NEED HELP!!! newbie system questions, cant find answers :(

[capleton]

Hey! although im new to the spcr forums, im by no means new to the site. I have been thinking of building a new computer, and all my decisions the past couple months have been largely influenced by this site.

There was no way i would go through with my build without consulting everyone here first.

This is my first time building from scratch, and what im going for is a silent pc to act as a music server for my itunes library using my TV and my stereo (and my wireless keyboard and mouse, hehe). Anyway, thats not really important, here are the specs thet im thinking of right now:


Antec Solution SLK3000-B
SEASONIC S12-500 ATX12V 500W Power Supply
ASUS A8N-E Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Winchester Socket 939 Processor
CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184 DDR SDRAM 400 (PC 3200)
ASUS Radeon X300SE 128MB DDR PCI-Express x16 Video Card
2x Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 ST3250823AS 250GB 7200 NCQ in raid1
THERMALRIGHT XP-90 Heatsink
ZALMAN ZM-NB47J Aluminium NorthBridge Chipset Cooler

and I want to get a 92mm Nexus fan for the XP-90, but i dont know where to get one? anybody have any suggestions? I live in Maine.

Also, does anybody know what the noise difference would be between the S12-500 and the 430w? I looked through some threads, but nobody had a definitive answer.

And im not sure if anybody can help me with these, but is RAID1 easy enough to implement for a newbie? and can I implement a hot-swap drive eventually into the array with the a8n-e board? also, will the zalman nb cooler interfere with the pci-e cards I will put in (i am waiting for a pci-e sound card). If somebody is willing to tell me how to add links, I can show you what im talking about.

anyway, i know there is a lot here, i might take out some questions and put them into other threads. Anyway, any help would really be AWESOME.

Thanks.

SPCR RULES!

[capleton]

i dont know how big those cards usually are, so i dont know if the zalman nb would interfere.

[m0002a]

The S12-500/600 are much noisier than the 430/380/330 models.

Anyway, the S12-500 is way too much power for what you have. I am running the S12-380 with the following:

Antec 3700-BQE (replaced rear fan with Nexus at 12V)
Seasonic S12-380 (sold BQE PSU on Ebay)
Asus A8N-E MB
AMD64 3500+ .90
THermalright XP-120 with Nexus 120 at 12V
1GB Corsair 3200C2PT (2 x 512)
Leadtek 6600GT w/ Zalman VF700 AlCu at 5V
SoundBlaster Audigy2 ZS
Plextor PX-716A
Floppy
2 WD 160 GB SATA drives
Zalman ZM-NB47J RT (replaced stock chipset cooler)

[m0002a]

i dont know how big those cards usually are, so i dont know if the zalman nb would interfere.

Here is a pic of my Asus A8N-E with a Leadtek 6600GT with Zalman VF700 and Zalman chipset cooler.

[m0002a]

And im not sure if anybody can help me with these, but is RAID1 easy enough to implement for a newbie? and can I implement a hot-swap drive eventually into the array with the a8n-e board? also, will the zalman nb cooler interfere with the pci-e cards I will put in (i am waiting for a pci-e sound card). If somebody is willing to tell me how to add links, I can show you what im talking about.

Cheapest source for Nexus fans seems to be http://www.jab-tech.com/customer/produc ... =80&page=1
But pay attention to in-stock status (this forum has a lot of market influence).

Are you sure you want RAID-1? That is disk mirroring, so the system will write everything to 2 disks at the same time. So with two 250 MB drives, you will have a total of 250 MB of disk space.

On my A8N-E with 2 WD SATA drives isntalled as JBOD (no RAID), the drives are listed as removable devices in the XP system tray (along with a USB cable modem that I have). So I assume they are hot swapable. You can download the Asus user manual from their website.

[Lawrence Lee]

Swap the hard drives with ones that support AAM.

[m0002a]

Swap the hard drives with ones that support AAM.

I have 2 WD drives without AAM and can't hear them idle or seek. But they are probably a little better mounted than most disks:
http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=10450

I don't know anything about how quiet/noisy the Seagates are.

[capleton]

thanks for all the help!!!!

yes, i do want raid 1 b/c i lost a lot of valuable stuff a couple years ago and have been paranoid about drive failure since.

i think i miss-named what i thought to be a hot swap drive. what i wanted was capability to use another drive in the array that would stay dormant, then when a drive fails, would automaticaly rebuild the array.

as for the psu, i want something that will have connectivity for 3 sata drives, and a pci-e hookup in case i choose to upgrade, thats why i was looking at the s12-500. does anybody know anything about the be quiet! psu? or have other suggestions?

ive also been wondering about fan placement, could i benefit from another nexus at the front of the case?

and i was also wondering if the antec case has a dust filter? i havent been able to tell from all the pictures i have seen.


-capleton


SPCR is where its at!

[Tibors]

On my A8N-E with 2 WD SATA drives isntalled as JBOD (no RAID),

You sure about that? I got smacked over my head for saying something like that. It made me instantly aware of never using disks in that way.

[Tibors]

i think i miss-named what i thought to be a hot swap drive. what i wanted was capability to use another drive in the array that would stay dormant, then when a drive fails, would automaticaly rebuild the array.

That third drive on top of the two mirrored ones would be called a hot spare drive. I've seen that only in expensive enterprise level RAID cabinets.

[sthayashi]

Are you sure you want RAID-1? That is disk mirroring, so the system will write everything to 2 disks at the same time. So with two 250 MB drives, you will have a total of 250 MB of disk space.

When a drive fails, you will be glad you have Raid-1. This is really not the place to question data security.

Oh, and though I agree with the recommendation, the S12-500 isn't necessarily MUCH louder than the smaller models. But it does move more air at idle (and hence will make more noise). It uses a higher powered fan of the same family. So you are better off using a 430 or less. Though frankly, I'd be impressed if you're drawing even 150W DC.

[m0002a]

thanks for all the help!!!!

yes, i do want raid 1 b/c i lost a lot of valuable stuff a couple years ago and have been paranoid about drive failure since.

i think i miss-named what i thought to be a hot swap drive. what i wanted was capability to use another drive in the array that would stay dormant, then when a drive fails, would automaticaly rebuild the array.

as for the psu, i want something that will have connectivity for 3 sata drives, and a pci-e hookup in case i choose to upgrade, thats why i was looking at the s12-500. does anybody know anything about the be quiet! psu? or have other suggestions?

ive also been wondering about fan placement, could i benefit from another nexus at the front of the case?

and i was also wondering if the antec case has a dust filter? i havent been able to tell from all the pictures i have seen.-capleton

As already mentioned in another thread, You can convert the regular molex power adapater to a PCI plug with an adapter (included with most SATA drives).

You can also use an adapter for a video card that requires a PCI-e power connector direct to the video card. However, even a Nvidia 6600GT (about $200) does not require such a direct power adapter. So this is a non-issue either way.

The Seasonics are more powerful than most other PSU's of the same rating. A S12-430 is more than enough power for your PC, even if you upgrade your video card. I know it is hard to adjust your thinking abut PSU's if you have ever been on other forums, but the truth is the truth, and you likely will not find a PSU (with fan) than is quietier than the S12-430/380.

I don't know if the Asus RAID-1 will automatically rebuild a failed drive using a 3rd disk that is in standby mode. Check the User Manual.

Some people use a Nexus 120 on the front intake of the case. There is a filter that is removable. You should be able to see it on the Antec website where they have a parts explosion drawing of their cases.

[m0002a]

Are you sure you want RAID-1? That is disk mirroring, so the system will write everything to 2 disks at the same time. So with two 250 MB drives, you will have a total of 250 MB of disk space.

When a drive fails, you will be glad you have Raid-1. This is really not the place to question data security.

I was not questioning data security. I was just asking if he understood what RAID-1 was, so that I could answer the question.

I always use at least two physical drives in my systems. But I use JBOD and backup critical files on a daily basis to the other drive (using a zip files and a script), and I also create a complete partition image backup and store it on the other drive about once a month. This allows me to compress the backups and save space over what I would use for RAID-1 and also not degrade system performance for the overhead of writing to two drives at once (although the overhead may be slight).

Having two usable physical drives allows me to put the Windows swap file and other data/temp files on a separate physical disk than the C: drive, which gains a bit more performance.

As long as I backup data to the “other drive” 1==>2 or 2==>1, then I feel relatively safe. If I needed realtime recovery from disk failures, I would have 3 or disks and use RAID-5. This provides better disk space utilization than RAID-1.

[capleton]

awesome!

I saw the diagram with the dust filter, thank you!

alright, i think i will opt for the lower wattage s12. will the 380 be sufficient, or should i opt for a 430? I will eventually throw in an audigy 4, or eventually an even better card once it comes out. and i will probably have 4 sata drives running in it.


as for my question about fan placement, from what i understand positive pressure is better (provides more system longevity? -dont understand how), anyway, how could I configure fans in the 3000b case to do that and cool the hard drives. I also read that although a fan in the front of the case will cool the drives, it will raise cpu temps by almost 8degrees celcius (i can look back and find the thread if need be) any thoughts on all this?

also, m0002a,

do you use the auto-underclock auto-overclock feature on the a8n-e? how does it work?

and im thinking of putting a fanless videocard into that pci-e slot, im afraid of creating a heat pocket between the card and the nb cooler, should i be worried about that?

thanks for all the help,

-capleton




SPCR is the best thing to happen in computing

[capleton]

thats the card im going to put in. does it look any longer than your 6600GT?

[m0002a]

thats the card im going to put in. does it look any longer than your 6600GT?

Looking at the NewEgg website and straight-on angle pics, the X300SE card is about the same or maybe shorter than my 6600GT. But the real issue is the heatsink, and my VF700 sticks out a lot more than the passive HS on the X300SE. The chipset cooler is really only a problem for the second slot, or a card in the first slot that extends to the second slot, like VF700. I don’t think your X300SE would be any problem.

The S12-380 will be sufficient, but if the 430 makes you feel better, go for it. They are both noticeably quieter than the 500 and most other PSU's with fans.

I am using all defaults for clocking and voltage. I use my computer for my home office where reliability is paramount, and it is fast enough and quiet enough “as is.”

You could add a slow speed fan somewhere to blow on the video card and chipset if you are concerned.

[samwc912]

Hi capleton

Are you only going to use this new pc for server and music? If that's the only thing you're going to use it for, I think that a s939 motherboard and and amd64 3000+ is a bit too much. Althought these two are very good in terms of power/cost ratio. 1 gig of ram is a bit too much also.

But usually for a media center (no games, only music and video), I would go for a socket A motherboard and a sempron cpu. Just a week ago I've built one with:

Asrock k7s41gx @ CAD$49.98
AMD sempron 2400+ @ CAD$78.99

That's a really cheap starting point, and more than enough to handle music and video.

But I do understand the pleasure it can bring by building a powerful system, so the decision is up to you.

Best of luck!

[capleton]

alright, first, thanks for all the help everybody, couldnt have done it w/o yall.

samwc, i do want a somewhat powerfull system, one that can do everything faster, and that has a few added capabilities, like OS monitoring of the raid array (what has your experience been with this m0002a?) and well, kind of like I said, an onboard raid controller.

ok, here is the new plan:


from newegg:
Antec Solution SLK3000-B Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
ASUS A8N-E Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Winchester Integrated into Chip FSB Socket 939 Processor
CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) System Memory Model VS1GBKIT400
THERMALRIGHT XP-90 Heatsink
ZALMAN ZM-NB47J Aluminium NorthBridge Chipset Cooler
Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 ST3250823AS 250GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive (NCQ)
SEASONIC S12-380 ATX12V 330W Power Supply
ASUS Radeon X300SE 128MB DDR PCI-Express x16 Video Card
MITSUMI FA404A/404M 8-in-1 USB2.0 Digital Card Reader/Writer W/FD internal
CREATIVE Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS 70SB035000000 8 (7.1)

from jab-tech.com:
nexus 92mm fan (to go with the xp-90)


what do people think?

[capleton]

(two of those seagates)

[m0002a]

SEASONIC S12-380 ATX12V 330W Power Supply

from jab-tech.com:
nexus 92mm fan (to go with the xp-90)

Is this a misprint? The S12-380 is a 380W Power Supply.

For some reason, NewEgg has very high prices on the XP Thermalright heatsinks. I would get the XP-90 from jab-tech.com

[capleton]

hey. i think that is a newegg misprint. they list the s12-380 as delivering 330w power. i dont know, do you think i should get in touch with them?

also, i couldnt find the xp-90 in alluminum at jab-tech, they only have the copper version (granted for the same price as the allum. on newegg) I was considering getting that heatsink, but i thought the weight would be too strong, i also did a post about that;

http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=21606

am i looking in the wrong spot on jab-tech?
is there another website where i could find both the xp-90 and the nexus 92mm? (i want to buy from as few retailers as possible)

thanks bro,

-capleton

[m0002a]

http://www.jab-tech.com/customer/produc ... 169&page=1
$29.00 includes a fan, but probably too noisy unless you run it at 5V

Am I getting paid for this?

[capleton]

well you are getting paid in making yourself look like an absolute god, and me like a wanna-be. Thanks sooo much bro, you have no idea how helpful all this is.

my very last question is how do i know if stuff is in stock at jab-tech or not?

thanks again,
-capleton


I think i might start a new thread now and see what other people think of the new system itself, what do you think?

[m0002a]

I looks like their website only indicates when it is not in stock, like the Nexus 120 fan at the moment.

[capleton]

awesome, thanks a lot. alright, im gonna start a new thread now and see what the overall consensus is on my new system. Thanks soo much for all the help!

-capleton