A specification for a friend!

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
2,852
Location
UK
I've put this together, but it's somewhat too much for his budget, £800-1000. It ideally needs to be closer to £800. I can see where £30 ish can be knocked off the PSU, albeit with a slightly louder one, and £10 off the ram, but I think it'll have to be a bit more drastic than that. Any help is appreciated!

Asus A8N-SLi Premium nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-111-AS)
Price: £56.95 (£66.92 Including VAT at 17.5%)

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-152-AM)
Price: £154.95 (£182.07 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS Black Aluminium Midi-Tower Case (No PSU) (CA-054-LL)
Price: £48.95 (£57.52 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Samsung SM-920N 19" LCD Monitor - Silver/Black (MO-043-SA)
Price: £155.95 (£183.24 Including VAT at 17.5%)

GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS2.5 (GE1GB3200BHDC) (MY-005-GL)
Price: £57.95 (£68.09 Including VAT at 17.5%)

AcoustiFan C-Series Ultra Quiet 80mm Fan - 3 pin (FG-006-AF)
Price: £4.95 (£5.82 Including VAT at 17.5%)

AcoustiFan C-Series Ultra Quiet 120mm Fan - 3 pin (FG-008-AF)
Price: £7.95 (£9.34 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 200GB ST3200827AS SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-056-SE)
Price: £47.95 (£56.34 Including VAT at 17.5%)
x2
£1012.64 inc VAT

Seasonic S12 500W Silent ATX2.0 Power Supply (CA-001-SS)
Price: £69.95 (£82.19 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) (AC-000-AC)
Price: £5.95 (£6.99 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Netgear WG311T 108Mbps Wireless PCI Adapter - (NW-022-NG)
Price: £32.50 (£38.19 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Sony CRX320EE CDRW/DVD Combi Drive (Black) - OEM (CD-025-SO)
Price: £16.95 (£19.92 Including VAT at 17.5%)

NEC ND3550 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-035-NE)
Price: £19.95 (£23.44 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-044-CO)
Price: £144.95 (£170.32 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Terratec Aureon 7.1 PCI Sound Card (SC-010-TT)
Price: £25.95 (£30.49 Including VAT at 17.5%)


~£1058 including VAT

Thanks :)!
 
Personally i have a Thermaltake Soprano, its a nice case and comes with all the fans, you grab this for £45 or so with window, thats inc VAT.

That should save you a fair bit, its fairley quiet, and a brill case to work with. I'd seen other TT cases before, but even the lower end ones are well built, practicly screwless.

Few questions...

Is the user planning to go SLI?........ Generally from what i've read SLI is really only worth it at the high end of the GPU market.

You can save a large amount by just changing to a non-sli board, and imo, unless the user plans to put high end GPU's in there, its really a waste of time and the users money.

Another thing to note is, if you want a silent system, you'll really need another cooler on that x1800, its seriously loud when it speeds up.
 
Since you're going for a ATI I would go for Crossfire motherboard, that'll allow you to add a X1800XT Master later on. You're stuck with single ATI, or replace that with single or dual Nvidia later.

For a gaming rig wouldn't bother with that PSU, as other components will be louder, so negate the point of a silent PSU. Go for a Enermax Liberty, it offers better connectivity and superior cooling for a bit more noise. Mate has a Seasonic S12 420W/Akasa Amber 12cm+8cm/Zalman 7000B/1x 7200RPM HD/Silent Mobo/1800XT and the ATI is the noisest item in the computer (droning sound) Enermax Liberty is a soft purr which you won't hear over the ATI.
 
Hm. Overall I would imagine the system is pretty quiet, surely? Very quiet PSU, no nothbridge fan on that motherboard, two quiet case fans, quietish hard drives. I guess the graphics card mgiht have to be reconsidered, but I've heard a 1900 XTX, and it isn't too loud when idling, and perhaps the sound would be bareable when playing games. I'll have to ask.

Are there any quieter cards?

I very much doubt he'll want to add a second 1800XT, it is surely better when upgrading to get a faster card. Really, I only selected that motherboard as it was quiet...!

What other motherboard would be largely as good but cheaper?

Might select an enermax instead, but if a 420W Seasonic will do, then that might also be a good but cheaper option.

thanks :)
 
Like I said the ATI's emit a loudish droning sound, even when idle, so if it's a quiet system then really other components are louder. So you might as well get another PSU rather than the Seasonic, because the ATI will be louder at idle and especially during games, the "louder" PSU won't be noticeable over the ATI, and you'll at least get better cooling and modular nature with the Liberty. Also with Nforces chipset resembling a cooker from the chipset it means more case cooling, therefore a bit more noise. The ATI's mobo chipsets run cool/luke warm by comparison.

I would get a 500W Enermax Liberty. Fine for noise for a gaming rig.

You could get a ATI X300, they're silent :p Apparently the Nvidia videocards are quieter.
 
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