On my current system, I have a 300GB Veliciraptor and a WD Blue 640GB, with about 100GB free on each drive. I've been fairly methodical about deleting unneeded files and uninstalling programs I no longer use, though. That said, there's still plenty of stuff I could/should delete. I've been using thi...

I think that should be fine, assuming those four HDD's aren't terribly power hungry.

Could anybody give me an idea of what type of system you can run with a 400W PSU like this? E.g. could you run a quad core a single high end gfx card (perhaps not a fermi) and a 2-3 drives with it? Sure could, even with a Fermi. As a rough estimate, you could say up to 120W for the CPU/mobo/RAM and...

As far as shape, I think that any kind of tower will do - thick, tall, or long. I wouldn't want to go for a full cube, though. I've considered the Raven-like setup, but I think that dealing with the cables and exhaust being on top isn't ideal. That said, you've got me thinking... Perhaps an upside-d...

I made a thread a while ago about cases for SSI EEB motherboards. The conclusion was that there are no ideal options available for me. Thus, I went with a mediocre case. I've since found Spotswood (see this thread ), a custom wooden case manufacturer. For an HTPC case that he's now making for me, th...

From what I understand, the E model, when turned down to 800 RPM (i.e., undervolted), will have more favorable sound characteristics, compared to the D model at the same speed. That said, if you have the D model and you're fine with it, it might not be worth the hassle to get an E model and manually...

AznJason wrote:I had something like that hooked up to my picoPSU for a while. At some point (over time) the picoPSU fried and almost took the MB with it.

I take it that it's a bad idea, then. My condolences about your Pico.

The one you linked to states - "This unit does not power on". True enough, but there are certainly other working ones out there. I think the link I chose was just for the sake of pictures and info being included in the listing. Fanless? Not sure why you say that... Hmm... perhaps you're right, but ...

Price drops!

Was wondering if anyone wanted to do me a favor. :) My pre-order of StarCraft 2 will only be coming on Monday (grrr...), and I'd really like to practice playing online. Does anyone have an extra guest pass key that I can use for now? If so, please send me a PM. Many thanks... EDIT: Got one already, ...

I don't know where to get them in the UK, but the fan clips for the Ultra-series heatsinks worked on my HD01-Plus. (Don't know if they fit completely properly, but they do the trick).

Very cool setup. I've been wanting to try out some similar cardboard ducting. A question (out of curiosity, rather than an educated suggestion): How are the temps affected if you remove the vertical "wall" that's leaning on the GPU fan? Although I understand why it's there, I'm wondering if it also ...

One more vote for the Nexus. It's available everywhere, is fairly cheap, and is very, very quiet.

I currently have a new 15" MacBook Pro, and the IPS (anti-glare) screen is great. My previous laptop was a Sony Z, and that one was excellent, as well. An advantage of the latter is that you have the option of 1600x900 or 1920x1080 on a 13" laptop... either one is much higher than similar laptops wi...

Go for the P183, in my opinion. Its cooling capabilities should be enough, and it will be a quieter build (given that you switch out the fans). Your other choices seem fine, as well, but I would go for much cheaper RAM (three of these, for example).

What about something like the (theoretical) case below, where the case is wider, allowing for a huge fan (~160mm) near the I/O panel, and something like a 80mm fan to the side of the PCI slots. Not sure if it would really have practical applications, beyond better cooling for extra-wide GPU coolers,...

Some of the ECC DDR2 sold elsewhere, and I've also slightly dropped its price.

EDIT: DDR3 SODIMM's now sold on a different forum.

Move to an Eastern European country with Russian ties that has yet to be fully exploited by the West (Belarus, let's say). Pretend to become a popular pro-Western political opposition leader. Maybe stage a fake rally by giving a few people $10 to work as extras, and send the video to Western news so...

I wouldn't mind doing these tests if they were easy to set up and administer. Some of the tests that people have recommended are extremely simple to administer. Yet, your previous reply was something like "I'll do them eventually." Look through the first few replies... They were not out of spite or...

I don't know where you got the power figures for the 9800GTX+, but in the Anandtech review , they got a total system power draw of 388W at load for 9800GTX+ SLI, and that's with a much higher power CPU than yours. I second that. It sounds like the review that you looked at just gave the total power...

Seems like an interesting HD 5850 competitor, finally. I agree with the concerns about aftermarket cooling, but: 1) I would imagine that some very decent non-reference models with quiet coolers will become available soon enough. Or at least, good candidates for taking off the shroud and strapping on...

I ran into one of these PSU's on eBay... The OEM model is Astec AA21660, and there are a bunch of used ones on eBay for pretty cheap. I guess it's mainly used as a power supply for NAS's and whatnot. What's interesting is that it's fanless, doesn't seem too big (could be wrong but it seems roughly t...

Realized that the laptop RAM pricing was twice what it should have been because I put "each," instead of "for both," so I corrected that error. And I also added a much more reasonable "each" option. :) Also, I decided to pull the Sony laptop, and will be giving it to my brother, instead. I might lis...

Updated original post. Note that I lowered price on the laptop by downgrading the RAM and selling the 8GB separately.

Might also have some cheap cooling-related stuff for sale in the near future.

Arstechnica occasionally has relevant articles. For example:
2010 Pwn2Own article
Chome Frame article
analysis of IE

Looks like a resounding win for "yes" on I/O shields!

I/O shield panels for motherboards... they're the things that you can uncomfortably cram in the back of your cases, leaving holes only for the motherboard ports that are available on your particular motherboard. I guess their main function is to keep dust and whatnot from crawling in at that particu...

Given that you are aiming for a reasonably low noise system but not super-quiet, the 5870 Vapor-X card might be quiet enough for you. Otherwise, for aftermarket coolers, you might want to search out any of the following: - Thermalright Trad 2 GTX + VRM R3/R4 combo - Thermalright Spitfire + VRM R3/R...

AFAIK Arctic Silver 5 is not the best choice for GPU cooling. This old article at Xbitlabs shows why: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/display/thermal-interface-roundup_11.html#sect0 Arctic Cooling MX-3 or Tuniq TX-3 or better (if you are brave enough to use it, I'm not!) the Coolaboratory ...

Partial success so far! I put on Arctic Silver 5, took off the shroud, and put on a slim 120mm Scythe fan... but then couldn't boot. Was upset and was hoping that I didn't ruin the card. So, I put the shroud back on, with the original fan, thinking maybe the card doesn't like running without its fan...