[trains are bad]

I originally went with plextor drives, because I remembered reading that EAC particularly liked plextor drives.

This is the new wish list.

I downgraded processors, changed optical drives, and have a case listed there. Nice and cheap (<600).

However I have no idea on the motherboard (that one was randomly selected for price allocation) and I actually like the looks of that case, I suppose I'd have to get a different power supply though.
http://www.muskingum.edu/cgi-bin/web...LER!2527S!2BPC

 

[ReDVsion]

Quote:

Originally Posted by trains are bad This is the new wish list. http://www.muskingum.edu/cgi-bin/web...LER!2527S!2BPC

Some notes:

As cerbie stated, you'll want a motherboard without a fan on the north/south/east/westbridge. Also, if you're going with an internal soundcard, try to find a motherboard that keeps the graphics card slot as far away as possible to avoid interference.

Why not go with dual-channel memory? It's not significantly more expensive, and ought to boost performance (provided the motherboard supports it, of course).

From what I've read on SPCR, Samsung optical drives are some of the few that are relatively quiet. You might also want to read up on Hard Drives; Seagates have a great warranty, but they're not the quietest.

 

[pietenkees]

you say you want it as quite as possible. I had the same dilemma. The basic components you want:

Pentium-m dothan (speed is up to you)
Suitable motherboard that allows you to use 3rd party heatsinks (msi has one)
Thermalright xp-120 heatsink
fanless psu that has no hum (i have a silverstone which doesnt have a hum)
GPU with a zalman fanless cooling solution
Samsung/seagate hdd in a casing.
Memory and all such is up to you.

You can use a 120mm fan on the heatsink on 5v. Passive is possible, but temps will be higher than normal (but within specs)

This one works, i am the living proof (be it with a xp-m, but that runs even hotter than a dothan so a dothan wouldnt be a problem)

You have hundreds of products that say 'silent' blalbalba on it. Nonsense, theyre loud as hell and annoying in a silent room. I went through them and this is the one that is silent, period

 

[MikeW]

Eh.. intel can't even claim to have dominance over AMD for Video/Audio/Rendering anymore. They are solidly trumped by AMD's offerings. That was back in the 2000-2003 range where intel was beating amd at those task. Amd's been on top since the A64. And especially now with Opteron and X2.

 

[cerbie]

Your case and RAM are a bit off, and that's an expensive mobo just for Firewire (unless you're going to use the coax output)...what is your budget, and what are your critical needs?

Also, that wish list is missing two very important things, as far as hardware goes:

1. Power supply
2. Video card

It won't boot without those

With an Athlon64, I don't think you'll make it under $600. If you want something nice well under $600, Semprons are the way to go (sub-$100 CPU).

I managed $618 shipped for:
Evercase 4292B w/ ATX 2.01 Forton PSU
s939 3200+ retail
Chaintech VNF4 (they're not listing the Ultra)
2x512MB Rosewill PC3200 (note that it is cheaper than 1x1GB)
LiteOn 1935s (LiteOn/NEC/BenQ--all fine, I just had this, the case, CPU, and the mobo in another wish list already

)
Seagate 250GB HDD (also consider Samsung)
6200TC video card (cheapest PCI-E)

...that's still with active chipset cooling, and lacking one IDE cable, but they'd both be cheaper to fix by ordering elsewhere (like SVC). Also, no HDD quietting.

I assume you're going for an external sound card, or just using this PC as storage and transport for audio.

 

[pietenkees]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MikeW Eh.. intel can't even claim to have dominance over AMD for Video/Audio/Rendering anymore. They are solidly trumped by AMD's offerings. That was back in the 2000-2003 range where intel was beating amd at those task. Amd's been on top since the A64. And especially now with Opteron and X2.

As far as speed is concerned, yes AMD is faster nowadays. In this case however he wants a quiet audio pc. Then the only way to go is pentium-m/xp-m. You just wont utilize the extra power a 3800+ (or something like that) gives you. The pentium-m is WAY MORE than up to the task of ripping and playing audio. You just cant reasonably say you can silence a 3800+, it just needs the cooling. Even with CnQ. Those things use way to much power for this simple application.

 

[ReDVsion]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pietenkees The pentium-m is WAY MORE than up to the task of ripping and playing audio.

But really bloody expensive, all things considered ($284 for the motherboard on Newegg).

 

[pokipoki]

If the pc is purely for audio listening, pentium-m is the way to go. Get good coolers (link) & run passively (no fan). The only other noise is the PSU or cdrom drive.

Another option for audio rigs, use low voltage (LV) Intel cpus or HE AMD cpus, typically used on blade servers. These CPUs can be run passively. Check the Thermal Guideline/Specs, the lower, the better (link). Avoid 90nm Intel CPUs. Those LV Xeons (1.6GHz 400MHz FSB) are a very good deal, $120 per cpu, overclock 100% to 3.2GHz 800MHz FSB. Plus you can use those heatpipes coolers.

Cooler noise can be mitigated by software (Speedfan, MBM5). These softwares adjust fan rpm according to load or temps. Another software RM Clock, underclock the CPU during idle, lowers the voltage, restore CPU clock when required (link). Best used for laptops to conserve battery & reduce heat. Works well for desktops. Both softwares work very well when implemented properly.

AMD is more energy efficient, which leads to lower temps & fan noise. When comparing processing power, it largely depends on the applications used. I own a dual-Xeon (Nocona) rig, the heat output is unbearable. It takes expensive water-cooling to get the noise down. But the AMD X2 is awesome, more power with less heat.

 

[GoRedwings19]

I want to ask a question about RAM. IS there a lot od real world difference between stuff like the corsair value select and their top end stuff?

I have noticed a few headfiers have said it is very slight maybe hardly.

I am about to buy ram for my PC. I want to overclock my PC but not until in the future when I know a little more about it so will corsair value select do the job as equally well?

Sorry if I thread crapped on the OP thread but seeming this thread was up I thought I ask instead of creating a whole new thread.

 

[PFKMan23]

In regrads to regular usage the different is minimal if any at all. Howver if you overclock and stuff like that, you may find the performance ram working to your benifit.

 

[mshan]

The Nforce4 Athlon 64 chipset has it's memory controller on it's chips, so memory differences (if you are not overclocking) aren't as significant in the past.

Plus, the Nforce4 chipset apparently doesn't suffer tremendously from asynchronous cpu and memory fsb frequencies, so something such as a 5:4 header is probably ok (i.e. memory at fsb 200/pc3200 and cpu fsb overclocked to fsb 250). Apparently works well with a 3200+ Athlon64 and PC3200 memory such as Corsair Value Select.

 

[GoRedwings19]

so corsair value select ram is perfectly fine for 4800x2 cpu?

 

[pokipoki]

For most, the only reason to pay for premium memory is to overclock with high FSB/HTT. Tighter memory timings are useful for bandwidth intensive apps (encoding, some games etc) where the performance & savings in time lag are felt.

It's not worth to pay premium for normal usage, the effects are negligible. Search your brand of choice at these forums & gauge the performance.

link1 link2 link3

 

[cerbie]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoRedwings19 I want to ask a question about RAM. IS there a lot od real world difference between stuff like the corsair value select and their top end stuff? I have noticed a few headfiers have said it is very slight maybe hardly. I am about to buy ram for my PC. I want to overclock my PC but not until in the future when I know a little more about it so will corsair value select do the job as equally well? Sorry if I thread crapped on the OP thread but seeming this thread was up I thought I ask instead of creating a whole new thread.

No. When overclocking, RAM can become a bottleneck, but not much. Also, many overclockers are hinged on <5% differences in benchmark scores.

 

[Jodiuh]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pokipoki For most, the only reason to pay for premium memory is to overclock with high FSB/HTT. Tighter memory timings are useful for bandwidth intensive apps (encoding, some games etc) where the performance & savings in time lag are felt.

Holy Sh1T! You did not just bring in overclocking on a thread w/ "what do I do" in it.

Yes, it's nice. Yes, with enough work even a P4 630 can be tamed, stuck in a box, and remain QUIET. But I think it's def in his best interest to follow your advice and grab valueram. There's nothing wrong with it and only silly geeks with nothing to do but run programs that count to pi really fast "might" be able to "feel" the difference in a "benchmark."

To the OP:

Truly, truly, truly snag an AMD Athlon X2 3800. I picked one up for 220 from Fry's on a "madness sale", but they can be found for ~300ish online. Windows is called windowSS for a reason. Give life to your machine, encode the crap out of your audio while reading head-fi "comfortably".

Some components I've used and would rec for a quiet rig are:

Vantec Stealth fans
Antec P180 Case
Laptop style keyboad Yeah! Lights!
Thermalright xp120 or Zalman 7000
HDD bumpers or silicon rubbers (tamed my 74gb raptor!)

Good luck, have fun and enjoy your rig bro!