Hardware advice for a quiet system

[Percussionfiend]

Just for reference.

I ended up going with the Silverstone case mostly because looking at suitcases/briefcases/carry-ons it seems to fit much nicer. I liked the idea of the Antec better, but it just seemed that much bulkier, and the extra 8 lbs / 2 inches on 2 sides turned me off.

I got the noctua cooler. The adjustable settings (12 dba on low!?) looked quieter than almost anything out there, and it received universally high praise everywhere I checked.

I ended up splurging on 8 gb of patriot memory because I've had good luck with them, my firend recommended them and convinced me that extra memory for fast recording/ re-synthesis of audio signals was necessary. My girlfriend also mentioned that I'm quick to buy a round of shots, but all of the sudden when I'm spending an extra $60 for something that will last me a few years I get cheap. Touche.

Thanks to everyone for your help, and if you have any questions I'll be more than happy to let you know how everything turned out in a week or two.

 

[elconejito]

thumbs up on the Noctua. It's not the "best" cooler, but I think it's the "best quietest" cooler out there, if that makes sense.

definitely post back with your results. It's always good to know if it worked out, for the next person who comes along with a similar situation. Curious to know if the setup works out as you intended, is there anything you may have done differently after putting it all together, and of course the performance level

 

[Percussionfiend]

Got my system put together. I haven't done any tests, but here are a few initial thoughts:

Dead quiet. the noctua cooler and the fans in the Silverstone TJ08 are totally silent. I thought originally I could hear it, but it ended up being my neighbor's air conditioner through my closed window. You can really only hear it if you put your ear right up to the fans. It seems to run cool, and by serendipity the air flow is perfect. In through the back, through the noctua fan (which is exactly in front of the rear fan) then across the hard drive and down and out through the front. I haven't felt any components get hot. The hottest thing in there seems to be the video card.

Very low latency in live sound processing (2-3 ms @ 48 khz with as many effects as I could put on with audiomulch, although when I get a nicer sound card it'll go down.)

The complaints about the TJ08's 3.5 drive bay are totally true. The ram barely fits under it, the hard drive barely fits in it, the cooler almost hits it etc etc etc. Every single space problem you could ever have in this case is caused by a stupid 3.5 drive bay that should be mounted somewhere else. I'll send pictures soon. The vertical clearance of the noctua cooler was fine, it was the horizontal clearance that could become a problem in this particular case. If I had to switch the fan direction I couldn't, because the fan would hit the 3.5 drive bay and the hard drive.

When I took my computer home, I had to take it on a bus and through Manhattan, so I'm quite glad I didn't get the bigger and heavier Antec case. This one is big and heavy enough! Still transportable.

More later.