Check my spec for a £1k quiet PC?

t_perkin

t_perkin

t_perkin

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I'm looking to build a very quiet preferably silent pc as I use it in my living room. I was hoping that some of you could pick some holes and make some suggestions?

Budget is £1k... could stretch to £1200.

This is what I had in mind:

PSU - Seasonic M12 Modular 600W Silent ATX2.0 £103
MBO - Asus P5Q Deluxe Intel £104
CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 £151
GFX - Gigabyte GV-N250ZL-1GI GTS250 (w. zalman heatsink) £150
HDD - 640gb western digital caviar black (x 2 in raid 0) £120
Case - Coolermaster Sileo 500 Silent Case £75
RAM - 4GB (2x2GB) Corsair TwinX DDR2 XMS2, PC2-8500 (1066) £44
CPU cooler - Scythe Ninja II £38
DVD drive Take existing one £0

Which comes to <~£850 incl. VAT

Usage - playing videos, internet, games (e.g. Team Fortress 2, Champ Manager, COD4). Mostly use PS3 for games now, but would like the option to play occaisonally.

I may want to use this as a basis for a HTPC in the future, but no immediate plans.

I plan to avoid Vista (currently use XP Pro) and go straight to Win7 beta

I don't need any peripherals or monitor within budget.

Main things I am unsure about:

Where can I spend more money to make this quieter?

Any thoughts on the case? from reading here, it doesn't seem to be one that gets used much, but I have read good reviews.

Are SSDs much faster? - I like a fast HDD and they are obviously silent. Expensive though...

Should I be going quad core/i7


Anyway - let me know what you think.

Thanks in advance for any advice you have
 
Done this i7 speec for you, it comes in a bit over your budget but you'll be getting a much better PC which is much more future proof

Gone for the green version of the HDD's as although slightly slower theyre quieter, the CPU cooler whilst expensive shoudl be nice n quiet, quality Noctua, the PSU is better than the one you specced and case wise Im not sure about the sileo you included but the antec Ive included is very good for a nice quiet case, there is a newer version available in the P183 but I much prefer the looks of the P182, gfx card wise I included the 260 as its on TWO offer and same price as the 250 you specced (as are the mobo and RAM), what do you think?

quieti7.jpg
 
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I built my htpc a year ago in a zalman case very heavy and quiet
Nesteq make a semi fanless PSU which has yet to kick in so is silent.
The only cooling it needs is a 90mm coolink fan running very slowly on top of Sycth mini CPU cooler on top of a E2200. It has a quick adjustable mechanical fan at the back which I can turn up to game
just swapped the 2600 card for a 4670 which is silent and very low power use
maybe the time to fit a blu ray player ?
No tv card in your spec either ?
i7 may be future proof but isnt needed for a htpc
2gb ram has been enough but 4gb might be better
only hassle I have is with the ASUS mobo, wish I had used an ABIT
 
a 222pound motherboard yes um... looking for the vomit icon but not there.

unwise to spend such money on a motherboard, although that socket is pretty expensive right now thats why i would abandon the i7 and go for 775 socket and core2quad.

go for this for example:

Asus P5QL Pro Intel P43 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard @ £75.89
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 LGA775 'Yorkfield' 2.83GHz 12MB-cache (1333FSB) Processor - OEM @ £229.99

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-260-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=567
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-293-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1344

That CPU does o/c nicely with the Noctua NH. Great heatsink/fan
 
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your 775 CPU costs more than the i7, how can you possibly recomend that? Also that mobo is crap, if you were to want to do it on the chheap look at the gigabyte P43's or a P45 P5QPro as a minimum, below that the ATX power connector is situated in the middle of the mobo making any build awkward and massively reducing airflow. The UD5 is one of the best boards there is, and the i7 spec is a) better and b) more likely to support future upgrade path incl SLI support if he needed to add a 2nd gfx card later, any upgrade to that P43/775 system would involve scrapping it and starting again
 
it says 235 for the i7 i checked above so no the 775 isn't more expensive. Also huge difference between 75 and 222 pounds.

A cable running through the case isn't whats going to give +2C on temps, thats just being focussed on esthetic's so you can slip a nice little green neon .

for me its just spending a lot of money on little performance increase, no bang for the buck if a nice i7 CPU at good price forces you to get a 222 pound mobo. He also talked about occasional PC gaming so i doubt the SLI is interesting.

if you want a smaller case because you did say it'll be in the living room, sonata 3 elite is a nice choice.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-109-AN&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=160

you can check the reviews here. Its the same case basically except it doesn't has a PSU
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-073-AN&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=160

I have the original sonata3 with corsair650Watt and Noctua NH fan/heatsink and the lot is very very quiet
 
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95thrifles said:
quieti7.jpg
Click to expand...

@Op

+1 to this selection.

The Be Quiet! PSU is a much better choice (87% efficient at 50% and 100% load).

Your original GPU (250) is significantly slower than the 260 (core 216). It (the 250) is just re-badged old tech.

For real performance you could substitute in an OCZ vertex for boot. But that would need a lot of cash and additional HD storage space (at some point) - if you don't have any spare drives lying around.
OCZ Vertex 60Gb
Possibly get the 5400rpm HDs now and add in an SSD boot drive at a later date (when that second mortage comes through, we align with the euro and Gordon Brown pulls his finger out of his ars*)... :cool:

The Western Digital Green Power series are definately one of the quiest HD's with their 5400rpm spindle speed. I see Samsung have also introduced some slower speed drives as well, e.g.:
Samsung F2 Eco Green 500Gb
Can't comment on their performance / quietness though - sorry!! But I have some 1Tb F1's (7200 rpm) and they are performers...


Bob
 
i go with h20, why go with i7 if you play the occasional game ?
horses for courses
the difference between will not be noticeable 99 % of the time
i reckon enthusiasts get carried away with the spec
over spec adds heat
a living room pc wants to be quiet and good looking
spend more on a good looking case
 
its not just about the better performance of i7 over dual/quad, its also about the future upgradability, buying a socket775 system means you have NO future upgrade path, you'd have to scrap the PC and start again, with i7 youre much more likely to be able to upgrade in the future, which means the amount spent on your PC in total is less 1 system + upgrade is less than 2 systems, generally. Also the P182 is an awesome case. the i7 will only add more heat if you OC to its limits, otherwise it will be nice and cool
 
time for the guy buying to comment !
to change in the future is only the mobo,ram and proc. i7 =£ 550, 775 system = £ 300,
I would be amaazed if the 775 wasnt enough for years
 
Sorry for slow response guys. Enjoying the sunshine in Cornwall.
I would re-iterate - the most important thing is serious quiet. It's in the living room with a £7k AV system, I didn't spent that much on hifi to listen to loads of fan noise.

If I can't play the latest games I am not super worried. If I decide to start playing games again then I can buy a better gfx card at a later date.

Does the i7 give off more heat/ raise the fan requirements?
 
My i7 right now is at 31 and thats with the stock cooler (E8400 average minimum is 45), if you do have have a £7K AV setup then no computer should be louder then that unless you pc every fan at 100%
 
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so long as you dont push the CPU by OC'ing it excessively (you should still be ok with a light OC if you want) then no there wont be too much fan noise. The spec I did for you first should be fine, theyre all quiet components
 
95thrifles said:
so long as you dont push the CPU by OC'ing it excessively (you should still be ok with a light OC if you want) then no there wont be too much fan noise. The spec I did for you first should be fine, theyre all quiet components
Click to expand...

+1 thats one of the quietest CPU coolers out there (the Noctua).

Bob
 
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