I've seen the future

I have seen the future, and it's Blue, double blinding digital blue, think Blue

 

Seeing how you've got a bad case of the blues WM, why not order a couple of these and attach them in front of the LED's

Screw the future! Relive the past

 

But Merlin, it only goes to 4Kw what are Graham N and myself going to do ? you could have found some with 10killowatt on them

 

Its great to see so many people embracing technology I think

I cant help but think though that media-servers are a solution looking for a problem.

Just as reading books on computers never really took off never mind replaced paperbacks, I dont think (famous last words) media servers are going to take off big time.

My own view about its achilles heel, is the need to individually transfer all your music album by album by album by album by album zzzzzzzzzzzzz onto the thing in the first place.... will the general public be arsed?

I wish I could get broadband to download MP3's, but thats a different kettle of fish

Chris

 

Chris,

it takes all of a couple of minutes to copy a CD onto a hard drive

For me, the main advantage is having the ability to just randomly play from selected playlists. I do a lot of background listening, as do many people, and this is a real selling point. Multi room would be nice too - having your collection available in the bedroom as well as the living room will be great.

For me, the important thing is that I don't have to compromise on sound quality to get it. From what I have heard recently, if there is compromise, it is so negligable that only those of an obsessive persuasion would really be concerned.

Still the proof will be in the eating, so I will let you know how I get on with my half way house or Powerbook and Dac.

 

In your dreams

What are you running at the moment ? 380 wpc ? Come on I've got twice that on the bass units alone

 

Well it may only have green and yellow LEDs but I now have one very quiet computer in my living room

As delivered from MESH it used to make a dreadful racket as all the fans were running full speed and although the PSU had a variable speed fan, it was still quite noisy. As delivered, the CPU temperature was 52 deg. C.

A couple of months ago, I fitted a Nexus superquiet PSU which has a temperature controlled 12cm fan. I also fitted speed reducers to the system and CPU fans. This gave a huge improvement in noise level but with a CPU temperature of 55 deg. C which is a tad warm.

I still felt that the PC was making too much noise, so today I pulled it apart and fitted a Zalman Al/Cu Flower cooler. It now uses only one 9cm fan to suck in air and cool the CPU (there is a plastic air duct which *just* fits the Flower). I fitted a further 8cm fan to cool the fanless VGA card as it gets a bit too warm for my liking. Both fans run at minimum speed (about 1300 rpm) and are whisper quiet. The hard disk is now the noisiest element and is hardly audible. And the CPU temperature.....

46 deg. C

Result :banana:

 

Techno, is it an Athlon or Pentium IV?

I'd recommend Pentium IV for quiet applications as they run cooler. Having said that, my PC is pretty quiet and I have had no issues with heat, even though my mobo misreports my heat reading by up to 30 dec celcius OVER what it really is.

 

Can anyone suggest some temp MOnitoring software?

I tried MBM but couldnt get it to work.

 

Paul, it's an Athlon 2400+. The Pentium can of course be cooled with the excellent Heatlane Zen which needs no fan and is therefore totally silent. It is heavy though so only recommendable for machines with horizontal motherboards. I chose the Al/Cu Flower rather than the all copper version as it is lighter and won't break my vertically mounted motherboard.

MO, if MBM didn't work then it's probably that your motherboard doesn't support temperature monitoring.

 

Chris, I'm not sure specifically about the Athlon chip you have, but I wouldn't worry about running it at 55C at all. I have an Athlon 1GHz (AXIA) and I'm currently running it with a single Delta fan (a very noisy, very powerful 7000rpm fan) slowed way down so it's whisper quiet plus one 80mm Zalman case fan from QuietPC and a QuietPC uber-quiet PSU (can't remember the model). The end result is very quiet, though hardly silent - just fine for movies though.

Anyway, with this setup the CPU runs very hot - around 70 degrees C most of the time (sometimes dipping down to 67-68 on a cool day with the window open...) and I have no problems whatsoever. I've had it running this way for 6 months now I believe, and not a hitch (touch wood). It's probably shortening the life of the chip significantly, but it's not like anybody keeps their CPU for more than a few years at best...

I've actually had this particular chip for three years now, and up until 6 months ago (when I converted it for quiet HTPC use rather than hardcore gaming) I had it overclocked from 1GHz to 1.333GHz (tho I was running the Delta fan at full revs, plus had 5 80mm case fans, so the thing sounded like a jet taking off...). So that's two and a half years at 33% overclock (CPU temp was never more than 50degC) followed by six months at 70degC, and haven't had the slightest hint of a problem with it. I mean, it's possible it's on its last legs and it'll keel over any second now, but I doubt it. AFAICT CPUs (or at least Athlons) are a lot tougher than they're made out to be.

Dunc

 

Well that's very reassuring as I'd quite like this machine to last a few years. It may yet become the doner for a HTPC if I succumb to temptation and stick a nice 42inch display on my wall.

So which is making more noise - your HTPC or your projector?

My PC is quiet enough now that I can leave it on all the time, even when I'm reading. Couldn't do that before.

 

Remember dunkyboy, it could be misreporting. My motherboard (Epox 8K3A+) is well known to read as high as 30 celcius over and mine at the moment, web surfing and such like is reading 74 celcius. It goes over 80 celcius when it plays games sometimes, yet no problems at all. The maximum operating temperature is meant to be between 75 and 85 so if I was going to experience problems I am sure I would of by now.

All this is even considering I have a Thermalright SLK-800 heatsink and 80mm fan bonded to the chip with Arctic silver, I am highly suspicious my readings really are that high.

 

My motherboard is an Asus A7N8X-VM and it seems to do the job properly. It's currently reporting cpu sensor 44 degrees and the other sensor 36 degrees and the only sound I can hear is the disk (and I have to stop whatever I'm doing to hear that ).

 

Yeah, I had considered that Paul. It's possible, but I don't think so. I used to have it running uber-overclocked but also uber-cooled (as I said above - Delta 7Krpm fan, five 80mm case fans, plus some fancy heatsink or other (can't remember the name) and Arctic Silver II) and it was usually hovering around 42degC. I somehow doubt it was misreading that by 30 degrees.

FYI my mobo is the Asus A7M266. Dunno how reliable its temp sensor is but I've never heard of any problems.

Dunc

P.S. - Has anyone heard of a working CPU just dying of old age? I've got CPUs that have been running (in poorly ventilated, hot, dusty environments no less) pretty much non-stop for five years now. Never had the slightest problem.

 

Bloody computers.

The girlfriend bought all new parts to make one and I put it together last night, turned it and it runs for 3 seconds and turns itself off.

Out with multimeter and the psu is fekked.

Just about to take it back now

 

Mart,

One possible cause of the symptoms you describe is that the BIOS is set to detect fan speed for cpu and system fans and to shutdown if either is found to be not running. Just a thought.

I have two spare ATX PSUs. Would you like one?

 

Also I built a machine for my mate and the same thing happenned. Unbelievably, turning the heatsink on the CPU around fixed it, god only knows how.

 

SpeedFan