Getting a new QUIET PC
Nov 20, 2004 at 9:08 AM Post #16 of 40
I agree. Even if watercooling is a little quieter, I don't have room for all the extra pumps and stuff.

Here's the system at the moment with a few mods:

Asus K8N-E Deluxe Motherboard
(has optical out unlike the K8V SE Deluxe to allow direct connect to DAC1)
Athlon 64 3000+
Zalman CNS 7000-ALCU for Opteron
512 MB PC Kingston RAM
250 Gb SATA Samsung HD (w/Smart Drive)
Nexus 350W NX3500 Power Supply
Nexus Breeze Case
MSI FX 5200 128 MB Video Card
Samsung 52x24x52 Quiet CDRW
Samsung Quiet CDRW/DVD Drive

Does anyone know if the ATI/Radeon 9250 128 MB video card is better than the MSI FX 5200? It's almost the same price (only $15 more).
 
Nov 20, 2004 at 10:27 AM Post #17 of 40
I guess the 9250 is... even the geforce 4 series are better than the fx5200. Here is my advice: I would get a fanless ati card (9600 would be a good choice)

Do not get cheap stuff, get the best value for the money if you look closely, you will see that you will pay alot more for 3.6 ghz instead of 3.4. Buying a 2.4 ghz on the other hand, would be a loss of money. 2.8 ghz costs just a little more.

If you buy decent components you can always sell them to a friend in the future and you will still get a little money. At the moment I have a dell pc and it's about a year old. I am upgrading components outwards to inwards (IDE drives and pci cards etc. first) untill I have enough money to buy a new case and motherbord.

Did you decide which soundcard?

Plextor cd drives are supposed to be very good. They have very good error correction. At 1x all drivers are pretty quiet. I can only here my nec nd3500 dvd-rw drive (about 65$ at neweggs) at 1x when my ear is 15 cm away from it. Why do you need 2 cd drives? I would buy a dvd-cdrw combo or a dvd-rw writer together with a dvd-rom drive. www.cdfreaks.com is the best

I wouldn't use to many fans either because you only really need them if you are going to overclock or run very cpu intensive programs. My dell pc has only 1 fan with a funnel over the cpu by standard. All the other components have little heatsinks.

Did you consider seasonic power supply's? In terms of audio the psu is important too and can really matter, people can tell the difference with a good audio card and a better psu.
 
Nov 20, 2004 at 6:15 PM Post #18 of 40
Just get this case:
http://www.armsystems.com/info/ARM_S...C_DIY_Kits.pdf

And then add what you need to it. This thing is completely damped, runs constant speed fans, and it nearly dead silent. Just make sure to go with the 400w PSU option and just add whatever else you want to the mix.
 
Nov 20, 2004 at 7:02 PM Post #19 of 40
maxtor and WD is not quiet at all, people who run them have obviously never used the new seagate harddisks.

sure, you can use the acoustic software that comes with the hdd to reduce the noise (and the speed, so whats the point). my seagate harddisk is quieter than my maxtor and my WD..and i now put it in a usb2 case to use with my laptop.. FWIW my centrino laptop is more audible than my seagate harddisk...
 
Nov 20, 2004 at 10:00 PM Post #20 of 40
Maxtor and WD drives CAN be (relatively) quiet, they just aren't always. If you get newer Maxtor or Western Digital drives with fluid dynamic bearings, you'll probably get a reasonably quiet drive. I still tend to agree that Seagate make the quietest drives, though; this is a widely held truth in the hardware community, and it's backed up by StorageReview's sound level tests. If you want the quietest drive you can find, definitely go Seagate. (Note: I speak from experience here, for desktop-grade drives anyway.)

The Radeon 9250 is probably slightly better than the FX 5200, and better overall in 2D. It might have a fansink (that's the name I stole from VIA for a heatsink with a fan you can't replace easily) instead of a passive heatsink, though. I'd look for a fanless Radeon 9000/9200/9600 as well.. any of them should do for you, just make sure it has a passive cooler. Passive coolers can easily handle the heat output of the Radeon 9600 non-anything, so don't worry about that.

The Athlon 64 3000+ is a good, solid processor. Just make sure to get the 90nm / Socket 939 version. (All Socket 939 3000+es are 90nm, I believe, so if you see one you'll have the other. The same doesn't apply for higher-end processors, but that's beside the point) There are several reasons to get this version, but the important one here is that it's nice and cool. Unfortunately, it would seem that the 3000+ in that setup is a Socket 754 processor, judging by the motherboard (could be wrong, but IIRC the K8N-E is a S754 board). See if a Socket 939 combination is available.
 
Nov 21, 2004 at 5:31 AM Post #21 of 40
Have you considered buying a Dell? The Dell Dimensions that we have at work are very quiet, since they only have one 120 mm fan, and the fan in the power supply. If you do build a custom system, I can't imagine you getting away with just one case fan. Considering how cheap the Dells are, and how quiet they are, I would just buy the base system with whatever CPU, memory, HDD, etc that you want, and then install a better soundcard, and more storage, if you want. And you can always conpensate for their build quality through a extended warrently. That ways, you will be covered for the lenght that you want to keep your system. If you build it yourself, the most you will get on parts is one year.

Please don't flame me, I have been building my own systems for over 15 years, but some times, for some people, buying an off the shelf system makes the most sense....
 
Nov 21, 2004 at 6:02 AM Post #22 of 40
My computer has no case fans, I have a cheap $50 enermax case+power supply combo. I have a total of 3 fans, Iceberq4 for my video card(since I play games), Arctic Cooling Slim Silent thermal control on my Athlon xp palomino (the version that runs very hot), and the fan in my power supply. My cpu and case temps are always under 50c when not gaming, and is completely stable. I dont think it is necessary to overspend on cases and cooling. Perhaps a reasonably priced quiet system can be built with only the CPU fan, using a fanless power supply and a quiet cpu cooler

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nospam
FYI,

Outpost.com has the 200GB Seagate for $70 after rebate. Not sure if these have a 5-year warranty (bought one a couple of months ago, and it only had 1-year labled on the box).


I have the same hard drive, its very quiet. Its much quieter than my Western digital 80jb special edition 8mb cache. Great Deal.
 
Nov 21, 2004 at 6:15 AM Post #23 of 40
As said before do not go with an athlon. They shine best in games but you are not doing that.
The p4 with HyperThreading multitasks FAR better than the A64. Plus if you get yourself a 2.4ghz p4 with HT it will run a lot cooler than its althlon counterpart.
Its only when you get (and go over) 3ghz is where the athlon is cooler.

For hard drive go seagate. The baracuda4 is one of the most silent drives made not to mention its the only drive that has native support for serialATA. All other drives use a bridge chip which inhibits performance.
 
Nov 21, 2004 at 7:00 AM Post #24 of 40
Some of these suggestions have been really great - only now I'm more confused than ever!
tongue.gif
No worries, I won't be buying for at least three more weeks.

I looked through the ARM website today (and tried calling them but nobody anwered the phone - maybe not open on weekends). They do offer a LOT more choices for components than the systems on www.endpcnoise.com. The price for a similar system would be just as much or more than Endpcnoise.com (about $1,800), because they are in state so sales tax would be added. But they do offer lower grade choices like the P4 2.4 Ghz, etc. I tried one configuration using the 2.4 P4 that only cost about $1,100.

I use a Dell Dimension at work too and like it a lot. It is pretty quiet, but not super quiet. I think I will have to get a system that is pre-built for the most part (from Endpcnoise, or ARM, maybe Dell) and possibly customize a few small items like the video card. I'm still a little afraid to go beyond that. Maybe building a PC is no big deal and is simpler than I think it is.
 
Nov 21, 2004 at 7:25 AM Post #25 of 40
I had also been looking into building or purchasing a quiet PC, and these were resources I came across that you might find useful:
  1. http://www.quietpcusa.com/index.html
  2. http://www.directron.com/directron/quietsystems.html
  3. http://www.endpcnoise.com/
In particular, the Directron site has a large selection of prebuilt systems if you want to go in that direction. As for myself, I decided that my first priority now is to purchase a laptop, but I will be returning to the quiet PC issue in the future.
 
Nov 23, 2004 at 6:23 AM Post #27 of 40
Quote:

Originally Posted by Asterix
You might want to check out the Antec Sonata case. Built for quietness... I own one and can attest to its quietness and build quality.


Or if you plan on putting in a seasonic or other 'quiet' power supply, the SLK 3700AMB is very similar, it just has a lesser power supply. Both will be very quiet as is.
 
Nov 23, 2004 at 2:27 PM Post #28 of 40
The Antec Sonata does a very good job of containing noise (http://www.silentpcreview.com/article60-page1.html), but the trade-off is it's front bezel's very restrictive air flow, which limits maximal cooling ability and silent pc potential.

The Antec SLK3700AMB (http://www.silentpcreview.com/article76-page1.html) is thought of very highly at Silent PC Review because it does a good job of containing noise, but still allows very good air flow. It's quiet computing potential with quiet components installed is much greater than the Antec Sonata.

If you're a DIYer, this is a SLK3700 clone (http://www.coolcases.com/cart/case_compucase_lx6a19.php) that is popular among SPCR's modders.
 
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