Cheap quiet computer build, ideas?

teeelin · Post by **teeelin** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 9:29 am

hi, im lookin for a quiet and cheap computer build. I'm thinkin of the sonata III or a antecc 300 and a quiet PSU. after readin the stuff here, most ppl are recommendin the solo or the p183 but my budget is about $500 for my new computer so i dont have $200 to spend just for the case. Really hopin ppl can recommend some cheap but quiet solution for the case and PSU. I mostly use the computer for web surfing, watchin movies and super light gaming =). So i will be usin the onboard video card. BTW im realli noob at this so i could be askin a lot of newbie questions. Is a systems quietness solely dependent on the case, PSU it uses? any graphic card fans, but since i dont need one in this case so its not my concern. but would the CPU fans effect it a lot too?

Heres wat i have so far
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-US2H (already bought)
HD: WD Caviar Black 640GB
Memory: Corsair 2GB (Already bought)
CPU: Phenom II X2 550 or X3 710 or X3 720

thx

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 10:19 am

Hi and welcome to the SPCR!

Firstly, not too many games can utilize more than dual core. Triple and Quads are not beneficial. PII X2 550 is solid choice but I would recomend you: Athlon II X2 245/250. Its only 65 W TDP and offers performance equal to E5400 cpu and beasts that Intel in gaming. You would also save some money and get 45nm AMD chipset which would be more beneficial than using PII architechture which runs quite hot.

Pair CPU with Arctic Cooling Alpine 64 PWM and you have good, quiet and budget solution at your hands.

You could look Coolermaster Sileo or cheap Coolermaster Elite 33x-series case and pair it with good but value PSU's like Corsair 400W or Antec Earthwatt's 380W psu's which are quiet albeit not quietest there are.

Use Scythe Slipstream, Nexus Realsilent's or Noisblocker X1's in case and you get good air flow in case without burning a lot money.

teeelin · Post by **teeelin** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 10:56 am

but how is the antec 300 or thee sonata III compared to those case in terms of quiet and value?

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 11:05 am

300 is good case (and it leak a lot noise out since its gamer case with lot's of openings) but requires quite a lot work to get it satisfactory for SPCRians. Mostly due light case combine horribly vibrating top 140mm fan.

Sonata III is decent case but has few disgn errors: the front fan is attached in HDD compartment, effectivey nullifying its good use and sortening already short space for exapansion cards.

And left side is riveted shut so you cannot add dampening materials if you ever want to.

ilovejedd · Post by **ilovejedd** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 11:06 am

sorry, wrong topic...

teeelin · Post by **teeelin** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 11:17 am

sry forgot to ask I was thinkin about the Athlon II X2 250 but the phenom II X2 550 is $20 more expensive but a black edition and also a 45nm chipset. So my question is for $20 more would the phenom 550 give me a lot more performance( before and after overclocckin?). what watt of PSU should i be lookin to maximize the performance of my new computer? i was thinkin of 500 Watt would that be too much?

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 11:46 am

You won't be topping even 200Watts with IGP. 380-430W would be ideal for you incase you want to add a discrete card.

And think if you want to overclock much. X2 2xx's overclock decently even they're not BE's.

Mats · Post by **Mats** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 1:52 pm

teeelin wrote:sry forgot to ask I was thinkin about the Athlon II X2 250 but the phenom II X2 550 is $20 more expensive but a black edition and also a 45nm chipset. So my question is for $20 more would the phenom 550 give me a lot more performance( before and after overclocckin?). what watt of PSU should i be lookin to maximize the performance of my new computer? i was thinkin of 500 Watt would that be too much?

Both are made in 45 nm process.

Here's a good PSU. Very quiet, but not the cheapest though.

teeelin · Post by **teeelin** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 4:36 pm

humm thats y i think its a hard decisiion on which cpu to choose but kinda leanin towards the athlon so far for da price. any more suggestions on cases?

_MarcoM_ · Post by **_MarcoM_** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 5:38 pm

teeelin wrote:humm thats y i think its a hard decisiion on which cpu to choose but kinda leanin towards the athlon so far for da price. any more suggestions on cases?

For CPU, a cheap dual core will suffice.
For case, Antec Solo/P150: nice airflow path, nice hd mounting, good for a silent pc. Does it cost too much for you? Try coolermaster sileo, another nice piece of case.
Avoid Caviar-noise-machine-Black, try Caviar GreenPower or a Caviar Blue instead. Or Samsung Ecogreen F2 or Samsung F1.

teeelin · Post by **teeelin** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 7:04 pm

oops i just bought the caviar black from ncix for $90, thought it was a good deal. can i get away wif elastic suspension. All those cases u mention seems out of my budget.

JamieG · Post by **JamieG** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 9:01 pm

Maybe have a look at the Cooler Master Elite 335 Black ATX Mid Tower Case. It's currently out of stock at NCIX but it looks like a possible good place to start.

You will have to do some modding to get it quiet though. (E.g. cut out front and rear fan grills, cover up other intake holes in left side panel, apply mass damping materials to stop vibrations from thin case etc.)

This is going to be true for most cheap cases, as cheap and quiet generally don't apply at the price range you seem to be looking at - approx $60CDN for a case without a power supply, based on your looking at the Antec 300 / $150CDN with included PSU, based on the Sonata III (500) you mentioned.

You might want to look at the Antec NSK6580B Super Mid Tower Case with included PSU.

Take out the removable HDD cage, suspend your HDD in front of the front fan area instead, get a quiet 120mm for rear exhaust and you may not need front intake fans at all if your system isn't going to be too beefy and will rely on integrated graphics only.

Or, since your first post says you've bought a micro ATX motherboard already, perhaps you might want to look at the Antec NSK3480 with included PSU.

Again, if you swapped the rear included fan for a better quiet fan, you could probably get away with just the rear fan.

To answer your original question about sources of noise, case fans, HDDs, CPU and GPU coolers and PSU fans can all contribute to noise. Usually the included fans that come with cases aren't too great and should be replaced with the quiet fan brands that thejamppa mentioned.

The PSUs that come with some Antec cases are reasonably quiet but not the quiestest PSUs on the market today. However, if you are budget constrained a PSU and case combo from Antec can be pretty good value. (See suggestions above.)

You should be considering an aftermarket CPU cooler, as the stock ones that come with CPUs are not always quiet. the Scythe Mugen 2 is only $10CDN more than the Alpine 64 PWM that thejamppa mentioned, so this might be a good choice if your budget can stretch that far.

You're already planning on suspending your HDD, so that will be good.

Hopefully there's something of help to you in all the rambling above...

alleycat · Post by **alleycat** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 9:02 pm

Suspending it will help a lot. Use clothing elastic, it's cheap and it will last. I bought a fairly quiet caviar blue a year ago and I'm already getting serious SMART errors. I bought another one this year and it's louder, sounds like a completely different drive. I recently used a caviar black in a friend's computer and didn't find it any louder than my newer caviar blue. The black seemed faster though.

Don't sweat it on the case, just get one that you think looks reasonable. You're not running a hot system so if it has less than perfect airflow it won't matter too much. As long as you can suspend a hard drive it should be ok. People make a big fuss about cases around here, but I usually buy cheap ones. Then I don't worry if I feel like cutting holes in it etc.

teeelin · Post by **teeelin** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 10:23 pm

would the sileo be a better choice than the 335 elite? i've read reviews and ppl said its not realli that great but wonderin wat ur opinions are. others also recommended the coolermaster 690. Personally i dont realli like the looks of these cases. Prefere the p18x series but too expensive for my budget. Antec NSK6580B looks ok but just wonderin if a lot of work still needs to be done? I dont mind moddin the cases just that someone would have to teach them to me in simple terms (pics would help) cause im such a noob at this. the last computer i had was so loud that i hated it. hopefully this one will be better. I dont need the system to be totally silent. thx for everyone's comments, realli appreciate it. and plz keep it comin =)

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 3:55 am

That NSKSK6580B looks good choice. Removing Fan grilles from antec need only good and sharp pliers with some strength in fingers. Padding the case depends if it rattles much but NSK6580B looks good also due you can easily remove HDD assembly and build a suspension in there.

alleycat · Post by **alleycat** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 5:01 am

+1

Cutting grilles might not be necessary, but if you decide you want to do it, try to get Wiss tinsnips. They are fairly cheap and will do quite a neat job, even for a beginner. Someone wrote a tutorial about it somewhere in the forums.

RoGuE · Post by **RoGuE** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 5:14 am

I know someone said it already..but if you want to take a HUGE plunge into the quiet PC world..you will deffinatly have to suspend your HDD(s). Don't worry tho..there are some great guides on that in these very forums.

Another thing I found out quickly if you're on a cheap budget....overclocking can be your best friend. My computer benchmarks almost twice as fast as my friend who just built a $1500 C2Q rig in june...and I built mine last summer..for under $1K...yeah. overclocking can be a budget's best friend.

teeelin · Post by **teeelin** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 10:42 am

ok i manage to just narrow down the cases to Cooler Master elite 335, antec 300 ( just like the look and seem to have a lot of potential but wat do i no), Antec NSK6580B, Antec NSK 4480 and Antec NSK2480. (not exactly a smaller list) for the cases wif out PSU i was thinkin of gettin the corsair vx450. this is soo hard!! how good is the included PSU from the antec cases?

RoGuE · Post by **RoGuE** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 10:55 am

If the case you want to get comes with a PSU, then it would be retarded to buy another one and toss the included PSU. Either pick out a case that comes by itself, or pick out a combo that you think suits you.

Antec is a good company, and they make fine PSUs. I prefer corsair, but if I found a good combo deal, I would take it and use the antec.

It really all comes down to money..the quality difference between antec and corsair is marginal IMO. That said though, it DOES depend on the psu...

teeelin · Post by **teeelin** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 12:04 pm

what i meant by gettin the cosair PSU is if i go wif the cases that doesnt include a PSU then i shall get the cosair PSU to match that up. but if the antec cases are better in reducin noise and it comes wif a PSU then i dont need to buy the cosair PSU.

RoGuE · Post by **RoGuE** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 12:47 pm

ohh i gotcha.

you ultimately have to weigh your options..but most higher end Antec cases dont come with PSU's simply because they know the people buying them are picky and dont necessarily want their PSU.

JamieG · Post by **JamieG** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 3:04 pm

From what I understand, the included Earthwatts range PSU that comes with a lot of the Antec cases is reasonably quiet but not fantastically so.

The VX450 is rated by SPCR as being quieter than the Antec Earthwatts PSU reviewed. I've got the VX450W in one of my systems and it is pretty quiet - not silent but nearly so.

IMO the Antec 300 is more suited to a system that is going to have a hot graphics card, as it provides good airflow. That being said, if you only have integrated graphics and buy the Scythe Mugen 2 as a CPU heatsink, you could probably remove the top 140mm fan in the 300 and just buy a single quiet Nexus or Scythe fan for the rear exhaust. Coupled with a decent CPU cooler and the VX450, your system could be pretty quiet if you suspend your HDD as suggested.

As you may be a little disappointed with the included Antec PSUs (depending on how picky you are) this might work for you. Just be prepared to do a little work on the 300 to dampen the side panels.

speedkar9 · Post by **speedkar9** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 6:41 pm

With the NSK 3, 4 and 6 series cases, you can try swapping the left and right panels to rid of the side panel holes. (Works on a 300)

If you get a Scythe Ninja Mini you can take its 80mm fan and swap it with the included Antec PSU's fan if you don't mind voiding your warranty.

Since your using the computer for light duties, how about a 45W AMD chip, which can perhaps run passively with the Minja + 120mm exhaust fan? This should make for a reasonably quiet system (with the exception of the WD black).