Rate My Build

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mikeczyz
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Joined: Mon Mar 31, 2008 2:51 pm
Location: San Francisco, CA

Rate My Build

Post by mikeczyz » Mon Mar 31, 2008 3:12 pm

Hey guys,

New around here but am looking to build a new computer. My goals are to 1. build an extremely quiet system and 2. have it be upgradeable for future releases. I've been doing some research and here's what I've come up with.

Case- Antec Solo

Power Supply (PSU)- Corsair VX450W

Case Fan(s)- Do I need any? The case comes with fans, right?

Motherboard-Asus m3a or Gigabyte ma770 (Am going to overclock the mobo so do any of you have any opinions?) Also, I've read that AM3 chips can be plugged into an AM2+ mobo. Is this true?

Processor (CPU) AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Black Edition

CPU Cooler/Heatsink with Fan (HSF)- Scythe Andy Samurai Master (The SPCR article says that the size of this unit might be a problem in AM2 systems. Do you think that I'll have an issue?)

Memory (RAM)-4 gigs, haven't yet picked it out...any thoughts?

Hard Drive (HDD)-Western Digital Caviar SE16 640 GB
Or Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3500630AS 500 GB

Optical (Disc) Drive (CD/DVD/HD-DVD/BR)-Haven't picked it out...any thoughts?

Video/Graphics Card (GPU)-ECS n8800gt-512...supposedly the quietest 8800gt out there.


That's it.

Any issues that I don't know about?

Thanks alot,
Mike

andyb
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Post by andyb » Mon Mar 31, 2008 4:53 pm

Welcome to SPCR.

Great case, you wont need any more case fans, just switch the included fan to low.

PSU is very good.

I have been using Gigabyte mobos for over a year now and I am very happy with them, I have had probs with Asus mobos before.

You would be better off with a tower heatsink such as the Ninja.

Make sure the RAM is branded (long warranty), DDR 800 or more, and CAS 4 ideally (cas 4 is faster than CAS 5).

WD and Samsung rule the roost when it comes to noise, I would suggest the Samsung 640GB if you can get it as it is a fair bit faster than the WD, Samsungs 500GB and 750GB models are not as quick as the 320, 640 and 1TB models.

Get an LG DVD-RW, not for the noise, but for reliability and quality.

Have a read-up on the 8800GT's and Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 on these forums, its a fantastic passive cooler and many people have attached a very slow spinning (quiet) fan to the card to keep it ultra cool and still virtually silent.


Andy

derekva
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Post by derekva » Mon Mar 31, 2008 8:18 pm

I'll second pretty much all of Andy's statements, with a couple of modifications:

- With regard to the 8800GT - avoid ECS - they're not the most reliable of manufacturers. You'd be better off just buying a bog-standard 8800GT and then buying an S1 from a reputable dealer. I'm pretty happy with my eVGA card, and I know other swear by BFG.

- I'd replace the Antec TriCool fan that comes standard (120mm) with a GlobalWin 1202512L Ceramic Bearing (if you want to go with best bang for the buck) or Noctua NF-S12 (if you have $$$ to burn and want the best). I've found the TriCools are quiet for only a short period of time before they start clicking.

-D

mikeczyz
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Mar 31, 2008 2:51 pm
Location: San Francisco, CA

Post by mikeczyz » Mon Mar 31, 2008 9:06 pm

On another forum, the folks have HEAVILY recommended that I ditch the AMD, get an Intel E2200 and overclock the living daylights out of it. What do you guys think? Will the E2200 throw off enough heat so that better (louder?) cooling becomes necessary?

andyb
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Post by andyb » Tue Apr 01, 2008 1:57 am

The question about the CPU is a valid one, I am going to be building myself a new PC in a month or two and I dont want to spend more than I have to, unfortunately comparative reviews of low and mid-range CPU's are not that easy to find.

I could get an E2200 for a few £££ more than the 5000+ Black edition, RAM would cost the same, mobo about the same, but which is quicker, and which will overclock the best.


UPDATE


Having had a look around the net for comparison of these 2 products, there is little to choose between the two products whilst gaming, the core 2 wins everything, but not by a huge margin (unless you read Anandtech's lies and bullshit), the AMD system is a reasonable amount cheaper, but the Intel system seems to have more scope for overclocking

I am going to wait until the Intel and AMD price drops at the end of April and make a descision after that point.


Andy

mikeczyz
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Location: San Francisco, CA

Post by mikeczyz » Tue Apr 01, 2008 7:28 am

In the U.S., E2200 and 5000+ BE prices are virtually identical. Makes my decision a bit easier! :D

andyb
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Post by andyb » Tue Apr 01, 2008 8:38 am

Sorry my mistake, I was originally looking at the E2200, but after finding little hard facts and performance reviews of it I started looking at its big brother the E4500.

So when I mentioned that the Intel CPU was faster I was refering to the E4500, it is 200MHz faster, runs off of a faster bus and has 4MB of Cache instead of 2MB, but I believe that it is a newer core revision, so may be faster clock for clock, although I would still expect it to be slower overall than the E4500 as traditionally Intel chips need all of the cache and bandwidth they can get.

I dont actually know how fast in real world game benchmarks the E2200 is compared to the E4500 or the AM 5000+ (I dont really care about any other performance areas).

But yes you are right the E2200 is about the same money as the 5000+, although I really dont know what to look at in the way of motherboards and chipsets, I ended up looking at a motherboard that was £20 more expensive for the Intel system than for the AMD system which might be an accurate comparison or not I just dont know having not built an Intel system since my Abit BP6 with a pair of 50% overclocked Celerons.


Andy

Plekto
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Location: Los Angeles

Post by Plekto » Tue Apr 01, 2008 1:40 pm

I'd actually recommend the e2220 because you won't have to overclock it much, if at all.

ie - 2.4Ghz with a bit of tweaking results in 3Ghz without silly power or heat. That's equivalent to four 3.06 Ghz Northwoods, essentially, speed-wise.

It can go to 5ghz. But that will make the machine hugely noisy due to the extra power and heat required. I'd at most OC it 25% to 3.0 and leave it there. If you want more speed, just get an E8400 and run it stock. That massive cache and fsb difference makes OCing an e2220 look pretty silly.

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