Request for feedback on silent pc project

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specialman
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue Jul 13, 2004 6:14 am
Location: Germany

Request for feedback on silent pc project

Post by specialman » Mon Jul 19, 2004 7:22 am

Hello experts,

I am "Newbie" trying to configure an build my first silent pc. I did a lot of research and reading, reading, reading and finally I have come up with this configuration:

Case: Yeong Yang Cetus YY-5601 with damping material
Mainboard: ASUS K8N-E Deluxe with NVIDIA nForce3 250Gb with Cool 'n' Quiet-Support
CPU: Athlon 64 3400+ ("Clawhammer")
Memory: 2*Kingston ValueRAM DIMM 512 MB DDR400
1. HDD (RAID 1): Samsung SP1614C (Retail) 160 GB
2. HDD (RAID 1): Samsung SP1614C (Retail) 160 GB
3. HDD (no RAID): Samsung SP1614C (Retail) 160 GB
DVD-ROM: Teac DV-516xK 16/48fach (Retail)
DVD-Burner: Plextor PX-712A
VGA: Asus Radeon 9600XT/TVD
Case fans: Papst fans Set C VarioX (2x120mm)
Heat Spreader for Memory
CPU-Cooler: ichbinleise® Cooler 831U 64 TRX
VGA-Cooler: Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer Rev. 3
HDD cages: 3*silentmaxx-HD-Damping Rev. 2.0
PSU: Enermax EG 475AX - ichbinleise® edition

Although I am aware that some of these components have some German in their names due to a shop which modifies components to further enhance them, I would very much love to hear any comments or further suggestions!!!!!!

Please feel free!

By the way: I am planning to use this machine for office/internet, multimedia and software development. The PC will sit very close to me for long hours (that's why I'm looking for a silent system rather then a quiet one)!! And I must say that I used to be an Intel-Fan...

Best regards,

Specialman
Last edited by specialman on Mon Jul 19, 2004 11:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.

ONEshot
Posts: 257
Joined: Sun Jan 11, 2004 11:37 pm

Post by ONEshot » Mon Jul 19, 2004 11:06 pm

I'm no expert, I just have a few questions.

I'm assuming that the Case Vents are Fans, right? So if you're going to go with Papst, make sure you're getting the right ones. The exact model number is around here somewhere...

Can you maybe send a picture or description of the CPU cooler?

Thank you.

specialman
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue Jul 13, 2004 6:14 am
Location: Germany

Post by specialman » Tue Jul 20, 2004 12:10 am

ONEshot wrote:I'm no expert, I just have a few questions.

I'm assuming that the Case Vents are Fans, right? So if you're going to go with Papst, make sure you're getting the right ones. The exact model number is around here somewhere...
Hi!

Thank you very much for your interest in my planned configuration!

The model of the Pabst fans is 4412 F/2GL. The german shop I looked at is suggesting these fans for the selected case.
Can you maybe send a picture or description of the CPU cooler?
Unfortunately the description is only available in German and it would take me some time to translate it right now, so I am only adding a picture of the cpu cooler:

Image


Thank you.
[/url]

ONEshot
Posts: 257
Joined: Sun Jan 11, 2004 11:37 pm

Post by ONEshot » Tue Jul 20, 2004 12:21 am

I think that's the right type of Papst.

That heatsink I believe is a Thermalright 947(8) or an SLK-900? with... an interesting mounting mechanism, an interesting fan, and an interesting thermoresistor that I guess can be controlled.

I dont think you can go wrong with a Thermalright. But try to find out what kind of fan that is.

specialman
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue Jul 13, 2004 6:14 am
Location: Germany

Post by specialman » Tue Jul 20, 2004 12:42 am

ONEshot wrote:I think that's the right type of Papst.

That heatsink I believe is a Thermalright 947(8) or an SLK-900? with... an interesting mounting mechanism, an interesting fan, and an interesting thermoresistor that I guess can be controlled.

I dont think you can go wrong with a Thermalright. But try to find out what kind of fan that is.
Yes, it can be controlled and is based on the Thermalright Heatsink SLK 948 U (which should be an improved 947), the description says. I only just read, that you have to drill holes in the mainboard in order to attach the CPU cooler in Athlon based systems...now I am getting a little bit scrared ;-)

streety
Posts: 60
Joined: Sat May 01, 2004 11:17 am
Location: England
Contact:

Post by streety » Tue Jul 20, 2004 4:45 pm

You shouldn't have to actually drill holes. Many modern boards come with mounting holes already and I hope thats what they are talking about. Drilling into your mb would be a mistake I believe!

mfc2
Posts: 44
Joined: Sun Jul 18, 2004 11:26 am

motherboard advice

Post by mfc2 » Tue Jul 20, 2004 5:05 pm

I am planning on building my own system soon and it looks like I will end up with a configuration similar to yours. The motherboards I am considering are the following:
-Asus K8V Deluxe
-Asus K8V SE Deluxe
-Asus K8N-E Deluxe
-Aopen AK86-L

Why did you choose the Asus K8N-E Deluxe? I have not seen a lot of information on how it compares to the others. Not as many stores sell it, and it is more expensive.

My system will primarily be used as a file server. I am leaning towards using an Athlon 64 3000+ or an Athlon 64 3200+ processor.

Thank you.

specialman
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue Jul 13, 2004 6:14 am
Location: Germany

Re: motherboard advice

Post by specialman » Tue Jul 20, 2004 11:22 pm

mfc2 wrote:I am planning on building my own system soon and it looks like I will end up with a configuration similar to yours. The motherboards I am considering are the following:
-Asus K8V Deluxe
-Asus K8V SE Deluxe
-Asus K8N-E Deluxe
-Aopen AK86-L

Why did you choose the Asus K8N-E Deluxe? I have not seen a lot of information on how it compares to the others. Not as many stores sell it, and it is more expensive.
To be honest, I used to be kind of an Intel fan. And to be even more honest, I even didn't know any good reasons for voting against AMD...I just thought a P4 stands for POWER...
Now that my main objective is not only to get a powerful system but a powerful AND silent one, I learnt about the qualities of the AMD CPUs and especially about the Cool'n'Quiet technology.

And you are right, it's not easy to obtain valid "real life" information and comparisons including the Asus K8N-E Deluxe.

However, it is said to support the Cool'n'Qiet-Technology as well and I read articles about the chipset (NVIDIA nForce3 250Gb), which led me to believe that this would be a good choice.

I contacted a silentpc components dealer here in Germany to ask for further advice and comments and to check if they maybe would build such a system for me...maybe they'll come up with a different suggestion.

Or I'll stick to my plans to do it myself. However, I am a bit worried about components not really being 100% compatible, as you hear a lot about "wrong" memory modules and such.

And I am still wondering/thinking about

1.
the graphics card (do I really need that model or isn't a quieter one sufficient?)
2.
an extra (external) controller for temperature and fan speed (as I am not reylly 100% sure if I really unterstand who will control what in this silent pc)
3.
how to install MS XP Prof. on a RAID Level 1 system "from scratch"...

specialman
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue Jul 13, 2004 6:14 am
Location: Germany

Post by specialman » Tue Jul 20, 2004 11:25 pm

streety wrote:You shouldn't have to actually drill holes. Many modern boards come with mounting holes already and I hope thats what they are talking about. Drilling into your mb would be a mistake I believe!
That's what I thought, too! But as you can see...such worries (and I've got more of them) can only be addressed by someone who's never set up his own system before...;-)

mfc2
Posts: 44
Joined: Sun Jul 18, 2004 11:26 am

Re: motherboard advice

Post by mfc2 » Wed Jul 21, 2004 6:37 am

specialman wrote: And you are right, it's not easy to obtain valid "real life" information and comparisons including the Asus K8N-E Deluxe.

However, it is said to support the Cool'n'Qiet-Technology as well and I read articles about the chipset (NVIDIA nForce3 250Gb), which led me to believe that this would be a good choice.
Some reviews of the nForce3 250 GB I found are:
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/sh ... i=2004&p=9
http://www.hexus.net/content/reviews/re ... BhZ2U9MTA=
http://www.tomshardware.com/motherboard ... gb-25.html

The summary seems to be these sentences from TomsHardware:
"Performance-wise, NVIDIA has caught up with its competitors - but that's about it."
"Its value added is largely derived from its Gigabit network controller and hardware firewall."

My main concern would be buying a brand-new completely reengineered board that has not been put through the paces by a large number of consumers to get the bugs worked out.

At NewEgg, the Asus nForce3 250 GB board is around $30 more expensive.

specialman
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue Jul 13, 2004 6:14 am
Location: Germany

Re: motherboard advice

Post by specialman » Wed Jul 21, 2004 7:05 am

Some reviews of the nForce3 250 GB I found are:
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/sh ... i=2004&p=9
http://www.hexus.net/content/reviews/re ... BhZ2U9MTA=
http://www.tomshardware.com/motherboard ... gb-25.html

The summary seems to be these sentences from TomsHardware:
"Performance-wise, NVIDIA has caught up with its competitors - but that's about it."
"Its value added is largely derived from its Gigabit network controller and hardware firewall."

My main concern would be buying a brand-new completely reengineered board that has not been put through the paces by a large number of consumers to get the bugs worked out.
The performance issues were the ones leading me towards this new board, but I am having those concerns as well. Especially with regard to

a) the fact that I have never built a system before (including the "right" drivers, BIOS settings, and so on) and

b) my wish to "rely" partly on a reliably working Cool'n'Qiet technology.

Thanks for the links, I think I will choose another mb for my configuration. And as the german shop I asked for help doesn't seem to be willing (or able) to help me build this system or at least answer my mail, I guess I'll have to start ordering parts soon... :?

And I guess I will think about my VGA choice again...

gertjant
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Mar 17, 2004 11:41 am

Post by gertjant » Wed Aug 04, 2004 9:12 am

You indicate yoyu want to use 2*512Mb memory. Please realize that Cool and Quiet in combination with TWO double sided memory modules won't work most of the nForce 3 mobo's, as i found out with my Epox 8kda3+. So you might find having one (more expensive) 1GB module may be a better choice.

teejay
Patron of SPCR
Posts: 749
Joined: Mon Aug 02, 2004 2:23 am
Location: The Netherlands

Post by teejay » Wed Aug 04, 2004 1:19 pm

3.
how to install MS XP Prof. on a RAID Level 1 system "from scratch"...
Not too difficult... first you configure the RAID set using the bios menu (mobo bios or hdd controller, check your manual). If Windows XP installation does not detect your raid array - which it probably won't - you need a driver floppy. You can tell if this is the case when the installation informs you that you have no hard drives installed or only the single drive.

This driver floppy is usually supplied with your motherboard. Otherwise you'll need to copy files from the mobo driver cd onto a blank floppydisk (probably easiest using another computer); check the manual for the folder you need from the CD. Then you can restart the XP installation and hit F6 early on to indicate you want to install an additional driver. Insert floppy, follow instructions and your RAID set will be detected and you can continue installation. Partition/format as you see fit.

HTH!

markjia
Posts: 171
Joined: Sat Apr 24, 2004 4:31 pm
Location: Vancouver BC

Post by markjia » Thu Aug 05, 2004 11:24 am

teejay wrote:This driver floppy is usually supplied with your motherboard. Otherwise you'll need to copy files from the mobo driver cd onto a blank floppydisk (probably easiest using another computer); check the manual for the folder you need from the CD. Then you can restart the XP installation and hit F6 early on to indicate you want to install an additional driver. Insert floppy, follow instructions and your RAID set will be detected and you can continue installation. Partition/format as you see fit.

HTH!
Don't forget that you need the TXTSETUP.OEM file to be able to use the drivers during an OS install.

I don't know if they will be included on the CD (there is little use for them there, so my guess is no). You would be better off downloading the RAID driver, but this is no guarentee that this will also contain the TXTSETUP.OEM file (though usually they do).

teejay
Patron of SPCR
Posts: 749
Joined: Mon Aug 02, 2004 2:23 am
Location: The Netherlands

Post by teejay » Thu Aug 05, 2004 12:15 pm

markjia wrote:I don't know if they will be included on the CD (there is little use for them there, so my guess is no).
There is a "make RAID driver disk" in the "driver" section of the installation CD that comes with the mainboard. Using this option you can create the necessary floppy to run Windows XP/2000 installation. Only minor drawback is that you'll need another PC to run this CD prior to your XP installation.

AFAIK, Asus has always included these drivers on the CD (and until recently on a floppydisk as well) because you need this to install Windows XP.

I think the only time the floppy drive in my rig gets used is while installing Windows :)

burcakb
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Location: Turkey

Post by burcakb » Thu Aug 05, 2004 1:02 pm

The Radeon 9600 is a good value-for-money card. I'd go for another brand though as Asus likes to pack several CDs into the package just to make it higher-priced.

The 9600XT version will probably come with a screaming fan on it. There is a very good chance you can just unplug the fan and still get full use out of it. Or you could go safer and buy an Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer rev3. I'm only concerned that you've never done these things before. It really isn't at all complicated but you have to be brave and go ahead with it. Don't worry, we'll help you along :)

If you've got the money go for better RAM. You're in Germany so you should be able to get your hands on some quality Mushkins. Kingston ValueRAM is just about the slowest out there.

frosty
Posts: 636
Joined: Fri Jun 06, 2003 9:40 am
Location: USA

Post by frosty » Thu Aug 05, 2004 2:58 pm

That pic onthe cpu really intriques me to mod mine some more! :)

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