[Icarium]

I know there are a few threads out there and I've given them a cursory look over, but the comp. hardware industry moves fast and every person's personal situation is different.

Basically, my personal conditions for considering a new computer are coming to fruition with a stable job and vista/directx10 coming out. I will probably wait until the next generation directx10 cards come out and some games come out or vista is ironed out... but I am not a big gamer by any means nowadays so maybe not!

I am definitely not a person that enjoys performing heavy customization or anything that takes a good amount of DIY. This is basically due to fear of destroying something and laziness.

My budget probably would be in the 2000-3000 dollar range and the components I will definitely be wanting in it are something like:
A couple models down from whatever currently is the fad processor. It's looking like Intel is in dominance atm. so perhaps one of the quad cores or dual cores.
A reasonably high end non-server class motherboard.
Enough decent ram (2-4 gigs)
1 top of the line video card: Enough to drive 2 24" monitors and play some games at reasonable quality/fps.
1 raptor drive for OS/Apps
1 sata 2 drive non raptor drive for storage
Probably 2 dvd burner drives that have a good rep for being quiet and good at playback/ripping.
Emu 1212m
Mid-range X-Fi

Things I have now that will be attached:
Emu 0404 USB
Headroom Home Amp (Old)
Senn. hd 650s with stock cable.
AT W5000s.

I'm considering putting in a water cooling system if I can find a good/polished kit that is highly regarded, easy to install and reliable.
I currently have a system in an antec p180 case.. It really wasn't as quiet as I would have hoped and frankly is quiet loud now after I've dinged it up by bringing it to numerous lan parties. I would consider getting one again.. but given how cramped it is inside due to design I don't think it would be very accomodating for a water-cooled system since it isn't designed for one. So recommendations for a good case would be keen.
Powersupply... I've been thinking about getting a Seasonic one... but I haven't really looked at those for awhile.

So yeah. Recommendations for water cooling systems/cases/power supplies/other silencing measures would be all appreciated.

Also feel free to try and convince me out of putting in any of the things that I listed previously.

I know by not dedicating my machine to music and including performance parts may hinder things... but I'm just not that hardcore yet to have a fully dedicated machine.

P.S.

My current system looks something like this:
Athlon x2 4200+ processor
Asus Board - whichever one was rated decent at the time but not the most premium model
Geforce 7800 GT
2 gigs of some plat. OCZ ram
Raptor 150 giger
Some maxtor or WD sata 2 drive
Audigy 2 zs plat
Pioneer 16x dvd burner
TDK 52x CD burner.
Antec P180 case (Very busted up, the door is gone)

 

[uzziah]

on the issue of "no DIY experience" i'll say: i built my first pc with just a little learned online, and it was a BREEZE. building your own PC is really not difficult; you basically plug the stuff in turn it on

if you can build an ikea cabinet you can buld a PC

 

[Icarium]

Oh, my bad. By DIY I mean stuff more like... well I had this one friend who was so hardcore that he made himself a case out of wood since it muffled sound more and had plans on pouring himself a concrete case for the case and to house the harddrives or something... and a styrofoam case.

I can put together a computer from standard components np.

 

[Bones13]

www.silentpcreview.com

Core2Duo processor can be cooled easily with a light weight water cooling system, or even passively with a Ninja Scythe. www.maximumpc.com has some water cooling system reviews. Their recent issuse has some mboard reviews as well.

I don't know of any optical drive that is actually quiet during action. I use Plextor SATA drives. They are somewhat quiet if not running in fast speed.

If you get a raptor, you need to look into an enclosure box, because they are all loud. Great drive reviews in Silent PC Forums.

There are some nice passively cooled Nvidia based cards to be found, but they are off the curve somewhat. Mine (7950) plays Lord of the Rings Online pretty well, and WoW is easy. I don't play the more demanding FPS games.

Going passive with CPU and Video cooling does take some care with your case design and fan choices, but the large 120 fans can be pretty quiet. If you are needing a bigger video choice, you might should spend more time looking at water cooling. Just remember that many other items in the computer box are essentially passively cooled, and require air movement in the case (optical and hard drives, northbridge, southbridge, voltage regulators, and memory to mention some) be sure to get these cooled separately if you don't use a fan on a standard CPU cooler.

 

[Ross1]

In my experience, the loudest parts of the PC tend to be the stock CPU fan, and the PSU. Generally case fans dont make too much noise as long as they are 120mm and arent utter rubbish.

You can get a decent CPU fan + heatsink(thermaltake or zalman are good) for £20-30, and then a quiet PSU (seasonic is head and shoulders above IIRC)... and you shouldnt have to worry too much about noise. Once the music is going and your headphones are on you shouldnt notice it.

 

[mshan]

With such a large budget, why don't you just get an Silent PC Review designed, End PC Noise built prebuiilt midtower: http://www.silentpcreview.com/article698-page1.html

http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/...iet_core2.html

 

[SayNoToPistons]

Put it in an enclosed environment (a small closet?) and surround it with dampening. Mkae sure it can breathe though!

 

[Icarium]

Mshan, hrm interesting I may just look into that. Traditionally I like putting it together myself, but I'm a pretty sloppy/haphazard guy so maybe investing in a prebuilt one is worth it for the silence. I'll have to look into that. Thanks for all the other suggestions as well guys!

 

[warrior05]

my latest attempt at building a near silent pc has by far been my best. the only thing i'm hearing is the quiet whir of my 12cm fan. i'm planning on trying a different one to see if i can get it even quieter. but from my experience, the easiest most sure-fire way you can compute in silence is either build a hush box or, as a previous poster mentioned, put it in a closet. because i have fans running at their slowest to promote quiet i have a constant temp monitor telling me how warm the cpu is. gives me piece of mind.

 

[JJ15k]

The key to a high end silent system is watercooling. This way you can have a very big radiator outside the case which doesn t need any fan.
I watercool my cpu and graphic card, bought a fanless PSU and now I only have a 12cm intake, 14cm outake fan on the lowest possible setting to ventilate the case and it s doing great.

 

[joe_cool]

The sound of a few low-speed fans is trivial compared to the noise coming from a DVD drive running at 16X......

 

[mshan]

I'm no silent pc expert, but I've noticed that even with picking quiet components, it's sometimes trial and error to find the combo that has the quietness and noise profile you like or can tolerate. And as the overall noise floor drops, other previously "silent" components now become noticeable (and here the character of the noise becomes more important. e.g. my WD3200KS suspended in an Antec Solo now has annoying seeks, even with AAM enabled. Same system in my previous Antec Sonata and never really noticed them over other broadband transmitted vibrations and subtle airflow turbulance in the case).

SPCR has already done that so I would guess it would be a great plug and play solution, especially given your hefty budget.

I would say just contact End PC Noise about your specific configuration and get a better feel for exactly how quiet they feel they can get it (it probably doesn't have to be completely silent, as long as the overall noise profile is benign).

Other option is to leave your computer in another room, and then hook everything up either wirelessly or wired to your audio stuff and use an rf remote of something like an Apple Macbook as a "remote" (this is what I plan to do; right now I am running 25 ft. coaxial and aes /ebu cables from my quiet computer in another room and use an ATI Remote Wonder to shuffle songs).

 

[ServinginEcuador]

IME the best scenario I've seen is one that approaches sound reduction from two angles: sound deadening/proofing the case/what's inside, and using sound deadening materials outside the case. The second part can easily be demonstrated by hanging/holding a thick towel behind your case where the fans exhaust comes out. With a dual-Opteron setup using a server PSU, even one with a "silent" 120mm fan, my rig is simply WAY too noisy.

Here's my plan: get a box of 2" & 3" thick 2'x4' sound deadening panels to try behind and on the sides of my case, 3/4" material for underneath, and 1/2" for the top. This should deaden nearly any route that the sound could take from out of the case to my ears.

Sadly, you need to buy this in much larger quantities to make the shipping costs more reasonable. (I was going to buy a total of (3) sheets for ~$70, and the shipping was going to be another $50!) Maybe the SoCal residents could get together for a group buy where we could order several boxes and meet-up to have everyone else pick-up there's?? Super Soundproofing is only about 30 minutes from me, and they sell the 1/2" and 3/4" stuff from their stock, so I can pick that up if we want to buy that.

http://www.soundproofing.org/

 

[fraseyboy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SayNoToPistons /img/forum/go_quote.gif Put it in an enclosed environment (a small closet?) and surround it with dampening. Mkae sure it can breathe though!

That's what I do. I have it in a closet about 3 metres high and 1 metre wide (I also routed all the cables UNDER the floor so I can shut the door on it

) and I normally have it open. Its only when I want to watch a movie or something like that that I shut it.

 

[uraflit]

the closet/enclosure idea is cool, but not viable for a lot of people.

from that list, is there any reason to get the 7800gt and not the 7900gt instead? also, a raptor would be VERY loud, just to let you know.

silentpcreview is a great place to look for "quieter" parts... i guess i'm lucky my old computer is already pretty quiet when i just took out the crappy 80mm fan in the back.