New Desktop

[Septih]

Ingredients:
- Bored at work
- Spare cash
- 3 year old noisy pc (it feels a lot older)
- shiny new technology

quick build:

case: http://www.ebuyer.com/254370-coolermast ... 32-kkn5-gp - £99

psu: http://www.ebuyer.com/257232-corsair-tx ... -650txv2uk - £69

cpu: http://www.ebuyer.com/251596-intel-core ... 623i52500k - £161

mobo: http://www.ebuyer.com/260771-asus-p8p67 ... x-p8p67-r3 - £109

ram: http://www.ebuyer.com/264750-g-skill-8g ... cl9d-8gbxl - £41

SSD: http://www.ebuyer.com/268239-ocz-60gb-a ... 25sat3-60g - £89.50

HDD: http://www.ebuyer.com/183971-western-di ... r-wd20ears - £59

GFX: radeon hd 6950 2gb - £200ish

Optical: http://www.ebuyer.com/263923-lg-gh22ns7 ... 2ns70-auaa - £14

Questions:

- The coolermaster case or this one: http://www.ebuyer.com/252605-fractal-de ... -def-xl-bl which scores quite well on low noise tests.

- Which manufacturer for the gfx card?

- The money spent on each component is around what I'm willing to spend, but I haven't looked around or into any deals (especially not short term ones since I won't be buying for at least 2 weeks). Any suggestions for different parts for similar prices that would be a change for the better?

[FragZero]

Nice configuration!

Only the SSD isn't great. It's the budget OCZ drive. I'm not a huge fan of OCZ (bro had 2x broken vertex II in a row) nor budget .

And about the GFX card, get either a reference design from any manufacturer or a custom PCB from asus/msi/... one which probably has better cooling/improved overclocking capabilities. (reviews!)

With some luck you can unlock a reference design to become a true 6970!

Another choice is a 570 gtx from nvidia. If you decide to go green get a custom pcb! the reference design has a rather weak voltage circuit and tends to burn-out. (ofc i failed to find this on the net when i bought my reference 570 ><)

[Septih]

I went for that SSD because it has sata III which I believe the mobo can use (6.0Gb/s is the same thing, right?). There is a corsair one that also has sata III speeds for a similar price though.

[FragZero]

I went for that SSD because it has sata III which I believe the mobo can use (6.0Gb/s is the same thing, right?). There is a corsair one that also has sata III speeds for a similar price though.

Reviews!

But i'd not buy ocz myself :p

[Heeuge]

If you're looking around the 60GB size for your SSD, the OcUK crew are big fans of the Crucial M4 series. It's SATAIII and seemingly pretty solid in both reliability and performance.

The LE version of the P8P67 motherboard (that you lose BT but gain eSATA seems to be the major difference) can be found for only £75 at Scan - I can see on Ebuyer why you'd take the regular version over the LE since the prices are so close it but £30 is quite a saving. That said, maybe you really want built-in BlueTooth!

The two cases you mention seem rediculously large - do you really need something that size? I understand the larger it is the bigger (and therefore quieter) the fans you can fit but is this something you'd want to lug to LANs / fill your room? With decent vibration supression and quality fans you can keep the noise to a minimum while fitting everything into a far smaller case.
That said, I'm by no means up-to-date with who makes which decent cases these days (last non-shuttle sized one I bought for myself was a Lian-Li in 2000!) but I've dealt with Antecs (P182, 300 etc) and a few of the cheaper Coolermaster models and as long as you're not going superduper cheapo then they're all pretty similar. Do you need flashy lights, clear side panels, liquid cooling fitments/space and 15 chassis fans?

For compact (though large enough for most modern VGA cards) ATX towers, how about something like a Fractal Design Core 3000? The HDD tray is split in two and both are removable - with one of them out you can fit a 420mm card in so you should be ok!

Since your primary monitor has a higher-than-average resolution you should be looking for as much VRAM as possible on your VGA card. For your £200 you can get a 2GB 6950 (This Sapphire one for example has a revised cooling system as well) that should cope with most that you throw at it. I don't know if it'll flash to 6970 specs but the 2GB models seemingly have more success than the 1GB ones.


Hope that helps some, it's my first day back at work after 2 ½ weeks in the US so it's taken me the best part of a morning to write it!

[Roper]

Hope that helps some, it's my first day back at work after 2 ½ weeks in the US so it's taken me the best part of a morning to write it!

Well they can hardly expect you to do real work first day back!

[Septih]

Hey Stu, thanks for the comments.

Main reason I went for the big case was cos I heard it was a decent quiet one (the fractal one). I've never really looked into how to quieten PCs so went for the already quiet. I guess it's not too hard to do though. Just large fans and some padding?

Motherboard I was completely puzzled by. So many motherboards with little difference, couldn't find much in the way of agreement on forums either.

[Heeuge]

Well they can hardly expect you to do real work first day back!

There are two people on my team and the other one started his holiday yesterday. I had an essay of an email as handover to catch up from and a stack of deployments on my desk. It was like I'd never been away!



I agree the array of motherboards can be bewildering, especially with LE, Regular, Pro & Deluxe versions of the same model. I tend to pick a manufacturer (I'm a fan of Gigabyte boards myself) and find the sweet spot of features that I need/want and price. The P8P67 LE board is well reviewed itself but for £30 less than the Regular one it seems a no-brainer.


The main noises to consider with your PC are vibrations and fans. The vibrations can be caused by ill-fitting panels on the case itself, the fans on componentry hitting resonant frequencies of other bits in there or by the HDDs spinning & accessing data. With fans, generally the larger they are the slower they have to turn to push x volume of air. Slower spinning = lower noise output.

Vibration supression
¤ A well-made case shouldn't have any panel issues but making sure everything's screwed shut true and tight can't hurt. The better cases have built-in cable management routes (for example hiding them beneath the motherboard) - this allows better airflow over the hot bits so whatever fans are in there don't need to work themselves so hard. Idle fans = quiet ones!
¤ Fan speed can be controlled via dedicated hard or software but buying wisely and fitting as many as you can with dampened screws (decent fans will come with them) will help immensely in avoiding any unnecessary vibrations from them. Remember the PSU and VGA card will come with their own (possibly multiple) fans - some are louder than others so have a read up on forums before you buy.
¤ The SSD won't be an issue but your data drive can be mounted using dampened screws (essentially a buffer of rubber between the HDD and cage absorbs any wobbles.

Fans
As I've already mentioned, chassis fans can be mounted with dampened screws to help keep the vibrations down, but all fans will produce some noise. Though the design of the rotors and the quality of the bearings make a difference, essentially the bigger the fan, the lower the noise from it.
¤ Chassis fans can be pretty big these days, 120mm are common while some of them get up to 230mm or larger!
¤ I've found the Intel oem HSF is pretty quiet on the i5 processors but there is a massive range of options for quieter replacements if you'd rather. Personally I'd get the retail CPU (with HSF) and only replace the HSF if you need to (the oem CPU package only has a 1 year warranty while retail pack has a 3 year equivalent).
¤ PSU fans can be pretty loud since they pull air in from inside the chassis to cool themselves (if that air's already warm then fanspeed will increase to compensate). Short of voiding your warranty and breaking apart the package to replace the fan at a later date, picking your PSU wisely in the first place is the best option. Some are completely passive (and expensive!) while others have higher efficiency and need less cooling to start with. Again, read up and make your choice wisely.


In addition to reducing the noise output in the first place, you can make some effort to soundproof the case if you want. There are dedicated kits for some cases (the Antec 300 for example) but you could easily knock up your own with some DIY bits & bobs. The only issue with this is that most cases, being made of metal, conduct heat away from components themselves. Adding a layer of foam between the case and the hot bits nullifies that effect, meaning your fans need to work harder to keep everything cool.

Essentially, if you're targeting as quiet a PC as possible, my advice is read up on the bits you buy and decide whether you want maximum performance, minimum noise output or low price - you can only choose 2 of them!

QuietPC have a good selection of components specifically designed for keeping the volume down but always shop around for the best price once you've made your choices. They even list the CFM airflow and dBA output of the fans they sell.
The OcUK forum is a massive source of knowledge and has a dedicated area for each type of component.



PS - wooooo for Fridays at work.

[FragZero]

I don't know if you are an overclocker Seppy but it's worth investing in a decent motherboard if you are!

[Heeuge]

OcUK have announced that if you buy certain VGA cards you'll get a free copy of the new Deus Ex game. One of those cards is a £200 2GB 6950 that already comes with Dirt 3!

[Roper]

I love that somebody is selling 11 foam pads for 27 quid, thats genius.

[Septih]

Not bad. QuietPC are at i43 this weekend, maybe I should have a word. Not that I can carry parts back...

[Heeuge]

Did you have a word with them?

PS - if you plan on buying before 12th September and using OcUK, I have a single use personal 5% discount code from them that you can have.



If you're not......

Hey everyone - I have a single use personal 5% discount code for OcUK that needs to be used before 12th September. Anyone want to make use of it?

[Septih]

Not in the end no. They weren't really showing anything off, just had a couple of PC's standing around in a noisy room (pointless?)

Probably looking at buying stuff for next tuesday, but I don't know if I'll use OcUK or not. That card you linked is sold out now.

Ta!

[Heeuge]

Last chance to use the discount at OcUK if you want it - the voucher expires today. Let me know if you'll make use of it, otherwise I'll offer it up to other peeps.

Get buying!