After a long time (about 6 years ?) My Athlon X2 system is really staring to show its age, and I have decided to bight the bullet and upgrade. After a little time looking at complete systems I have decided to build my own again.

The only things in my system that I can really use again are the HDD's and the GPU which is a Radion HD6670. I have 2x320GB drives that are newish and a 200GB one which is older both are SATA all my other drives are PATA.

I like my Antec P180 case but the thought of building a system in it again makes my knuckles itch and the door and front USB ports are broken.

After much dithering I have come up with two system specs. Rather than type it all out, here are the links to my list's on Ebuyer.

First this one with an R3 case http://www.ebuyer.com/lists/list/36147

And secondly this one with a cooler master case and PSU http://www.ebuyer.com/lists/list/31709

One has the Asus P8Z77-V LE the other the P8Z77-V The main difference is the addition of WiFi and FanXpert 2. The latter seems interesting as it seems I can set the fan speed of each case fan by the CPU temp which makes keeping it quiet easier. I can't quite work out if FanXpert + on the LE is as capable ?

I have the Arctic Cooling Freezer i30 in the lists above but I am also considering the Gelid Solutions Tranquillo Rev.2 which is slightly cheaper which is the better for keeping things quiet and cool ?

I welcome your thoughts and comments on these set ups. I am aiming for something that is quiet when doing normal tasks and playing back TV on I-Player and watching HD content via my TV, but can do some video editing of 1080 50p video with the fans speeding up to keep things cool. Some future room for expansion with more HDD would be good to.

None of those. If you go i5k, then at least something like EVO 212. Both PSUs are sufficient, but if it were my 170£ going into the cpu alone, i wouldn't want it "protected" by a 50£ psu.

And you added a HDD, does that make 4 mechanical hard drives?

Both of the PSU's are probably not quiet enough. On the contrary, you should be very loud. So you'll need to choose a quiet PSU.

Looking at the size of the i30, I actually think it's capable enough to cool the 3570k, depending on how much you overclock. If you want to overclock the CPU a lot, then perhaps spend £10 more on a Scythe Mugen 3. Between the i30 and the Gelid, I've always fancied the acoustics of Arctic Cooling fans. They've been reviewed many times here at SPCR and the acoustics have usually been very good.

FanXpert, prior to the FanXpert 2, allows you make a curve with CPU temperature on the x-axis and fan speed (in %) on the y-axis. For case fans, the minimum speed is 40% (equivalent to 5 V), and the PWM fan can run as low as 10%. So though now as fancy as all the features in FanXpert 2, you can still control the fans as well as a decent aftermarket fan controller.

The difference between Fan Xpert + and Xpert 2 is with Fan Xpert 2 you can set the profile to turn a fan off at low temps rather than idle at low rpm.

Both cases are fine, there's also the new improved R4 version of the Fractal and the updated NZXT H2. Your stressed power load is in the range of ~190W DC. So, any of these cases can be configured for quiet computing.

PSU - if you want to go cheap, get the Seasonic S12II or M12II bronze rated 380W. If you want to take one for the team - try the just released Seasonic SSR-360GP 360W Gold rated PSU. They've set a new low price point for 80+ gold. If you want to go with a reviewed gold rated PSU, there's the Seasonic x460 passive or the semi-passive x560.

Hi Max.

First of all, Welcome to SPCR.

Secondly its good to know that you can build a quote like that on eBuyer and send people the hyperlink.

The CPU cooler is sub-par, the PSU rating is more than enough, but I would suggest buying a quality grade higher as has been suggested, I am not certain about the warranty period on that Hitachi HDD - I suspect that its 1-year as its not mentioned anywhere (fallout from the floods in Thailand last October) and finally I know little about the "Be-Quiet" fans listed in your first system spec - "never believe what noise output a manufacturer tells you, is the first rule of SPCR-Club" and also they are mega expensive, the AC F12 fans I have cost me about £3 each and are pretty damned good.

I haven't checked where these PSU's list on the SPCR ranking recently, but the PSU in the link below is the PSU in my PC, and its basically silent (i.e. other stuff in my system is noisier as is my monitor), its more than powerful enough, and its modular, the main drawback is that's its not quite as efficient as some PSU's. The Coolermaster GX series is a bit pants BTW, that's not to say that the case is though.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... ubcat=1103

If you are going to be putting all of those HDD's into your PC you might want to find someone else on here who has those cases to find out how well it deals with the vibrations from 3 HDD's.


Andy

Thank you for all the suggestions. I have been doing some more research and have decided on the R3 Case.

Pappnaas:

I have two 320GB drives that I might use again as well as the 1TB one. That way can spread my data out a little.

kuzzia and CA_Steve

Thanks for the info on fan xpert, that means I could get the LV or LE versions of the Asus board and save a little money although I am being drawn by the Wifi and better power system of the P8Z77-V.

I don't plan to do the any over clocking. I would rather the CPU have a longer life span and have to wait slightly longer for videos to render, and as I understand it the ivybridge CPU's run a little hot unless you do some surgery to the stock heat spreader.

Those fans should not have been in that list, I was curious about swapping out the 120mm fans on the R3 for 140mm ones with PWM to maker full use of fan expert. I will see what the ones are like in the R3 first.

As for power supplies I have been looking at these

http://www.ebuyer.com/283836-be-quiet-pure-power-630w-modular-psu-bn182

There is a review of it here http://www.kitguru.net/components/power-supplies/zardon/be-quiet-pure-power-l8-630w-power-supply-review/ it seems like a good bit of kit

And a bit, ok lot more expensive

http://www.ebuyer.com/279547-corsair-txm-650w-modular-psu-cp-9020002-uk

As I understand it seasonic make the guts of this one but I would have to down grade something else to stay in budget to afford it.

I am going for modular as my HD6670 does not need the PCIe power connector so all I need is the sata power connectors.

Again, you really don't need to be looking at 600+W PSU's, ignore what people tell you about this and that requirement, these people cant add up, and use shit PSU's that only put out half of their rated output. A 500W PSU is overkill. FYI my server has a 95W CPU, a hardware RAID card and 7 HDD's its more than happy on a 385W PSU, and has not drawn more than 250W - so this leaves you with a huge amount of choice.

Pretty much any Corsair power supply is good, I have used a few over the years and none have failed, the TXM looks good on paper but I haven't seen an SPCR review to be sure although I would expect it to be very good as it looks similar to the SeaSonic X range.


Andy

Just a thought...Intel's made great strides on improving the IGP. While the 6670 is awesome for HTPC apps, the IGP might meet your needs. If it does, you've lowered your power use/heat production a bit more.

As for the PSU, I don't know what models are readily available in the (I'm guessing) UK. Here's a recent roundup at Hardware.info. Techpowerup reviewed the 730W version and didn't like it.

I have considered just using the integrated graphics and I might try the system like that to begin with. However the HD6670 not going to be used in anything else and is only 5 months old. I need the system to be able to run this

http://www.phoenix-sim.com/support.asp

I think that given the above advice one of these PSU might suite my needs better, if not my wallet

http://www.ebuyer.com/279548-corsair-tx550m-550w-modular-power-supply-cp-9020001-uk

I just worry that I might box my self into a corner with any future upgrades ? I intend to keep this PC as long as possible my dropping in new bits as and when needed.

On a different note the R3 case has space for a 140mm fan in the bottom of the case and I was wondering about putting one of these http://www.arctic.ac/en/p/cooling/case-fans/73/arctic-f-pwm.html there and setting it to come on and blow air in when things start to warm up. Anyone had experience of these ?

If you have to buy at ebuyer, then consider http://www.ebuyer.com/291725-be-quiet-e ... -psu-bn191

Enough Wattage, reviewed as pretty quiet and 80Plus Gold. FSP-made afaik.

The sim link states that you'll be using DX9 "ATI Radeon 9800/NVidia Geforce Ti4200 with at least 128MB memory ". Intel GPU seems good to go.

R3: Wouldn't install a bottom fan, as the R3 isn't a positive pressure case. I would start with 1 intake slowly breathing on the hdds and 1-2 exhaust fans at back/top at a bit more rpm as the intakes.