Something not mentioned yet: although the Nexus fans are the quietest I've come across, they do have to be undervolted to be really quiet. So add fan controllers to your shopping list.

does quieter than other cards mean quieter than a card with aftermarket cooling though? I'm so very dubious of asus cards especially when it comes to silence. Does anyone have the decibels? Thanks for the headsup GreenRay, I'll definitely check into it. EDIT: Just found out that the warranty for ch...

is that plasticard? the same as used for hobbyists? I have a few sheets of that, albeit a bit thin, wouldn't they run the risk of melting? I'd have no idea how to build it though or even the basic knowledge of airflow. It's styrene, about 1mm thick. No danger of melting, although it tends to warp a...

It has been a while since I worked with SCSI drives, but my recollection is that they spin up sequentially to avoid a big spike at power on. So creating a RAID file system could indeed represent maximum 12V draw as all the disks seek and write at about the same time.

So between the vf900cu dumping the heat inside the case and the VM-101 with Swiftech RAM sinks the VM 101 would be the more silent (and cooler?) option for the GT KO? Yes, provided you're willing to build a duct for it, rig a fan to feed the duct, and have the room (empty slots) for both the VM-101...

Thanks cmthomson - I'll order the 500 now :D Can you recommend replacement fans for the P180? If I'm replacing the bottom one is it worth replacing the other two at the same time? I'd really like quiet ones and am trying to get this thing silenced but don't know what to buy :o I'm very happy with m...

Hi guys; Don't mean to butt-in but I have a question for cmthomson :lol: I have a P180 and tried a Phantom 350 but it kept shutting off (I'm pretty sure my workstation drew too much power for it and it kept 'protecting' itself). I ended up returning it and can get the Phantom 500 but I thought it w...

edit: the eVGA cards for sale at that site (I'm in sweden by the by) are these: eVGA GeForce 7900GT 450MHz GPU 256Mb eVGA GeForce 7900GT KO Knock-out Version 500MHz GPU 256Mb eVGA GeForce 7900GTX 650MHz GPU 512Mb DDR3 eVGA GeForce 7950 GX2 500MHz GPU 1Gb DDR3 I'm extremely lost, but the main questi...

I gather your system doesn't see enormous loads very often (i.e. running recent 3D games for hours at a time)? My typical load is about 250W (measured at the AC plug) while folding day and night. Max load is 325W running CPUBurn and ATITool. The power supply fan never comes on. The only way I could...

I've been running mine for a year in the bottom of a P180 with a Nexus midfan at 5V (550 RPM). This keeps the disks fairly cool (<40*C) and the power supply cool enough that its fan never turns on.

The Phantom's fan only comes on if the top heat sink gets over 52*C.

cmthomson: Yes, I was planning to use the NMT-3 on the CPU fan and expect it to just use the ambient temp. I figured it would keep the speed low and I don't have to go find one of those Zalman 7v resistor cables. I now have 5 of them from the sale, so I do have some just laying around. When using t...

Are you sure it's 100% safe to do that? I hope you are right, since I have bought Nexus fans and all new mobos have now PWM fan headers. It would be great to use BIOS based fan control on the new mobos, I was planning to use my old fan controller. New high-end motherboards (including the P5W DH Del...

Your problem is not temperature, it's voltage. Most likely Vcore since both CPUBurn and Prime95 are failing (if it were only Prime95, that would point to north bridge or DRAM voltage as the culprit). Try bumping up the Vcore a notch.

Yes, just plug the 3-pin connector into the 4-pin CPU fan plug. It will run at 12V unless you've enabled voltage-based fan control on the motherboard (Q-Fan mode DC). You can probably used SpeedFan to control this. I use NMT-3's on two of my Nexus fans: the top case fan and the power supply/hard dis...

If you have room in your case for very thick foam, pyramids are the best bet. They are what are used for anechoic chambers because they provide the most oblique incident surface to impinging sound waves. Most cases don't have that much room, which is why AcoustiPack and others use a rounded pattern ...

You'll be amazed at how snappy any dual core system is compared to your existing system. Definitely wait a couple of weeks, then pick either a Conroe or an AMD AM2. Personally, I'm eying Conroe on a Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 MB. I've recently installed an eVGA 7900GT KO (which has two dual-link 2560x1600...

What is the refresh rate? 2560x1600 @ 60Hz There is no flicker like on CRTs. Good to know. I've been a bit of a luddite, sticking to my old 900u. How tidy is the cabling out the back? Wow, that looks great. Thanks for the photo. Take a look at the Thermalright HR-05. Looks like a good heatsink to p...

Something to consider. Two fans that sound the same in open air may sound very different adjacent to an obstruction (eg, strapped to a heat sink or mounted next to a grille or filter). I discovered that the Nexus orange fans were much quieter than the Acoustifan DustProof fans when there was a downs...

zoob wrote:- The AOpen northbridge fan is NOISY in open air. My system is unstable if I unplug it.

Take a look at the Thermalright HR-05. Looks to me like it would fit in your system, and be passively cooled by the CPU cooler. It comes with a universal mounting kit.

The monitor is indeed a Dell 30" 3007WFP. The only reason I even considered SLI... By the way, I upgraded from the 2405FPW because of the input lag problems affecting my gaming. I've been plowing through the reviews of the 3007WFP, and have two questions that nobody seems to address: What is the re...

Back in the early part of the year (2006), MS changed their license so that OEM versions of XP are tied to the motherboard. They figured that the motherboard is the heart and soul of a computer and if you replace that, you've essentially got a new computer. So, new motherboard = new OEM license. I ...

To the people saying it is useless to install fanless PSU in P180 it's not. My S12 fan runs at 780 RPM in idle. If you install fanless PSU in the lower chamber you can probably cool it with just a single nexus fan in the lower chamber at 500-600RPM. The other limiting factor of course will be HDDs ...

So, I take it since your assumption is flawed, you're ready to place your order :-). There are two 3-pin headers for two normal fans. The 2-pin headers are for plugging in the power and MB. It only takes a single pin to send the RPM signal to the motherboard. So, the tach singal from one of the fan...

Wait three weeks.

Intel is introducing Conroe July 23. It is by most accounts faster than the best AMD parts, and consumes only 65W.

Starting July 24, AMD is slashing its prices in response.

Just curious, why two-pin headers instead of three-pin? One nice feature of the NMT-2 and -3 is pass-through of the RPM sense signal on the third pin. That way you can use standard fan connectors. Your device with 3-pin headers would be ideal for PWM motherboards and standard fans (no need to replac...

Chassis/case: Antec Performance One P180 That is a good choice. Big and heavy, but quiet and versatile. Power supply: Seasonic S12, 430 W, 120 mm fan. This is serious overkill, though not a bad choice for quietness. Consider a passive power supply such as the Phantom. Harddisks: Either 1 older seag...

Can you take a picture of the mounting rails. Or meansurement, I get someone to take measurements of the caps on the P5B. Thanks :) Well I had my system apart again, so here's the requested photo. Note the substantial clearance between the capacitors and the Ninja mounting rail... http://img90.imag...

BIOS temperature is not idle temperature. You need to be in Windows or Linux (with apm on) to get a proper idle temperature.

50*C in BIOS is not high for 950D.

I'm surprised the throttling temperature is that low. My 830D doesn't throttle until 103*C

A 950D can dissipate up to 150W under full load if it is overvolted or overclocked. That's way too much for an XP-90 to handle. You need to move up to the XP-120 or the Ninja.

so when you overclock your CPU at the same voltage, you're saying that there is only a minimal increase in power consumption? That'd be pretty cool if it were true. It's true. Power consumption is linear with clock frequency, but increases as the square of the voltage. P = c * F * V * V, where c is...