Need advice for Sub $1000CAD silent PC

andrewln · Post by **andrewln** » Tue Dec 27, 2005 10:23 pm

I'm trying to build my next PC over this month and need advice

Case: Antec P180 (white) or Antec P150 (includes HE430)
PS: Antec Neo HE430
Mobo: DFI UT NF4 Utra-D
CPU: AMD Athlon64 3000+ or Operton 144 (overclock)
CPU HS: Scythe Ninja SCNJ-1000
Ram: 2x512MB DDR (i'm not sure what model to get)
Video: Gigabyte GV-NX66T128D-SP (6600GT, Passive cooled)
HD: 250GB SATA II but don't know which one (Maxtor DiamondMax10, MAXLINE III or Seagte 7200.9)
about $1000cad before tax (14.5% here! blah)

Leadtek WinFast TV2000 XP Expert PCI (pulled from old system)
Pionner 109@A09 black (pulled)

Things to upgrade as time goes:
1) 2GB of ram (was thinking of getting 1GB now, sacrificing Dual channel for a while, since it will only be max 5% drop in performace so i don't have to fill the 4 slots in T2 timing)
2) Dual Core X2
3) Another HD or I-RAM 2(haha)
4) 6600GT SLI

i'm casual gamer, want this PC to last quite a while (vista comes out) as upgrading tiny parts of the system

I'm trying to balance according

price 30% (under $1000cad)
silent 30% (i will spend extra on silent than performance)
upgrade life 25% (can sacrafice some performace than can upgrade later on)
performace 15% (Games i want to play now: NFS most wanted, Prince of Persia, AOE III at highest settings @ 1280x1024 with Samsung 930FB 19"LCD)

Will I encounter any problems in a long run (after i upgraded), like PSU not enough juice, cooling, stock hs in DFI

Thank you, for your time
Andrew Lin

~El~Jefe~ · Post by **~El~Jefe~** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 9:25 pm

1 gig now and sacrificing the dual channel is the BEST option to do. CAD and in general, windowsxp, loves 2 gigs of memory. AMD generally loves 2 sticks vs 4 sticks, so really, for a winter 2005/6 machine, 2 giggers is the way to go, or at least shoot for.

The card choice is decent, CAD isnt that demanding normally. I doubt you are trying to design Diablo III or a new model for the Twin Towers.

The card will lack in about a year, but for now does do great for the price and wattage.

I would look into the samsung spinpoint 120 and suspend it. It has MikeC's stamp of approval. It comes in 200 and 250 gb sizes. you need 500 eh??

some will say SLI is not a good option for you price to performance wise. really though, for an on the cheap system, you will get very nice frames from 2 6600GT's in sli.

only problem is cooling them. 1 fast card is possible with big coolers and big slow moving fans, 2 next to one another is difficult by spcr standards.

would it break the bank to go for a x800 XL or a 6800 GS?

m0002a · Post by **m0002a** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 9:52 pm

~El~Jefe~ wrote:1 gig now and sacrificing the dual channel is the BEST option to do. CAD and in general, windowsxp, loves 2 gigs of memory. AMD generally loves 2 sticks vs 4 sticks, so really, for a winter 2005/6 machine, 2 giggers is the way to go, or at least shoot for.

The card choice is decent, CAD isnt that demanding normally. I doubt you are trying to design Diablo III or a new model for the Twin Towers.

I think when the OP says CAD he means Canadian dollars, not CAD software.

andrewln · Post by **andrewln** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 10:34 pm

yap yap..sorry that it was misleading...i meant canadian dollars

I could wait for a few weeks and get enough funding to go for 6800GS, but is it worth it?

and for the hard drive... how about 160GB Segate 7200.9(1 platter, low heat/noice) and then add in another hard drive later on if i need the space)

Thank you for your advice
Andrew Lin

tjpark1111 · Post by **tjpark1111** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 11:02 pm

i dunno if you read the review, but the 7200.9 single-platter 160GB is even lourder than a 74GB raptor in seek mode, by 5dba or so! I would suggest the samsung spinpoint as was pointed out by another member. I would go for a seasonic s12-430 because it'll help better with cooling equipped with a larger 120mm fan. Swap out the fans in the case for a nexus/yate loon and undervolt using the motherboard, or get a fan controller, if you can't stand the noise of the antec tri-cooling fans on the low setting. If you're playing those kind of games, a 6600GT will be fine, but you said you wanted a long-lasting system that can be upgraded once in a while. That said, a passive GPU is not good, ESPECIALLY considering that the P180 has very weak airflow around that area, hence Antec adding in that GPU cooling duct because of that. You also suggested SLl, and the heatpipes might get in the way of SLI, but that's just my thought, I'm probably wrong, but at the least there would be very little room for air to go between the 2 video cards to cool the pipes. I would just say avoid SLI and get a 7800GT which is more than you'll ever need even for a few years at that resolution. It is basically the same price as 2 6600GT's, and you said you would buy 2 6600GT's in the end anyway. I wouldn't say that is unmanagable for you, unless you are on a VERY tight budget. That way, there's less heat, better airflow, etc. If the price of the 7800GT is a bit too much, get an ATI Sapphire X800GTO2($200) and unlock it to an X850XT PE, with an arctic cooling AT Silencer on it. The nVidia XFX 6800GS($200) is also an option if you can't afford the cooler and don't want to deal with soft-modding that card. The X800GTO2 is a much better value if you can deal with it though.
Next, I think you might want to get an IDE HDD from a B&M store with much more space for much less money. In actual tests, SATA2 offers very minimal performance gains from IDE.(unless you want to keep drooling at high burst rates in benchmarks and not care about real-life performance) I really can't assume what kind of sales occur in Canada, but at least in the US, you can occasionally(every other week)can get a 300GB IDE for $60~70 after rebate. That should cover the costs of the more expensive video card.
Now, you said you were unsure about ram, and for cost-cutting measures, value ram will work excellent. I think this rig should work excellent for you. You are very smart to wait for dual-core prices to drop and giving up dual-channel for 2 sticks of 2gig. Good luck!

andrewln · Post by **andrewln** » Sun Jan 01, 2006 12:00 am

Thankx for your advise

I didn't know Seagate makes a loud seek noice. But how about warranty? the Seagate are 5 years but i belive Samsungs/Hitachi are only 1 year?

how about the Hitachi single plater that is recently reviewed?

If i'm not going for a SLI, i don't think i should go for that motherboard? there are cheaper option and got put money on the video card

then i can for a asus moterhboard and save about $30 on it

I can get
Artic Colling $30
6600GT $160
6600GT (fanless) $200
Evga 6800GS for $230
X800GTO $210 (Can i mod this into X850XT PE?) + 30 = $240
X800GTO fanless $250
X800GT02 $260 +30 = $290
EVGA 7800GT CO SE $370 (but i don't need Vivo)

what is the difference between GTO and GTO2?

Thankx

qviri · Post by **qviri** » Sun Jan 01, 2006 9:13 am

andrewln wrote:I didn't know Seagate makes a loud seek noice. But how about warranty? the Seagate are 5 years but i belive Samsungs/Hitachi are only 1 year?

New Samsungs have three years, I was just checking the prices on NCIX lately and it said three years.

By which time they'll probably be obsolete anyway.

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Sun Jan 01, 2006 7:44 pm

Greetings,

Well, it is gutsy to include a P180 in a "budget" system! I would go with an Evercase, myself -- it is only $100-120US less, even counting the fact that you have to buy a case fan.

That would let you buy the RAM you want, with money left over? Both sticks of 512MB are ~$75US.

How much is the Antec Neo? If it is more than a Fortron "Green" 300watt, then you could save a bit there, too.

andrewln · Post by **andrewln** » Sun Jan 01, 2006 11:53 pm

ahh...you are right..P180 is not cheap at all

how about P150 though? that includes an Antec NeoHS430

ronrem · Post by **ronrem** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 5:37 pm

Coolmax CR 450 psu,140mm 1000rpm fan and under $50 US dollars,but not sure about any SLI issues. I heard Seagate's latest series of SATA HDs are quieter,but I'd go for the 200 gb Samsungs,for sure quiet,a fast SATA 2 and 3 yr guarantee

spolitta · Post by **spolitta** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 11:12 pm

I do have some experince with parts you listed so here is what I can tell you.

P180 is overkill for that setup, get the P150 and save money instead buy faster ram for better OC.

Larg hard drives are more like a lottery, you will have a better chance if you go for Samsung. I were you I would get two Samsung P80 SATA 160GB.

FYI Ultra-D is a great board but has a very noisy NB fan which is hard to swap.

also forget about passive video cards, get the 6800gs and buy a the VF700 for it. 6600gt is a really slow card, and its a waste of money because its near a huge price drop. 7800gt are getting really cheap now, it was on boxing sale for 299 CAN (not anymore) . I would get a cheap X300 for now till a price drop for the 7800gt series.

and FYI 6600GT SLi is a tottal waste of money and time.

andrewln · Post by **andrewln** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 9:30 am

thankx for the replies! the final system will somewut like this

Case: Antec P150 (w/ Antec HE430 PS)
Mobo: DFI UT NF4 Utra-D
Chipset cooler: Zalman NB47J Fanless NB (replacing the fan)
CPU: AMD Athlon64 Venice (2nd hand to save money)
CPU HS: Scythe Ninja SCNJ-1000 (fanless)
Ram: 1024MB DDR ram with 'ok' timing (sacrificing Dual channel for a while then upgrade another stick)
GPU: 6800GS or 7800GT(if i have enough)
GPU HS: Artic Cooling Silencer 5 (if needed)
HD: Samsung Spintpoint P series160GB 8MB cache (lowest noice of all, upgrade as i need to, don't need more than 200GB for now)
Tuner: Leadtek WinFast TV2000 XP Expert PCI (pulled from old system)
Media: Pionner 109@A09 black (pulled)

moritz · Post by **moritz** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 11:17 am

I'm in the same boat as you and I'll probably end up buying much the same components. It doesn't feel like a good moment to buy a graphics card I'm afraid - the 6600 GT was a great choice 6 months ago, but at this point is just not fast enough anymore, the 6800GS is old tech and not exactly cheap either, and the 7800 GT is still really expensive. I'd probably be inclined to go with a 6800GS + Silencer on low RPM. That's the crux with having a somewhat high-end LCD - you pretty much need a somewhat high-end graphics card to drive it at a native resolution.

Enjoy your system!

spolitta · Post by **spolitta** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 1:11 pm

andrewln wrote:thankx for the replies! the final system will somewut like this

Case: Antec P150 (w/ Antec HE430 PS)
Mobo: DFI UT NF4 Utra-D
Chipset cooler: Zalman NB47J Fanless NB (replacing the fan)
CPU: AMD Athlon64 Venice (2nd hand to save money)
CPU HS: Scythe Ninja SCNJ-1000 (fanless)
Ram: 1024MB DDR ram with 'ok' timing (sacrificing Dual channel for a while then upgrade another stick)
GPU: 6800GS or 7800GT(if i have enough)
GPU HS: Artic Cooling Silencer 5 (if needed)
HD: Samsung Spintpoint P series160GB 8MB cache (lowest noice of all, upgrade as i need to, don't need more than 200GB for now)
Tuner: Leadtek WinFast TV2000 XP Expert PCI (pulled from old system)
Media: Pionner 109@A09 black (pulled)

that sounds very good, just make sure you will actually buy Samsung P80 not the P120. its SP1614C

Also consider getting two Nexus fans 120mm and one 92mm, plus a fan controller.

good luck.