Upcoming Reviews & Articles
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Upcoming Reviews & Articles
In response to popular demand, here are the articles and reviews in our queue, in possible chronological order. Delivery is not guaranteed! I'll try to keep it uptodate. Reviewed items will get deleted, new items added to the bottom.
Updated Aug 8, 2006
Cooling, motherboard VRMs, efficiency & power consumption - this is more important than you might think, especially for higher power CPUs
Antec Take3/4 - rackmount cases
Antec Fusion - htpc case
mCubed FanAmp - fan controller
Seasonic M12 - PSU
Seasonic S12-80+ - PSU
Coolermaster Greenpower 500 - PSU
beQuiet Dark Power Pro - PSU
Enermax Galaxy - 1000w PSU
Shuttle XPC X100 - complete SFF system
AOpen EPC945M8 - complete ePC
AOpen Flex 945 - mITX Core solo/duo motherboard
Qmicra - SFF case
several AM2 motherboards
several AM2 EE A64 processors
two Core 2 processors + motherboards
umpteen fans
more zerotherm heatsinks
Aerocase Condor - vidcard HS
Systrin & Arctic Cooling - vidcard HS
nMedia 280 - HTPC case
Updated Aug 8, 2006
Cooling, motherboard VRMs, efficiency & power consumption - this is more important than you might think, especially for higher power CPUs
Antec Take3/4 - rackmount cases
Antec Fusion - htpc case
mCubed FanAmp - fan controller
Seasonic M12 - PSU
Seasonic S12-80+ - PSU
Coolermaster Greenpower 500 - PSU
beQuiet Dark Power Pro - PSU
Enermax Galaxy - 1000w PSU
Shuttle XPC X100 - complete SFF system
AOpen EPC945M8 - complete ePC
AOpen Flex 945 - mITX Core solo/duo motherboard
Qmicra - SFF case
several AM2 motherboards
several AM2 EE A64 processors
two Core 2 processors + motherboards
umpteen fans
more zerotherm heatsinks
Aerocase Condor - vidcard HS
Systrin & Arctic Cooling - vidcard HS
nMedia 280 - HTPC case
Last edited by MikeC on Thu Aug 10, 2006 2:43 pm, edited 29 times in total.
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Is it wrong that I'm most excited about an mATX PSU?
Will you being paying attention to the performance of these cards at all or just referencing performance figuresfrom other sources? I'm completely for the latter if that's what you choose to do, I'd rather you guys focused your time on your very specialist field than waste time on something so many other sites cover.
Ever thought about setting a partnership up with another site? They coould refer to you for noise references and vice-versa for performance aspects?
EDIT: And with your keen ear and experiance Mike, I'd love to see audio sunjectional based audio related reviews from you.
Will you being paying attention to the performance of these cards at all or just referencing performance figuresfrom other sources? I'm completely for the latter if that's what you choose to do, I'd rather you guys focused your time on your very specialist field than waste time on something so many other sites cover.
Ever thought about setting a partnership up with another site? They coould refer to you for noise references and vice-versa for performance aspects?
EDIT: And with your keen ear and experiance Mike, I'd love to see audio sunjectional based audio related reviews from you.
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Hi Mike, the trouble maker posting here...
Really looking forward to some of the reviews, especially the Silenx PSU with the 14db fan will be interesting to see. Hopefully it will get some people to understand _realistic_ fan specs.
Any hope of you guys being able to take a quick dB(A) measurement of the fan itself? I understand it isn't exactly top priority, but judging by the amount of time-to-time discussions on the forums, it would be helpful to point to people raving about SilenX fan specs.
Really looking forward to some of the reviews, especially the Silenx PSU with the 14db fan will be interesting to see. Hopefully it will get some people to understand _realistic_ fan specs.
Any hope of you guys being able to take a quick dB(A) measurement of the fan itself? I understand it isn't exactly top priority, but judging by the amount of time-to-time discussions on the forums, it would be helpful to point to people raving about SilenX fan specs.
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nope.Jordan wrote:Is it wrong that I'm most excited about an mATX PSU?
I presume you are talking about vidcards? That's a good idea - partnership. I have explored it before w/ lukewarm responses. Maybe now that SPCR has a bigger audience, it's worth another try. Still not sure why Storage Review was unresponsive before...Will you being paying attention to the performance of these cards at all or just referencing performance figuresfrom other sources? I'm completely for the latter if that's what you choose to do, I'd rather you guys focused your time on your very specialist field than waste time on something so many other sites cover.
Ever thought about setting a partnership up with another site? They coould refer to you for noise references and vice-versa for performance aspects?
Me too. Just rubbing my hands in anticipation of the cool toys...EDIT: And with your keen ear and experiance Mike, I'd love to see audio subjectional based audio related reviews from you.
As for pulling the SilenX fan from the PSU, Alexi -- probably not. We'd rather treat the PSU as an integral unit and look at real retail fan samples separately. There's just too much potential for problems. Write to the sample supplier, if you like: www.3DCOOL.com -- sales@...
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I had sent Mike a 80mm SilenX earler last year I think. Though now SilenX has since gone to a different fan it appears.Aleksi wrote:Hi Mike, the trouble maker posting here...
Really looking forward to some of the reviews, especially the Silenx PSU with the 14db fan will be interesting to see. Hopefully it will get some people to understand _realistic_ fan specs.
Any hope of you guys being able to take a quick dB(A) measurement of the fan itself? I understand it isn't exactly top priority, but judging by the amount of time-to-time discussions on the forums, it would be helpful to point to people raving about SilenX fan specs.
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Sizzel --
Yes, I have it.
I know the Great Fan Roundup project is not in the above queue. This is because we are utterly daunted every time we look at the mountain of fan samples and the array of testing that we've still got to do. The formatting and data presentation is quite a challenge, too. It's more complex than you'd think, if you're trying to be really thorough.
We will get a start on it before the year is out -- with a short review on at least a small selection of fans. Is that a promise? Maybe. I hope I can keep it. This time of year is always so frazzled...
Yes, I have it.
I know the Great Fan Roundup project is not in the above queue. This is because we are utterly daunted every time we look at the mountain of fan samples and the array of testing that we've still got to do. The formatting and data presentation is quite a challenge, too. It's more complex than you'd think, if you're trying to be really thorough.
We will get a start on it before the year is out -- with a short review on at least a small selection of fans. Is that a promise? Maybe. I hope I can keep it. This time of year is always so frazzled...
For the VGA cards are exact temps really a necessity? I think it’s more about the noise and about how the coolers affect other temps, i.e. does the silencers ability to evacuate heat or the Zalmans ability to cool the surroundings make a difference in total system noise/cooling. Instead of temperatures you could just run some heavy stress testing on the cards at different noise/fan settings to see what is manageable. Or am I missing the problem completely?Zalman Z700 & NV Silencer 5 rev 2/3 -- these are tough to review as VGA card temp monitoring is the pits.
I would also like to see a review of the Thermaltake BigTyphoon and the Thermaltake Rocket against Zalman Reserator 1 Plus. I know they have bad rep but that does not mean all there products have to suck.
Otherwise looking very good!
Woo - impressive list! Are you planning to sleep at all??
I'm particularly looking forward to ah - well most of it! But these especially:
I'm particularly looking forward to ah - well most of it! But these especially:
Seasonic SS-300SFD "80 Plus" microATX PSU -- very efficient, small
Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro 7 - HSF
Cooling, motherboard VRMs, efficiency & power consumption - this is more important than you might think, especially for higher power CPUs
Zalman Z700 & NV Silencer 5 rev 2/3 -- these are tough to review as VGA card temp monitoring is the pits.
ASUS A8N-SLI Premium & A8N32-SLI dlx - w/ notes on PSU incompatibilities
Power/heat/performance analysis of AMD X2-3800+ vs Intel 820 in the context of a quiet system
Search for the quietest 3.5" drive: 1-platter models from all the majors
Quiet & fanless gaming vidcards from Asus, Gigabyte, etc
Also coming soon -- reviews of PC-based Audio/Video components. This has been a long time in the making; I've been into audio/music since ~ age 10.
I think there are other "kindred spirits" out there too. I came across http://www.behardware.com recently. If you've not been over there Mike, I strongly recommend you take a look (for their review style). They are obsessed with Monitors, though, which although sometimes noisy are rarely as noisy as hard drives, of course.I presume you are talking about vidcards? That's a good idea - partnership. I have explored it before w/ lukewarm responses. Maybe now that SPCR has a bigger audience, it's worth another try. Still not sure why Storage Review was unresponsive before....Will you being paying attention to the performance of these cards at all or just referencing performance figuresfrom other sources? I'm completely for the latter if that's what you choose to do, I'd rather you guys focused your time on your very specialist field than waste time on something so many other sites cover.
Ever thought about setting a partnership up with another site? They coould refer to you for noise references and vice-versa for performance aspects?
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Oh my, oh my. What a load of goodies. Waiting anxiously. And good job on the articles done already. This is one of the few sites, which I just love to re-visit, because there is always new interesting articles and the quality is top-notch.
Can you give us a sneak peek to the audio gear article (what gear)?
Can you give us a sneak peek to the audio gear article (what gear)?
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Let us surprise you.halcyon wrote:Oh my, oh my. What a load of goodies. Waiting anxiously. And good job on the articles done already. This is one of the few sites, which I just love to re-visit, because there is always new interesting articles and the quality is top-notch.
Can you give us a sneak peek to the audio gear article (what gear)?
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re sleep: No promises about when these things will be posted.wainwra wrote:Woo - impressive list! Are you planning to sleep at all??
I think there are other "kindred spirits" out there too. I came across http://www.behardware.com recently. If you've not been over there Mike, I strongly recommend you take a look (for their review style). They are obsessed with Monitors, though, which although sometimes noisy are rarely as noisy as hard drives, of course.
Thanks for the behardware link. Had not seen that one before.
Mike,
When you do the review of "Cooling, motherboard VRMs, efficiency & power consumption" can you make sure to compare a couple of motherboards with 8 phase power and include some notes on the reduced heat generation.
There was a comment on Anand's by one of the staff that the P4 820D on an 8 phase motherboard had a 5c lower temp than a 6 phase board.
When you do the review of "Cooling, motherboard VRMs, efficiency & power consumption" can you make sure to compare a couple of motherboards with 8 phase power and include some notes on the reduced heat generation.
There was a comment on Anand's by one of the staff that the P4 820D on an 8 phase motherboard had a 5c lower temp than a 6 phase board.
Can i make a suggestion? there has been a fair bit of contoversy about this PSU in regard to its cross loading requirements. Any chance as part of the review you can test how well it handles a lot of 12V load, but not much 5V/3.3V load (to simulate a heavily overclocked SLI system with only a one or two hard drives)?Silverstone Zeus ST56ZF PSU
AFAIK Antec NEO HE series, and perhaps others.Mike, since Asus A8N-SLI Premium will be my next M/B, can I ask you what PSU is incompatible with this M/B?
IMO the DFI debacle wasn't entirely seasonic's fault (issue arised from seasonic's sensitive protection circuits being tripped by surges), but rather mainly DFI's fault for designing a motherboard that surges the 5VSB rail at startup (also affected early revisions of zippy 700w / pcp@c 850w). So as such the unit isn't a lemon, but rather just incompatable with the DFI board.I was planning to use a Seasonic S12 500W, and I wouldn't buy a lemon unit
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I'd love to see that great fan round-up. In the academic world, when faced with the requirement for a large amount of tedious data collecting, we know how to handle it - make a graduate student do it. Could you use cheap student labour, or collaborate with a university engineering or acoustics program on data collecting?
Another thought is to do a quick once-through to eliminate 2/3rds of the fans as not worthy of careful measurement - but I guess that wouldn't be all that quick, as you'd at minimum need a rough airflow and noise measurement at two voltages for each fan.
Another thought is to do a quick once-through to eliminate 2/3rds of the fans as not worthy of careful measurement - but I guess that wouldn't be all that quick, as you'd at minimum need a rough airflow and noise measurement at two voltages for each fan.
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Green PS
Have you heard of FSP's new Green PS?
"Features:
• High Eefficiency exceedings 85% (at full load)
• Low power consumption on standby (<1W)
• Under 30dBA low noise design
• Low on heavy metal compounds
• Reduced weight (from 2.5kg reduced to 1.9kg) for less recycling tax (EU)
• PCI Express Connector for graphic cards
• Environmentally friendly PSU
"
Planning on reviewing it? it's supposed to be very efficient and silent.
"Features:
• High Eefficiency exceedings 85% (at full load)
• Low power consumption on standby (<1W)
• Under 30dBA low noise design
• Low on heavy metal compounds
• Reduced weight (from 2.5kg reduced to 1.9kg) for less recycling tax (EU)
• PCI Express Connector for graphic cards
• Environmentally friendly PSU
"
Planning on reviewing it? it's supposed to be very efficient and silent.
Re: Green PS
Ahem...chillbill7 wrote:Have you heard of FSP's new Green PS?
"Features:
• High Eefficiency exceedings 85% (at full load)
• Low power consumption on standby (<1W)
• Under 30dBA low noise design
• Low on heavy metal compounds
• Reduced weight (from 2.5kg reduced to 1.9kg) for less recycling tax (EU)
• PCI Express Connector for graphic cards
• Environmentally friendly PSU
"
Planning on reviewing it? it's supposed to be very efficient and silent.
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article280-page1.html
Papst 120mm 4412 F/2GLL and F/2GLLL ?
What about the extra low noise Papst 120mm 4412 F/2GLL and F/2GLLL I donated to you back in June? Even though they aren't readily available in North America as far as I know, I wanted to find out if they might be quieter than the orange ones most people assume are the quietest. (I'd hate to think that nothing came of my buying them from Germany and shipping them up. Even a simple subjective A vs B test at 12v would satisfy my curiousity.)
Craig in NJ
Craig in NJ
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Re: Papst 120mm 4412 F/2GLL and F/2GLLL ?
Thank you for your contribution Craig, rest assured something most certainly will come of your effort.CraiginNJ wrote:What about the extra low noise Papst 120mm 4412 F/2GLL and F/2GLLL I donated to you back in June? Even though they aren't readily available in North America as far as I know, I wanted to find out if they might be quieter than the orange ones most people assume are the quietest. (I'd hate to think that nothing came of my buying them from Germany and shipping them up. Even a simple subjective A vs B test at 12v would satisfy my curiousity.)
Craig in NJ
Please consider the following:SnooP wrote: IMO the DFI debacle wasn't entirely seasonic's fault (issue arised from seasonic's sensitive protection circuits being tripped by surges), but rather mainly DFI's fault for designing a motherboard that surges the 5VSB rail at startup (also affected early revisions of zippy 700w / pcp@c 850w). So as such the unit isn't a lemon, but rather just incompatable with the DFI board.
* The Lanparty boards work fine with all the other major PSUs.
* Seasonic offered free replacement to the A2 revision (which may or may not solve the problem), which is tantamount to admitting the problem.