I need something quiet, for living room use... also a question about playing mp3 via LAN.

[ManuTOmanU]

I networked my living room, but the noise and all that stuff bugs me...

So that I totaly lost track of all the new stuff going on, I am better asking you...

I need a quiet HDD, a CPU, and a powersupply that I can cool passiv...

What type of CPU would you advice, no speed needed, also no Gaming wanted, so don't care about that, it is only going to be used for playing mp3s and have access to the Net...


That is basically it...

Oh one more question, I networked the 2 existing computers (100Mbits LAN), now when playing Musik (mp3 160kbps), the sound is breaking up, that cannot be because of the networks transferrate or? What could be the matter???

Thanks, if I forgot something, let me know...

BTW, I lost track about this new technology, when the Athlon MP came out...

 

[jcwagers]

Quiet hard drive, cpu, and power supply...........

Well, in order to provide what VERY limited information I can, it would be most helpful if you could mention what hardware is currently running in the computer.
That would be a big help as far as recommendations go.


Ok, well, in the hard drive department I don't know too much. I would think anything from western digital, maxtor, seagate, or IBM(even though
they have had some really bad press here lately with this "recommended hours" deal on their hard drives) would serve you well. I don't know how
loud they are per say but I wouldn't think any of them would be unbearable. I'm guessing that you're more interested in size than speed with the
hard drive so I wouldn't think you'd have too much trouble with any hard drives from the above mentioned companies.

As far as the CPU goes, you have a variety of options. I wouldn't recommend passively cooling your cpu personally but there is no reason why it
should sound like a wind tunnel either(like mine does). I would think that a cheap Duron system with a stock heatsink/fan probably wouldn't be too
loud. You could even go as far back as a K6-2 or a Pentium 2 but I wouldn't recommend it for the money. Something like a 650 or 700 duron would
serve you well, and even be overkill for just playing mp3's. Of course, if you decided that you WANTED to play games or such, you would have a fairly
worthy processor to work with....and it might save you an upgrade later on(unless you're a hardcore upgrader and upgrade constantly).

Power supply......I have 2 300 watt Antec PP303X(and I don't generally hear it too much on my 700 Athlon but I can't hear ANYTHING over my case fans
on my 1.2 Tbird so I'm not much help on quiet stuff). You might try an Enermax power supply. They have a "whisper" series that might be nice and
quiet and be just what you're looking for.

As far as the breaking up of your sound when playing mp3's over a LAN, do you have an IRQ conflict between the network card and the sound card?
What kind of sound card are you running? SBLive? If so, the Live cards are VERY selfish with IRQ's. They would hog them ALL if they could. You might try moving
the network card to different PCI slots and see if that helps. Good luck with it! You'll get it all figured out! A lot of times it's just trial and error.....and asking other
people who may have already been through it. Take care!

jcwagers

 

[oldfart]

For a CPU, you can go with an Intel Tualatin Celeron 1.0A. These are .13u, and run very cool. Default Vcore is 1.475. It can be lowered to ~ 1.2 - 1.3 Vcore without underclocking it. Another good option is a VIA C3. They are passively cooled. For a HD, go with a 5400 RPM model, or for 7200 RPM the Seagate IV is very quiet, You don't need much network for playing MP3's. I have a Linux box with is an old POS P166 64 meg ram laptop with a 10 meg nic as a file server. I store MP3's on it and play them over my home network. They play just fine.

 

[ManuTOmanU]

Thanks, I am looking into that,

I am going to built a completely new setup, and all I wanted to know, are parts that don't run very hot or loud...

ok

I will try changing the soundcard pci slots... also will try a santa cruz,,, now need to study again...

 

[Conroy9]

you might want to check http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Silent-PC/ , there's lots of discussion about this
http://home.swipnet.se/tr/noise.html has some good info too

 

[ManuTOmanU]

Thus changing the sound card and NIC, I am still having those music break ups...

The music stalls for a few seconds, and then goes on, also when I open a visulation in WinAmp, and run a file over the network, I experience these problems...

When the file is on the HDD on this computer it does play without any complains...

I will post in the network forum again, and hope for reply there... thank you...

 

[thesilentpc]

If you want a passively cooled PSU then check out the TKPower 300 Watt Fanless at www.siliconacoustics.com. The VIA C3 processors can be cooled in total silence without a fan, although they are a little lacking in speed. Combine these these with a Seagate Barracuda IV HDD and you might not be able to tell if your computer is on. The problem with this is you end up turning it off accidently whenever you want to use it.

 

[Sunner]

May I suggest a Mac?

For surfing, mail, office work, etc, I hafta say Mac's are VERY nice.
Very quiet, nice design which won't look so bad in the livingroom, and OS-X is far supperior to Windows anything.

 

[jmagg]

How about a P3 Katmai . No fan needed. Fluid bearing harddrives are supposedly more quiet. Dont know about the powersupply though.

 

[ManuTOmanU]

A mac is too expencive, also I don't especially like them, which counts...


Well, jmagg, that sounds expencive to me, but tell me if I am wrong...

@ thesilentpc (look at that nick), thanks, that is something I was thinking about, I might just keep my old PII, add another hdd, and will see if I can get rid of this PSU fan,,,

www.zerofanzone.co.uk

All right, thanks, but I am still having that mp3 problem...

 

[Insidious]

MP3:

It should not be any problem sharing MP3 files and playing them on a networked computer..... ??

You might try installing the IPX protocol on your local network and disabling TCP/IP for file and printer sharing.

This might stop the slave comp. from looking to the modem during file transfer (If that is whats distracting it)