Newbie in need of advices building new silent system
Posted: Wed Oct 27, 2004 6:34 am
Hi there!
I'm quite new to silent PC and would need a lot of advices building my new system, please bear with me:)
My new system will be used for gaming, multimedia, video processing and maybe even a bit of 3D modelling/rendering.
It's in my bedroom and often I will leave it work over night, that's why it has to be pretty quiet - my current computer is noisy like hell and I can never sleep well when it's on over night:(
I've browsed through SPCR for some time now and with the help of your excellent Recommended List and my local hardware shop portal (I live in Austria and sometimes they are a bit behind in available hardwares;-)), I've pinned down some candidates.
I've listed these in categories (more or less in the order of preference) with price in Euro, and at the end of each category I've given my comments or questions.
Case:
Chenbro PC61166 Gaming System Silver 45Eur
Yeong Yang YY-5603 Midi-Tower 80Eur
Antec SLK 3700AMB Midi-Tower 350W 75Eur
Antec Sonata Midi-Tower 115Eur
Comments: I like the Chenbro XPider most, but it seems that front panel Firewire is only an optional feature, in which case I'd probably go with the Yeong Yang or others.
PSU:
Enermax Noisetaker 375W (German Version) (EG375AX-VE-(G)-SFMA) 75Eur
Enermax Noisetaker 425W (German Version) (EG425AX-VE-(G)-SFMA) 90Eur
Enermax Noisetaker 475W (German Version) (EG475AX-VE-(G)-SFMA) 110Eur
Nexus NX-3500 Special Edition, 350W ATX 80Eur
Zalman ZM300B-APF 300W ATX 45Eur
Zalman ZM400B-APS 400W ATX 75Eur
Zalman ZM300A-APF 300W ATX 55Eur
Zalman ZM400A-APF 400W ATX 80Eur
Silverstone SST-ST30NF fanless 300W ATX SATA 140Eur
Comments: Really not sure what to choose here, please advise me giving the other components in my list. The fanless Silverstone sounds like
a pretty good idea, but not sure if it's adequate when I leave the computer on day and night...
Harddisk:
Samsung SpinPoint P80 160GB (SP1614C) 90Eur
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 SATA 160GB (ST3160023AS) 100Eur
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 SATA 200GB (ST3200822AS) 115Eur
Comments: I would really like to go for a 2 disk RAID-0 setup with the Samsung, but a bit sceptical about the idea of ALL my system and data on a single stripe...
CPU:
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Socket-939 boxed, 2.00GHz, 512kB Cache (ADA3200BIBOX) 210Eur
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 0.09µ Socket-939 boxed, 2.20GHz, 512kB Cache (ADA3500BIBOX) 290Eur
AMD Athlon 64 3800+ Socket-939 boxed, 2.40GHz, 512kB Cache 620Eur
Comments: The Athlon64 3500+ 0.09u 939 looks like a pretty good deal for me now.
Heatsink:
Thermalright XP-120 60Eur
Zalman CNPS-7000B-AlCu 30Eur
Zalman CNPS-7000B-Cu 40Eur
Comments: Are these coolers adequate for the 3500+? And will I have problems using the coolers in any of the cases above?
Mainboard:
ASUS A8V Deluxe, K8T800 Pro (dual PC3200 DDR) 110Eur
ABIT AV8 3rd-Eye, K8T800 Pro (dual PC3200 DDR) 110Eur
Gigabyte GA-K8NSNXP-939, nForce3 Ultra (dual PC3200 DDR) 180Eur
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum-54G Edition, nForce3 Ultra (dual PC3200 DDR) (MS-7025-020) 150Eur
Comments: The ASUS A8V looks really attractive to me now, feature rich and inexpensive, especially the WLAN feature is a real nice touch.
Too bad that non of these boards seems to support PCI-e:( Maybe I should wait till nForce 4 based boards become available?!...
RAM:
Comments: Really at a loss here. I know AMD doesn't have DDR2 support yet, but what does PC3200/PC4000 actually mean?! Which parameters should I look at when choosing RAM anyway? I know I would need at least 1GB of RAM, but would even more RAM (say 1.5G or 2G) prove beneficial for today's applications?
Graphics card:
Comments: I think I'd go for an Nvidia card, probably 6600 because 6800 is still too expensive. Would like a PCI-e one, but first the mainboard limitation and the availability is also a problem. Please advise me which 6xxx card is best from silent pc's perspective.
Sound card:
Comments: Do I really need it? Is the quality of onboard sound good enough now for DVD and gaming?
ANY hints and comments will be appreciated, and many thanks in advance![/code]
I'm quite new to silent PC and would need a lot of advices building my new system, please bear with me:)
My new system will be used for gaming, multimedia, video processing and maybe even a bit of 3D modelling/rendering.
It's in my bedroom and often I will leave it work over night, that's why it has to be pretty quiet - my current computer is noisy like hell and I can never sleep well when it's on over night:(
I've browsed through SPCR for some time now and with the help of your excellent Recommended List and my local hardware shop portal (I live in Austria and sometimes they are a bit behind in available hardwares;-)), I've pinned down some candidates.
I've listed these in categories (more or less in the order of preference) with price in Euro, and at the end of each category I've given my comments or questions.
Case:
Chenbro PC61166 Gaming System Silver 45Eur
Yeong Yang YY-5603 Midi-Tower 80Eur
Antec SLK 3700AMB Midi-Tower 350W 75Eur
Antec Sonata Midi-Tower 115Eur
Comments: I like the Chenbro XPider most, but it seems that front panel Firewire is only an optional feature, in which case I'd probably go with the Yeong Yang or others.
PSU:
Enermax Noisetaker 375W (German Version) (EG375AX-VE-(G)-SFMA) 75Eur
Enermax Noisetaker 425W (German Version) (EG425AX-VE-(G)-SFMA) 90Eur
Enermax Noisetaker 475W (German Version) (EG475AX-VE-(G)-SFMA) 110Eur
Nexus NX-3500 Special Edition, 350W ATX 80Eur
Zalman ZM300B-APF 300W ATX 45Eur
Zalman ZM400B-APS 400W ATX 75Eur
Zalman ZM300A-APF 300W ATX 55Eur
Zalman ZM400A-APF 400W ATX 80Eur
Silverstone SST-ST30NF fanless 300W ATX SATA 140Eur
Comments: Really not sure what to choose here, please advise me giving the other components in my list. The fanless Silverstone sounds like
a pretty good idea, but not sure if it's adequate when I leave the computer on day and night...
Harddisk:
Samsung SpinPoint P80 160GB (SP1614C) 90Eur
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 SATA 160GB (ST3160023AS) 100Eur
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 SATA 200GB (ST3200822AS) 115Eur
Comments: I would really like to go for a 2 disk RAID-0 setup with the Samsung, but a bit sceptical about the idea of ALL my system and data on a single stripe...
CPU:
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Socket-939 boxed, 2.00GHz, 512kB Cache (ADA3200BIBOX) 210Eur
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 0.09µ Socket-939 boxed, 2.20GHz, 512kB Cache (ADA3500BIBOX) 290Eur
AMD Athlon 64 3800+ Socket-939 boxed, 2.40GHz, 512kB Cache 620Eur
Comments: The Athlon64 3500+ 0.09u 939 looks like a pretty good deal for me now.
Heatsink:
Thermalright XP-120 60Eur
Zalman CNPS-7000B-AlCu 30Eur
Zalman CNPS-7000B-Cu 40Eur
Comments: Are these coolers adequate for the 3500+? And will I have problems using the coolers in any of the cases above?
Mainboard:
ASUS A8V Deluxe, K8T800 Pro (dual PC3200 DDR) 110Eur
ABIT AV8 3rd-Eye, K8T800 Pro (dual PC3200 DDR) 110Eur
Gigabyte GA-K8NSNXP-939, nForce3 Ultra (dual PC3200 DDR) 180Eur
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum-54G Edition, nForce3 Ultra (dual PC3200 DDR) (MS-7025-020) 150Eur
Comments: The ASUS A8V looks really attractive to me now, feature rich and inexpensive, especially the WLAN feature is a real nice touch.
Too bad that non of these boards seems to support PCI-e:( Maybe I should wait till nForce 4 based boards become available?!...
RAM:
Comments: Really at a loss here. I know AMD doesn't have DDR2 support yet, but what does PC3200/PC4000 actually mean?! Which parameters should I look at when choosing RAM anyway? I know I would need at least 1GB of RAM, but would even more RAM (say 1.5G or 2G) prove beneficial for today's applications?
Graphics card:
Comments: I think I'd go for an Nvidia card, probably 6600 because 6800 is still too expensive. Would like a PCI-e one, but first the mainboard limitation and the availability is also a problem. Please advise me which 6xxx card is best from silent pc's perspective.
Sound card:
Comments: Do I really need it? Is the quality of onboard sound good enough now for DVD and gaming?
ANY hints and comments will be appreciated, and many thanks in advance![/code]