Think im ready to buy, any warnings on my system

[GamingGod]

$165-190...Ati Radeon 9500pro
$ 65..........SB Audigy oem
$ 70..........Altec lansing 251 5.1
$165.........2.4ghz intel
$ 85..........Albatron 845PE
$ 72..........Kingston 512 2700
$105.........Western Digital 80/8mbcache
$735 Total

This system will not be overclocked, it will be mainly used for gaming and stability is important to me. I know that the hardrive will be loud but I will be suspening it, and right now seagate harddrives just cant compete as far as speed goes. Im on a very tight budget so if you have any suggestions, comments, or warnings it would be greatly appreciated but keep in mind that im on a budget. I may be changing the stock intel cooler out eventually, if I found it too loud, but that will have to wait till I have more money, same thing with the radeon9500pro.

[Tore]

I know that the hardrive will be loud but I will be suspening it, and right now seagate harddrives just cant compete as far as speed goes.

Does modern games really tax the harddrive so much that HD speed matters? I don't play much games, but I've never been bothered by HD speed even when editing video with a 5400 RPM HD. Only time I can think of when I would wish the HD would be faster, is during defrag

[GamingGod]

Well level load times can be a bitch sometimes. And the difference between a seagate and a wd would be about 10 seconds less time to wait on some games.

[jinu117]

$165-190...Ati Radeon 9500pro
$ 65..........SB Audigy oem
$ 70..........Altec lansing 251 5.1
$165.........2.4ghz intel
$ 85..........Albatron 845PE
$ 72..........Kingston 512 2700
$105.........Western Digital 80/8mbcache
$735 Total

This system will not be overclocked, it will be mainly used for gaming and stability is important to me. I know that the hardrive will be loud but I will be suspening it, and right now seagate harddrives just cant compete as far as speed goes. Im on a very tight budget so if you have any suggestions, comments, or warnings it would be greatly appreciated but keep in mind that im on a budget. I may be changing the stock intel cooler out eventually, if I found it too loud, but that will have to wait till I have more money, same thing with the radeon9500pro.

Sounds very good. Contrary to what people think, WD800JB or WD800BB is rather quiet compared to its siblings which gets the highlights (WD2000JB) by factor of more than 50%. One thing I was wondering about was the case... I would not skimp on case... directron has kingwin varient of case without the windows at about $100-110 which is very reasonable and more than enough for expansion. My opinion on silencing computer is balance of airflow and low speed fan. Kingwin cases are typically quieter than comparible case with similar airflow to begin with.
Oh, another thing, drop the Audigy if you are on budget. As long as MB has onboard sound, stick with it. The only reason I have audigy was problem with compatiblity in a game (AC2) and I thought it might fix it... only to find out the game should be in beta still... -_-; I have it on my system just because I already have it but would have forgone (with the speaker you mentioned, I will be surprised if you find difference with audigy vs on board sound in quality)

[jamoore9]

Instead of an 845PE board, I would go for an SiS 648 board. It performs stably at DDR400 and supports ATA-133 RAID, AGP8x, FireWire, USB 2.0, and 10/100 LAN (and Serial ATA if you get the right board) so its more future-proof compared to the 845PE. Plus (and importantly), SiS North and Southbridge chips run MUCH cooler than Intel chips and only require passive cooling (and won't contribute to overall case temps).

In terms of performance, it comes in just a hair behind the 845PE at DDR333, and a hair in front at DDR400. The PC3200 DIMMs will cost a little bit more than PC2700 (but only a few dollars), while a decent 648 board will cost about the same as the Albatron.

And ditto on the Audigy. Those 251 speaks will sound exactly the same out of your AC97 board as they will from the Audigy.

Hope that helps! Otherwise this system looks great. I wouldn't worry about the Radeon 9500 Pro. For the money, its a WAY better value than the 9700 Pro.

[TheMuffinMan]

I have a WD400 and it WHINES like crazy. I had to put it in a box, in foam, and then another box to shut it up, and it's nowhere near completely silent.

[JWarrior]

In case you do decide to change your mind about getting a seagate drive, an 80 MB seagate barracuda IV can be had for under $85 from dell including shipping, but only if you buy by midnight Thursday.

http://forums.silentpcreview.com//viewtopic.php?t=3482

[jamoore9]

I forgot about the drive. I have a WD800JB (8meg cache) and it is pretty loud. I'm not sure if suspending it will work, because its got a lot of rotational noise, and suspending only seems to work for vibrational noise. I have been meaning to experiment with mine, but I'm been pretty busy at work lately and haven't had the energy.

If I were you, I would go with the new Maxtor 80GB. It also has an 8MB cache, but has fluid bearings like a Seagate. By all accounts, its not as quiet as a Seagate, but its definitely quieter than the WD, and you can probably suspend it with better results. I started a thread on it a while back and that seemed to be the concensus (other than flaming me for not wanting the seagate because its slow). The Maxtor also will almost keep up with the WD. Its not quite as fast, but it might be a decent trade-off for the noise decrease.

[MikeC]

The other quiet performance option is an IBM 180GXP - ranked second only to the 'cuda in noise and a very close second to the WD2000JB in performance, according to Storage Review. The 1-platter 60G is rated at only 2.6 Bel and should run cooler than SR's tested 180G 3-platter model.

[GamingGod]

At storagereview the ibm 60 and 120 drives are louder than the wd800jb. Only the 180 seems to be quieter and its too expensive for me.

[Myrkle]

At storagereview the ibm 60 and 120 drives are louder than the wd800jb. Only the 180 seems to be quieter and its too expensive for me.

Just to be clear, it's the 60GXP and 120GXP series drives which are louder, the 180GXP are quieter. The 180GXP drives come in the following sizes: 60GB (single platter, quietest), 80GB, 120GB, and 180GB. I just bought a 60GB for $83 which I don't think is too expensive.

[GamingGod]

oh i just assumed that the model number went with the capacity 60gxp=60gig ect. well ive got time, im in no rush ill look around a little longer and maybe a new fast and quiet drive will come out soon.

[jamoore9]

The Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 Serial ATA edition is coming out in March. FDB and SATA. That sounds like a good combo.

Of course, a few reviews have noted that SATA did very little performance wise for the Cuda V, so maybe it won't effect the Maxtor all that much, either.

[1HandClapping]

The Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 Serial ATA edition is coming out in March. FDB and SATA. That sounds like a good combo.

Of course, a few reviews have noted that SATA did very little performance wise for the Cuda V, so maybe it won't effect the Maxtor all that much, either.

Do you know if the tests used:
* A motherboard with built in SATA
* An adaptor to the Parallel ATA
* A PCI SATA card?

[MikeC]

Given that current IDE drives are not really limited even by ATA66, there's no reason to expect any significant performance gains with SATA. The limitations are in the latency of the drives, which likely won't improve dramatically till spin rate is bumped -- to 10,000 rpm. The main gain with SATA, IMHO, is the thin & long cabling: neater cleaner interiors with less airflow obstruction, & the option for remote drive location.