Sounds like the earthwatts PSU is pretty good, but not perfect.

I wonder if it could be improved with a nexus or s-flex fan swap?

Careful! If the Nforce4 MCP hits a certain temperature, it will start corrupting data silently during disk writes. It's not a cataclysmic effect, just a few bytes out of each GB, so it can go unnoticed for quite some time. I started seeing it on large torrent downloads first, during the verificatio...

Okay, maybe I'm missing something here. Maybe this stuff is common knowledge that I never found out. But both of my computers have really hot northbridges! Comp 1: Gigabyte K8N nForce4 SLI mobo, A64 3700+ (undervolted) Comp2: Gigabyte s55 nForce4 SLI, X2 3800+ (undervolt) CPU temps are fine for both...

I own monster cable. Lots and lots of it. The reason being is I have worked for Best Buy and Circuit city, and I was able to buy it for 60% off, with free shipping. I'd have to say, for the price I paid I'm very happy with it. I did have a defective cable once. I called monster, they shipped me a ne...

you might want to remove that grill on top of your CPU HSF.

with my system using maybe 200 watts, I've got an Antec Neo480Watt with active PFC, and when I turn it on the lights dim in the room... wonder what 2000 watts would do?

Also, I wonder what the minimum load is for startup?

generally speaking, the arctic cooling Freezer Pro is better than stock heatsinks in both cooling capacity and noise, and costs $19.99 at newegg. Not silent though, esp. not at full voltage.

if it is 70% efficient it could give off up to 600 watts of heat!

what about cutting most of those out, and then stretching pantyhose or that cloth they put on speakers over the top? That might be just as restrictive.

So, 1600 watt power supply not providing enough kick for your Dual-Quad system with Quad SLI all overclocked running 20 hard drives?? How about Ultra Products new 2000 watt monster?? http://www.legitreviews.com/article/436/1/ http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/05/ultra-products-unveils-2000-watt-x3-atx...

This is interesting. In 2006 the Ultra-120 beat the scythe ninja. http://www.silentpcreview.com/article646-page3.html In 2007 they released the Ultra-120-Extreme. In this article, the Ninja beats the Ultra-120, but loses to the U120-Extreme by about the same margin that it lost to the U120 last year...

Well, 5W savings is minimal, but what about 15 watts? What if you are running over 100 computers at your place of buisiness? (the place I work at). I'm not sure how many years it would take to break even on that type of investment, but it IS an interesting concept. Almost makes me want to bring a po...

Newegg has a $30 mail in rebate on Antec Earthwatts A380 power supply, which is of course 80 plus certified. I just bought one. Muahahaha! Edit: $49.99 - $30 MIR = $19.99 + shipping http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371005 Replacing my PS in my wife's computer, which is only 6...

Any chance you could shoehorn a 70 or 80mm fan where the 60s were before, and duct that to a Minja for some quiet cpu cooling?

I'm contemplating switching out both of my power supplies for more efficient ones. Wasted power is wasted power, turned into heat. Maybe it doesn't make economic sense, but neither does owning a Prius when a corolla is so much cheaper. I've also heard that some of the 80 plus power supplies (such as...

The new ones have 80 plus power supplies, air guides and ducting, and revised hard drive mounting. May be worth another look.

Check this out...

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/pc_case2.php?idx=143

Kind of a novel design, they have many other cases as well.

Arctic cooling is always priced competitively as well.

I could have sworn this heatsink was already reviewed months ago. I remember hearing that it is just slightly better than the ninja, and that advantage goes away at very low airflow.

Frameless fans are really hit and miss. Zerotherm butterfly coolers and some of the Zalman CPU/ GPU coolers have gotten good performance with a frameless fan. However, Arctic Cooling reduced frame fan, and other applications have been lackluster. The frame actually helps the blades perform in many c...

Hey guys, I just thought of this. Right now, there are many companies starting to make power supplies that satisfy the 80plus criteria. Just one small problem: low powered systems may not draw enough power to be started by these power supplies, or also be below the mandated 20% draw threshold of the...

As far as the ram goes, I'd recommend looking at either PC6400 that runs 4-4-4-12 timings, or something even faster like PC8000 RAM... depends if you plan on overclocking or not I suppose, but you can really pick up a little bit of speed from strategically picking your RAM.

seemingly.random wrote: Even the AC FreezerPro64 ($20) is much better than stock.

/agree

quad core seems to outpreform dual core time and time again on nearly any test.

Thermaltake kind of has a reputation for being on the louder side of things. Most people here prefer the Scythe Ninja / Thermalright 120/90 for cpu cooler choices. I'd recommend an Antec Solo for the size of video card you are using. And also the 450 watt Corsair psu over the enermax one, or perhaps...

Scythe Ninja Rev. B is fine if you have a backplate on your motherboard, and you can also buy them for about $5 from a few different places, and you save over $30 over the Thermalright Extreme 120. The 120mm fan that it comes with operates at 800rpm and is very, very quiet. Based on what I've read h...

Saw this case, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146034 Looks overall pretty solid for an HTPC for the money, wondering if anyone out there has used this or the NZXT hush. They also make some cases that look like transformers, lol. This one has two 80mm exhausts on the back si...

could you overclock the CPU or underclock to change the thermal load?

This might be a stupid question, but do you happen to have the stock 120mm fan from scythe than runs at 800 rpm, and could you possibly test that w/ the stock mounting? Also, how does the heat output of this CPU compare to a Core 2 duo? Lastly, what kind of noise were you getting from the 92mm nexus...

Heh, thanks for the tip about 3D mark. I made some tweaks and adjustments and tried to see what kind of overclocks I could get. My baseline score was only 4000. But with some tweaks I got up to 4600. I was running 200 x 10 multiplier at 1.15V before Now after much testing I'm running 234x9 @1.30V (s...

Okay, saw this on ZD net. It's amazing to me how many "professionals" just dont' get it. http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=755 First off, he's using 2 completely different motherboards, different integrated graphics. Second, he neglects to realize to truely achieve his goal of low power, he should use a ...