Wanna build a new QUIET PC within the next week. Was looking into Intel as I am not a gamer (Heard some views about Intel being faster in office applications). However, after reading this article , http://www.silentpcreview.com/article169-page1.html , I realise that it's probably still back to AMD even though I do not play games. It had quite a convincing test to prove that AMD has a significantly lower power consumption, thus cooler system. Coupled with the integrated memory controller and future potential for 64bit applications, I think AMD64 is still the more obvious choice.

Next would be the mobo, aiming at 754 socket. I am searching for one with on board graphics. I figured that it would be sufficient for a non-gamer. Is there any disadvantages of on board graphics that I should know ?

Also, what would be a quiet casing to buy ? Anyway, would someone enlighten me on paying the extra money for a quieter casing ? At the moment, I would think the main factor would be the fans. The placement for the components are roughly the same I suppose, so the airflow would not make too much of a difference ?

Thanks for any advice.

Welcome to SPCR... forever?

For non-gamers who don't do heavy graphics or video editing, an integrated motherboard is perfect. I am constantly on the lookout for good boards with built-in VGA for friends/assoc. who want quiet PCs. They're great for quiet computing. Built-in VGA is usually found only on mATX boards that tend to be less full featured, being geared towards commercial system integrators. This often means fewer features in BIOS, particularly. The most impt feature being Vcore undervoltability and underclockability for a cooler running CPU.

There are some gems if you look hard. But a low end graphics card is a fine option, too; not much heat and no fan.

In the A64, there are very few on-board VGA mobos right now, and they're all mATX. MSI has one, so does ECS, Gigabyte. There are probably others.

Regarding a case -- it's not really how much you spend, the expensive cases are so more because of cosmetics than superior functionality but a case is VERY important. Airflow is everything: Quiet computing's basic mantra goes something like this:
1. Choose the sturdiest case with the most unrestricted airflow potential so that you can get the quietest fans and run them super slow yet have good airflow
2. Choose the coolest components that will give you the computing power you need.
3. Choose the best heatsinks so you can run super quiet fans on them at min speed
4. Choose the quietest PSU & drives.

Read the Recommended Cases article-- in fact, read the the whole recommended section! http://www.silentpcreview.com/section10.html

On-board graphics need a careful layout in order to provide good signal quality. But if your are used to average quality of cheap VGA cards, it shouldn't be a problem. Unfortunately I can't give you a test about onboard graphics quality. The german magazine C't did this in 1999, but I don't have this issue at home.
The second point: DVI is only offered in special cases by a AGP riser.

If you can't find an MB you like with onboard video you can get Matrox G450 cards for almost nothing (as little as $30 if you shop around). These are low heat with no fan, have very good 2D (crisp and clear) and will support two monitor setups. And current models also have DVI outputs. These cards are well supported in both Windows and Linux with very good drivers.

I would second the advice to get a cheap/low-end vidcard rather than use onboard graphics. The one thing that hit me (as a non gamer) with onboard graphics was that playing AVI files nearly killed the CPU, especially at 1280*1024. This was with an Athlon/Via Unichrome setup: while others may be better, for the price of low end vidcards (I got a Radeon 7000 VE) why bother?