Need advice with nForce4

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Reterminator
Posts: 20
Joined: Tue Feb 08, 2005 12:01 am
Location: Wroclaw, Poland

Need advice with nForce4

Post by Reterminator » Tue Feb 08, 2005 12:22 am

Hello folks,

I think I might use some advice of yours. I'm building myself a fairly quiet system on nForce4 SLI. That's what I guess will be into it:

A64 Winchester sck939 3000+
Asus A8N-SLI
Zalman CNPS7000B-AlCu
Zalman NB47J
2x512MB Twinmos dual value DDR RAM
NEC ND-3520A
FDD
Samsung SpinPoint 80GB SATA
GF 6600GT Gigabyte GV-NX66T128VP 128MB VIVO (passive with heatpipe cooling, boosted frequencies)
Arctic Cooling Silentium 2 (Seasonic 350W PSU)

What I'm going to put into it when I feel the need:
- another HDD
- replace the CPU with some 4000+ or so
- another 2 DDR sticks, so 2GB overall
- another 6600GT

My main issues are:
- clearance: will the Zalmans fit (both of them) and is this mobo compatible with the Silentium (it's about the FDD cable, I guess I might just take the case off when I need to use FDD if it isn't compatible)
- whether the chipset will be cooled enough passively,
- will the PSU handle this much (they say it's 450W but 350W of continuous power, could you explain this?)
- whether this graphics card will work in SLI (I think it must do it but want to be reassured)
- and if I put another 6600GT, won't the two passive cards be overheated (I might use VGA Silencer then, but don't know whether I have to).

I won't be playing with any overclocking - I just want not to be driven mad with my computer still being heard about 20 metres away, which is the case with my current rig.

Could you please enlighten me on this all?
Thanks in advance.
Last edited by Reterminator on Tue Feb 08, 2005 7:29 am, edited 5 times in total.

SometimesWarrior
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Post by SometimesWarrior » Tue Feb 08, 2005 12:55 am

Hi and welcome!

Make sure you read the forum comments on the Silentium T2 case review. Swapping the PSU is basically out of the question, so you either keep the PSU that comes with the case, or you get a different case. Playing with the fans might improve noise, but even that will be complicated.

The Silentium PSU, the Seasonic... any of those PSU's will be fine. Look at the newest Clever PSU review to see a system much like yours, and note that its maximum power use doesn't even reach 150W.

Two passive 6600GT's could be a challenge. If you choose to do this, prepare to add some active cooling (fan on the side, or something of that nature).

Tzupy
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Location: Bucharest, Romania

Post by Tzupy » Tue Feb 08, 2005 1:50 am

First of all, it's A8N-SLI and NB47J. I plan to get the same mobo, and I have this chipset heatsink and the XP-90. I investigated the issues involved. IMO the AC Silentium is a bit short and the mobo and cables will be cramped. If you don't plan to overclock, the NB47J should do fine, although a low speed fan on bracket, blowing on it and the passive 6600GT wouldn't hurt. It's hard to tell now if the 350W Seasonic will be good enogh for a beefier processor and a second 6600GT, although they make great PSUs. I also plan to use the second card with a Silencer, because two passive cards would be too much, but I'm not sure how well will they work in SLI (if they are both 6600GT, but different).

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