Prebuilt system / Graphics card

[chrissyboy]

I'm looking for a quiet pc that will be used for some home office work (a bit of Photoshop, nothing too complex) and some fairly low level gaming (nothing too intensive - no time for that anymore!) and want it to run as quietly as possible as its likely to be on all evening in my living room and would like as low a backround hum as possible.

I have built my own systems in the past but I just don't have time to mess around anymore. So this time, after searching around, I thought I'd buy from Arbico as they seem to offer a range of 'silent' PCs prebuilt and I can't find anyone else that does without them being beasts.

I was thinking of the Arbico Silent Core i5 Performance - any thoughts on the components used and if the system is likely to run quietly and adequently for a bit of gaming?

Also, out of these three graphic card choices available what would you recommend?

Silent ATI HD5550 1GB Passive Cooled
Silent ATI HD4850 512MB Passive Cooled
Silent nVidian 9800GT 1GB Passive Cooled

Totally new to the concept of quiet computing and so far out of the loop with pc building I haven't got a clue anymore so any advice would be gratefully received! Including if there are any other custom options that you would recommend in their list...

Thanking you all in advance for putting up with the newbie questions

[Big Pimp Daddy]

Can't really comment on the graphics cards without knowing what games you want to play and at what resolution. ("low level" is not much much detail)

The Arbico looks OK, it won't be very quiet and is very expensive for what it is. I built a similar system (AMD dual core with onboard graphics, everything else the same) for less than half what they're asking.

You can get almost completely silent for less than that price if you're willing to skip the graphics card http://www.tranquilpc-shop.co.uk/acatal ... .html#a156
Whether the integrated graphics will be enough depends on what games you want to play. Couple of benchmarks here: http://www.anandtech.com/show/2972/the- ... reviewed/2

I believe Dell do fairly quiet prebuilts at decent prices, you're looking at about 400/500 quid without graphics card but including operating system.

Considering you've built computers before, I can't understand why you seem to have entirely dismissed that option. It will be cheaper and quieter than any prebuilt. Is your time really so precious that you would pay a several hundred pound premium to save an hour of your time? Could you get the parts and buy a mate a few beers to assemble it for you? A quick search of the forums would provide you with lists of components that would work together and be quiet.

[chrissyboy]

Sorry, 'low level' wasn't very specific... you're right

I don't usually have much time for games anymore so when I play I tend to go back and play stuff I used to play when I did have the time... which stopped about 5 years back. I'd imagine most modern kit should run that without an issue.

However, its possible I might pick up the odd RPG or something to give them a whirl and see whats happened in the last 5 years. Don't have any specific names as I'm so out of touch but the bottom line is that I'm not really a detail fiend and so wouldn't balk at having to turn down detail, turn off anti-aliasing and so forth.

Not sure how I expected you to work all that out from 'low level' but I hope that explains it better

Re: building it, its more sorting out all the niggles that can crop up if you do it yourself. Sure, often its a smooth run but not always and I just don't realistically have time (and energy) for that, I'd rather pay up a bit extra and have it all delivered ready to go.

The only friend I had who I would trust to do it for me (between us, we used to build all our mate's pcs) has left the country.

Thanks for the tranquilpc suggestion - I'll take a look and see what it can do. Shame that the Arbico won't be quiet though