I'm a relatively new member, but I've been lurking here for a while. I found this place after purchasing an amazingly loud, vibrating, whining, screaming, etc Western Digital 250GB hard drive. I thought these things were supposed to be quiet now with WD advertising that WhisperSeek or whatever technology...
So, I'm currently thinking about replacing an extremely noisy and slow Pentium 3 733MHz. It's about time I upgraded.
What I need help on is whether I should buy now, or buy in the summer (July). Is there anything significant coming out in July that I should wait for? Any new products? Price drops?
Here's what I have planned:
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ S939 Winchester
Soltek K8TPRO-939 K8T800
Samsung Spinpoint Hard Drive 160GB (Unsure whether it's a nidec or jvc, tried tech support, and they wouldn't say)
Samsung 512MB PC3200 RAM * 2
Nexus 120mm Fan (Delayed shipment)
Zalman CNPS7000B-AlCu Heatsink
Bytecc ME-740U2 Hard Drive Enclosure (To enclose the noisy WDs I have now, so I can turn them off when I don't need them.)
Antec SLK3000B Case
Seasonic S12 380W Power Supply
E.A.R. Rubber Grommets * 2 (Hoping I can somehow force these into the 3000B? Or am I wasting my time?)
Arctic Silver 5
*Reused nVidia TNT2 M64 32mb video card from old computer
More detailed stats: http://www.boajjang.com/misc/computer.html
My rationale for the Zalman over the seemingly better Arctic Cooling Freezer is that the Soltek board has a passive Northbridge. Does it need the extra cooling that the Zalman provides? Or do Via northbridges run well with very little airflow unlike their nForce counterparts?
The Samsung hard drive is problematic... How bad are the JVCs? Are they worse than the Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 200GB drives? I have the option of playing it safe and getting those instead. I'm more worried about idle noise than seek noise, since I like to know when my computer is "working". Take the risk?
The Nexus fan is out of stock, so I expect to be running this system only on the TriCool for a couple of months. Is that okay?
How about the E.A.R grommets? Should I only get one instead of two? I hear the front cage on the 3000b won't fit these things.
Also about the video card... I don't expect to be gaming right now, but I plan to during the summer. Do you guys know if there's going to be any significant price drops over the summer for AGP video cards? (It seems like PCI-E video cards are significantly better in price/performance ratio over AGP right now. I can get a GeForce 6600 (non-GT) For $160 Canadian, whereas an underclocked Radeon 9600 Pro "Lite" will set me back $135, and be much slower). One problem I have right now is that my old computer will be deemed utterly useless by removing the video card, and I wanted to use it for some things.
I'm thinking of buying a DFI nForce 4 Ultra board for $35 more + a GeForce 6600 for $160 + Zalman Northbridge Heatsink for $10 + a VGA cooler. But all that seems to add up to quite a bit...
Suggestions on my planned system
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Re: Suggestions on my planned system
What was the manufacture date on the drive?Coolin wrote:I'm a relatively new member, but I've been lurking here for a while. I found this place after purchasing an amazingly loud, vibrating, whining, screaming, etc Western Digital 250GB hard drive. I thought these things were supposed to be quiet now with WD advertising that WhisperSeek or whatever technology...
Re: Suggestions on my planned system
I never employ this sort of logic, because I always end up waiting forever.Coolin wrote:Is there anything significant coming out in July that I should wait for? Any new products? Price drops?
You don't need additional cooling on the northbridge. If the board ships with a passive HS, then I doubt there's a need to provide better/additional cooling.My rationale for the Zalman over the seemingly better Arctic Cooling Freezer is that the Soltek board has a passive Northbridge. Does it need the extra cooling that the Zalman provides? Or do Via northbridges run well with very little airflow unlike their nForce counterparts?
If you're talking about the fan in the Antec case, I think it's a pretty quiet fan on the "low" setting.The Nexus fan is out of stock, so I expect to be running this system only on the TriCool for a couple of months. Is that okay?
I have the SLK3000B. The stock fan is extremely quiet on the low setting, but loud on the mid and high settings. I replaced mine with a Nexus 120mm and, just like the SPCR review says (the 3000B review I think), the Nexus at full 12V speed is maybe a tiny bit louder (or maybe just qualitatively a bit different) than the stock tricool fan at its lowest speed. But the Nexus is moving more air. I hooked up a Zalman Fanmate2 to the Nexus and when you turn it down just a bit, it's no contest, it's quieter than the tricool.
But I often just leave the Nexus up at 12V b/c the tiny loudness increase, if any, is negligible, and the airflow is better than the tricool set at low. If I happen to notice the fan noise (it's just the sound of air moving really), I turn it down a bit.
Oh yeah, make sure you cut out the stock fan grills and use the zip tie mounting method for your case fans!
But I often just leave the Nexus up at 12V b/c the tiny loudness increase, if any, is negligible, and the airflow is better than the tricool set at low. If I happen to notice the fan noise (it's just the sound of air moving really), I turn it down a bit.
Oh yeah, make sure you cut out the stock fan grills and use the zip tie mounting method for your case fans!