best bang/buck silent pc

Info & chat about quiet prebuilt, small form factor and barebones systems, people's experiences with vendors thereof, etc.

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greenwiggle
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Feb 09, 2010 8:01 am
Location: UK

best bang/buck silent pc

Post by greenwiggle » Tue Feb 09, 2010 8:02 am

hi, i'm new here. so don't eat me alive :-)


i'm ready for a new desktop, as i am currently using a laptop and and want to sell it.

i need a new system for office and email.
the most taxing procedures will be blu ray playback and flash video on the net.

i was thinking about going with integrated graphics, as i don't game.

i really want this system to be really quiet, as i get annoyed about fans quite easily.

i would also need integrated graphics that will work with the new flash beta hardware acceleration. i think the ati hd4200 does this.

the integrated graphics should also allow for blu ray hardware acceleration.

i'm looking at 4gb ram and potentially an 1156 board if the bang/buck ratio is good.

i also like the idea of a cool processor with a low TDW.

i was thinking about these potential specs:

intel i3 - 350
4gb ram
f3 samung 320gb
gigabyte h55 ud2

some seasonic or corsair psu and case (normal size)

what kind of quiet cooler should i get or are the stock ones any good?


does this look ok or total overkill?

i am open to suggestions from intel and amd and the budget is flexible even though i don't expect to pay more then £450. if i can get away with half of the that, then that would be even better :-)

ces
Posts: 3395
Joined: Thu Feb 04, 2010 6:06 pm
Location: US

flash beta hardware acceleration

Post by ces » Sun Feb 14, 2010 5:22 pm

What is this flash beta hardware acceleration?

How much of an effect does it have on internet browsing?

theycallmebruce
Posts: 292
Joined: Sat Jul 14, 2007 10:11 am
Location: Perth, Western Australia

Post by theycallmebruce » Sun Feb 14, 2010 7:08 pm

Welcome to SPCR!

Stock Intel heatsink/fan combos aren't loud at idle, but an aftermarket cooler plus fan will certainly be quieter, especially at load. You could always start with stock and see how it goes for you, and replace later if need be.

Assuming you use a quiet fan for your case exhaust, it should be pretty quiet machine. Sounds like a sensible build for your needs. Hard disk drive would probably be the noisiest component.

Good luck!

jessekopelman
Posts: 1406
Joined: Tue Feb 13, 2007 7:28 pm
Location: USA

Re: flash beta hardware acceleration

Post by jessekopelman » Mon Feb 15, 2010 7:55 am

ces wrote:What is this flash beta hardware acceleration?

How much of an effect does it have on internet browsing?
Flash 10.1. Uses GPU to accelerate video decoding tasks. Main use of it is to allow support of 1080P resolution Flash video without a quad-core CPU. Most dual-cores can handles 720P and below fine as is. Big exception is Atom, where even a dual-core can still use all the help it can get for everything. I don't think it does anything to help with Flash advertisements in your day-to-day browsing.

jessekopelman
Posts: 1406
Joined: Tue Feb 13, 2007 7:28 pm
Location: USA

Re: best bang/buck silent pc

Post by jessekopelman » Mon Feb 15, 2010 8:04 am

greenwiggle wrote: i would also need integrated graphics that will work with the new flash beta hardware acceleration. i think the ati hd4200 does this.
There will never be a motherboard supporting i3 with AMD IGP. I think even Nvidia IGP is unlikely. After all, the whole point of i3 is that you get an IGP right on the chip. You will either need to hope Intel decides to support Flash 10.1 properly or just get a discrete card. The new HD5450 is very low power and should give you anything you need in terms of Flash support. If you wanted to save $10, you could even go with a HD4350.

That said, there's a fair chance Intel will properly support Flash 10.1 or vice versa. Also, i3 is beefy enough that the only thing you would even need acceleration for is 1080P Flash and is there really that much content in that format?

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