Advice on cool & quiet case / system

gushy

gushy

gushy

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Joined
8 Jan 2005
Posts
63
Guys,

I need some help. Due to a need to re-arrange I have to build a new PC to be my home server. The 'server' will sit in the corner of my dining room under a table so there is a need to it to be a quiet as possible (the sound of a 747 in the corner does not make for a pleasant dining experience!)

It also needs to be able to keep all the kit inside it cool, fortunately most of it is not new hardware so shouldn't run too hot.

In the system will be:
  • Pentium D 820 with a quiet / silent HSF (advice on the HSF also welcome)
  • Motherboard of some sort - not sure which one yet as I need to purchase (new or used). Preferably an nforce board with built in gfx.
  • If I can't get above with a built in gfx card then I will stick in something old like a silent geforce4 mx 440
  • 2 x Nova-T DVB cards
  • 1 x Sata Raid Card
  • 2 x 160Gb Sata Hdd
  • 4 x 500Gb Sata Hdd
  • 1 x IDE DVDRW

So with all that in mind, any ideas as to what case would be a good idea? Two I looked at are the Antec 900 and the Coolermaster Cosmos. Never seen either in the flesh though so I don't know what they are like.
 
gushy said:
  • 2 x Nova-T DVB cards
  • 1 x Sata Raid Card
  • 2 x 160Gb Sata Hdd
  • 4 x 500Gb Sata Hdd
  • 1 x IDE DVDRW
Click to expand...

Damn that is a lot of HDD's, what the hell do u do with them all????
I dunno how many cases are going to be able to house all that, i'm not sure if the 900 will
 
2x 160 in RAID 0 for the system, then 4x 500Gb in RAID 5 for storage (so less than 1.5Tb in total). Movies, music, backups.
 
Blackhawk47: thanks for the tip, that's a nice looking case. I'm intrigued by the upside down motherboard mounting.
 
I might do that, I only thought of the Pentium D as I have a couple of em lying around. Hadn't realised they run hot, definitely not what I need!
 
I've installed a couple of Antec P180s and P182s. Both are superb for cooling and for near silent operations. Replace the stock fans with a few Sythe 1200RPM fans and you are laughing.
 
Good suggestion that I hadn't thought of. Especially as my PC is a P182! I shall have to turn off all the other devices in my study and see how quiet it is!

Sythe fans eh? Not heard of them before, thanks
 
Two Northwood Cores on 1 chip is not great, the TDW on these things went up to 135W! The new pentium dual cores are at 65W (for the low end stuff)
 
I definitely might have to invest in a newer CPU then.

Anyone have any thoughts on how AMD's compare with the Intel's these days?
 
Yeah it will be mainly a file server and pdc running linux, mythtv will be running so it will be recording and encoding tv shows, but it doesn't have to encode them quickly so having a super fast super hot cpu is not necessary.

That AMD looks good, dual core 64bit, and if it's only around 45w that's sweet.
 
hmmm, I'm wondering whether AMD will be an option, I'm struggling to find a motherboard to fit my needs, I need 3x PCI minimum (4 would be nice).
 
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