High End Quiet System

[Kidcash]

I have always wanted to build a high end quiet system.
This is what I have in mind.

CM Stacker 830 Revolution

Intel Core 2 Quad QX6700/6800 (Cooled by a TR U120 Extreme with the SPCR Nexus reference fan running at about 800 RPM)

ATI R600 (With Aftermarket Cooler when released, With SPCR's Reference 90mm fan)

Seasonic S12 Energy+ 650, I opted for a 650 Watt since I am thinking of running Crossfire with another R600 if Any game demands it, Otherwise just 1 R600.

Question 1 - Will there be enough room in the CM Stacker revolution for 2X R600 with Aftermarket Coolers + Fans, Think of it just like 2 x 8800GTX's with the Thermalright HR-03 Plus with fans too, see pic below

http://www.thermalright.com/a_newimages ... ew-pic.jpg - Like that but with 92mm fans, wont need to add anything else, so I dont need any PCI slots taken up so I hope there will be room, if there is any extra may add a sound card, what do you think?

What hard drives do you reccomend for quiet operation?

Any reccomendations for a Good ATI Crossfire motherboard? One with a lot of space between the 2 PCI-E slots, so I can add coolers + fans.

What is the TDP of the High end R600?, I heard it was 240, however I am hearing a different revision of it will be only 180w ?

[Moogles]

That is just ridiculously excessive. I don't know what else to say.

[Max Slowik]

Good motherboard. . .you gonna overclock?

Actually, overclock or not, you can't really go wrong with a Gigabyte DS3 board. Also, abit is rolling out great motherboards again.

You should know that ATi is rumored to only be releasing their HD 2900 XT boards this month, and that the XTXs are supposed to still be in development/pre-production. That is to say, they'll have an 8800 GTS-killer, but not an 8800 GTX-killer.

I'm making the assumption that since you're happy to spend a grand on a processor that you're looking to get the high-end card, there ;)

[EV10]

Any reccomendations for a Good ATI Crossfire motherboard? One with a lot of space between the 2 PCI-E slots, so I can add coolers + fans.

I personally don't like Gigabyte, as they are unreliable (break often) and full of not thought-out solutions. Asus or Abit do better, so seek for them.

Well, actually the best motherboards are made by Tyan - designed for servers and workstations, but with all performance features, excellent passive cooling, and very reliable. Expensive, but well worth that, as it's as good as motherboards go. Unfortunately, Tyan boards with dual PCI-E 16x are mostly made for AMD, plus I'm not sure if Crossfire is supported, especially on socket 775 ones. Original Intel would also be nice, but again not sure about Crossfire support.


So... Do you really want R600? It might be not as good as it seems, and I'd better wait for the release. Still, it's good (and X2900XT beats 8800GTS by more % than 8800GTX beats 8800GTS - meaning that X2900XT would also beat GTX), just maybe not that good, and Crossfire tests have to be seen yet.
I actually don't expect any game to require that much power. Especially with R600, which is strong in shader processing (not in general texture graphics, which makes it lose to overclocked 8800GTX aka 8800Ultra). What monitor do you have?

What hard drives do you reccomend for quiet operation?

Samsung, no doubts about this one.

[~El~Jefe~]

that processor is a waste of money. if you want quad core, wait for amd. right now, except for like 2 out of a possible 100 benchmarks to choose from, the quad does nothing for you. except make a massive amount of heat and cost a lot.

6600 c2d if you want intel that bad, at least it doesnt run that hot for how well it performs.

PSU: 620 corsair. dont even think about anything else for your desire for wattage yet be quiet. i have one, it works. i would have used my 350 phantom but i need more gfx card connectors/amperage to run the new r600 or 8800gts

[Kidcash]

that processor is a waste of money. if you want quad core, wait for amd. right now, except for like 2 out of a possible 100 benchmarks to choose from, the quad does nothing for you. except make a massive amount of heat and cost a lot.

6600 c2d if you want intel that bad, at least it doesnt run that hot for how well it performs.

PSU: 620 corsair. dont even think about anything else for your desire for wattage yet be quiet. i have one, it works. i would have used my 350 phantom but i need more gfx card connectors/amperage to run the new r600 or 8800gts

It's not a waste of money, considering later on nearly all applications will support quad core/multiple threads. It produces a massive amount of heat yes, thats why you put a good heatsink on it.

[Max Slowik]

You'd be surprised how quiet the 8800-series fans are. It's probably more of a hassle to set up HR-03s on both than to use the very good stock coolers.

To give you an idea, I have on my open-air testbench currently:

passive motherboard
X2 6000 cooled by a Scythe Mine, with C'N'Q running
8800-series card
Seasonic S12 500
Maxtor 120gb QuickVIEW (PVR harddrive)

And the HDD is the greatest source of noise.

8800 fans always run at 100%, too, so they don't spin up and get loud. If anything, you can slow them down a bit, though you do that at your own risk.

[Max Slowik]

I personally don't like Gigabyte, as they are unreliable (break often) and full of not thought-out solutions. Asus or Abit do better, so seek for them.

Oh, and this simply is no longer the case. I have had more problems with ASUS recently than Gigabyte. There's a reason ASUS hasn't fully incorporated Gigabyte. . .

And no other company I have EVER delt with has tried to sell refurbished motherboards as new.

Sometimes without all the parts. . .

But I'm with you on abit. They rock lately.

[Max Slowik]

Oh yeah, as far as CF goes, your best bet right now is Intel. 965i or 975X; AMD won't be rolling out their CF/enthusiast chipset for. . .an amount of time.

Actually, I'd say I'd heard a rumor, but to tell you the truth, I don't know if the release date is set internally. In any case I honestly don't know. Maybe by the end of this month, maybe just before Q3. Can't say.

[Lyshen]

I just recently built a system thats based on Intel Badaxe2 with Xeon x3220 (basically Q6600) w/ TR-Ultra 120 Extreme + 120mm 800 RPM fan. Other components in it are Seasonic S12+ 650, ATI x1950xt w/ HR-03, 1 WD 150GB Raptor and 2 WD 500GB.

Currently the system works pretty well and I also mildly overclocked it. (9x 300, 2.7 GHz) Regarding the MB, I'm not sure if the Badaxe2 is an ideal motherboard for you because although it supports Crossfire (has two physical Pci-E 16x slots), the first Pci-E is 16x electrical while the Pci-E is 8x electrical.

Also the space between the two slots would fit the stock coolers but dual HR-03 + 92mm fan I do not think would fit.

The loudest part of the system is probably the 120mm @1200RPM exhaust fan. The rest of the system is pretty much inaudible at 1 meter.

[Max Slowik]

Currently the system works pretty well and I also mildly overclocked it. (9x 300, 2.7 GHz) Regarding the MB, I'm not sure if the Badaxe2 is an ideal motherboard for you because although it supports Crossfire (has two physical Pci-E 16x slots), the first Pci-E is 16x electrical while the Pci-E is 8x electrical.

That's less of a problem with "native" Crossfire cards, since they have their own separate read and write buses. But then the X1950 XTX aren't native; all the HD 2000-series will be.

[Lyshen]

That's less of a problem with "native" Crossfire cards, since they have their own separate read and write buses. But then the X1950 XTX aren't native; all the HD 2000-series will be.

I didn't know the 'native' ones had their own separate read and write buses. So thats good to know even though I do not plan on having a SLI/Crossfire setup.

[ronrem]

That is just ridiculously excessive. I don't know what else to say.

Totally....

And yet that's what Gamer computers tend toward. Machines that could run NASA..but are playing the latest Doom clone...Oh well.....

It this case- the details of the next gen ATI/AMD cards are still a bit unclear,but I'd think in just a few more weeks real info will replace rumors.

My take on this type "Fuel Dragster" type machine is that it's like having a sports car buil;t to race. It may be practical to go all-out for speed for it----and also have a basic car to drive around town. This machine-at best- could be semi-quiet. For half the cost of one of those Vid cards---he can build a small,really silent system to use for the basic web surfing,e-mail-downloading tasks. What's saved in electric bills would soon cover a lot of the cost.

[shades_of_blue]

Since you are going with a QX6700 and ATI, not Nvidia I’d suggest an Intel reference board such as the D975XBX2. Comes passively cooled and can Crossfire it, when you feel the urge to upgrade to a 2nd card. In any case, if your going to spend retail for a QX6700, make sure you don’t cheap out on the board. IMO The only people who should shy away from a genuine Intel ‘reference’ board are gamers who plan to run a Nvidia SLI system, as Intel chipsets don’t support SLI. Anyone else who shies away does so because of the cost, they don’t know Intel makes motherboards or they don’t know what quality really is.

Personally, the only reason I went with a QX6700 is because I paid less than 500 for it and sold a slightly used [free] E6700 for over 400 on eBay. Nice upgrade, for an extra 100 over my total investment cost. Also, my PNY 8800GTS 640mb is very quite for a stock cooler. So quite that I thought the fan was defective at first… The 600watt Seasonic PSU I used remains the loudest part of my rebuilt system. [Expect pictures and a bragging topic in the General Gallery section, soon.]

[EV10]

Since you are going with a QX6700 and ATI, not Nvidia I’d suggest an Intel reference board such as the D975XBX2. Comes passively cooled and can Crossfire it, when you feel the urge to upgrade to a 2nd card. In any case, if your going to spend retail for a QX6700, make sure you don’t cheap out on the board.

Really, that's true. Intel boards are a bit not as good as Supermicro and Tyan, IMHO, but they are a higher league than the cheap pop ones. And they're probably the best thing to get for this config.

Why? Well, high quality components mean higher system stability and durability, even more important in low-airflow system. You're not paying just for brand, you're paying for high quality components and build. And they are not that expensive, actually, just not super-cheap.

It's not a waste of money, considering later on nearly all applications will support quad core/multiple threads.

Are you buying it for games or work? If for work, they already do.
If for games, maybe in five years. With a couple exceptions, they haven't even implemented dual-CPU support, although hyperthreading is for six year on the market and five in mainstream. Since nobody but *few* enthusiasts is going to get quad-cores, they won't bother.

[Max Slowik]

You know, I was sort of under the impression that Intel boards were overpriced for their features set.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2007/0 ... 975XBX2/10

And outperformed by competitors. The BX2 is specifically less stable than other 975X boards. . .

[EV10]

Maybe. To be honest, I don't trust Intel; they're flowing like water, changing priorities, marketing and just whatever. May have decided to sell off their reputation in mobos on the desktop market.

Their server boards are fine, though, not as good as Tyan or Supermicro, but better than Asus and others.

[Max Slowik]

Yeah, I think the Asus server boards are more for enthusiasts who, to piss a little higher up on the wall, game with server components.

I mean, who else makes server hardware that overclocks?

[CyberDog]

Hi,

I have seen one review from trusted local hardware site that shows that R600 is no as fast as 8800GTS/GTX and that it is using more power...

[Max Slowik]

Depends on what game you're playing. And the power draw is only a little higher; the two plugs are to enable higher levels of overclocking. The second connection is not necessary.

As far as performance goes, they're about the same. Sometimes the 8800GTS 640MB does better, sometimes the HD 2900 XT wins. Vista performance favors the ATI card (but I'm not done testing this out completely) and it has a much better features set and bundle. It's also great for folding.

It's louder, that's the pertinent bit here. . .

[echn111]

Consider passing on the R600. Reviews have not been kind, except the ones only using artificial benchmarks.

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.h ... h1c2lhc3Q=

"The GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB is $50 cheaper, performs better, and draws a lot less power than the 2900 XT"

"the GeForce 8800 GTX will still dominate at the high end of the video card market... As it stands right now the Radeon HD 2900 XT, in our opinion, is a flop."

[EV10]

I mean, who else makes server hardware that overclocks?

Well, other manufacturers actually do. Although it's more of workstation hardware, and supposed to be not for overclocking.

Consider passing on the R600. Reviews have not been kind, except the ones only using artificial benchmarks.

And using newest games. Actually it's a question of "future games vs past games". At old games, 8800GTX rules, because of double texture unit count. At current (new), 2900XT is between 8800GTS 640 and 8800GTX. At future shader-based games, 2900XT is to win.

[Max Slowik]

And using newest games. Actually it's a question of "future games vs past games". At old games, 8800GTX rules, because of double texture unit count. At current (new), 2900XT is between 8800GTS 640 and 8800GTX. At future shader-based games, 2900XT is to win.

Thanks, beat me to it.

Also, asking around at Tunis, part of the delay was having their programmers learn to make the drivers--though most of it was getting production up with the board partners--they will improve at drawing textures and the rest.

Actually, combining the tessellation engine with their procedurally-drawn texture generation process sets this architecture up to be a whole lot stronger.

Still, the gains today can be matched by NVIDIA in the future and prolly won't count for much unless the price drops and/ or performance goes up.

Oh, also, the higher price is all e-tail inflation. It's MSRPd at $400, which is a little lower than 8800GTS 640s. It should be going for less soon enough.

[EV10]

Actually, combining the tessellation engine with their procedurally-drawn texture generation process sets this architecture up to be a whole lot stronger.
Still, the gains today can be matched by NVIDIA in the future and prolly won't count for much unless the price drops and/ or performance goes up.

Well, it has been this way since 9000 series, and maybe even 8500. Nvidia makes a new chip beating all others, ATI releases their a few months later. First the ATI cards are weaker, then some new game comes out, ATI wins there, then more new games follow and ATI becomes the leader. A year later the story repeats. So it was with 9000, 10000, 11000 series (Oblivion), and probably will be with 12000. Looking at the architecture, ATI clearly looks into the future.

A bit too far, IMHO, since textures are still needed. Nvidia is likely to retain the lead when playing simpler games in high resolution or with mod texture packs, ATI to win in high-demanding games.

[Max Slowik]

There's one difference here working in ATI's favor:

They make the Xbox 360 GPU. I mean, if you want to see their platform at work, check out Viva Pin~ata. It's gorgeous, and Valve is already working on coding hacks to make the stuff run (less well) on NVIDIA cards, so the technology won't just be limited to ports.

But yeah, always to the future and not freaking right now. My real hope is two-fold: that their drivers will be completely open-sourced, something that's been nebulously promised, (but very important if AMD wants all of that sweet, sweet Linux) and that the shrink to 65nm is as good to them as physically possible. I mean, most if not all beef with the HD 2900 XT can be attributed to the 80nm process.

Except the texture filtering. I'm holding off my real opinions on that for the article, which I'm currently postponing in favor of forumizing

[shades_of_blue]

SuperMicro is a great company, which builds quality boards. No doubt about it, and they offer unique configurations other brands often pass on. A good example would be a specialized ICA board which featured a socket 478 processor and an 875 chipset. A good example of how they distinguish themselves from other manufacturers.

As for Tyan, I have not used them much so I can’t comment on them directly. However, I’ve heard an equal amount of negativity as I’ve heard positive comments. Most of the negative comments stem back over 5-7 years time, so I’m sure they’ve got their act together by now. Sorta like Seagate, in that respect.

Another Intel d975xbx2 review, everyone has their own opinions. Some better than others. http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/994/