Abit NF7-S or AOpen AK79D 400 Max - ordering before 5AM EST TODAY!

[Pandamonium]

The original post is below.... but since there hasn't been much suggested in the way of alternatives, I am still unsure as to which board to get. Each board will undervolt, features SATA and IEEE1394. These three features are of utmost importance to me. The Aopen has SilentTek, which I would like to play with. However, someone has written a program that purportedly mimics SilentTek for the Abit NF-7. The question is which board I should go with - or will it not matter? Lock your votes in folks =)


Original post:

I don't plan to overclock - if anything I will underclock. Quiet operation is the goal for this rig. I already have a passively cooled video card and a Seasonic Super Tornado 350W PSU, which usually runs its 120mm fan at minimal speeds.

Where I currently stand:
CPU: AMD XP 2500+ (Barton core) - I'm going to try converting this into a XP-m unless the XP-m's pricing drops to near XP prices

RAM: 2x512MB PC3200 for dual channel goodness, although there is a slight chance I might get 2x256 instead

HDD: Samsung Spinpoint SP1614C 160GB/8MB 7200RPM SATA

Audio: Envy-powered sound card... probably going with a $30 Chaintech since I don't need all the inputs of the M-Audio 7.1

As far as motherboards, I'm stuck on a fence between the AOpen AK79D-400 MAX and the Abit NF7-S.

AOpen AK79D 400 MAX
Pros: Onboard IEEE1394; undervoltable; SilentTek for fan speed adjustment; http://www.cpuheat.wz.cz/html/AXP_multiplier/AXP_Multiplier.htm for vcore, fsb adjustment
Cons: No onboard SATA RAID 1

Abit NF7-S (v2?)
Pros: Onboard IEEE1394; undervoltable; http://www.hasw.net/8rdavcore/ for dynamic vcore, fsb, fan speed adjustment
Cons: Need to replace northbridge HSF with Zalman heatsink; Onboard SATA RAID 0 only (RAID 1 >>> RAID 0 IMHO.... screw write speed, I want redundancy!)

In terms of heatsinks, I'm leaning towards the SLK-900A w/ Panaflo L1A because I can't swap fans in and out of the Zalman CNPS 7000A. The Zalman is also wholly incompatible with the NF7-S.

What do you think?

Edits for typo/links

 

[bigshooter]

What is it going to be used for?

And for RAID 1, you'll need another hard drive. There are a lot of specials out this week, Hitachi 200gig drive for $100 at Compussr I believe.

 

[someone16]

The NF7-S seems to be a good choice. It already has soundstorm so you might not need the Chaintech soundcard. If you're not going to overclock, just get some generic PC3200 ram, it'll run atleast 2.5 3 3 8 @ 333mhz. My hynix ram is @ 2 3 3 8 right now.

 

[Ionizer86]

Lowering heat is mainly done through lowering voltage, not necessarily underclocking. A buddy got a 2500+, decided to run it at 3200+, and from there, I lowered his Vcore by 0.050 more volts. I didn't try further lowering, but it's possible.

Point being, you don't have to sacrifice high speed to run a quiet PC.

 

[Pandamonium]

Since neither of those motherboards support RAID 1, I'll only be getting one HDD. I'm very certain that I will order a SP1614C due to the drive's acoustical and thermal properties. (It is nearly as quiet as the old Seagate Barracuda IV, but runs tons cooler and comes with a 3yr MFR warranty)

I'll be using this rig to mainly browse the web, perform light web design, and chat 90% of the time. The other 10% of the time, I expect that I will use the machine to play games. Since I have a 15" LCD (Eizo L365) and a GeForce 3 Ti200, I hardly expect my CPU/memory subsystems to be the limiting factors in raw performance. Eventually, I hope to upgrade to a Dell 2001FP and Sapphire Radeon 9xxx Ultimate though. (I'm absolutely nuts about quiet computing.)

Ionizer: That's very true, but to hit lower voltages, you eventually have to underclock as well. The goal is to mimic the A64's Cool'n'quiet (or the XP-m's Powernow!) technology at the XP's pricepoint. With the AOpen, SilentTek & CPU-MSR (with a developmental driver) should do the trick. With the Abit, 8RDA+ should also work. If software controlled VCORE, FSB, and fan speed doesn't work, my last resort is to just undervolt the beast.

 

[txxxx]

Just so you know, single channel DDR on an AMD is only 2-5% at the best faster, so to save you hassle in the longrun, getting 1x 512MB may be better.

And as for quiet operation, just expect the CPU to get a lot warmer than usual Wont harm its stability if not overclocked.

 

[Ardan]

Why do you feel that you NEED to replace the Northbridge Heatsink? I use the one that came with it on my NF7-S Revision 2.0 motherboard and I haven't had any problems with it at all, even when I used the SoundStorm audio for just a little bit. That shouldn't be a requirement, especially since you're building a Quiet PC. I achieved that nicely with an Antec case that has a low-spinning 120mm fan in the front and a medium-spinning 120mm fan in the back, as well as an 80mm ThermalTake Smart Case Fan II on the SLK-800A (I also put Artic Silver Ceramique on it, which reduced the temperature 5 degress) which spins an average of 2600-2850rpms. Under load it is an average of 105 degrees Fahrenheit and everyone compliments me on the quiet operation of the computer.

However, both those options you have listed there seem just fine to me, but I would prefer the NF7-S.

 

[Pandamonium]

txxxx: my searches on newegg led me to conclude that I would pay the same for 1x512 or 2x256. I'm considering 2x512 for the 1GB cool factor =). Honestly, 512mb of total ram is probably more than enough for anything I would ever throw at this machine.

I'm also prepared to let my motherboard report up to 75C for the CPU under load. As long as my HDD remains <50C and my system is stable, I would be comfortable with 89C die temps under load. If the CPU is warranteed to those temperatures, I might as well let it approach them.

Although, I ran a 2500+ at 1.3V with a Thermalright SLK-800A in an Antec Sonata and forgot to connect my CPU fan for a couple of days. The CPU temps were idling around 42C, so I doubt I'll even approach those kinds of temperatures.

 

[Pandamonium]

The NF7-S's northbridge is actively cooled. Smaller fans tend to emit higher pitched whining noises as they must rotate at relatively high rates in order to push a moderate amount of air. My system is only going to have a 120mm fan from my PSU exhaust and an 80mm fan on the CPU cooling it. The CPU fan will hopefully be left unspun most of the time if the 8RDA+ works as I hope it does.

 

[Ionizer86]

Along with the idea that larger fans have better cfm to noise ratios, what if you got an SLK-900 series heatsink and tossed on a 92mm panaflo or the likes?

 

[Pandamonium]

Ionizer86: Thanks for the idea - I'm going to look on SilentPCReview.com's forums to see if that will be more quiet. I know for certain that 40-50mm fans must spin ridiculously fast to move reasonable amounts of air but I'm not sure what the returns are like when you compare larger fans. There's also the issue of a larger dead spot on the bigger fans, so this could be very interesting indeed...

 

[Cerb]

I agree with the NF-7 and Zalman NB HS, and don't put any less than an ALX-800 & L1A on the CPU. For RAID 1, Windows 2k and XP do fine in software, but if you game any, get it in hardware. If the motherboard doesn't have it, just get a cheap Promise or Adaptec RAID 0/1 controller. There are reasons for those PCI slots, after all .
On undervolting, just lower the voltage until it crashes doing some heavy work (say, gaming video encoding with some SETI in the background), then bump it up to th enotch just above what it crashed at. You'd be amazed how much it will do for heat.
On your deadspot bit...get a Thermalright SLK-900 (or if on a smaller budget) ALX-800. If you look, they are basically designed so that there is extra mass all along the middle. They don't perform any better with squirrel-cage fans (unlike most heatsinks), so you can pretty much draw the conclusion that they aren't hurt much by the dead spot.

 

[Pandamonium]

bump for a change of topic (still relevant, but quite a change)

 

[Atlantean]

abit nf7-s is my vote. I have one and its great. Has many great features and is great for overclocking.

 

[Pandamonium]

So here's the final order:
NF7-S
AXP 2500+ OEM
Envy 7.1 Sound
SP1614C HDD
1GB PC3200 (2x512 kit)
~$490 shipped

Zalman Northbridge Heatsink
Thermalright SLK-900A
~$50 shipped

Panaflo L1A 80mm fan
~$7 shipped

I'm quite the happy ah heck today =)