My New PC Build

New to PC silencing? Read & post your questions here. Dedicated to rosy_toes.

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zoidy
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My New PC Build

Post by zoidy » Mon Nov 27, 2006 2:21 am

Hi Guys,
My First Post!!!

I’ve been tuning into this forum for a couple of weeks now and I must say what a nice place it is. Little or no spam and some advice that beats 999.99% of all the other forums that I’ve visited whilst looking to build a PC.

Which brings me nicely onto my posting subject.

Having got bored with my current rig about a year ago I decided to build a new one. I decided that a year ago I hear you say! Well yes and I’ve been saving ever since about £15~20 £UK pounds a week so I’m close to a grand. Woot.

I bought a magazine, CUSTOMPC mag and by reading some articles ended up here. (Can’t remember how but hey, I’m here!)

So what’s the point? Well you guys have giving me the incentive to build a state of the art (within my budget of course) PC that’s silent.

I’ve bought an Antes Solo quiet case
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... =CA-058-AN
and a OCZ power supply
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... =CA-019-OC

Both quiet of course…
Now I intent to buy this motherboard as recommended by CUSTOM PC
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/custompc/reviews ... shair.html
It’s AMD and I’ve never bought AMD before, thought I’d give it a try for a change.
Now for the question I wanted to ask…

The board supports Socket AM2 single- and dual-core Athlon 64 and Athlon 64-FX processors.
What the hell does this mean?

I have no idea what these chips are? And which is the best? And also as I am on a budget, can someone recommend a half decent quiet cooler for under £30? For the chip of choice?

Cheers guys.
Zoid

jaganath
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Post by jaganath » Mon Nov 27, 2006 2:54 am

First of all,
Wecome to SPCR! :D

Now on to the nitty-gritty...
noooooo........this is not a quiet power supply (depends of course on what you had before...it is quieter than standing behind a 747 at Heathrow). We'll come to the issue of whether you really need 700W later, for a quiet PSU look at Seasonic S12 or Energy Plus models, or Corsair.
The board supports Socket AM2 single- and dual-core Athlon 64 and Athlon 64-FX processors.
What the hell does this mean?

I have no idea what these chips are? And which is the best?
A64 FX are the top of the range, multiplier-unlocked chips for overclockers; the A64 X2 (dual-core) is a powerful, cool multi-core proc, and the single-core A64's are for performance on a tight budget.

Are you going to SLI? If not there's no point getting that motherboard or such a big PSU.

zoidy
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Post by zoidy » Mon Nov 27, 2006 4:48 am

:shock: I bought the PSU on the strength of reviews in other forums - O dear... too late now, if it is too loud I'll send it back, the one I have now is far too loud, so I'll probably find it a big difference

The write up's for OCZ PSU seemed good so I went for it
http://www.overclockercafe.com/Reviews/ ... am/pg2.htm
and the fact that Nvidia approved it and yes I'll be going for a SLi 8800 GPU configuration it seemed like a good option for what I wanted. It's tough buying components that are both very powerful and you demand silence eh? hence this site lol.

The mainboard is also Nvidia certified. Maybe I needed to be more clearer in my original post. I'm looking to get Nvidia approved components which is as silent as possible, or the next best option if needed.

The advice on the chip is great - thanks
I don't want to overclock but I don't want to go to the other extreme either... Seems like the dual core will be just about right for my PC

zoidy
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Post by zoidy » Tue Nov 28, 2006 5:03 am

Anyone else have any idea about the OCZ power supply I've ordered?

As I remarked the reviews told me it was very quiet, to quote...

"Another is OCZ's PowerWhisper Technology. This is a fancy way of saying this unit is very quiet. While I didn't have a true decibel meter on hand to measure the sound level, I can tell you subjectively, it was virtually silent - as in, I could not hear it under power".

Is this reviewer wrong?


Also I think I'll go for a AM2 dual core for my machine, I need a decent cooler - as this chip is relatively new to the market can someone suggest a decent silent CPU fan or cooler?

Thanks again guys

NeilBlanchard
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Post by NeilBlanchard » Tue Nov 28, 2006 5:14 am

Hello,

One person's opinion on what is quiet is only relative to what they have experienced, and there may be other influences on their opinion. If you want to know about quiet power supplies, or other aspects of building quiet computers -- you've found the right site! :wink:

zoidy
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Post by zoidy » Tue Nov 28, 2006 5:50 am

Nice point!
But I'm hoping the case, although not sound proof has got sound deadening panels - surely this should aid in dampening the sound.

The PSU fan on the OCZ increases with load, as I'm not going to be pushing the PSU to max then that should also aid the sound output.

The remarks that its not silent and that the power supply can be heard, I wonder if that's with a full load, which I have no intention of doing.

O well, I'll report here my findings when its built.
:lol:

MC FLMJIG
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Post by MC FLMJIG » Tue Nov 28, 2006 8:36 am

I don't know about the 700 but if it's anything like the 600w it should be relatively quiet. However like someone said it could increase with load and heat. So, Sorry. Also like Jag said... what do u need a 7oowatter?!?!?!!?



I also agree with Jag on the Asus... it is beautiful and the Blue leds all over thplace make it look nice. the bios is rich but IMO... you can do much cheaper... MUCH.

If you can buy that board them I suggest dual core...

B4 we can help you we need to know what u need it for... You should post what u plan on doing with the PC. Games? Movies? Encoding? Etc, etc,...

To do an Asus of that price I'd rather do a DFI Lan Party.

You also have Intel btw...

zoidy
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Post by zoidy » Wed Nov 29, 2006 1:58 am

First off I'm a gamer and I want to run a 24" dell monitor, Sli is not important but I want the option if I do upgrade in the future. the latest DX10 8800's from Nvidia are monster power eaters so the 700 Watter is with two Graphic cards in mind, just in case I go that way in future.

Games I play include BF2, BF2142 etc. Basically First Person Shooters

I also use the PC for encoding home video, love using my camcorder on family holidays and use pinnacle 9 pro to turn my home movies into DVD's, so I guess a dual core would be idea for that (?).

I also use flash for my website and drop video into that for the family that lives abroad to see.

This brings me onto why I want quiet... If I'm encoding something overnight, or even downloading/uploading to ftp then the PC which is in my bedroom needs to be quiet, I want it to be as silent as possible so I can leave it on without the wife complaining :oops:

It's also worth pointing out that I have only ever had Intel chips, this is my first Athlon, wanted to give it a try.

Why this board? Lan party is nice but the asus blew me away - it looks really nice with its built in LCD and lights etc as I've always been tight with cash with what I buy but this time I've been saving for almost a year and I decided to go for something top end.

That's it really

jaganath
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Post by jaganath » Wed Nov 29, 2006 3:23 am

can someone recommend a half decent quiet cooler for under £30? For the chip of choice?
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro(~£15), but the CPU socket on the Crosshair is pretty crowded so might be a tight fit, also the Scythe Mine is an excellent cooler with a very quiet fan (~£30) and is an SPCR Recommended cooler, also consider Thermaltake Big Typhoon (~£30), also Zalman CNPS9500 (~£30).

zoidy
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Post by zoidy » Wed Nov 29, 2006 3:34 am

jaganath wrote:
can someone recommend a half decent quiet cooler for under £30? For the chip of choice?
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro(~£15), but the CPU socket on the Crosshair is pretty crowded so might be a tight fit, also the Scythe Mine is an excellent cooler with a very quiet fan (~£30) and is an SPCR Recommended cooler, also consider Thermaltake Big Typhoon (~£30), also Zalman CNPS9500 (~£30).
Thanks - more then enough - TOP MAN!!!

zoidy
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Post by zoidy » Wed Nov 29, 2006 6:03 am

Next is the hard drive, Anyone have one of these to comment on please?

Samsung SpinPoint T HD400LJ 400GB

Thought I'd run two as RAID 1 (mirrored)

Any suggestions? Can I improve on the quiet aspect of this drive?

Thanks

kater
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Post by kater » Wed Nov 29, 2006 6:20 am

zoidy

since you don't want to OC your CPU you don't need a top mobo, you could get sth cheaper. asus makes lots of reasonably priced mid range mobos. you also want to chose a mobo w heatpiped nb as those little nb fans are v noisy.

cpu - go for x2, as it'll help you deal with lots of tasks at once. also remember that you can buy special am2 chips designated as EE - energy efficient. that way you can bring power consumption > heat > noise down, and ac freezer will be perfect for that (and cheap too). no need to go for fx cpus. but hey - make sure your cpu doesn't slow your vga! which probably is going to happen anyway :roll:

psu - seasonic. period. you want it real quiet, you buy seasonic. that simple. maybe you can swap this ocz for seasonic? they also make powerful psus. also, corsair psus are nice, strong, have modular cables(made by seasonic, hehe)

gpu - altho 8800gtx cards are pretty much the same all over, there are some better ones and some not so better ones ;) http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2873&p=9
this link should give you some fresh info

ram - i'd say any, cause you won't OC your mems anyway. no need to splurge on the fastest and baddest ones, just go mid range

case - good choice. and some ppl claim that because it's black it's faster than your regular p150. i disagree. my fridge-looking case is as fast as any solo. but that's only cause i OCed it!

zoidy
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Post by zoidy » Wed Nov 29, 2006 6:53 am

Wow! Thanks for taking the time to type that lot Kater... A true gent :D

I think I'll stick with the board for a couple of reasons...

First I intend this rig to last as long as possible - I'm sick of spending on PC's and I'd like the opportunity to be able to overclock it when it nears it's end of life, sucking the last dreggs of life out of the system LOL

Also it's designed to be quiet, this was taken from the Asus website

"The Crosshair Series' sophisticated design of heat-pipe directs heat from the chipset to two VRM copper heatsinks where the temperature can be dissipated by system airflow. This design promises ultimate reliability and quietness."

Yep I my be giving the impression I have more money then sense but trust me I want the latest board with the intention of the rig being both "Tweakable" and having a longlife, I'm also building this around Vista, the rig will not be fired up until the end of January when Vista and DX10 is released. I want to see what is capable out there with the added attraction of quiet as possible.

PSU, I'll have to suck it and see, if it's too noisy I'll send it back, I can fire this up on an existing system to check it out but reviews show it to be quiet. Maybe I should review this PSU for this site, I may have a db meter in work... I'll ask our R&D guys.

Thanks for the tip on CPU - - - I have no idea what's out there until I started posting here. I'm going to go for a AM X2 as most seem to recommend that chip.

RAM, I agree with you totally.

Again thanks for making this post most interesting.

Zoid

MC FLMJIG
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Post by MC FLMJIG » Wed Nov 29, 2006 7:25 am

Getting an EE is pretty much impossible. However you can look for the 65w series. ALSO the "new" Am2 are coming out and you may want to wait for the those. They should be out within a week or so.

Memory - Agreed. You can always use a divider in the futre if you do decide to OC. Problem is it's tough to find "cheap" good memory. 4 4 4 timings are the minimum on AMD you want. That is usually almost as pricey as High End memory. I suggest Ballistx since you have a high end board.

I like the Abit NF-M2 Nview. What I have. It is QUALITY and is built using HIGH end components. Why so cheap? Smaller and doesn't have all the copper and fancy things. Asus is overatted IMO.

I don't know much on Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro but I heard it's a tad noisy... I 4got where. I think when it gets warmer.

CPU Cooler? Thermalright HR-01 is "passive" and can be ducted.

If you haven't bought any AM2 parts... why dont you consider an intel core 2 duo? I strongly suggest you consider that as you'll get much longer life out of it. 1-4 years ago I'd say YES do it! But now? I don't suggest. For the prive of a Crossfire you could do a Deluxe on Intel side.

zoidy
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Post by zoidy » Wed Nov 29, 2006 7:54 am

LOL
I love forums... so many great ideas... Doubt of my chosen system is kicking in now and I'm getting a headache! :lol: :lol: :lol:

The case and the PSU are as I already remarked already bought... I also have about a £1000 ($1600 US) saved which I intend to spend straight away after the new year parties finish. LOL

I really am fishing for advice right now and no doubt prices will be lower come the new year. Watch the prices of the 8800 boards fall once Ati release their DX10 boards! You'll pick up a GTX for the price of a 7950 by the start of febuary!

I think I'll try Athlon though because as I said I've never had one before!

But keep the thread going cos this is great advice - Silence here is afterall golden.

Thanks Guys

MC FLMJIG
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Post by MC FLMJIG » Wed Nov 29, 2006 8:19 am

zoidy wrote:LOL
I love forums... so many great ideas... Doubt of my chosen system is kicking in now and I'm getting a headache! :lol: :lol: :lol:

The case and the PSU are as I already remarked already bought... I also have about a £1000 ($1600 US) saved which I intend to spend straight away after the new year parties finish. LOL

I really am fishing for advice right now and no doubt prices will be lower come the new year. Watch the prices of the 8800 boards fall once Ati release their DX10 boards! You'll pick up a GTX for the price of a 7950 by the start of febuary!

I think I'll try Athlon though because as I said I've never had one before!

But keep the thread going cos this is great advice - Silence here is afterall golden.

Thanks Guys
:lol:

Sorry for headache.

I'm just a cheapo. I like getting the best for the price. Doesn't mean I like junk.
I like SILENCE. I love some stuff here ar SCPR.
I like to OC.

I just don't see feasible spending 200 or even over 150 on a board. Many boards under 150 have QUALITY that can match those boards that are so pricey. For ex my Abit NF-M2. Top notch capacitors and you can see the quality. Love that board.

In Jan VC's should go lower. That is just rule of the land. New stuff = lowers prices old stuff

autoboy
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Post by autoboy » Wed Nov 29, 2006 9:12 am

"Another is OCZ's PowerWhisper Technology. This is a fancy way of saying this unit is very quiet. While I didn't have a true decibel meter on hand to measure the sound level, I can tell you subjectively, it was virtually silent - as in, I could not hear it under power".
Sorry, i'm back to the OCZ power supply. I just want to clarify the SPCR position on power supply noise. This reviewer may have been correct in stating that this unit was virtually silent - as in, he could not hear it under power." However, that does not mean you will not hear it under power. He is a reviewer from an overclocking website that focuses on speed. He probably had several other loud overclocked computers running in the same room that masked the sound from the power supply. It is kinda funny also that a lot of sites now publish noise figures but the ambient noise is always 35db or higher. Even the loudest AMX fans in the last review were just barely louder at 12V. I am just speculating here. The power supply might be pretty quiet, but here at SPCR the ambient noise is 18-19db. Your bedroom will likely be close to 18-25db at night. A power supply that does not add to the noise in a 35db environment will certainly add noise to the bedroom.

Still, I have no experience with that particular OCZ so it may be pretty quiet. It is worth a try. Don't blame us if you get hit with the silence bug and have to return it! It happened to me years ago and cost me a few bucks. I'm much happier now that I'm not overclocking and overcooling though.

Since you are going with a high end video card, I would recomend you get an athlon x2 clocked at 2.2-2.4Ghz or higher depending on your budget. Don't spend $500 on a chip though. There are diminishing returns as you climb in frequency. The new 65nm chips are coming out in early december. These will run cooler and may overclock better than the 90nm chips out now. I would wait and get one of those.

Don't overspend on memory. It will make marginal difference, 2-3%. Pick out a good stable DDR2 800 with average timings. The $ is better spent elsewhere.

Check out the articles here to read up on all the reviewed items. When you are satisfied post your system again before you buy. Good luck.

jaganath
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Post by jaganath » Wed Nov 29, 2006 9:25 am

The new 65nm chips are coming out in early december.
D'oh, and I've just bought a 90nm X2. :roll: :oops:

Tzupy
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Post by Tzupy » Wed Nov 29, 2006 9:59 am

@zoidy: the 8800 GTX won't fit in a Solo, it's too long, unless you remove the riveted hard drive bay.
Since you seem to be from the UK, I suggest to look at these sites: www.tekheads.co.uk (some good stuff) and www.microdirect.co.uk (cheaper than elsewhere).
For CPU cooler: if you are going with a passively cooled chipset and want to overclock a bit, IMO you could use a Thermalright SI-120 or SI-128.

zoidy
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Post by zoidy » Wed Nov 29, 2006 10:19 am

Thanks for all the tips guys...
Yes I'll wait until January before buying anything.

I'm disappointed to hear the 8800 won't fit though, I'll have a look at the case tonight to see if the riveted section is going to cause all this trouble!

Thanks again.


UPDATE:
It's a tight fit but with a little dremel work should be OK. Seems there's a big problem with the 27CM size of this card with most cases!

I may even get away with it by taking the 3rd drive bay out which for me is not a problem.

Phew

kater
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Post by kater » Wed Nov 29, 2006 11:54 pm

tzupy is right on the length issue - i recently bought a 7800gtx card which is only (!) 23cm long and it fits nicely in p150, but i guess any card above 25cm will be v difficult to fit in. also, there's the issue of power cable(s) connected to the vga - they may interfere with hdd(s), especially if you want raid.
to see how large vgas fit in solos you might want to search general gallery for 'solo' and '7900gtx' or '7900gto' - there was a thread like that active recently.

zoidy
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Post by zoidy » Thu Nov 30, 2006 12:24 am

Yeah, I've been doing this and I estimate the board is maybe 2 inches too long. No worries I'll get the dremel out! :lol: Custom PC here we go...

Strange that a company like Nvidia didn't consider this though... It will put lots of non-technical people off thus reducing sales of the 8800.

Most people want plug and play not plug, push, break, think, drevel, mod, plug, and then it plays phew :P

zoidy
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Post by zoidy » Thu Nov 30, 2006 3:17 am

Tzupy wrote:@zoidy: the 8800 GTX won't fit in a Solo, it's too long, unless you remove the riveted hard drive bay.
You got me thinking about room Tzupy.

So I got a dimension spec of the slightly smaller GTS and using excel to size the cells to the right size of the case I think I've got an overlay of the correct dimensions. Anyway it looks tight but may fit!

I think the GTX will need a cut out of the drive sections but this board I'm not too sure. Here's what I came up with in "Case" (no pun intended) you are thinking of buying this board. Note I resized the board to 9" and inserted it into the drawing.


Image

Back to the silent front, Anyone have one of these to comment on the sound levels?


Zoidy
Wales UK

kater
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Post by kater » Thu Nov 30, 2006 3:39 am

ok, here's a link showing a 7900gto inside a solo

viewtopic.php?t=34688

also, look here - sizes of various vgas

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1 ... 781,00.asp

zoidy
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Post by zoidy » Thu Nov 30, 2006 4:03 am

That's tight, but manageable
Looks like the dremel will be needed afterall :shock:

MC FLMJIG
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Post by MC FLMJIG » Thu Nov 30, 2006 6:45 am

GTX? Most def.

btw, 65nm are not guarantedd to OC better. Nothing is! There is hope that they will and "probably" will.

zoidy
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Post by zoidy » Thu Nov 30, 2006 7:00 am

Looking at the GTX Vs. GTS I'll be going for the GTS... Not bothered about frame rates just quality, the GTS will offer that for a few years no problem.

I'll rest for now... As soon as the new year starts I'll reopen this post and start to build.

Great advice lads - thanks to all for the time taken to respond.

Cheers

Zoidy

MC FLMJIG
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Post by MC FLMJIG » Thu Nov 30, 2006 7:14 am

You can always overclock the GTS to a GTX later on down the road. :wink:

ATI will also unleash their versio of DX10 and the GTS should be cheaper too!

Anorexicpeanut
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Post by Anorexicpeanut » Thu Nov 30, 2006 3:49 pm

12345
Last edited by Anorexicpeanut on Tue Nov 13, 2007 8:01 am, edited 1 time in total.

MC FLMJIG
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Post by MC FLMJIG » Thu Nov 30, 2006 4:03 pm


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