Maxtor is alive!

The nice people in Diastron where I had bought the drive, managed to reformat it, and it's once again in active duty! Till next time...

Another change in Antec P180, PSU this time

Antec Neo HE 430W from P150.










Since this PSU didn't work in the P150, I installed it in my server. The old one won't start when I get a fourth hard disk. Cable management from scratch!

New PC for Chris (my love 4ever). Antec P150

The new and the old. Antec P150 on the left. Best looking case I've ever seen!













Inside.















The PSU didn't work with the Asus board, but I already knew that and was prepared!



Hiding the cables.











No cablegami in here!










I had the Antec Smartpower 450 PSU from Charlie's Sonata II here, and used it in the P150. A very pleasant surprise! We wanted a quiet and powerful machine, so we decided to go with an AMD processor. This meant nVidia chipset boards, and got an Asus with on-board graphics. And that's where the nightmare began! Horrible drivers, buggy BIOS versions, and 2 Windows installations. Advice: First update BIOS and then install Windows! Finally, it worked and it's really good. Quiet and fast.

Specs:
Case: Antec P150
CPU: AMD 3700+ San Diego
M/B: Asus A8N-VM CSM
RAM: 2x512Mb Kingston
HDD: WD250KS
DVD-R: NEC 4551
PSU: Antec Smartpower 450W

PC room updated

Desk now.











Brackets for my Eizo monitors. Huge save in space.

Tweaking the Antec P180

One slot cover removed, GPU temps dropped by 5c!






Put the third HDD down with the others.









Cut off the back grill and replaced it with an aftermarket one. Better airflow = lower fan RPM for same temp.











Front grills also snipped off.

Geliath's on the wall HTPC

Surprisingly quiet.















The motherboard.
















Handmade start and reset buttons!








Hard disks, Optical drives and PSU.









The Home Theater part. Disco Ball and everything!







The projector with modded base. Still needs sound absorbing material padding.




Specs:
Projector: Hitachi PJ-TX100
CPU: Intel 530 3,0, Thermalright XP90, Nexus
M/B: Asus P5GD1
RAM: 2x512Mb Kingston
GPU: Asus 6200 T/C
HDD: WD250JD, WD320JD x 2, WD400KS
DVD-R: NEC 3520A
DVD-ROM: Plextor
PSU: OCZ Modstream 450

Picture is quite good, bright with decent contrast. The PSU, being on free air, never ramps up. Seek noise from HDDs is covered by the projector's fan. Second Nexus fan on the side of M/B for GPU and Northbridge cooling. Temps are very low and the fans are kept below 7 volts, using a cheap 3 fan controller.

300GB Hard Disk added in Antec P180

The whole thing now.
Specs:
Case: Antec P180
CPU: P4 3,2 Northwood
M/B: Albatron 865Pro
RAM: 1GB Transcend
GPU: Asus ATI 9250
HDD: WD250JS, WD250KS, WD300JD
DVD-R: NEC 4550
DVD-R: NEC 3500
PSU: Fortron 350 + Nexus

Temps at 100% load for 1 hour: CPU 50c, M/B 38c, N/B 40c, HDD 30-32.

I had to buy a PCI SATA adapter as my M/B has only 2 SATA ports.







I installed the WD300JD on the upper chamber, upside down, set to stop at 10 minutes idle to avoid noise.

Charlie's new Antec Sonata II

My friend Charlie needed a new PC for his office, and since the excellent Antec P150 is not yet available in Europe, we got a Sonata II. Unfortunately, the Smartpower power supply included did not play well with the Albatron 925 M/B, so I installed a Fortron that was lying around. Still waiting for news from Antec support.






It's fairly quiet with all fans at the lowest settings. It's in his office, so extreme quieting methods were not needed. It idles in the low 40s, 100% load in the mid 50s. Hard discs are always below 35 degrees. I liked the case overall, but hated having to remove the M/B in order to swap PSUs.



We didn't enable the Speedstep function yet, to check how it lowers temps, and therefore lower fan speeds even more.





Specs:
CPU: Intel 630
M/B: Albatron 925X
RAM: 2x512Mb Kingston DDR2
GPU: Asus 6200 T/C
HDD: WD160JS, WD250JS
DVD-R: NEC 4550
DVD-ROM: TEAC 516
FDD: Mitsumi
PSU: Fortron 350THN

Fan Swap On Zalman 7000AlCu

The Zalman 7000AlCu cooler.









The (noisy and clicky) Zalman and the new Nexus.








Some two side adhesive foam and 2 cable ties.







Ready!

Maxtor Death

One of my Maxtor external HDDs died a quiet death. NEVER again! The sad part is that the disk is ok, but the directory is corrupted, probably by the bad electronics. VERY common with Maxtors.

Western Digital x2 + PSU fan in Antec P180

Added a second WD250 hard disk.








PSU modded with a silent fan by Nexus.








All rear vents were taped so that the air goes front to back only, cooling the hard disks and the motherboard components.

Changes in Antec P180

Changed the CPU fan with Nexus. Put Fanmates to control exhaust and CPU fans. Added NEC 4550 DVD burner.

All pictures...

...taken with a SonyEricsson K750i. Quality not always guaranteed!

The inside of Antec P180

Cable management and fans changed with Nexus. The only thing remaining is the CPU fan, which means motherboard removal! Later...

Antec P180 finished and in place

My friend Geliath gave me this funny USB aquarium! Thanks!





Waiting for silent fans to quiet down the PSU and CPU.

New case (Antec P180) for new server

Zalman TNN500AF

The Zalman TNN 500 AF case. Almost silent, with fanless PSU.
Specs:
CPU: Prescott 540 3,2 Prescott
M/B: Albatron 925X Pro-R
RAM: 2x1GB SuperTalent DDR2
GPU: Asus 6600
HDD: WD160JD, WD250JD
DVD-R: Plextor 716A
DVD-ROM: Teac 516
FDD: Mitsumi w/ 7 in 1 Card Reader
Satellite TV Tuner
With heatpipes transferring the heat to the case, I'm only using one fan undervolted to 5V to keep case temps below 25c. Temps at 100% load for 1 hour at 23c ambient: CPU 56c. Northbridge 44c. M/B: 32c. GPU cool (no temp mon). HDD 35-37c.

My Desktop

New server

My (almost ready) server!