Building my first box, need case suggestions

[SHUJeff]

I'm building my first box and planning on an AMD XP2000+ on the KG-7 board. HD will be either Maxtor diamondmax D540X 80 gig or WD caviar WD800BB also 80gig. ATi radeon 64 DDR vid card and not sure on sound card (suggestions?). I have no F'n clue what to use for a case, but it has to be very quiet...no, not water cooled quiet. Also if you have any suggestions for alternate equipment that you think would be better than what I have here please suggest.

JC

 

[Mitzi]

Case-wise it really depends on your budget - if you are after a high quality steel case I'd suggest an Antec 1030 case which available in beige or black and in various sizes, they also include a 350 watt AMD approved PSU in the price -

Antec range of cases <-- Link for info only.

If you have more cash to spend well I'd go for a nice aliminium based case such as the Lian Li PC60 or one of the CoolerMaster cases.

Aliminium range of cases <-- Link for info only.

Both the links above are for UK suppliers, if you live in the US the prices would be much cheaper

Cheers.

 

[Jeff H]

SHUJeff, a big red flag on your hard drive choice. If you're going Maxtor definitely go w/ the D740X, rather than the D540X. The 540 is a 5400 RPM drive while the 740 is a 7200 RPM drive, and will be noticeably faster. Also, if you're very concerned about noise, consider the Seagate Barracuda IV drive - it's virtually silent. I recently installed a 40G in my system and you literally cannot hear it operate.

Whatever case you settle on consider an Enermax FCA or FMA series power supply. They're quiet and utilize dual fans to move more air out of your case.

 

[Phunktion]

Like Mitzi suggested for the case I suggest a Antec 1040 series or Chieftec's 601AE with the 420W power supply.. try Newegg.com for a good price on these.. or you could wait and try to get one of the newer model 1040 Plus series cases from Antec which would be even better..

To keep the case quiet you'd need to use quiet fans like the 80mm Panaflo L1A's sold cheap at MPJA

And you'd need to use an Alpha PAL6035 with the Panaflo in order to keep the cooling aspect quieter..

As for your motherboard an Abit KG-7? Are those even compatible with XP 2000+'s!? I would suggest you get a newer board like maybe an Abit NV7-133R NForce motherboard if you prefer Abit as this board would have on board LAN and beautiful sound so you don't need to buy either..

The HDD I'd suggest you get the Maxtor as it's a little quieter than the WD.. but if you want true quiet you'd need to get a Seagate Barracuda IV which they sell in 80GB and they are by far the quietest but you sacrifice in speed..

 

[altgrr]

The case I bought was a fairly cheap one, nothing at all special, and cost me £40ish, which is about the bottom end for a case with an AMD-approved 300w power supply. I then did a little untidy modifying, which consisted of sticking a 120mm Papst fan, which I happened to have lying around, in the front of the computer. It's pretty quiet, as all Papst fans are, and, while I don't know the figures for the number of CFM it shifts, I do know that it's pretty damn good. It'll be better than a lot of the fans you get pre-fitted in cases, and if you want quiet but cool then Papst is about your best option.

If you're going for a midi-tower case, bear in mind that, if there are 3x5.25" bays, and the case height and depth are under about 45cm, you're going to have trouble if you want to put a device the size of your average CD-RW or DVD drive in the bottom bay. I've used mine as an exhaust hole - the inlet blower is strong enough to pump plenty of air out there.

If you're looking for a really nice case, yet one that's also a lot cheaper than most of the other cases that have been mentioned, the Global Win 802 fits the bill - it has lots of thumbscrews to make installation easier, overclockers.co.uk sell that one.

If you're looking at making things _really_ quiet, look at www.quietpc.com, of course

 

[jsproul]

For me, the big selling point on my Lian-Li PC60USB was as much the internal layout and all-thumbscrews assembly as the aluminum construction. The interior of this case is a pleasure to work in because it's unusually large for a midtower, extremely well laid out, and well built. The only annoyance was installing the motherboard standoffs, but that was pretty minor. I highly recommend this case because of the ease of installation, the rugged construction, and the convenience of using thumbscrews when upgrading or simply tweaking your setup. It looks great, too.

 

[herbage11]

I bought the Chieftec w/ 420 watt ps (charcoal) from Newegg and got it to my door for under $100. I am happy. Great case better price. Good luck.

 

[SHUJeff]

ok, everyone is going to have a nice laugh at me now because of my cluelessness. I see most of the power sources are somewhere around 300, but then I see people that get ones that are 400...420. What's the difference or why would you get one with more or less power?

 

[fatbaby]

<< ok, everyone is going to have a nice laugh at me now because of my cluelessness. I see most of the power sources are somewhere around 300, but then I see people that get ones that are 400...420. What's the difference or why would you get one with more or less power? >>



Right now, you dont really need more than 300. But, if you are running scsi or have more than 3 cd-rom drives, 350 should be enough. If you have more than 8 cd-rom drives and/or more than 2 harddrives, 400 watts is the safest bet! But its already an over kill..

The difference is in the wattages =)

 

[SHUJeff]

well I should only be running 1 HDD (Western Dig 80 gig 7200rpm). A CDRW drive, a DVD drive and maybe a DVDRW drive to be added at a later date. I decided on the Abit KR7A-133 with the AMD XP 2000+, in the chieftec dx-01Bd 300W case, probably a Radeon 8500 but maybe a geforce3 Ti200, and SB Live because i'm not planning on running 5.1 sound...

thanks to everyone for their input...i'm sure i'll need more in a few seconds

JC