Help Choosing Components For Audio PC

[uzziah]

i wonder, is he overdoing it with the athlon 64 for a non-gaming, non video-editing pc?

i hate to say that, because i think the 64's are great, but i'm just thinking

i think he's not sure if he wants to game much or not

because it seems my sempron system could easily do all that he's wanting to do

thoughts?

 

[Ingo]

What case fan?

 

[AdamWill]

sata hard disks are worth it purely for the nice cables and - this is the big one - lack of braindead DMA settings and master / slave jumpers. man, I hate those. Since every new mobo comes with SATA and the drives are as cheap as PATA anyway, there's no reason not to.

What I *would* consider skimping on, though, is the CPU. If this is really gonna be a pure music / light gaming PC, you don't really need a 64 bit CPU. Get a 32-bit instead. To save money, buy a Sempron; to help with heat and noise, buy an Athlon XP-M, which have very low voltage, and will still be cheaper. A Socket A motherboard will be cheaper than a Socket 754 or 939, too.

 

[AdamWill]

case fan - panaflo all the way!

 

[Ingo]

will a 120mm fan fit the case I want (Ever Case E4252BB)

 

[flambo]

Quote:

Optical Drive: Samsung TSH552B DVD+RW 58.00

Well for an audio PC, you should really consider a Plextor for the optical drive. It is suppose to be the one that want to highest quality DAE (digital auido extration.) It also is very quiet. Do you really need a DVD writer? If you don't just a CD-RW.

 

[ColdFlame]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ingo Here's where I'm heading so far. Case: Antec Sonata 97.98 Motherboard: MSI K8N NEO4 Platinum 147.40 Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 148.00 RAM: Kingston 512MB PC3200 DDRRAM 61.99 HD: Seagate Barracuda 120HD (SATA) 96.45 or Hitachi Deskstar 7K250 120GB (SATA) 80.00 Optical Drive: Samsung TSH552B DVD+RW 58.00 Video Card: I DON'T KNOW YET Sound Card: 1212m, but after everything else. Peripherals: Not worried about those yet. WHAT AM I MISSING? I would value suggestions on substitution for silencing and maybe for cost cutting. Subtotal: ~$690

As a long time SilentPCReview junkie I can attest that this looks very good and if you consider the following enhancements it will be even better:
1. Choose Samsung Spinpoint hard drive instead (1614 with 8 MB buffer)
2. Not sure about the DVD drive, as someone pointed out you might want to do some searching for a nice drive that would be quiet and extract music nicely
3. Antec Sonata is probably the best quiet case out there if you don't want to do any mods; but if you like to mess with computers you can do better, like get an Antec 3700 case and buy a quiet PSU; Sonata is pretty good though, very quiet but not silent
4. What about the CPU HSF? I'd say that Zalman 7000 is a solid bet
5. Motherboard - that motherboard seems to be an overkill plus it is a new chipset, right? Could be buggy. I'd stick to Neo2 Platinum board which has a previos NVidia chipset - very stable and most excellent
6. Video card - you can pick any card that does not have a fan. I assume you don't plan to game on this PC because it won't have Audigy 2 or do some limited gaming. Well, you can pick ATI 9600 passive cooled but it won't do very good in recent games. You can I think pick an NVidia 6600GT with passive cooling and it will do quite nicely in modern games.
7. Not to pick on other people in this thread but as 2nd post says - www.SilentPCReview.com is your best source of information about quiet systems and quite a few posts in this thread were contradicting some common knowledge from the silent front

Manufacturers like to use names like Stealth, Whisper, etc. which aren't quiet at all.

Have fun!

 

[Ingo]

Ok guys, I got everything ordered and the first parts arrived today. I want to thank everyone who provided advice/information. I especially want to thank uzzaih for walking me through most everything. Here's what I ended up with.

Case: Ever Case '4252B'
Fans: 120mm Nexus x2
PSU: Seasonic 'Super Tornado'

Mobo: MSI K8N Neo2

CPU: Athlon 64 3000+
FHS: Zalman 7000B AlCu
RAM: Kingston 512MB PC3200 DDRRAM

HD: Samsung 160GB IDE ATA133

Optical Drive: Samsung DVD+RW

Sound Card: Soon to be EM-U 1212m

Vid Card: Still Deciding

Total: $698 Shipped

 

[Apothecary]

Good, I was gonna post to get the copper/aluminum heatsink. It's cheaper and weighs a lot less so it's better for your system. You don't want to deal with the really heavy stuff if you don't have to. As far as case fans I don't know how those nexus's are but I highly recommend the Vantec Stealth line, Panaflo and Papst fans. They are the best in quiet performancs. The vantec's are a little louder but they are 4 pin so if you like so monitor your speeds you can.

 

[BlackJackSkanz]

Please tell me you got the 400w Super Tornado?

Also, are you planning under volting? If not the Zalman was waste of cash. But it is a good heatsink. Another issue you are going to have with the Zalman and that case is it doesn't have a washable filter on the intake. Zalman's are dust bunny collectors to the extreme. You are going to need to get some mesh at a hardware store and install it yourself otherwise your zalman will get clogged with junk and not be as effective/fire hazard.

Good change on the HD. That Seagate was overkill.

As for the video card a 6600 GT is the best of the budget cards.

 

[uzziah]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlackJackSkanz Please tell me you got the 400w Super Tornado? Also, are you planning under volting? If not the Zalman was waste of cash. But it is a good heatsink. Another issue you are going to have with the Zalman and that case is it doesn't have a washable filter on the intake. Zalman's are dust bunny collectors to the extreme. You are going to need to get some mesh at a hardware store and install it yourself otherwise your zalman will get clogged with junk and not be as effective/fire hazard. Good change on the HD. That Seagate was overkill. As for the video card a 6600 GT is the best of the budget cards.

hs/fan is not overkill if he wants it very quiet. i'm going to to also disagree slightly with the zalman = dust magnet. power it down as low as possibly with the included fanmate, and turn your pc off overnight, and when you won't be using it for awhile. if you put a close-knit filter on the intake it will lesson the air drawn through (i.e. less cooling), but could possibly be worth it if dust is an issue. i also think 400w seasonic is overkill. he's not going to be gaming heavily, if at all. 6600gt is a "budget" card only in the sense of "top of the line gaming". i had a 9600 128mb ram on my 2200+ sempron and played half life 2 and ut2004 on full rez, not clipping (512mb ram), not overclocked. so for him, wanting to play a game "once in awhile, maybe" 6600gt is not "budget". you must concern yourself with HIS needs for his pc.

zemo, a pleasure talking with you. aim me anytime if you want to discuss your build/bios settings/install etc. etc. hope it's as painless for you as it was for me. i'm unsure why you bought 2 120mm fans though?? extra? or do you plan to use a 120mm intake fan. without a vid card/or with a lower end one, i think you could probably do well with just one, but it's up to you. when you start your pc, hit the (del) delete button and enter bios. check "pc health" which well tell you (most importantly) your cpu temp, and secondly your system temp. i think with the zalman you'll be running cool, probably in the 40's or lower, but if the temp suddenly gets high, turn your pc off RIGHT away. that would be a falty heatsink mount job

btw: did you get any artic silver for hs mounting? if not, i'll send you a tube of arctic silver 5. it's a thermal paste that's very good for conducting heat from the cpu core, to the heat sink. you can just send it back to me when you're done (don't use it all

)

 

[uzziah]

ah, i've got one more quiet-thing for you

see the fan on your mobo?? that's the "northbridge" fan. replace it with a zalman northbridge passive cooler. you can get them at newegg

this is important. with all the $$ you're spending to make this quiet, having a noisy mobo fan is out of the question

good choice with the nexus

if you use two nexus (intake and exhaust), make sure the exhaust is pulling more air than the intake. i.e. put zalman fanmates on both (important!! for silence), and have the exhaust fan turned up farther than the intake.

also, install speedfan, mobo monitor or the like to monitor your cpu temp. keep an eye on it. but it should stay pretty stable. mine's running at 35C to 40C depending on temp of room. my cpu is less powerful than yours, but your fan is better, so that would be a nice temp for you (if it's a bit above, don't worry)

btw: i seem to have lost your aim account
mine is aim: forwonderbear

 

[BlackJackSkanz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by uzziah hs/fan is not overkill if he wants it very quiet. i'm going to to also disagree slightly with the zalman = dust magnet...i also think 400w seasonic is overkill. he's not going to be gaming heavily, if at all. 6600gt is a "budget" card only in the sense of "top of the line gaming"...you must concern yourself with HIS needs for his pc.

As for the Zalman, I am speaking purely from my experience. Even if he turns the fan down the Zalman still catches more junk than any other HS I have seen so a filter is a good idea. In fact I personally would not own another case without one.

I am concerning myself with his needs. If I weren't I would tell him to trash the mobo and get SLI with at least two 6600 GTs. Honestly, given that this is a budget PC he will probably hang out to it for a while, I would recommend an older cart like a 9600 which cost the same amount as a 6600 GT. When the GT is much faster and much more future proof?

Lastly, the PSU should be the corner of any PC. So I personally think if one is to cut corners this is the last place. Particular with an AMD64.

But different opinions make for a better informed person, right?

 

[AdamWill]

9600s don't cost anywhere near the price of a 6600GT. 6600GTs still cost over $200, you can get 9600s close to $100. Significant difference.

 

[BlackJackSkanz]

Wrong and right.

Yes, I double checked and I was qouting 9600FireGL prices but the XT is still around 120 and the standard 90.

Wrong on the 6600 GT. Multipule examples of sub $200 cards.
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...roperty&DEPA=0

Either way, a 9600 is capable of playing todays games at max effects at a reasonable res much less the remainder of this year and the next. 6600 GT can and gives reasonable performance. If we are talking sub $100 then I would agree that 9600 is the only choice. But I think it would be being a penny wise and pound foolish unless the person has absolutely no intention of gaming.