Hi there.

First of all let me say few nice words about this site and community. I found it very uSeeful. I spent here some time reading and learning how to build quiet system and this information extremely helped me. But some doubts left inside, so I need your advice guys before making the final decision.

Now some facts about me and tasks my further system has to deal with:
1) I'm Russian, so forgive me my bad language. It's far away from even average unfortunately.
2) I'm not a gamer. Almost. May be sometimes Counter-Strike 1.6, Source or Call of Duty 2. Not very often. Once a month. Or maybe something modern like Mafia II. But lowest quality is okay for me in this case.
3) I'm a web developer, so I need at least one virtual machine to be loaded permanently in the background
4) All other things are quite regular: Internet, HDTV, Downloading, video decoding sometimes (for my Creative Zen player) etc. Just typical tasks for every home computer aren’t it?
5) And of course it must be silent as much as possible!

I made a decision that platform will be Intel Sandy Bridge, not AMD whatever, so please try to avoid that lovely holy-wars =). So I have some time to think about what to buy. Also I’m not going to make any mods for a first time. I need it to be silent as much as possible just out of the box.

I’m looking forward to get the following configuration:
1) CPU: Intel Core i5 2500. I'm not going to overclock it or maybe just a bit up to 3.5 GHz but not more.
2) CPU Cooler: have no idea. As I know there is back compatibility between LGA1155 and LGA1156 so I completely trust your experience. Please advise me something really quiet.
3) Motherboard: don't care. It must have USB 3.0 and SATA III support and maybe RAID. Not sure about the last one. It depends on what I'll prefer in future: RAID or NAS.
4) Case: I can't make a decision between Antec Solo and CM Sileo 500. I really need your advice here! I know that most of people here more or less are fans of Antec, so I will glad to hear something about Sileo also. I give some priority to Antec, but need to hear other opinions also.
5) PSU: another dilemma is here. Corsair vx450w or CM Silent Pro 500. Which one is more silent? Your pro et contra? Or maybe something else?
6) Memory: 2x 4GB 1333 or 1600MHz. I told you before that there will be virtual machine on my system so there is no too much memory. Please advice about frequency and about radiator and about vendors. If I buy 1600 MHz memory how I can manage it to work?
7) HDD: Western Digital WD6402AAEX. Just one for beginning
ODD: don't care. Typical DVD+/-RW combo drive. If there is real difference between them then I'll be glad to hear about it. Especially if there is difference how noisy they are.
9) Video card: none. But some day I'm planning to buy something from the middle segment. But first year there will be no video card.

That's it. Thanks a lot in advance.

Forgive me if something is wrong: its deep-deep night in Russia now and I'm actually typing by my nose.

Ok, you have to be more careful cherry picking your parts.


So you mean the 2500K, not the 2500, don't you?


Haven't you give any read to SPCR Recommended charts? The CoolerMaster Hyper212+ WHEN DOWNVOLTED gives you the most bang for the buck. Swapping a fan could be called a mod? Then the Noctua NH-C14 gives you one of the most silent out of the box experience and it's a top dog: unfortunately it costs three times the above mentioned CM. In the between, several Scythes may serve you very well (give a look to Yasya or Mugen B).


There's no recommendation to care about, as Sandy Bridge isn't yet in the wild.


I own the Solo and love it, but the CM is a great solution for casual silencers: if it's cheaper (here it is) than the Solo, you may comfortably opt for it, but you lose the drive suspensions. Besides they share almost the same limitations, essentially a low airflow, so they're not best suited for high power game stations (but it's not your case, I mean).


Something else: give a look to SPCR charts, please.
However, the VX450 is now made by CWT AND IT REALLY SUCKS with reference to quietness. Avoid like the plague.


For a good all around, you may look for Kingston HyperX 1600MHz, but 8GB if you have a 64bit OS (4GB on the contrary) if you work with VMs.
However, several motherboard manufacturers publish an HCL for their products: if in case, stick with it for brand/speed.


It's probably the worst choice for the CM Sileo, and I would avoid it at any rate.
If you need that size, go for something like a ST9750420AS, the Seagate Momentus 750GB: at least, if you "need it to be silent as much as possible just out of the box".

Yep, thats why I'm asking for some help here. Actually, I managed to do some research before asking here but as I can see there is no limit of knowledge (or experience)


Do you want to say that there is no way to overclock regular 2500?


I forgot to say that my budget is quite limited. So I can't afford Hi-End products. Regarding CPU cooling I can see that some titles are more or less appropriate for me. But I don't know what is behind the scene there, like in case of Corsair vx450w you mentioned before. It is in the SPCR recommendation list but something changed there. How can I know it?

Back to the CPU Cooler. Here is the list of titles I found appropriate both for my needs and my wallet. And I'll glad to hear you experienced opinion about them:
- Scythe Samurai ZZ
- Scythe Katana 3
- Thermaltake Contac 29
- Thermaltake Silent 1156
- Cooler Master Hyper TX3
- Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus - this one is on the edge of an amount of money I'm ready to spent on CPU cooler.



In my country difference between them is about 10$. There is no cable management, dust filters (important for me also) in Sileo. But there is additional fan on the front panel (Do I really need it?) I think I need just go to the market and see both of them.



Shit, I spent few days trying to find something (and here also) and found only these two =( How can I check if the specific one is made by CWT? I think in my country I can find elder model.


What about if suspend it in Solo? This one (and may be only this one) fits my wallet.

Thanks!