Future Silent PC build

[DerelictDev]

After my friend built himself a new computer, 3200+ Venice and 6600gt and managed to destroy my counter strike framerates, I have made the decision to start preparing the best build possible for price / performance/ silence.
By the way, i have an x800xl and he managed 20+fps higher than me in the video stress tests as well as in game.
Im not planning on overclocking, and dont care about SLI. This means i dont need a motherboard with all the options, just a mobo with a stable platform able to run most ram.
Im also very picky when it comes to my computer being quiet so this build has to go around that.
And no this isnt just about beating his computer, but ive been wanting to do this for awhile. Actually being able to see how much ive bottlenecked my x800xl with my current specs, has given me the final push in this endevour.

-Im going to build the comp by the end of the summer.


Predicted set-up.

Antec p180
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article249-page2.html

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Venice (Maybe 3700+ if price drops)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103533

MSI K8N Neo4-F ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130491

Western Digital Raptor WD360GD (Liquid/Fluid Bearings- for silence) as primary drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144200

Seagate 150+gb drive. Ill find some random one.

OCZ Gold Series 1GB (2 x 512MB) PC3200
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820227211

Seasonic S12-430/500 (Do i need more than 430W?)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817151023

Either a x800xl or 6800gt [oc] PCI-E (instead of my current AGP) video card.
I might mount a NV or ATI silencer on it or use my current water cooling.
GIGABYTE GV-RX80L256V (Fanless) - Consideration
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814125174

Audigy 2 ZS - Keeping it from this system.

Pioneer a109 Dvd-rw - Keeping it from current system.

Dvd-rom as second drive.
(Possibly ill think about getting plextors SATA optical drives)

Im going to keep and use my reserator to cool the cpu, possibly gpu as well.

I currently have a viewsonic VP171b monitor and its awesome but i dont know if i should just buy another one and make this a dual monitor setup or a completely new one like
HYUNDAI L90D
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824179014

Peripherals
(I currently have wireless and find it a bit annoying, recharging, limited distance, etc)
- Logitech Elite Keyboard
- Logitech MX 518
- Probably keep my Altec Lansing ATP3 speakers (or recommend me better 2.1 speakers [dont really have room for 4.1, 5.1, etc] that look hot/ cool)


Im going to update this, with recommendations from yous guys. Thanks in advance!

 

[suicidalpigeon]

cant believe someone would go out of their way to make a system just to beat their friend's

 

[DerelictDev]

Hey, its enough reason for me. Plus the perfect excuse to make a computer which ive been thinking about doing for a couple months now. Building a new computer is actually the reason i joined Anandtech not too long ago and have been researching and looking around since then.

 

[Bonesdad]

You might consider the Seasonic S12...maybe a little quieter than the SS460, but either way you are golden.

 

[fatty4ksu]

They have fanless PSU's.

 

[SrGuapo]

Originally posted by: fatty4ksu
They have fanless PSU's.

I have heard many bad things about fanless PSUs... Anyways, the seasonics (especially the S12s) are so quiet, the case fans and HSF will drown it out, not matter how quiet they are. Actually, he says he is using water, but the S12s are still plenty quiet. Most people can't even hear them unless they stick their ear right next to them.

Looks like a great rig to me! I would get the ultra board (it has some other features such as SATA II and a hardware firewall), though it a bit more expensive (almost $150 for the MSI).

 

[DerelictDev]

How about the lcd? Should i keep my current one.
Add another identical one
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824116347 to make a dual screen setup - which would mean buying a 6800gt with dual dvi out.

Or upgrade to the hitachi 19' lcd and probably buy a x800xl.

 

[aatf510]

Raptor 360 is a extremely bad idea simply because:
10,000rpm drives is definately noisier than 7.2rpm drive
36GB raptors performance is poor comparing to the new 72GB model
tiny storage that wouldn't even store any of your apps

also, you should take a look at the fanless x800xl

 

[indianduddawg47]

i have a silent pc, and i have a raptor. as long as you suspend the raptor, it won't be too loud.

I'd recommend the arctic cooling freezer 64 for your cpu cooler (inaudible @ 5V)

If you can get the 3700+ san diego, do it.

Also, the zalman vf700alcu gpu cooler is kinda loud @ 5V (in my experience)

PS. i have the same ram and motherboard, i've been really happy with them. To get the 2-2-2-5 timings, you'll need to set your ram voltage to 2.8V. Also, you'll need to get the blue zalman northbridge heatsink, which doesn't quite fit with the pcie video card, but you can bend it very easily with a pair of pliers. I'd recommend using an nv silencer too - you can cut the plastic so it will cool the northbridge and the video card.

 

[DerelictDev]

I read around that the new raptors with fluid bearings are much, much more quieter than the old ones.
Also i was planning on just the 36gb one for only windows loaded on, documents, and main apps. (ex. MS office, maybe CSS, nero, winrar, etc)
I currently use just a 30gb partition for this and i only took up 19gb of it.
Do you by any chance have a link to the performance difference between the two hard drives? If it really is significant ill look into buying it, its just so damn expensive for a hard drive.

I read up on the freezer 64 and pretty cool but that thing looks massive and im going to use my reserator anyhow. Its dead silent as well ;p

Ill try and get a 3700+ maybe in a month or 2 itll drop down in price.

I currently have an ATI Rev5. Artic Silencer on my x800xl AGP and its very low. That fanless x800xl sounds very interesting though. Ill need to find that.

Also is it really worth getting the ultra version of the mobo? SATAII seems to be garbage as no current hd can even reach regular ATA speeds and i dont know what the firewall is really for...

I also need some opinions about a lcd ;p

 

[l Xes l]

i saw some PSU reviews on some mag... OCZ showed best results... u should consider OCZ 430w or 520w psu's...

 

[IEC]

Originally posted by: indianduddawg47
i have a silent pc, and i have a raptor. as long as you suspend the raptor, it won't be too loud.

I'd recommend the arctic cooling freezer 64 for your cpu cooler (inaudible @ 5V)

If you can get the 3700+ san diego, do it.

Also, the zalman vf700alcu gpu cooler is kinda loud @ 5V (in my experience)

PS. i have the same ram and motherboard, i've been really happy with them. To get the 2-2-2-5 timings, you'll need to set your ram voltage to 2.8V. Also, you'll need to get the blue zalman northbridge heatsink, which doesn't quite fit with the pcie video card, but you can bend it very easily with a pair of pliers. I'd recommend using an nv silencer too - you can cut the plastic so it will cool the northbridge and the video card.

In my experience Western Digitals have a horrible high-pitched whine when operating (and so do most other branded drives except Samsungs and a few others) - which makes my otherwise silent system audible and annoying. Do yourself a favor and get 2x120GB Samsungs, that will be cheaper and better. (Especially in RAID 0).

 

[DerelictDev]

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article246-page3.html

Heres a review about the acoustics of the raptor drive. Sounds good to me, thats why i have chosen to buy one.

 

[Dman877]

You can go with a fanless psu because the P180 has a dedicated 120mm fan for cooling the psu compartment. Also, if you have an agp xl already, why not just get an agp system? A socket 754/3400+ system will let your xl spread its wings and last for a couple years. You could also get a socket 939 NF3 board if you want to upgrade to dual core later too. The performance difference between the 536 A64's between 2 and 2.6 ghz right now really isn't that great...

If you do upgrade to the pci-e xl, how much you gonna want for the agp xl?

 

[Tiamat]

Raptor 74 for OS,games
Samsung Spinpoint 200gb or 160gb of media
Suspend the raptor, sorbothane for the samsungs (or suspension if you can)

Make sure mobo doesnt have annoying fan on chipset

Scyth SCNJ-1000 Ninja passive cpu cooler as reviewed by silenpcreview

Antec P180

Antec Phantom 300

Get a Zalman cooler for whatever high end gpu you decide on.

Keep all fans at 7V and you have a very quiet system.

 

[biostud]

Another vote for the Seasonic S-12 430W.

The Super Silencer and Super Tornado are last generation of Seasonics.

 

[DerelictDev]

I would like to buy an Antec Phantom psu but their way too expensive. Ive heard bad things about fanless psu's so ill stay away from them. My original post was edited with a Seasonic S-12

Also considering the fanless Gigabyte x800xl as mentioned above, but it has no dual dvi so another monitor would be out of the question.

 

[Errant Venture]

Originally posted by: wafflesandsyrup
cant believe someone would go out of their way to make a system just to beat their friend's

this is what i am thinking. and the parts you are considering are also a bit pricey, aren't they?

 

[mindless1]

The way to attain quiet operation is NOT fanless parts. The system's heat production is a (somewhat) constant, any way you look at it you have to get the heat out... by removing fans (or parts starting out fanless, same diff to an extent) you simply have the remaining fans needing to move more air each (higher noise/flow ratio at higher RPM) to attain same temps.

The best route is to overspec the power supply. It will have a longer expected lifespan when operating further under it's ceiling, which will offset the (inevitably) higher temps from a lower-noise->quiet operation. The key here is to choose parts that don't limit airflow, case intakes and exhaust, PSU exhaust, and use fan controllers or a more custom fan mod (like inline resistors to lower voltage).

IMO, Panaflo or Papst fans are preferred.

 

[biostud]

the 330/380/430W S-12 are a bit more quiet than the 500/600W, and 430W will easily drive that system.

 

[indianduddawg47]

Originally posted by: ariafrost

In my experience Western Digitals have a horrible high-pitched whine when operating (and so do most other branded drives except Samsungs and a few others) - which makes my otherwise silent system audible and annoying. Do yourself a favor and get 2x120GB Samsungs, that will be cheaper and better. (Especially in RAID 0).

Correct, but starting in 2005, all WD drives have moved over to the FDBs (fluid dynamic bearings), and are much, much quieter. I have a raptor, and it is quiet.
<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://silentpcreview.com/article246-page1.html">
http://silentpcreview.com/article246-page1.html</a>">http://silentpcreview.com/article246-page1.html</a>

 

[exar333]

damn, why not get a Asus Dothan compatible board and put one of those bad boys in with the noisless sonic towers? then use the passively cooled 800xl...passive SB and NB...only fan besides case fans would be the PSU!!

hehe, sweet!

 

[stevty2889]

Originally posted by: ExarKun333
damn, why not get a Asus Dothan compatible board and put one of those bad boys in with the noisless sonic towers? then use the passively cooled 800xl...passive SB and NB...only fan besides case fans would be the PSU!!

hehe, sweet!

I put a 1.6ghz dothan on an asus P4P800-VM using the ct-479 adaptor. I have it in an Antec Aria, definatly a very quiet system. I also have it with a Leadtek 6600GT. Running it at 2.4ghz, with the 6600GT OC'd as well to 550/1025. Makes for a quiet and portable gaming system.

 

[Mrvile]

Why don't you just get one of THESE

Complete SILENCE.

 

[rforum]

FYI: The P180 uses Antec TriCool 3-speed fans. I do not have a P180 but did buy an Antec TriCool and discovered it must be run on it's lowest speed or the noise is very obvious - at least to me. I replaced it with an older Antec fan which seems to run much quieter at higher speeds. :disgust: