Deleted member 69702
Deleted member 69702
Greetings everyone, a little advice please, and sorry for the long post.
I'm building a media center pc to replace my main (Core2 Duo E6600, 2gb, 4850-512) and backup (P4 2.8, 1gb, 6600GT passive) pc's. Primarily for recording freeview and playing HD BluRay over HDMI to my 42inch Sony HD LCD, it will also have to play the odd game (UT2004, UT3 at the moment), and encode video when I want to save my TV recordings to DVD. Being a HTPC it'll have to be silent which has taken me a long time to research some premium components including a full ATX HTPC case, 8.5dB 33cfm 120mm cpu and case fans, Asus P5Q3 board, 4gb DDR3-1333 ram, Core2 Quad Q9550S 65W cpu (costs more than the 95W version but less heat so less cooling needed and therefore less noise produced), but i'm torn between two graphics cards: either a passive Gigabyte GV-R485MC-1GI (ATI HD4850) or this GeForce GTX260 (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=gx-104-gw).
my current 4850 seems perfectly adequate for what i currently play, so upgrading to a 1gb card with passive cooling would seem the obvious choice you'd think. but then reading a full review on the card (http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/gigabyte-hd4850-1gb_4.html) it seems clear that the GTX260 is much better, consumes less power at idle and runs much cooler, thus you could assume the case temps would be lower and therefore all the different fans could run slower. BUT, it's got fans so just how much noise does it make?
Noise is relative, most people think my current main pc is very quiet, but I CAN HEAR IT! I want ABSOLUTE SILENCE. I want to have to stick my ear on the case just to be sure it's still on. It's a big case so I can use sound deadening material etc, but everything I buy must be (almost) inaudible.
The 4850 is passive and therefore it'll be absolutely silent, but it runs hotter than the GTX260 so the case fans might spin up more often. However, they only produce 8.5db so will be inaudible, so perhaps that's not an issue. It's adequate for my current needs, but perhaps the more powerful GTF260 will future proof the system a bit more.
Please help me choose.
I'm building a media center pc to replace my main (Core2 Duo E6600, 2gb, 4850-512) and backup (P4 2.8, 1gb, 6600GT passive) pc's. Primarily for recording freeview and playing HD BluRay over HDMI to my 42inch Sony HD LCD, it will also have to play the odd game (UT2004, UT3 at the moment), and encode video when I want to save my TV recordings to DVD. Being a HTPC it'll have to be silent which has taken me a long time to research some premium components including a full ATX HTPC case, 8.5dB 33cfm 120mm cpu and case fans, Asus P5Q3 board, 4gb DDR3-1333 ram, Core2 Quad Q9550S 65W cpu (costs more than the 95W version but less heat so less cooling needed and therefore less noise produced), but i'm torn between two graphics cards: either a passive Gigabyte GV-R485MC-1GI (ATI HD4850) or this GeForce GTX260 (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=gx-104-gw).
my current 4850 seems perfectly adequate for what i currently play, so upgrading to a 1gb card with passive cooling would seem the obvious choice you'd think. but then reading a full review on the card (http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/gigabyte-hd4850-1gb_4.html) it seems clear that the GTX260 is much better, consumes less power at idle and runs much cooler, thus you could assume the case temps would be lower and therefore all the different fans could run slower. BUT, it's got fans so just how much noise does it make?
Noise is relative, most people think my current main pc is very quiet, but I CAN HEAR IT! I want ABSOLUTE SILENCE. I want to have to stick my ear on the case just to be sure it's still on. It's a big case so I can use sound deadening material etc, but everything I buy must be (almost) inaudible.
The 4850 is passive and therefore it'll be absolutely silent, but it runs hotter than the GTX260 so the case fans might spin up more often. However, they only produce 8.5db so will be inaudible, so perhaps that's not an issue. It's adequate for my current needs, but perhaps the more powerful GTF260 will future proof the system a bit more.
Please help me choose.
