3 Cases, No gaming, Help me decide which case

[packy22]

Hello,

I’m tryiing to configure a new build to replace a Pentium 4, 2.8Ghz and Antec 3700 BQE
tower from 2004... and need help deciding on a case.

For space constrictions and case size and weight I’m looking at the Antec Mini P180,
or the Antec Sonata lll 500, or the Sonata Elite.

Main use will be as typical home computer; internet, email, photo editing etc., no games
now or in future but I do plan on doing a lot of non-professionsl home video editing of
twenty years of analog and non-HD tapes. I decided on the above cases and the below
components based on web reviews - trying to get a quiet and cool but reasonably fast
computer.

I’d really like to be able to use the Mini P180 but that means a MicroATX
and maybe a socket change 1156 v.1366 and would also mean a different CPU ?

If I have to settle for the the Sonata lll or the Elite I’ve pretty much decided on the
following but would like your comments/suggestions re compatability and/or overkill ?

Since I won’t be gaming how concerned with cooling should I be ?

MB:
ASUS P7P55D-E PRO LGA 1156 - Intel P55 - DDR3 - USB 3.0 SATA 6 Gb/s
CPU: Intel-Core-i5-650-DUAL-CORE-3-2GHz-73W
GPU: MSI N460GTX Cyclone 768D5/OC
LITE-ON Lightscribe 24X SATA DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Drive IHAS424-98
RAM: Kingston KHX1600C8D3K2-4GX/dp (or similar )
(Not sure if I need 4 or 8 GB).

HDD WD 500GB Cavier Blue
External HD WD 1.0 TB Cavier Black for storage

Card Reader including floppy

(On the video editing, I’ll probably not use any program more complicated than Roxio or
maybe Sony Vegas).

 

[Petey!]

Any silent PC case would do you well. The Fractal R3s are really nice. So are the new Antec P1x0. Lian Li has some nice silent cases as well.

 

[zagood]

Vegas can use multiple cores, even though the i5 650 uses HT for 4 "threads" a native quad+ will probably be faster.

Benches: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/CPU/44

There are plenty of mATX 1156 boards, so don't limit yourself because of that. I really like the Mini P180.

Take a look at H55 motherboards. And if you're not gaming, why the GTX 460? You can get away with a much cheaper card even if you're using it for CUDA-enabled applications.

 

[packy22]

I had decided on the MSI 460 after reading some excellent reviews on cooling and noise
capabilities: (sample)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127512
and not knowing exactly what I really need. Also at Newegg , $170 after MIR.

After doing some more (web) searching (and in order to go with the Mini P180 case)
I’m now looking at two M/ATX - Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD4 and MSI P55M-GD45
Reviews here: http://techreport.com/articles.x/17789/8

‘Am still reading up on GPUs - lots on gaming but very little on video edit requirements
and much of that conflicting;i.e. recommendations from $50 to $400 cards.
Will be off-line for a couple of days but still looking for suggestions on configuration.

Thanks.

 

[xd_1771]

The latest Sony Vegas can be configured to use up to 16 threads A true quad core, however, (i.e. an Athlon II x4 - which would probably end up much, much cheaper than the i5 650 anyway) would deliver much, much more performance than a hyperthreaded dual. Best either bump it to the i5 750 for probably not much more cash or go the cheapo AM3 route and take in an AMD Athlon II x4 or Phenom II x4 if you so wish

The MSI 460 is quite a good card as well; in fact maybe even much more than what you need unless you do lots of GPU-accelerated encoding/enhancing (i.e. nVidia CUDA) like I do. You could probably get away with even a GT 240 or so - heck, I have an 8400GS with a non-passive heatsink and a very tiny fan that I can't hear through my case, despite it being overclocked by around 50% on all clocks; and even then those Antec cases you're planning to get are very good at shielding noise and should keep most anything inside.

I built my original high-end video-editing PC like you did, coming from a Pentium 4 2.8Ghz and taking in a quad core (later upgrading to a Phenom II six-core) - resulting in a huge boost in performance both related to the amount of cores and the much, much, much better architecture K10 (Phenom II) is vs. Netburst (Pentium 4). In fact the equivalent at the time (AMD K8, Athlon x2) could deliver the same performance as a Pentium 4 at about half the clock speed

As for cases, I use a LIAN LI Lancool PC-K58W right now (up from a Coolermaster CM-690) that does okay at keeping noise in but probably not as well as the Antecs; it's at least noticeably quieter than my old CM 690. You might want to consider a LIAN LI case, their cases are among the highest-quality out there.