Full spec

Mortah

Mortah

Mortah

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17 Apr 2006
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149
Ok, so I've already put a full spec for a watercooled system with quite a bit of oevrclocking potential... now I'm curious as to what you guys think of the follow: I'm basically after silence without paying for watercooling (obviously any potential for overclocking would be an added plus!)

Athlon X2 3800+ 174.95
PowerColor ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB 214.95
G.Skill 2GB Zx 129.95
Zalman Aero Flower 27.95
Zalman Silent HDD cooler 13.95
Artic Cooling Accelero X2 VGA Cooler 19.95
Samsung Spinpoint P 250GB 51.95
Pioneer DVR 22.95
Asus A8R-MVP Crossfire 64.95
Thermaltake PurePower TWV 500W ATX2.0 Modular PSU 64.95
Lain Li PC-7 47.95

All prices exclude VAT. When added up and VAT added comes to about £980

What do people think of that? Does it look OK?

Will I need any case fans actually running or could I get away with having none? :)

Point of interest but... how do you workout what strength of powersupply is necessary?

Cheers!
 
All looks okay, but I would change the Thermaltake PSU for a Seasonic, Tagan or Enermax. They're much better.

Also the Crossfire motherboards can be problematic with drivers, bios and ram settings etc, so I would look at the MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum instead
 
I'll probably go for a Tagan modular as I have one already and I like it :) Just wanting something as quiet as possible :P

Would not going crossfire make it less futureproof? How futureproof does it look in general? :confused:
 
Nice suggestion of PSU, cheers :)

Will going non-crossfire not make it less futureproof?
Also, do MSI make decent mobos? Never used an MSI one before!
Is the audio on that one decent?
Is it easily overclockable, just incase I decide to go for that at a later date? (I love my Asus one atm as I just pop into the bios and fiddle with settings :D)

Looked at a picture of it and noticed a fan on the motherboard, I'm guessing it's a northbridge cooler... would it be audible or should I also get a fanless cooler for the northbridge?
 
Will going non-crossfire not make it less futureproof? no....

Also, do MSI make decent mobos? Never used an MSI one before! MSI are good overclockers if you want the best overclockers options for performance etc get an DFI mobo instead...

Is the audio on that one decent? its onboard so as good as it gets...for what you want im sure it will be fine

Is it easily overclockable, just incase I decide to go for that at a later date? (I love my Asus one atm as I just pop into the bios and fiddle with settings )

Overclocking requires time and patience only attempt it if you are confident that you know what you are doing....however that said we all have to start off somewhere.....I personally would go with an DFI mobo but MSI are not far behind...its mainly the options in the bios that can help you overclock to the extreme...


Looked at a picture of it and noticed a fan on the motherboard, I'm guessing it's a northbridge cooler... would it be audible or should I also get a fanless cooler for the northbridge? See how it goes, audible to me not mean its audible to you.....trial and error my friend :)

Good Luck
 
hehe, good point :D

I've done quite a bit of overclocking with this machine (It's one of the Athlon XP 1700+s from a good batch, 40% overclock on air :D) , it's just quite enjoyable that I can do it all in the BIOS, I'm guessing the days of actually fiddling around with jumpers etc are long gone!

I'll probably buy a northbridge cooler as they're only a fiver... rather waste a fiver now then decide I want one and have to buy a northbridge cooler plus extra postage costs :p

Ta for all the help
 
I would ditch graphics cooler, stick with stock for now. Their are better CPU coolers out also. But the money towards 580 chipset (mine or abit or DFI) Then replace CPU & GFX coolers whenever.
 
Well, two people here suggested that crossfire isn't such a good move due to problematic drivers etc...

Not so bothered about spending money on the graphics cooler since it should be quieter than the stock one (unless powercolor make particularly quiet stock coolers?) and I'm after quietness :)

Could you recommend a better CPU cooler that is just as quiet (or quieter?)
 
Is the Zalman Aero Flower not the same thing as the Zalman 9500 LED?

It seems the arctic pro 64 is louder than the zalman on it's quietest setting. I'd rather have quieter and slightly more expensive :)

Will I need any bits to make sure the cooler attaches ok?
 
Ninja seems the best. I'll be getting that sometime.

The two Zalmans are quite different, one uses pipes and is less likely to have fit problems, but the flower has a larger fan so possibly quieter.
 
Zalman have announced the release of their new CNPS9500-LED Aero Flower Cooler. Zalman claim it outperforms all other air-cooled CPU coolers as well as internal water-cooling systems, while maintaining Zalman’s renowned ultra quiet fan operation. This is a bold statement by Zalman. The primary innovation lies in the patented ‘figure of 8’ shape bending of the heatpipes. This produces the effect of up to six heatpipes when in actual fact there are only three. The excellent cooling performance and efficiency of the CNPS9500-LED is achieved by the aerodynamically designed ultra-slim heatsink fins and their performance optimised layout. This layout reduces airflow resistance and minimises the weigh of the cooler.
Click to expand...

It's got heatpipes...
 
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