In a year or so when ZFS has matured, I can see some uses for this on a mid-level database system. A RAIDZ2 set of flash-drives would be about the end-all of fast and reliable. If you are not familiar with ZFS you should look it up. I've been using it for a bit on Solaris systems at work and it's qu...

Probably half your tasks are not worth the cost/benefit. Let's take mail-server as an example. For a probably tiny chunk of your overall traffic, you are going to devote resources to running Exchange and keeping it maintained? If it's a mail-server exposed to the Internet, it *WILL* get probed and p...

Do you have new specific questions? How about just posting a suggested system setup of your own and people can pick that over.

Some fun options I've looked at in the last few weeks: Sony UX series, especially the weekend that TigerDirect had the UX-230 on sale for $999 I almost pulled the trigger on it. Samsung Q1 through Q2 products. The availability of 1.8" Solid State Disks on NewEgg etc later this year will be a game-ch...

I read several articles that show that RAID-0 does not make for a significantly improved single-user experience for things like desktop usage and game-loads. Artificial benchmarks often show very big improvements, BUT.... the conclusion is often something like this: "The SR Office, High-End, and Gam...

I'm thinking we are premature, thinking info will pop up any moment now. All the articles I find on the sandisk SSD, are the same press release or a rehash of it. Sounds like a "paper launch". If there were large quantities of these units being shipped out the door, they would be in user hands by no...

You have your HTPC focus, I have my own. I use primarily laptops, and they are not "next year" bleeding edge laptops these are last-year or the year before. For myself, as for probably 90% of users out there, Vista offers me exactly nothing. I can't run Aero since I don't have enough graphics power ...

I'm baffled by why anyone is rushing toward Vista? I have a WinXP install that with Office and Street Atlas USA and other addons, takes up about 6 gigs. Works really well too on an older system. I intend to run XP for some years yet, so a 32-gig SSD sounds fine to me. If someone can point to a kille...

Yeah, I was hoping to get more information over the weekend while it was still on sale. I was on the fence. Unfortunately at this point the price has gone up so it's kind of a moot point for me. I was mainly thinking to use it for Street Atlas USA, and lightweight on the road usage. I have a ThinkPa...

Duplicates existing active thread:

viewtopic.php?t=37039

Yeah but when will we see these in the usual distribution channels? It's nice to read about and all, but "launch" and "available to manufacturers" doesn't mean it's showing up as in-stock item at NewEgg. I would like to upgrade my laptop and until it shows up in the usual e-tailer shops it's not rea...

I was hoping for something a little more detailed than one person's final judgement. Thanks but I want more data. If I knew someone locally where I could try one out, I would do that. Lacking that, hoping someone will have pointers to a really detailed review. So far as I can find, this UX-230P is a...

I have an X22 and they are very quiet. Well, the original (old) drive was a bit noisy, but I replaced it with a Samsung and it's very quiet now. The CPU fan is not ordinarily running in my usage. Under sustained load it will start up but I don't find it to be noisy. Sorry I don't have any dB numbers...

Has anyone used one of these?

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... 0&NoMapp=0

The price from TigerDirect seems pretty decent, just wondering how good it is.

If you want backups these days, the best way is an external hard-drive with USB2 or Fireware or eSATA. There are many problems with mirroring. It doesn't fix the all-too-common accidental deletions or just plain old silent disk corruption. Due to mirroring, a bad bit of information on one drive, wil...

Thought I should add, I still have a couple of SV-24 cubes with C3-800 "Ezra" CPU's, 512 megs PC133, 40-gig laptop drives, and the predecessor to the PicoPSU. They take about 25 Watts, and performance good enough for my needs. At their age though the capacitors are starting to bulge, think I will ha...

Doesn't Via have CPU anymore for non-mini-ITX? I recall when I bought my Via C3-800 it was a Socket-370 and there were assorted full-sized ATX boards in that period you could put it in. Smiling Crow had a good thread or two. You should read Green Computing and use the Search function liberally, it's...

Unless the 7600GT is something different from the reference card a ZM80D will fit just fine. Plus, you already have one. The only time I have heard of anyone having trouble with the ZM80 it was either user error, or they had a goofball card like the AGP version where the GPU is at a 45-degree angle ...

At approximately 10 Watts per drive, the many drives you are planning on using are the largest factor. An efficient PSU and a low-power mainboard will help sure. Maybe a Via or Celeron-M or Core Solo setup. I still hold size doesn't matter. My engineering is some years ago, but if you are dumping X ...

I'd recommend check the database over at StorageReview.com. They have a comparator thingy, don't know if it has all the WD drives you want, but it'll probably come the closest.

SIZE of the CPU vs chipset has nothing to do with it. It's how much heat is being generated by the tasks they are doing. A household file-server idling most of the time is going to have much lower heat output than an HTPC or gaming box. A simple way to estimate the impact, put a probe from a simple ...

Frequent topic.

Read this thread, page 2, 4th post from top, author cmthomson:

viewtopic.php?t=38072&start=30

In general, the version of a drive with fewer platters is a bit quieter. I went with the SE16 250-gig version and in the suspension mounts of my Antec Solo it's the quietest drive I've yet owned. Specifically it's a WD2500KS-00MJB0. To agree with previous poster, doing all the micro-reviews within a...

I have a HR-05 heatsink on my northbridge. Works well and looks like a smaller version of the Ninja.

I don't recall too many of those AMD-based systems reaching 20 Watts for the whole system. 20 Watts for just the CPU, maybe. I could be wrong. I have a couple of my old low-wattage lightweight servers on my repair bench right now. Shuttle SV-24 units equipped with Via 800 CPU and laptop drives. Pret...

vincentfox - the reason for the dual core desire is because the machine also gets used periodically as a game server along with other tasks i didn't mention such as some xvid and mp3 enccoding here and there. personally i know going dc is a bit overkill but i want to build this machine and have it ...

There was a good "green computing" thread a while back about what made the most efficient DivX-cruncher that had broader application: http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=35472&highlight= It's not clear why you are looking at dual-core. Most of your tasks do not sound CPU-intensive. ...

What issues with the ZM80D mounting system?

I have an XFX 7600GT "XXX" in PCI-E and the ZM80D-HP works just fine on it for me. Temps are comparable to factory unit, but without any fan at all!

This is a frequent thread. It is apparently a common misunderstanding to think that the numbers returned to you by "temperature" programs actually represent real absolute temperature. I ran 3 programs simultaneously and readings disagreed by up to 20C. Please read the thread linked below. Particular...

Get the Corsair 520HX PSU. As long as you are buying Dell LCD I'd go for the 2007WFP or 2407WFP. No reason not to go wide-screen these days, I have one and it's fantastic.