Desktop advice

[retrosp]

I want to ask your opinion about this desktop system :

Cpu : i5 760
Cpu cooler : i have several options here and very low noise is very important :
(option 1) : Scythe Mugen 2 Rev. B + 1 Nexus 120mm fan
(option 2) : Thermalright HR-02 + 1 Nexus 120mm fan
(option 3) : Cooler Master Hyper 212+ + 1 Nexus 120mm fan
Mother Board : i think i should buy an Asus lga1156 with many fan connectors so that i will be able to control all the fans in the case with SpeedFan software. All MB-s support 5-6 LAN-s ? .. as i intent to have 5-6 diffent internet connections from different ISP-s
Ram : 8Gb (2x4Gb) DDR3-SDRAM of whatever Ram with small CL i can find
Hdd : i have several options and low noise is again important :
(option 1) : Samsung Spinpoint F4 HD322GJ 320GB SATA 7200RPM
(option 2) : Samsung F2 EcoGreen
(option 3) : Seagate Barracuda 500 GB,5900rpm
Psu : Seasonic X-400 Fanless or SeaSonic X-460FL 460W Fanless (and i think they are modular too). I do not know if you can tell if this 2 Psu-s have compatibility with the other components
Case : i think i should need a bottom Psu case like Fractal R3 / Fractal Design R2 with Nexus 120mm fans which will be conected to the Asus MB. I think Fractal allows me for 5-6 Lan-cards..right ?
Video card : i think any very silent 512Mb card + silent cooler (with 1 fan i guess) should be enough for my needs. Which one of this options you think its the best :
(option 1) : Radeon HD4670 512MB GDDR3 from Sapphire/Asus/Gigabyte/Msi .. around $80
(option 2) : Radeon HD4770 512MB GDDR5 from His/Msi/Asus/Gigabyte/Saphire..around $129
(option 3) : GeForce 9600 GT 512MB GDDR3 from Msi/Asus/Gigabyte/Evga/Zotac/Gainward .. around $106

I will not over-clock any component from the system and i will not play in any game that needs any very good Video card. But the pc will have several virtual machines installed and will run many hours per day and i need it very stable and also very silent. I wait for your advices. Thank's

 

[mnewsham]

holy crap, I think you are dreaming, you want 5-6 different ethernet connections on one motherboard?

 

[BoomerD]

I just built a system with the i5-760. I like it. Not quite as fast as the i5-2500K, but it's stable and the platform doesn't suffer from the glitches that have been plaguing the 1155 platform in the early release.

I went with a Noctua CPU cooler. VERY quiet, very efficient. Are there cheaper coolers that will do the job? Yes, but not all will be as quiet. (of course, your choice of fans is the determining factor in quiet.)

I went with the ASUS P7P55D-E Pro board because IME, the "premium boards" tend to have fewer "glitches" and DOA problems than the budget boards. Does it have features that I don't need and will probably never use? Yes, but it's nice to know that they're available should I ever opt to do so.

You don't need the tall heatsink RAM. Most of it won't fit under a larger CPU cooler anyway. IIRC, the GSkill Ripjaws is about the tallest you can fit comfortably under many of the coolers, and I don't think it would have fit under the fans of my Noctua. One fan completely covers the first RAM slot. I opted for Corsair XMS RAM that I run in XMP mode @ 1600 MHz with no problems.

Fanless PSU's really aren't necessary for a quiet system. MOST power supply fans are thermostatically controlled and don't even kick in until the PSU gets very warm...and the better units use VERY quiet fans. Personally, while the units you've mentioned will probably (barely) do the job, I'd opt for something in the 600 watt output range. Better to have a bit more than you need than to need a bit more than you have.

MOST video card fans will get a bit noisy once the card starts to heat up. Fanless cards aren't usually in the higher end types because the more powerful cards generate quite a bit of heat.
I have an EVGA GTX460 Superclocked card and it's unusual for my card to get hot enough that the fan gets above 60%...and while it's not "loud" at that setting, I can hear it.

As for case selection, that's more a matter of personal choice. I don't like cases that are lit up like Times Square with too many LED fans. I opted for a CoolerMaster HAF 932 case because it gives me plenty of room for my big hands, has only one (muted) red LED fan, provides plenty of air flow for outstanding cooling, and the fans it uses are almost dead silent, especially when the motherboard is controlling them. (when I turn off the ASUS Q-Fan controller, the fans get a bit more noisy...but still only the "whoosh" of the fans pushing air, not the whiny "gear noise" of many cheap fans.
Fan choice will again be the determining factor in how quiet your system is overall.

 

[Numenorean]

holy crap, I think you are dreaming, you want 5-6 different ethernet connections on one motherboard?

You could get one of these:

http://bit.ly/gPyihd

That would give you 5 and possibly 6 if the motherboard has 2 LAN ports.

 

[retrosp]

You could get one of these:
http://bit.ly/gPyihd
That would give you 5 and possibly 6 if the motherboard has 2 LAN ports.

I will have 6 virtual machines installed and i want each one of them to have its own IP address so i thought one option can be to have 6 Ethernet Lan cards, each one coresponding to a different Isp connection.
Each virtual machine will have around 10Gb disk space..so 60Gb will be enough for all of them.I will give each virtual machine 1Gb of Ram memory..so 6Gb of Ram will be enough for all of them so having 8Gb of Ram + 1hdd (even with 320Gb) should be ok ?
Also each one of the 6 virtual machines i'll install has to have a different Ip and a different Ethernet Mac address from all the others. Using Usb ethernet adaptors or that Server Adapter instead of 6 actual ethernet cards will provide me different Ip+Mac addresses ?

 

[tynopik]

I will have 6 virtual machines installed and i want each one of them to have its own IP address

VMWare will do that with just one network connection, just set the network adapter to 'Bridged'

of course you indicated that you needed connections to different ISPs? in that case you might need different cards, can you explain a little more clearly what you're doing?

I will give each virtual machine 1Gb of Ram memory..so 6Gb of Ram will be enough for all of them so having 8Gb of Ram + 1hdd (even with 320Gb) should be ok ?

just go for 16GB (4x4)

VMs are horrible at IO, I would put them on an SSD if possible

 

[mfenn]

I'd like to see a place where there are even 6 ISPs to choose from! But to answer your question OP, you could just use one or of those Intel NICs. Each port with have a different MAC address.

For the rest of the system,
- CPU looks fine
- The heatsink itself doesn't matter as much as the fan if you're looking to keep things quiet. Check out the Noctua U12P.
- You'll want a mobo with at least 1 x16 slot for the GPU and 2x4 (or greater) slots for the NICs. Unfortunately, those tend to be the more expensive boards but the ASUS P7P55 WS Supercomputer is actually at a somewhat reasonable price right now.
- Don't bother spending extra money on CAS 7 or CAS 8. Just get some $80 DDR3 1333 CAS 9 kit.
- 320GB is probably a bit too small for that many VMs. Modern HDDs are very quiet, the fans in the case will likely be louder. I'd go with the Samsung F3 1TB.
- Don't bother with paying the premium for a fanless PSU. High quality ones are very quiet. Something like the Seasonic S12II 430W would be good.
- Any ATX case will give you enough room for the motherboard. The Fractal Design cases are good.
- Get something passively-cooled and eliminate the biggest source of noise in the system. A Radeon 5570 is probably the highest I would go.

 

[retrosp]

Here are some updates :

Cpu : Because i will use the pc mostly for running 6 virtual machines maybe i should change my choice from i5 760 (around $244) to one of this 2 :
Intel i7-950 with FCLGA1366 socket supported (around $360) and suports maximum ddr3 1066 Ram
Intel i7-870 with LGA1156 socket supported (around $349) and suports maximum ddr3 1333 Ram
Which one of the 2 i7 Cpu-s you think is better (maybe motherboard compatibility is important here too ?..and i do not intend to overclock it) The difference in dealing with (6 virtual machines + main operating system) between the i5 and any of the i7 justify this price differences of $105 and $116 ?

Cpu cooler : Scythe Mugen 2 Rev. B + Thermal Paste: Arctic Cooling MX-2 4g
Is ok this thermal paste ?

Mother Board : a FLGA 1366 or LGA1156 with at least 2 Pci slots (for my Nics)

Ram : i want 8Gb ddr3-sdram and it will be better to have 2x4Gb or 4x2Gb ?

Hdd : i want a hard disk of at least 7200rpm and because the pc wil run many hours/day it will be a good idea to buy a SAS and not a SATA hdd ? ( http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/sb/CS-031831.htm ) Some options :
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148631
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-536-_-Product

Psu : i think 650W should be more than enough. Options : SeaSonic x-650 / Antec TP-650 / Corsair HX650

Case : Fractal Design Define R3 Titanium Grey. It can have 7 total fans. Do you think it will be overkill if i put 6 fans ? (i will let just 1 top 140mm fan and not 2). This way i guess i will have 3 in-take fans and 3 exhaust fans although i am not sure if the side-panel fan is for exhaust. The case comes also with a Fan controller for 3 fans

Fan controller : Scythe Kaze Server. The fan controller is a must-have ? .. the Fractal case comese with a fan controller for 3 fans

Video card : Asus Radeon HD6850 1024MB DDR5 DirectCU or maybe i should look for a Gpu that exhaust the hot air out of the case and not inside ?

Thank's

 

[fffblackmage]

The thermal paste is fine.

2x4GB RAM is preferable.

Perhaps the WD Velociraptors are worth considering for HDD?

650W is overkill....

6 case fans is overkill, especially if you want to keep this thing quiet.

I'm not sure what you want a graphics card for. If you just need it for just video output, you don't need anything more expensive than a $50 graphics card.

 

[mfenn]

I agree with fffblackmage.

Additionally, it sounds like the VMs are going to be waiting on network traffic 99% of the time, so the i5 760 is fine. Go with the ASUS motherboard that I recommended.

If you want SAS drives, you're going to have to buy a SAS controller as well. The whole SAS idea is ridiculous overkill though.