alternatives, suggestions quiet moderate power desktop?

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pwrcul
Posts: 19
Joined: Thu Aug 25, 2005 4:12 am
Location: Santa Cruz, CA

alternatives, suggestions quiet moderate power desktop?

Post by pwrcul » Fri Dec 28, 2012 7:58 am

Suggestions, alternatives appreciated.

I aim for an all around (photos, calendar & email, websurfing, writing, data analysis), not heavy gaming, so a quiet, moderate power rig with solid components. The main OS will be linux (currently Kubuntu), but will be dual, etc. boot (Win 7) and eventually VMs.

Case: SilverStone Temjin Series TJ08B-E
PSU: SeaSonic G360
Mobo: ASUS F2A85-M PRO
CPU: AMD A10-5800K
Cooling: COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866
SSD (for OS and Apps): SAMSUNG 840 Pro 128GB SSD
HDD Western Digital WD Green WD20EARX 2TB SATA 6.0Gb/s
BluRay LG 14X OEM Bare Drive burner

My Newegg public wish list is at
http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/Publi ... r=26292047

I feel least confident about the disk drive choices (SSD, HDD, BluRay) and this morning asked at the Silent Storage forum here about them:
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=65621

I appreciate past help at SPCR forums and look forward to your comments on the system.

Abula
Posts: 3662
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:22 pm
Location: Guatemala

Re: alternatives, suggestions quiet moderate power desktop?

Post by Abula » Fri Dec 28, 2012 8:44 am

Seems a nice value setup, the only suggestion, since you going with amd and value components, i would go with curcial m4, the 128gb should be cheaper, a lot of times goes below $100, for $20 more you could even get Crucial m4 256GB 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive SATA 6Gb/s CT256M4SSD2, and imo you wont see much difference between m4 and 840pro. I would also swap the TJ08-E for the cheaper Silverstone Tek Micro-ATX Mini-DTX, Mini-ITX Mini Tower Plastic with Aluminum Accent Computer Cases PS07B (Black) for a value oriented build, and save another $20.

pwrcul
Posts: 19
Joined: Thu Aug 25, 2005 4:12 am
Location: Santa Cruz, CA

Re: alternatives, suggestions quiet moderate power desktop?

Post by pwrcul » Fri Dec 28, 2012 9:16 am

Thank you, Abula, for your suggestions. I will check them out.

The "Pro" was a typo. My mistake. The wish list has the less expensive 840, just a tad more expensive than the m4. I will keep the m4 in mind as it has a longer warranty.

I selected the Temjin over the PS07 based on the final comments in the review here:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1276-page8.html
but I see now the points are similar to your comment, so I will think that over.

kuzzia
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Joined: Fri Jul 02, 2010 4:41 am
Location: Denmark

Re: alternatives, suggestions quiet moderate power desktop?

Post by kuzzia » Fri Dec 28, 2012 9:47 am

The 180 mm fan in the Temjin TJ08-E can't be made quiet enough for the most demanding silent enthusiasts. The PS07 has the advantage that all the fan mounts are compatible with 120 mm fans which means that you can just swap them if you don't tolerate their noise level, unlike the 180 mm fan.

The PS07 may not perform well thermally. But perhaps an exhaust fan would increase the thermal performance drastically. It lies close to the tower CPU cooler so it's possible that an exhaust fan has quite an effect on temperatures.

Do you need the motherboard? I know it has FanXpert 2, but the regular FanXpert is still a decent option. It can easily lower the fan voltage to 5 V (both stock PS07 fans at 7 V runs at 14-15 dBA/1m, so 5 V will be virtually inaudible) and the CPU fan, if PWM, can run at verylow fan speeds.

pwrcul
Posts: 19
Joined: Thu Aug 25, 2005 4:12 am
Location: Santa Cruz, CA

Re: alternatives, suggestions quiet moderate power desktop?

Post by pwrcul » Fri Dec 28, 2012 10:26 am

Thanks, kuzzia, for your comments.

What alternative MB(s) do you have in mind?

I am partial to ASUS higher end boards, but Gigabyte also seems very good. I should not hold MSI today responsible for the capacitor failure of my last board from them.

kuzzia
Friend of SPCR
Posts: 709
Joined: Fri Jul 02, 2010 4:41 am
Location: Denmark

Re: alternatives, suggestions quiet moderate power desktop?

Post by kuzzia » Fri Dec 28, 2012 1:51 pm

Well, I dind't have any specific MB in mind. I just noticed that you chose an expensive motherboard (for an AMD FM2 motherboard) and thought that you could save some money by going with a less feature-rich MB. But remember to check the number of controllable fan headers.

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