Your thoughts: quiet build

[rell]

hi hi

Sometime ago I built my current system, the bones of which:

P4P800E-deluxe Asus MB
X800 XT plat GPU
p4 2.8Ghz CPU
2 x 512mb crucial DDR3200

The case is a large Antec case with a 120mm side vent and chimney fan, 4 in-case 80mm fans, Zalman heatsink AND fan.

I had the machine running on air @ 3.9Ghz (seriously - booted but wouldnt run windows). After a time i set it to a more comfortable 3.36Ghz and there its stayed ever since.

Aaanyhoo, that was a while ago. When i turn my PC on it sounds like a giant vacuum cleaner or industrial air-con unit. The noise is horrific.

I built this PC then promptly lost all interest in following PC development so Im VERY behind the times hardware wise.

Im about to free up some cash for a new rig (1500uk pounds, roughly 3k USD) but i need to see some suggestions from people in the know so i have somewhere to start my research from, here is the build spec im looking for:

Gaming capability: Can manage Call of Duty 4 with ease.
Futureproofing: As much as possible.
Noise: very important, I want to build a silent PC.

If you have any ideas for parts i might want to be looking at for this rig please post a reply
thx

[Alaron]

Welcome to PCM. You can certainly build a powerful rig for that budget. Does that number include a monitor/speakers/peripherals/OS, or just the box? Also, will you be buying in the UK or US?

Here is a rough list to get you started:

Asus P5K Motherboard:
Intel Q9300 CPU
4GB DDR2-800 Corsair RAM
Geforce 9800GTX
500GB Seagate 7200.11 Hard Drive
Corsair 620w Power Supply
LiteOn DVD Burner
Any case you like.

That is around $1200 for a box only.

[bd1886]

Welcome. That is a great budget to put something together that's real nice. (Sounds like you want to get serious about it too!) Going from what you had to anything current is going to be a pleasure for you. Having said that...new sockets are just around the corner for both AMD and Intel. With a good budget like that, I just might have a tendency to throw good money at the case, PSU, burner,hard drives,monitor etc...and use less of your budget on a temporary motherboard, CPU, RAM. (Even the lower end Core2Duo/AMD x2 stuff performs well and sells quick used). Late summer, and the newer generation stuff will be out. Prices will have fallen on the current technology. Then make your final choices. Wouldn't even be suggesting this but that budget suggests a need to be pretty "bleeding edge" for you. Whatever route you go...sounds like your going to have a hell of a box. Nice.

[rell]

thanks for your replies.

This is for just the box, although I wouldnt want to buy completely cutting edge gear needlessly. I have always found in the past that following just behind the cutting edge brings best value for my money.

This will likely be the same thing as last time: Ill build a rig then keep it until it really cant manage modern applications very well.

anymore suggestions on how to make it very very quiet? Are there any fan-free cooling solutions without going into water cooling and the like? If not are there extremely quiet fans on the market?

I have a good starting point already, thanks for the suggestions.

[Katreat]

My current rig, which surprised me, is very quiet except when the video card cranks up. I credit it with the fact that the 120 mm fans move so much more air at slow settings there has never been a reason to run them faster. So unless you have a very serious reason for absolute quite, like in a sound studio, you probably don’t need to go to extreams like water cooling.

Based on that, I would recommend something like a Antec P182 case, very solid, with sound proofing built in. Match that with a quiet PSU, like the Corsair 650 (Seasonic build I think). For HD I would stick to the 7200.11 seagate. The 10000 raptors are faster but much louder from my experience. Not sure about burner, my lite-on is quiet enough, but it makes a bit of noise when reading. Not sure if primum brands like Plexter are quieter or not.

The hard part from my experience will be the video card. For gaming you can not scrimp so I would go with a 8800 GTS (512) and hope the case sound proofing does the job. If it is still too loud, I would try to handle the noise with an aftermarket solution. I don’t think the ATI video cards are any quieter, not that I have heard anyway.

I don’t personally have one yet, so am really not sure how effective after market coolers are for quieting a system down. I know from reviews that most say they are quieter than stock coolers, but most official reviews I have read focus on cooling, not noise. This would be an example, as I said, I don’t have one, so this is not a specific recommendation.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835118037

Kat