Depending on the degree of airflow desired, it would be relatively simple to just purchase a K&N cone or drop-in filter. Just don't be a fool - like the former owner of my 325 - and forget to oil it first. Nevertheless, you're really looking at a supremely high-quality filter element...but I'm unce...

Maybe if you have one of those motherboards that have the NB right where a cooler would intersect the video card, you could bend the fins away to either side so that it clears? I haven't looked into this, this is just off the top of my head. :P I guess it depends on how you could install it though.

Hi, I don't suppose you are confusing Athlon 64 temperatures for that of your XP processor? I admit I haven't kept as close tabs on what CPU temperatures people are reporting as I should have, but as I recall the XP was a very hot processor? I can see 41 degress with an A64, but I know little about ...

Psst, look at the dates of the posts, folks. AARRRGH!!! :evil: "Hmm... May 14. Okay, I'll bite...." :P 2004 Umm.... yes, I am aware that was what I did not notice. I saw that the thread was started at an earlier date in May, which is why I replied, but the year was overlooked. I'm not sure why this...

None of this thicker/thinner stuff is relevant; what you want to look at is the thermal conductivity; annoyingly Arctic Silver give thermal conductivity in non-standard units, so it is hard to compare with this solution. If anyone does the math, can they please post it here. Practically speaking, a...

As long as you're okay with going AGP, which is rapidly becoming a bit of a dead-end, so upgrading the video card (for whatever reason) may become more challenging in the future. The 7000 is kind of an ancient slug these days, but if you don't do any gaming, video playback, or multimedia work then I...

Glad you found out what the problem was. I would suggest some searches for the words "Akasa" and "Nesteq" in the PSU forum of course, but the Nesteq sounds interesting with its semi-fanless operation. It opens some interesing options in the P180 case. You could either cool it with the exisiting lowe...

Maybe if you have room you can just rest the Smart Drive on some foam on the floor of your case? The last I read, resting drives on foam was nearly equal to elastic suspension for reducing seek noise.

swhitelaw are you trying to just build a normal, Joe-average computer here, or is it supposed to be a low noise or quiet SPCR-type computer? I don't see any mention of words like "silent", "quiet", etc. and other than the Samsung HD I see some things that need attention, such as: - CPU heatsink? - ...

nici is probably right, but I wonder if there is any advantage to this product. The unusual brush on application seems to imply that it is thinner than the normal thick goop. What that implies I don't know....

You may want to ask Tt or search other forums about the Schooner or their other Fanless VGA model (or search here? I think this has been brought up before). I was looking at this very issue a while back and there is a chance you may be able to fit the Tt cooler because it uses a different mounting s...

Thanks for the reply, though I apologize for not being very clear (I think I am doing that a lot these days... :roll: ). What I meant was, have you tried leaving space on both the left and right of the HD so that air will flow around both sides of it (top and bottom)? I know they say the bottom and ...

No the P180 doesn't have a speaker, but can you hook one up? I've even seen a tiny speaker on the end of a connector that comes with the MB sometimes. Being able to hear the computer "beep" or not might help because sometimes that can tell you why it's not working. It's part of the Power On Self Tes...

Thanks Thomas. I'm currently putting together a P180 and I was going to do something similar using semi-circles of foam to direct and restrict the airflow around the HD. Glad to know this actually works beforehand! :) BTW, did you try it first with some airflow on both sides of the HD? That was what...

IIRC a 6600GT has about the same performance as a 9800Pro... As for the 7800GS vs x850 pro, I've been able to locate the latter for significantly cheaper price on Ebay. The former still seems to carry a premium everywhere. I might be wrong though... (correct me?) Cheers! While it depends what bench...

Maybe this is just me, but the desire to run a new, demanding game at "full tilt" seems to clash with the very concept of the "budget gaming rig". Budget builds typically can't run the latest and greatest at 1600x1200 with 8xFSAA and 16xAF (at least, not at playable framerates), meaning you'll have ...

qviri wrote:Psst, look at the dates of the posts, folks.

AARRRGH!!! "Hmm... May 14. Okay, I'll bite...."

I'm with Jaganath. Unless it really has to be 150mm, I would look at 140mm models instead. The problem with larger fans is that any you can actually buy are usually for industrial use, so they start off with the simple problem of running too fast to start with. Part of the reason (but not all) why f...

I'm sure if you browse a large online parts store you can get some ideas for semi-powerful AGP cards. I haven't played Oblivion, but the May PC Gamer actually recommended an (older) X800 series video card for a "bang for your buck" solution to upgrade for Oblivion. Maybe you could run it at a lower ...

It's a shame that the Tricool fans that come with Antec cases are almost unusable by many SPCR enthusiasts. The problem is not so much that the fans are loud or noisy (although some people have complained of noise issues with them), but they simply run too fast for us, and leave little room left to ...

What I would like know from you guys: am I the first one or are there more reports of crooked Ninjas? Here (except his was concave rather than convex): http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=30931&highlight=ninja+concave Like ultrachrome said, I would use something like a good metal ruler...

Locktite? ha ha that's cheating :-P You might want to remove the cooler in the future. If that's possible when all that grease is set Actually there are two types of Loctite. One is permanent, the other is not ("removable with hand tools"). Everyone seems to associate "Loctite" with permanent bondi...

Honestly, I can't really think of any current VGA cooler that is really the equivalent of the Ninja. The principle of the Ninja is that it is designed for passive cooling utilizing tons of heat pipes and large, widely spaced cooling fins. All the current favourite VGA coolers have fairly closely spa...

If you're really serious about taking apart a PSU and messing around with how the housing and other parts are grounded, I would get a reasonable quality multimeter (not the cheapest one you can find) if you don't already own one, and learn the basics of using it. Then you can measure the resistance ...

If you're worried about removability you could always try something called removable weatherstripping or removable caulk. It's basically the same kind of stuff except it's actually designed to peel off. In your home the idea is to caulk around doors and windows in the winter to seal against drafts a...

Yikes. I don't know very much about airflow routing for HTPC cases, but some general ideas that would still be applicable are to: 1) Cut away as many fan/vent grilles as possible. That one next to the 60mm looks pretty restrictive, so cutting away all similar intake/exhaust holes (if cosmetically ac...

That is the one I was thinking about getting the ninja but I want to use it without a fan and from the review here on silentpc it crashed the system without the fan on it..... As with many heatsinks, its performance is highly dependent on the airflow inside the case and through the heatsink. With h...

Why not just get an extension cable ? ...... the ATX power cables are too short to fit my motherboard (even with an extention). I admit that I haven't followed this problem very closely, but a local store lists extension cables of 8-9 inches long. You mean the Seasonic's cables are really that shor...

amjedm wrote:I have no idea if the fan would start at 5v but do you think it would be quiet at that voltage if it started?

Thanks.

Strictly in terms of RPM, that should take it down to about 900 RPM, which could be quiet, but if the bearing isn't very good, you should be able to hear it. Good luck.

this cooler is pretty good...way better than the stock coolling fro eVGA 7600GT without the fan spinning...40C at idle..compare to stock cooling (with fan spinning at half speed) 58C idle I'm going to do some burn in test next Great, let us know how things go. :) Another review: http://www.sgovercl...