New system musings

clv101

clv101

clv101

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
10,962
Location
Bristol
Everyone seems to be thinking about new systems these days so I'll join the club. Looking for a new build to replace my three year old P4 2.8 Northwood @3.2GHz / 1GB / 9800PRO / Sonata 380W

This system is has been the most stable thing I've ever used, regularly running for weeks between reboots (running XP). I don't really play games these days but I'll certainly give UT2007 a look, the power intensive things are video encoding, MP3 encoding, photo manipulation, large pdf manipulation, large word documents etc... Low noise is quite important!

This is the system I'm thinking of buying in February.

These three I'm pretty much set on:
  • Vista Home Premium
  • Intel Core 2 DUO E6600
  • Western Digital Caviar RE2 500GB 5000YS SATA-II 16MB Cache

These two I'm set on apart from specific models:
  • 2GB PC6400
  • nVidia 7600GT
Suggestions? Especially for a reasonably quiet 7600GT.


I'd really like to get up to 3.6GHz.

The three (maybe four) outstanding questions are:

1. Which HSF?
The Scythe Miné Quiet Heatpipe CPU Cooler and Tuniq Tower 120 CPU Cooler seem to get a good write up and should allow better overclocks than the stock cooler and create less noise - is that right? They are expensive though when considering the stock cooler is free!

2. Which case/PSU?

Regarding the case PSU it's a choice between:
  • Antec Sonata II Piano Black Quiet Case - 450W Smart Power PSU
  • Akasa Eclipse 62 Aluminium with Corsair HX 520W
And a couple of 120mm fans in each - which are the best 120mm fans?

The Akasa/Corsair option is twice the price, basically, is it worth it?

3. Which motherboard?
I realise this can't be answered now but the 650i Ultra looks good.

I'll be reusing two optical drives and 2 SATA drives from the old system.
 
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With regards to your choice of case I have the Sonata and I can say I can't even tell its on. Problem is its not very good at cooling, especially if you use the duct that comes it :(. Apart from that it is a very quiet case, another thing you may notice is that there are 2 blue lights where the front panel USB etc is, which are very bright (so if you have the computer in yur room, this may/may not be a bother for you:)

As for fans, I would say Akasa Ambers as i have one of them in my case, along with the fan that came with the case (its also a 120mm) and its very silent. See what others recommend, but thats just my opinion.

As for the mobo I would say depends if you're going to be overclocking or not, although I would say the Asus p5W is good and so is the ds3/ds4. These are all just opinions/advice see what some others say to help you make your mind up :)

Kiz

EDIT: Another thing to note, as mentioned in this thread http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17658091
the GeIL RAM is better than the corsair, so perhaps get that instead? means you would have to order the parts seperately, but thats not a problem usually....just a thought :)
 
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Yeah, it looks like the Akasa 120mm Amber series 3pin Ultra quiet case fan are the fans to go for. I'll add two of them to the Akasa Eclipse.

Can anyone recommend a relatively quiet 7600GT with twin DVI?
 
Good spot.

7600GT vs 7900GS?

My spec is suffering feature creep, initially I was thinking of the 7600GS then the 7600GT seemed like the better option as it’s only a little bit more money for lots more performance. The same is happening with the 7900GS now! It seems a worthy upgrade to the 7600GT.

Questions I have, the 7900GS with fan makes a lot more noise than a fan-less 7600GT. Which are the quiet 7900GS boards?

Secondly, what’s the power consumption of the 7900GS like compared with the 7600GT?
 
Here are two options, don't pay too much attention to the motherboard choice.
There's £130 difference, is the marginal benefit worth the extra £130? Is ~3.6GHz totally unrealistic on the stock HSF?

Option 1:

option1.png




Option 2:

option2.png
 
Why are you getting the retail E6600 when you buying a separate CPU cooler? :confused: Or have you now decided against the Tuniq? Don't use the stock cooler if you thinking of overclocking.

Also, I'd get a Lian PC-7+ and buy a separate PSU (A Corsair 520W/620W for example). That would be better. I've seen pics of the Sonata and it looks pretty cheap. The Lian Li pictures don't do them justice. They look great in person.
 
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Good point! When did they become available... sure they weren't on the site a few days ago.

So the difference is reduced by £5.87 then. Makes the 3rd party HSF a better deal.
 
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Bananadude said:
Why are you getting the retail E6600 when you getting a separate CPU cooler?

:confused:
Click to expand...

You get a 3 year warranty with the retail CPU and only 1 year with OEM plus I'd guess that clv101 couldn't be bothered to change them between the two specifications. :) (edit or maybe he just didn't notice them)

I'd definitely pick something other than the stock heatsink and fan if you want to get 3.6ghz, it might work but the chances are substantially improved with a good aftermarket cooler like the Tuniq Tower. It isn't a totally fair comparison either, the PSU is much improved over the bundled one with the Sonata (although that is still decent) but then it costs more than the PSU + case on it's own so it should be. If you like the look of the Akasa Eclipse then go for the first one but if not then you could probably get away with the Sonata II and a Tuniq Tower or similar.
 
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