

Wow, looks like a very nice case. I wonder how the HDD bays compare to my P150 when hard mounted. too plastic I agree on these points, kind of leaves something to be desired to the clear cut and elegant Antec designs. That said seems to be a top class case functionally with all the bells and whistle...

So it seems even WD couldnt make a 4-platter drive that's silent. I'm compelled to change my setup to 2x 2TB GP with three platters, but where are the 1TB/platter drives at?

I agree that 7200rpm drives are difficult to run silent, been there, done that. I'd get a single 3TB WD 3TB disk with 750GB platters and do regular clones of your SSD to a partition of the same size on the very beggining of the HDD where the performance is higher should you need to fall back on it. ...

Well folks I re-did cable mangement in my P150 which somehow made it possible for me to hear a difference when the WD30EZRX is spun up unlike my 1.5TB GP (WD15EADS). Do note that I have the drive hard mounted in my P150 HDD bay(soft rubber grommets). Maybe this device has one platter too many to be ...

It was the rather large zip-ties I used that prevented the heatsink to make contact with the CPU.

I managed to kill my CPU and MB while testing my modified fan adaptors for 7v. Sadly an un-isolated wire touching the case was enough to cause permanent damage. I'll know better next time. Anyway, I quickly found a 2nd hand Gigabyte 945G MB and Pentium D 930(65nm) for a good price. The problem I'm r...

I do video editing at times and more often I deal with multi-track audio editing/recording. More processing power is always welcome for these tasks. Here's a rundown of my current system: Gigabyte GA-P965-DS3 Intel Core2 E4500 (2x2.2GHz, 800MHz FSB, 2MB cache) 2x2GB DDR2 800MHz Cruicual m4 SSD 64GB(...

but Techarp measure a higher surface temp for the WD30EZRX attributing to higher rotation speed. Seriously ? Getting the rotation speed from temperature ? Why not use crystal ball instead ? The only real way to find out the rotation speed is how SPCR does it, from rotation noise profile. Temperatur...

It's according to the Techarp.com article. WD30EZRX has the same rotation, thermal and power specs as WD30EZRSDTL officially but Techarp measure a higher surface temp for the WD30EZRX attributing to higher rotation speed. Looks like it's anybodies guess really. Could just be WD playing games

So some possible routes: H67 MB, "any" i5, IGP(I don't game) Less expensive Good performance P67 MN, i5-2500K, discrete graphics alt. Z68 MB, i5-2500k, IGP More expensive Better performance, OC I'm strongly inclined to consider the Z68+i5-2500k combo at this point. Please let me know If I've missed ...

Seems like some old anti-Celeron bias crept in to my mind, the G530 certainly seems like the better value/transition part. On a different topic I just found the Sandy Bridge buyers guide at Anandtech. Funny how the different CPUs and chipsets features are disappearing and reappearing between tiers :...

That makes me envision a purchase consisting of a cheap s1155 MB and Pentium brand Sandy-bridge CPU and RAM. Later upgrade to 2500k. I like it!

I might be the guinea pig on this one. I've had a favorable experience with my WD GP 1.5TB and the high areal density and performance reported for the WD30EZRX makes it look very tempting for my upcoming HDD purchase. Hopefully the increased spindle speed won't be too detrimental to the acoustics. W...

Here's a WD knowledge base article regarding the issue: http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5357/session/L3RpbWUvMTMxNTYzMzQwMC9zaWQvNmwxX1ZJRGs%3D Basically check the 'Load unload cycles' with a SMART monitoring utility. If it's in the several thousands you might want to disable the hea...

I guess it makes more sense to upgrade the MB as well then. I'll have some serious reading ahead of me to make sense of the current offerings. Anyone wanna chime in on the current sweet-spot in performance-to-dollars in the mean time? I'm not averse to OC-ing if thermals are resonable.

Dirge wrote:To add some more information the WD30EZRX is Western Digitals current 3 TB Caviar Green.

WD30EZRX SATA 6 Gb/s, Capacity 3 TB

I found a Tech ARP review here

Good idea. I'd add it's upped the platter capacity to 750GB and rotation speed to 6600rpm over the previous model.

I'm considering swapping my E4500(dual 2.20 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 2M Cache) for Q9***(quad >2.5 GHz GHz, 1333 MHz FSB, 3M Cache). Those parts go for ~$150 used. Would that make sense as an upgrade at this time or would there be more clever routes to take?

Well?

I also left a message in their message box. I stressed how probably more people would prefer the elegant, unobtrusive and professional look of a black case over the "trendy iPod look".

Any news on a black P150?

If gaming is a priority get the audigy, if sound qulaity is get the revolution.

I live in Sweden
Looking on Pricerunner and Buggy it seems that all reasonably priced ones are prescott