I've now switched from the A7V8X-X that I accidentally purchased to a A7N8X
that I had intended to get. The refurb nvidia board from newegg came *with*
the I/O shield and all the extras. Certainly an unexpected plus from what
I was told to expect.

On the A7V8X-X the PSU fan speed was reporting low.. On the A7N8X, it's not
reporting anything at all for the PSU fan speed, not in the BIOS Hardware
Monitor, and not with Motherboard Monitor.. just straight up zero. But I
guess I'll just let that slide since I don't seem to be alone in this.

So with my new retail 2500+ in this new board, the AMD supplied fan is WAY
quieter than that low end hunk of junk that was stuck on top of my OEM
2600+. Not only was that speeze setup loud, but the chip wasn't even kept
cool.. 56C idle with the case off. 60-62C idle with the case on.

With the new.. new setup, I'm getting 29C case, 42C diode, and 35C socket,
with the case off, as reported by motherboard monitor. I had no idea there
were different socket and diode temperatures. Apparently Motherboard
Monitor with the ini files I downloaded for the A7N8X detects an additional
temperature that isn't reported even in the BIOS hardware monitor?

The system was definitely hotter with the case on.. 5C + hotter at idle I
think.. So should I stick a case fan in this thing?
Now that my processor fan is sufficiently quiet, the loudest annoying thing
is the fan on my V7100 GeForce2 MX 400 graphics card. It must have a
dynamically controlled fan speed because it hits certain speeds where it
creates a fair amount of buzzing..

I was all set to keep this graphics card, but its noisiness might be enough
to make me switch it, or at least look at switching its fan. Funny I never
heard it before. I guess my PSU fan and processor fan were always drowning
it out or at least contributing so that the humming symphony couldn't be
directly attributed to the graphics card.. Any suggestion for quieting down
the graphics card fan buzzing / vibration?

-Ethan


--
To e-mail me, replace "_nospamtoday_" with the "@" symbol when replying to
my address.