Microcenter Ate My Wallet!

Seriously though, your local Microcenter is worth the extra ‘cost’ in tax or whatever — it’s nice to be able to return stuff.   That’s a convenience worth paying for.  [Note that their prices are pretty consistently competitive with NewEgg these days anyway.] Anyway, it’s time for a new(er) setup.   I wanted to try one of … Read more

Son of FrankeNAS Strikes Again!

Details and hardware of the re-re-constituted OMV Plex-o-tronic box on my network. Case:  Fractal Design Node 804 Cube Case Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 CPU: AMD FX-6300 RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB DDR3-1600 (PC3-12800) CL9 PSU:  Corsair 500W CXMOD 80+BRZ ATX PSU Boot Drive: 60 GB OCZ Agility 3 (recycled from an old project) Data Drive:  2TB Seagate Barracuda … Read more

Quietus Quest III

I thought I would do some testing and such with the new case and airflow and noise, but when it came down to brass tacks, I just decided to do the swap and make it look as neat as I could.  Here’s the rundown of the old hardware vs the new: Old hardware making the … Read more

Quietus Quest II

Last time, we summarized the old setup and some possible causes. Here is a list of the relevant components and their upgrades: Antec 902 vs  Corsair Carbide A540 (black) Unknown PSU vs Corsair HX750I Stock AMD Cooler vs Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO Unknown fans vs Corsair AF140 Quiet Ed Fans My plans are to assemble … Read more

Quietus Quest I

For some time now, my “main” PC has been loud enough that I can still hear it with my Logitech G930 headset on my head. Mostly, I think it’s cooling fans working harder than they should need to.  It’s an AMD8350, along with a Radeon R9/280 in an old Antec 902 case.   It might also … Read more