SilenX 400w 14 dBA PSU Date : Sunday, January 25, 2004 Author : SnowPunk98 Vendor : SilenX
Introduction I have reviewed a lot of power supplies over the years here at OCModShop and now I look at the SilenX 400w. This power supply claims to be the quietest active cooled power supplies on the market. I have done reviews on many other silent power supplies from many other companies. Some have been as quiet and they boasted to be and others were much louder than they should have been. This power supply features Over Voltage Protection, Over Power Protection, and Short Circuit Protection. All of these features will ensure that the power to your system is stable and fixed. I don't like loud systems at all, before I got this power supply I was using the True Silent 450w PSU I previously reviewed because it was the quietest I have encountered so far. I will be using the True Silent power supply to compare this SilenX one to see which is quieter.
The power supply does not come boxed, rather it comes in a plastic bag with the power cord supplied. The power supply was shipped via USPS Priority Mail and was in one of their boxes. The power supply was protected well during shipping with packing material and came undamaged. I think that SilenX should really look into getting a box for their power supply, for many different reasons.
The power supply doesn't boast any flashy designs or cool colors however that is not the purpose of this power supply. Silence is what the main goal of the unit is and there are tons of features to help achieve that. It would be nice if there was something extra as far as looks is concerned with this power supply if it did not raise the price.
The back of the power supply has an on/off switch, 110/220v toggle, and power connector. The 80mm fan that is used as an exhaust has a unique blade design and hybrid immersion bearings to lower the noise level. Instead of the traditional metal screws the fan is held in place by a silicone composite fan vibration dampening system. The fan on a power supply is what makes the noise so the quieter the fan the quieter the it will be.
Because this power supply is designed to be silent there is only one fan so there needs to be some decent heatsinking inside of the unit to keep it cool. One thing I noticed is that the screws holding the cover in place had Loctite or some similar product on them to keep them from vibrating. Small details like this show that the manufacturer has really taken time to make the best possible product. After getting the cover off I found that there was a impressive amount of heatsinks inside. You can also see on top of one of the heatsinks that there is a thermal probe which controls the fans RPM.
This SilenX 400w has pretty standard connections including: 6 Molex, 1 berg, 1 Auxillary, 1 12v, and 1 ATX. None of the cables have sleeving or any other form of cable management which would have been nice to see but is alright none the less. The cables also don't look to be too long which is the case of many other power supplies.
Testing I installed this SilenX 400w power supply to my normal test bed which is the above hardware. As I suspected the cables are a good length and not too long which is nice. To test the noise level of this power supply I bridged one of the black wires with the green one on the 20 pin connector so I could run it without anything else. After comparing the two power supplies I found that the SilenX 400w was much quieter than the True Silent 450w. I installed the power supply to my computer and hooked everything up. I also took out the temporary video card that I have been using and replaced it with a XFX GeForce FX5700 Ultra that will soon be reviewed. The cables are a not too long but were long enough with some slack to reach down to the Molex on the video card.
# Test Bed: Albatron K8X800 Pro II (review to come) # AMD Athlon64 3200+ (review to come) # 60GB Seagate Barracuda IV HDD # 1024MB PC3200 Corsair TwinX # XFX GeForceFX 5700 Ultra
This quote says is all. "Loudeye Digital Music Store, which uses Microsoft's Windows Media 9 series digital media platform..."
Given the alternatives (mp3 on Kazaa, aac on the iPod) already out there, who is really going to choose to buy their music in.wma format?? I just don't see this really taking off with public. It's a case of too little too late, and trying to copy the iTMS model without really offering anything compelling.
If you want to really be inspired, read this article from Rolling Stone where they interviewed
Steve Jobs, who knows how to do this the right way...
And then there's Microsoft. What happens to Apple when they build an iTunes-clone into the Windows desktop?
I think Amazon does pretty well [against Microsoft]. Microsoft hasn't really been able to compete with them -- maybe not wanted to. EBay does pretty well; Google's done pretty well. Actually, AOL's done pretty well -- contrary to a lot of the things people say about them. So there are a lot of examples of people offering services, Internet-based services, that have done quite well.
And Apple's in a pretty interesting position. Because, as you may know, almost every song and CD is made on a Mac -- it's recorded on a Mac; it's mixed on a Mac. The artwork's done on a Mac. Almost every artist I've met has an iPod, and most of the music execs now have iPods. And one of the reasons Apple was able to do what we did was because we are perceived by the music industry as the most creative technology company. And now we've created this music store, which I think is nontrivial to copy. I mean, to say that Microsoft can just decide to copy it, and copy it in six months -- that's a big statement. It may not be so easy.
From what I understand, the main drawback of plasma besides price is that there is permanent burn-in of images. So if you watch the news, the tickers and other graphics at the bottom of your screen might leave permanent traces. Even worse, since most programming these days is still in 4:3 format, you will have black bars on the sides of your screen; I'm not exactly sure if the black is either burned in, or if it is turned off does the center get unproportional wear and tear over time?
DLP is nice, but a main issue with DLP is that you have to replace the bulbs every 3-4 years. Currently, bulbs for DLP units range anywhere from $300-600, which is no small investment. Of course, DLP is also a projection format, so the viewing angle is not as wide, and from what ones I've seen at the store, the blacks aren't quite as dark as the plasmas or traditional CRTs.
Does the LCoS technology address these issues of screen burn in, viewing angle, accurate colors & brightness, and bulb replacement?
Works great for me ever since Yahoo went to pay only for POP3 service. Open source also. From their website:
Yahoo! Mail disabled free access to its POP3 service in April 2002. This resulted in many people (including myself) to look for alternative free POP3 services. But this exercise can be very difficult because of the fact that your Yahoo! Mail address could be with several people and informing all of them about your new email address could prove to be a nightmare.
And then one day, I stumbled across a Perl script called FetchYahoo, which almost did what I wanted! It downloaded emails from Yahoos website and presented them in a format such that email clients like Netscape and Pine could read them. But, the format in which it saved the emails is not supported by all email clients, including the one that I use. Also, making a layman install Perl and to get a Perl script to work could be a nightmare.
So, YahooPOPs! was born. YahooPOPs! is an open-source initiative to provide free POP3 and SMTP access to your Yahoo! Mail account. YahooPOPs! is available on the Windows and Unix platforms.
YahooPOPs! emulates a POP3/SMTP server and enables popular email clients like Outlook, Netscape, Eudora, Mozilla, IncrediMail, Calypso, etc., to download and send emails from Yahoo! accounts.
How do we do it you ask? Well, this application is more like a gateway. It provides a POP3/SMTP server interface at one end to talk to email clients and an HTTP client (browser) interface at the other which allows it to talk to Yahoo!
It's a direct source, so it's much higher quality than the shaky-cam version that was on/. earlier, but still the same demo video from 2003 E3.
It's the one where the Master Chief flies down, snipes some aliens, mans the stationary chaingun, then goes dual uzi akimbo through some wreckage. Hops into the back of a Warthog, and blasts Convenant ships while the AI controls driving. Then hops out, hijacks a Banshee GTA3-style, and rides away from big capital ships chasing MC. Then it rains down pods, and the MC primes a plasma grenade, etc.
I finally was able to understand what Cortana said at the end when MC pulls out his plasma grenade! It was muddled in the 'cam' version I watched before. "Bet you can't stick it". "You're on."
Definitely worth downloading to watch if you haven't seen it before.
I wonder why they didn't include the HUD in the demo though. The Masterchief takes so many covenant attacks that it almost seems like they might have put on infinite health/shield for the demo... Guess it makes for a better show.
This must be one of the signs of imminent apocalypse. TV shows (Americal Idol, Fame, even Star Search is back on network prime time!), karaoke bars, and now video games?
Do we really need to hear geeks trying to imitate Mariah Carey?
Yeah, it's just a press release, so take it for what it's worth, but that latest news is that "All other currently available models will retain the commercial skipping and Internet-sharing features".
So if DNNA keeps their word, it looks like the older 4000 and 5000 units that still have these features will not have them stripped retroactively. Time to start looking on eBay!
UPDATE 1-ReplayTV strips ad skipping in new DVR models
Tue June 10, 2003 01:44 PM ET
(Adds details on other models)
NEW YORK, June 10 (Reuters) - D&M Holdings Inc.6735.T on Tuesday said its new ReplayTV digital television recorder will not include controversial features such as automatically skipping commercials and sharing shows via the Internet.
Due in August, the new ReplayTV 5500 series will remove the "Commercial Advance" and "Send Show" options present in models that are currently for sale. Digital video recorders (DVR) save hundreds of hours of TV programs to a hard drive and allow users to pause live TV and instantly replay selected scenes.
When ReplayTV in 2001 introduced its 4000 series of DVRs, those services upset major media players such as Viacom Inc. VIAb.N and the TV networks, which sued SONICblue, ReplayTV's previous owner, claiming that the service violated copyrights and robbed them of advertising revenue.
All other currently available models will retain the commercial skipping and Internet-sharing features. Competitive products made by TiVo Inc. TIVO.O and EchoStar Communications Corp.'s DISH.O Dish Network do not have these features.
ReplayTV said the new devices will include updated software that allows users to skip reruns, eliminate programming conflicts and "Pause and Resume," where a viewer can halt a saved program playing on a ReplayTV box in one room, and finish watching that same program on a device in another room.
It will also feature buttons that let users manually fast forward through recorded programs, if they choose.
ReplayTV was purchased earlier this year by Japan's D&M Holdings, parent company to premium audio and video brands Denon and Marantz.
A ReplayTV spokeswoman said that pricing has not yet been determined for the new machine.
Also, it should be mentioned that the current implementation of the Commercial Advance, while automatic, is not 100% effective. People have reported it being anywhere from 80%-90% accurate only.
I know a lot of people on AVS Forum have turned off the automatic Commercial Advance feature and just used the old manual skipping method you've outlined.
Your mileage may vary.
Go read their service agreement. It says that anyone who buys the service agrees that features may be added or removed at any time. And of course, buying the box without service gets you nothing more than a doorstop.
If Replay drops these features in the 5500 series, it will just create a very hot secondary/used market for the older 5000 models that still have Commercial Advance & Send Show features.
So in my opinion, there's the possibility that they not only remove these features from new units, but also retroactively from the older 4000 and 5000 series also. Potentially very bad news for people who have shelled out $250 for a lifetime subscription recently...
I'm guessing the reason you had to print out and snailmail your rebate form was because they almost always require either (1) the original UPC, (2) the original printed and dated receipt, or (3) both. I guess the added advantage of the "pre-processing" of a rebate online is that you can at least track it and see when it has been approved...or not.
I'd have to agree with the parent poster. I've been looking to buy a new cellphone, and the Sony Ericsson's are pretty consistently high quality. I was really close to buying a T68i, but decided to wait a while for the T610.
The T610 seems to have everything that was nice about the T68i (trimode GSM, GPRS, nice color screen, bluetooth, and good build quality) but then adds a metal body instead of plastic, 65k color screen, a camera, and apparently 1/3 faster GPRS. Good review of T610 here Plus it's small, well designed with nice smooth lines, and the red color looks great.
Should be released soon.
Slashdot Mirror
http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000730035259/
"Mission Accomplished".
SilenX 400w 14 dBA PSU
Date : Sunday, January 25, 2004
Author : SnowPunk98
Vendor : SilenX
Introduction
I have reviewed a lot of power supplies over the years here at OCModShop and now I look at the SilenX 400w. This power supply claims to be the quietest active cooled power supplies on the market. I have done reviews on many other silent power supplies from many other companies. Some have been as quiet and they boasted to be and others were much louder than they should have been. This power supply features Over Voltage Protection, Over Power Protection, and Short Circuit Protection. All of these features will ensure that the power to your system is stable and fixed. I don't like loud systems at all, before I got this power supply I was using the True Silent 450w PSU I previously reviewed because it was the quietest I have encountered so far. I will be using the True Silent power supply to compare this SilenX one to see which is quieter.
The power supply does not come boxed, rather it comes in a plastic bag with the power cord supplied. The power supply was shipped via USPS Priority Mail and was in one of their boxes. The power supply was protected well during shipping with packing material and came undamaged. I think that SilenX should really look into getting a box for their power supply, for many different reasons.
The power supply doesn't boast any flashy designs or cool colors however that is not the purpose of this power supply. Silence is what the main goal of the unit is and there are tons of features to help achieve that. It would be nice if there was something extra as far as looks is concerned with this power supply if it did not raise the price.
The back of the power supply has an on/off switch, 110/220v toggle, and power connector. The 80mm fan that is used as an exhaust has a unique blade design and hybrid immersion bearings to lower the noise level. Instead of the traditional metal screws the fan is held in place by a silicone composite fan vibration dampening system. The fan on a power supply is what makes the noise so the quieter the fan the quieter the it will be.
Because this power supply is designed to be silent there is only one fan so there needs to be some decent heatsinking inside of the unit to keep it cool. One thing I noticed is that the screws holding the cover in place had Loctite or some similar product on them to keep them from vibrating. Small details like this show that the manufacturer has really taken time to make the best possible product. After getting the cover off I found that there was a impressive amount of heatsinks inside. You can also see on top of one of the heatsinks that there is a thermal probe which controls the fans RPM.
This SilenX 400w has pretty standard connections including: 6 Molex, 1 berg, 1 Auxillary, 1 12v, and 1 ATX. None of the cables have sleeving or any other form of cable management which would have been nice to see but is alright none the less. The cables also don't look to be too long which is the case of many other power supplies.
Testing
I installed this SilenX 400w power supply to my normal test bed which is the above hardware. As I suspected the cables are a good length and not too long which is nice. To test the noise level of this power supply I bridged one of the black wires with the green one on the 20 pin connector so I could run it without anything else. After comparing the two power supplies I found that the SilenX 400w was much quieter than the True Silent 450w. I installed the power supply to my computer and hooked everything up. I also took out the temporary video card that I have been using and replaced it with a XFX GeForce FX5700 Ultra that will soon be reviewed. The cables are a not too long but were long enough with some slack to reach down to the Molex on the video card.
# Test Bed: Albatron K8X800 Pro II (review to come)
# AMD Athlon64 3200+ (review to come)
# 60GB Seagate Barracuda IV HDD
# 1024MB PC3200 Corsair TwinX
# XFX GeForceFX 5700 Ultra
Given the alternatives (mp3 on Kazaa, aac on the iPod) already out there, who is really going to choose to buy their music in .wma format?? I just don't see this really taking off with public. It's a case of too little too late, and trying to copy the iTMS model without really offering anything compelling.
If you want to really be inspired, read this article from Rolling Stone where they interviewed Steve Jobs, who knows how to do this the right way...
A new DLP bulb, at $200 - $400 each, would be the equivalent of having to replace the engine block of your car every 3 years.
So, IMO no it's not a trivial matter.
DLP is nice, but a main issue with DLP is that you have to replace the bulbs every 3-4 years. Currently, bulbs for DLP units range anywhere from $300-600, which is no small investment. Of course, DLP is also a projection format, so the viewing angle is not as wide, and from what ones I've seen at the store, the blacks aren't quite as dark as the plasmas or traditional CRTs.
Does the LCoS technology address these issues of screen burn in, viewing angle, accurate colors & brightness, and bulb replacement?
- Safe.
- Small.
- Nuclear Reactor.
Pick two.Works great for me ever since Yahoo went to pay only for POP3 service. Open source also. From their website:
Yahoo! Mail disabled free access to its POP3 service in April 2002. This resulted in many people (including myself) to look for alternative free POP3 services. But this exercise can be very difficult because of the fact that your Yahoo! Mail address could be with several people and informing all of them about your new email address could prove to be a nightmare.
And then one day, I stumbled across a Perl script called FetchYahoo, which almost did what I wanted! It downloaded emails from Yahoos website and presented them in a format such that email clients like Netscape and Pine could read them. But, the format in which it saved the emails is not supported by all email clients, including the one that I use. Also, making a layman install Perl and to get a Perl script to work could be a nightmare.
So, YahooPOPs! was born. YahooPOPs! is an open-source initiative to provide free POP3 and SMTP access to your Yahoo! Mail account. YahooPOPs! is available on the Windows and Unix platforms.
YahooPOPs! emulates a POP3/SMTP server and enables popular email clients like Outlook, Netscape, Eudora, Mozilla, IncrediMail, Calypso, etc., to download and send emails from Yahoo! accounts.
How do we do it you ask? Well, this application is more like a gateway. It provides a POP3/SMTP server interface at one end to talk to email clients and an HTTP client (browser) interface at the other which allows it to talk to Yahoo!
Just more theories to clog up your brain, and help you waste time while waiting for November 5th... http://www.xzaust.com/index.php?page=matrix
It's a direct source, so it's much higher quality than the shaky-cam version that was on /. earlier, but still the same demo video from 2003 E3.
It's the one where the Master Chief flies down, snipes some aliens, mans the stationary chaingun, then goes dual uzi akimbo through some wreckage. Hops into the back of a Warthog, and blasts Convenant ships while the AI controls driving. Then hops out, hijacks a Banshee GTA3-style, and rides away from big capital ships chasing MC. Then it rains down pods, and the MC primes a plasma grenade, etc.
I finally was able to understand what Cortana said at the end when MC pulls out his plasma grenade! It was muddled in the 'cam' version I watched before. "Bet you can't stick it". "You're on."
Definitely worth downloading to watch if you haven't seen it before.
I wonder why they didn't include the HUD in the demo though. The Masterchief takes so many covenant attacks that it almost seems like they might have put on infinite health/shield for the demo... Guess it makes for a better show.
Can you hear me now?
Good!
Do we really need to hear geeks trying to imitate Mariah Carey?
Linked here.
So if DNNA keeps their word, it looks like the older 4000 and 5000 units that still have these features will not have them stripped retroactively. Time to start looking on eBay!
UPDATE 1-ReplayTV strips ad skipping in new DVR models
Tue June 10, 2003 01:44 PM ET (Adds details on other models) NEW YORK, June 10 (Reuters) - D&M Holdings Inc.6735.T on Tuesday said its new ReplayTV digital television recorder will not include controversial features such as automatically skipping commercials and sharing shows via the Internet.
Due in August, the new ReplayTV 5500 series will remove the "Commercial Advance" and "Send Show" options present in models that are currently for sale. Digital video recorders (DVR) save hundreds of hours of TV programs to a hard drive and allow users to pause live TV and instantly replay selected scenes.
When ReplayTV in 2001 introduced its 4000 series of DVRs, those services upset major media players such as Viacom Inc. VIAb.N and the TV networks, which sued SONICblue, ReplayTV's previous owner, claiming that the service violated copyrights and robbed them of advertising revenue.
All other currently available models will retain the commercial skipping and Internet-sharing features. Competitive products made by TiVo Inc. TIVO.O and EchoStar Communications Corp.'s DISH.O Dish Network do not have these features.
ReplayTV said the new devices will include updated software that allows users to skip reruns, eliminate programming conflicts and "Pause and Resume," where a viewer can halt a saved program playing on a ReplayTV box in one room, and finish watching that same program on a device in another room.
It will also feature buttons that let users manually fast forward through recorded programs, if they choose.
ReplayTV was purchased earlier this year by Japan's D&M Holdings, parent company to premium audio and video brands Denon and Marantz.
A ReplayTV spokeswoman said that pricing has not yet been determined for the new machine.
I know a lot of people on AVS Forum have turned off the automatic Commercial Advance feature and just used the old manual skipping method you've outlined. Your mileage may vary.
Optional.
To activate it on the Tivo, you need to pay an extra $99. So what's this about comparing prices?
If Replay drops these features in the 5500 series, it will just create a very hot secondary/used market for the older 5000 models that still have Commercial Advance & Send Show features.
So in my opinion, there's the possibility that they not only remove these features from new units, but also retroactively from the older 4000 and 5000 series also. Potentially very bad news for people who have shelled out $250 for a lifetime subscription recently...
I'm guessing the reason you had to print out and snailmail your rebate form was because they almost always require either (1) the original UPC, (2) the original printed and dated receipt, or (3) both. I guess the added advantage of the "pre-processing" of a rebate online is that you can at least track it and see when it has been approved...or not.
The T610 seems to have everything that was nice about the T68i (trimode GSM, GPRS, nice color screen, bluetooth, and good build quality) but then adds a metal body instead of plastic, 65k color screen, a camera, and apparently 1/3 faster GPRS. Good review of T610 here Plus it's small, well designed with nice smooth lines, and the red color looks great. Should be released soon.
Sometimes in Windows, you need to use all three keys though.
So tell me, was the answer "42"?
Actually with my IE6.0, hitting F3 opens a search pane on the left side of the browser. If you want to "Find Next", the keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+F.
So much for consistency.
Practically zero. Slashdot readers don't go outside, silly!
Clad in metal, proud
No mere salt-curing for you
You are not bacon
Pink beefy temptress
I can no longer remain
Vegetarian