How about this system!

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

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lightforce
Posts: 101
Joined: Tue Dec 09, 2003 3:01 pm

How about this system!

Post by lightforce » Wed Dec 10, 2003 3:31 pm

Ok, a Swedish company got a few alternative configurations when putting together a system, here's some options, I'd like to hear your opinions on what to pick in order to make it as silent as possible.

I'm looking for a somewhat fast silent system for office work, no gaming or advanced photoshop work etc

processor: AMD athlon xp 2000+ 1.67GHz 384K $88
memory: 256mb pc2700, 333MHz ($50)
motherboard: pc2700 asrock k7vm2 ($75)
harddrive: seagata barracuda 120gb 7200.7 8mb $117 (suppose to be extra silent)
case: miditower compucase LX6A21, 300w ($95)
(the power supply in this case is as far as i know called HEC 300lr-pt)

here are the alternatives to the above.
processor i just dont know, amd xp 2000+ is probably enough, could change for xp 2200 ($92) xp 2400 ($106) but dont know it will be worth it.
memory im considering buying 512mb instead: but that would cost me $110
motherboard here im clueless and pretty much picked the cheapest one, the alternatives are:
pc2700 ecs k7s5a $83
or 2xpc3200 a7n8xdl (sata, 1394) $147 this motherboard is marked as being more quiet, dont know if it is.
harddrive, is there a more silent than the barracuda? alternatives are:
maxtor 120gb 8mb marked as "silent" not sure of which maxtor it is. $118

then we need to pick a case... im not sure the power supply included in the compucase is silent enough so maybe im better off with buying a case and power supply separately, if so i can choose:

for case: midtower noise control chieftec bx03 with magic fleece on teh inside $133
and for power supply: SeaSonic Ss-300Ft 300 Watt New extreme silent PSU, Super Low Noise Fan 120mm $32.

sorry for the long post, how would you pick and put together from the above? i'd like to keep it as cheap as possible unless there's some BIG improvements gained by stepping up a little in price...

and what kinda level of silence can i expect with the above systems? any guesses? are we talking 25db? 30db? 35db?
thanks for any input here...

just want to know if it's worth putting a system like the above together, or if im better off with a dell :-)

ruprag
Posts: 323
Joined: Sun Apr 27, 2003 7:02 am
Location: Reykjavík, Iceland

Post by ruprag » Thu Dec 11, 2003 3:10 am

About the motherboard I'd make sure that there are NO fans on it (many motherboards have tiny whiny loud fans)

What GPU will you have ?? (built in or on a card) ?

The same goes for the GPU (actually I'd recomend Matrox 450 or somesuch, dual monitor support and silent)

lightforce
Posts: 101
Joined: Tue Dec 09, 2003 3:01 pm

Post by lightforce » Thu Dec 11, 2003 3:26 am

i will probably settle for inbuilt since im no gamer

ruprag
Posts: 323
Joined: Sun Apr 27, 2003 7:02 am
Location: Reykjavík, Iceland

Post by ruprag » Thu Dec 11, 2003 4:09 am

Still it is better to go for matrox, there is nothing out there that has better quality 2D !!

If you use your computer all day long then it is definetly worth it (I have a 450 at work and it is wonderful :-))

However you can always add that later.

Finding a motherboard without a fan and with inbuilt might be a problem though !!

Sam Williams
Posts: 158
Joined: Wed Oct 15, 2003 6:21 pm
Location: Great Britain

Post by Sam Williams » Mon Dec 15, 2003 9:41 am

Finding a motherboard without a fan and with inbuilt might be a problem though !!
Is it usually possible to simply unplug and/or remove fans from motherboards?

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