Quiet pc. What do you think of my system?

[larsjohansson]

I'm planning on buying at the end of this month. If you got any suggestions/recommendations please feel free to help me.

Antec solo
Corsair hx 520
Asus P5B Deluxe
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.40GHz
Corsair XMS2-6400 TWIN2X2048-6400 2x1024MB
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB 7200rpm 16MB cache SATA2
Asus DRW-1814BLT Dual-Layer DVD
Gigabyte GeForce 7600GT SilentPipe II 256MB DDR3
Thermalright Ultra-120
2 * Scythe S-Flex 12CM FAN 8.7dB
2 * 92 MM FAN

The motherboard has i965 chipset, is i975x a better choice?

I'm considering getting a E6300 and overclock instead of the E6600, for better value. But will this be at expense of quietness?

Unfortunetaly I can't order Nexus fans from my store. Otherwise those would probably be my choice for both 12CM case/cpu fan and 92MM harddrive fans. I think the Scythe 12CM fans are good though, but I don't know about the 92MM. You got any suggestions?

On another note, I've read alot of posts saying to wait for DX10 graphiccards that run vista. Wont my graphiccard run vista? Should I wait for a better one?

I would really appreciate some answers. I've been surfing so much these last weeks my eyes are spinning from all hardwaretests

[Erssa]

The motherboard has i965 chipset, is i975x a better choice?

Depends what you mean by better? Better as in more quiet, no.

I'm considering getting a E6300 and overclock instead of the E6600, for better value. But will this be at expense of quietness?

Probably not.

Unfortunetaly I can't order Nexus fans from my store. Otherwise those would probably be my choice for both 12CM case/cpu fan and 92MM harddrive fans. I think the Scythe 12CM fans are good though, but I don't know about the 92MM. You got any suggestions?

Scythe fans are good, but imo, you don't really need the 92mm fans.

On another note, I've read alot of posts saying to wait for DX10 graphiccards that run vista. Wont my graphiccard run vista? Should I wait for a better one?

Vista will run with your graphics card, don't wait.

Antec solo
Corsair hx 520
Asus P5B Deluxe
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.40GHz
Corsair XMS2-6400 TWIN2X2048-6400 2x1024MB
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB 7200rpm 16MB cache SATA2
Asus DRW-1814BLT Dual-Layer DVD
Gigabyte GeForce 7600GT SilentPipe II 256MB DDR3
Thermalright Ultra-120
2 * Scythe S-Flex 12CM FAN 8.7dB
2 * 92 MM FAN

Overall your choice of components are high end. Some of them might not represent the best value out there, but there should be no problems making a quiet computer out of these. I could criticize your choise of HDD, but I won't since at least Seagate has 5 year warranty.

[jaganath]

Only thing i would change is harddrive, Samsung HD321KJ is much quieter.

[larsjohansson]

Thank you for good and quick answers.

i965 vs i975x, better as in faster, cooler features and whatnot.

So would you recommend getting the E6300 instead of E6600 and overclock it? Are my specs good for OC? Can motherboard and memory handle higher fsb?

By the way is the E6600 good for OC?

I was thinking that the 92MM fan would cool the HD, not necessary? What about air intake?

Will Vista aero run on that graphicscard? Not just vista basic?

Sorry if it seems as if I repeat myself, I just want to be really sure about this. Last time I tried building a quiet pc it was quite loud.

edit: Maybe I'll change the harddrive to a Samsung HD321KJ.

[Erssa]

i965 vs i975x, better as in faster, cooler features and whatnot.

975 boards might have more features and they might be a tad faster. Look at the feature list and figure out, if you are really missing something you'd need or want. I think P5B Deluxe has a wonderful array of features in itself. It's also Anandtech's Gold Editor's Choice, so it can't be bad.

So would you recommend getting the E6300 instead of E6600 and overclock it? Are my specs good for OC? Can motherboard and memory handle higher fsb?

Personally, I would buy E6300 and overclock it, at least your motherboard should be able to handle high fsb, I don't know about the memory, but as it is DDR2-800, you should be able to run your cpu at 7x 400 = 2.8Ghz. That would be faster then stock E6600 and it would be enough, at least for me...

By the way is the E6600 good for OC?

Yes.

I was thinking that the 92MM fan would cool the HD, not necessary? What about air intake?

It's all about personal comfort. How hot hard drives can you handle? I'm confortable with normal temps, so I wouldn't buy an extra fan, just for 1 drive.

Will Vista aero run on that graphicscard? Not just vista basic?

Yes. All modern pci-e graphics support aero (and most modern agp cards as well). Remember that Aero is not a feature in Vista Home Basic.

edit: Maybe I'll change the harddrive to a Samsung HD321KJ.

Good choice.

[Mescalero]

As far as I know for Vista Aero any grahics card with 128MB RAM and DX9 support is enough.

[merlin]

Hi Lars
I'm going to interject a couple things regarding your questions. In terms of 965 vs 975, if you're looking for cool and silent, you should definitely go 965. The amount of power used by your chipset will be far less. Unless you want to go Crossfire(which I doubt), there's no reason to get a 975 board.

OC is dependent on a number of situations, if you are doing this casually, just buy some decent parts and see what happens first.

I certainly don't think hard drive temperature is about personal comfort. It's about hard drive longevity. It's been proven that cooler running drives last longer. I'd consider that a huge bonus to adding a 92mm fan. Now that doesn't mean you need a fast one, but some active hd cooling is a huge help to temperatures.

[Erssa]

I certainly don't think hard drive temperature is about personal comfort. It's about hard drive longevity. It's been proven that cooler running drives last longer. I'd consider that a huge bonus to adding a 92mm fan. Now that doesn't mean you need a fast one, but some active hd cooling is a huge help to temperatures.

It's obvious that overheating drives fail faster then normally cooled drives. But there's also something called redundancy... If you take a normally cooled drive and compare it to one running 7c cooler, there won't be any difference between the life expectancy. Of course I'm purely speculating, because there aren't any studies to prove it one way or the other...

[larsjohansson]

Thanks for all the answers guys. Greatly appreciated.

[pyogenes]

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB 7200rpm 16MB cache SATA2

Loud drive with a high pitch whine. You might want to get something else

The motherboard has i965 chipset, is i975x a better choice?

the P965 motherboards in general use slightly less lower than the 975X motherboards (I think it was Anandtech that did a comparison). However the the P965 and ICH8 chipsets actually draw more power than the 975X and ICH7 chipsets (based on specifications), so it's something else on the MBs that are drawing the extra power.

That said, IIRC the Asus P5B deluxe doesn't have as much control over the fans (can only control CPU and and the other fan headers are all linked). The 975X equivalent (P5W deluxe) can control more of the fan headers independently of each other so it's easier to only ramp up specific fans.

I'm considering getting a E6300 and overclock instead of the E6600, for better value. But will this be at expense of quietness?

Depends. If you have to manually adjust voltage then you won't be able to use speedStep to have the CPU run slower and cooler while idling. If you use auto-voltage selection the motherboard will generally use a higher voltage than it really needs resulting in unnecessary heat production.

On another note, I've read alot of posts saying to wait for DX10 graphiccards that run vista. Wont my graphiccard run vista? Should I wait for a better one?

Aero works without DX10 cards.

[larsjohansson]

Thanks again for replys.

I've changed my configuration a bit.

INTEL E6400 CORE2DUO 2.13GHZ
ASUS P5W DH DELUXE 975X
CORSAIR 2GB DDR2 PC6400 XMS2 XTREME (2X1GB) CAS4
GIGABYTE X1650PRO PCI-E 256MB SILENT2
SAMSUNG 320GB SATAII NCQ 7200RPM 16MB
2*NEXUS CASE FAN 120MM REAL SILENT 23DBA
2*NEXUS CASE FAN 92MM REAL SILENT 19DBA

So the plan is to overclock this processor. I've seen some tests that say that there is no problem getting to 2.8GHz. And some other guys OC it to 3.2 GHz. But 2.8 is surely enough for me, then the processor performs as good as or better than the [email protected].

The motherboard is suppose to be real good for OC, and the memory is real fast. So that is all good.

But how about cooling and noise?
I guess the Ultra-120 will cool the processor enough, but maybe not at low fanrates.

I really hope to get a quiet system out of this.

Do you think I should spend the extra money on a E6600 and scrap this overclocking thing, or is it a good idea to get the E6400?

Once again, I really appreciate your insight.