P150 or SLK3000B

immy

immy

immy

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Which is better and more suited to my needs?
I'm looking for something that will run my desired setup and keep it at a relatively quiet noise level. My budget for case and PSU is around £100

Choices i have currently are
Antec P150 with its supplied NEO HE 430w PSU
OR
Antec SLK3000B with a Hyper 580W PSU

The case + PSU should support the following set up
Opteron 146 o/c
Socket 939 M/B
AGP 6800GT graphics card
3 or 4 7200 rpm hard disks
1 or 2 optical drives
Front and back case fans
TV card
Plus room for expansion to maybe another 1 expansion card.

Concerns with the P150, is that the PSU might not be powerfull enough.
Concerns with the SLK3000B is that it wont be quiet enough.
 
Ok pushes budget rather but how about

CA-038-LL Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS Silver Aluminium Midi-Tower Case (No PSU) (CA-038-LL)
£47.95 £47.95
CA-007-TG Tagan TG430-U15 430W ATX2.01 Easycon SLi Compliant Modular Silent PSU (CA-007-TG)
£52.95 £52.95
Subtotal £100.90
Shipping (City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)) £9.95
VAT £19.40
Total £130.25

Should have enough power for the setup ( I use a Tagan 430W with a 3800 X2 and X1800XT, HDD, TV card are of minimal impact ), and will do the job well....


If you really can't stretch then I'd go for the SLK but I'd rather have the Lian Li... not that mines arrived yet :confused:
 
My main reason for upgrade is the severe noise that my current case makes.

Its an Antec, not sure which model, but it looks like a chieftec dragon style case. Im pretty sure if i replaced the PSU (a QTEC 550W) and got a better cpu fan then that would quieten things down. Theres no room for 120mm size case fans in the case, and the fans ones i do have also make a fair bit of noise. So reluctant to switch them on....computer often overheats and shutdowns due to high cpu temps.

Should i buy quality silent components Or should I ebay what i have, and start afresh with a quieter style case and silent fans and a decent psu
 
Cases do not make much of a difference to the noise of a PC, it is what you put into them. You need to change the PSU ASAP regardless.

Out of the two cases I would go with the SLK3000B but with a Tagan, I have had no end of issues with the Hiper PSU, and my msn list has enough people who hate them on to last a lifetime.

The PC7+ Tagan idea is a good one and what I would get, and replace the fans at a later date for Akasa Ambers, volt modding both to at least 7v for a silent PC on that front.

I have used that combo with passive CPU and graphics and it was as close to silent as I have ever got a PC in a small case :)
 
So if cases dont really make much of a difference, then i am better just keeping what I have, and upgrading the components to more quiet versions.
 
More than likely :)

My v1000+ has gone from jet to silent bliss unless I am gaming. :)

Zalman VF900 GPU cooler, a good CPU one with quiet fan, good case fans and a fan controller.

Will make the case near silent just by that listed there. :)
 
I have checked my current case, and its a Antec Performance Plus AMG PLUS1080AMG.

What can i do with this case to reduce the noise levels?
What fans are recommended cos just now you can hear it from downstairs...its very loud!
 
Akaska Ambers are the best fans for quiet. They should be plenty quiet enough however if you find they're not then just 7v them or get a fan controller. Yewen's favourite being the T-Balancer.
 
BigDom said:
Akaska Ambers are the best fans for quiet.
Click to expand...

thats a joke right??? They are far from quiet.

7v panaflo's would be quieter and much much much better

as would Xiniruilians in fact.

And the nexus/yate loons would beat all of the above.

Tom
 
Akasa ambers are good value for money but not the best as has been said.

But I find they can run silent with good performance, and do not cost too much.
 
Especially since you have a number of 3.5" drives and you are interested in the quietest possible case - the P150 is a no brainer for me. The Neo HE is the quietest PSU out there and the P150 case design has an excellent airflow path that helps keep the HDs cool (often neglected) and makes it easy to suspend your drives if required.
 
Only thing about P150 is the hard disk suspension snapping in some cases (no pun intended), but they can be hard-mounted anyway in a normal way. Very 'cool' and quiet case; did very well in silentpcreview.com tests.
 
the P150 elastic for the HDs - is it literally an elastic band ?

imagine its a shock to a HD to be working then drop as it snaps :eek:

can u get antec replacement bands or what do u use - that thick elastic stuff from the d.i.y. places ?

thanks
 
garywork said:
the P150 elastic for the HDs - is it literally an elastic band ?

imagine its a shock to a HD to be working then drop as it snaps :eek:

can u get antec replacement bands or what do u use - that thick elastic stuff from the d.i.y. places ?

thanks
Click to expand...

Probably best to either check out, or post in, the forums at SilentPCReview.com - I'm sure they can fill you in with all the facts. http://forums.silentpcreview.com/

As far as I know, the bands are supposed to be industrial rubber O rings - and supposed to be quite tough, but there were a number of situations where people have had them snap. Best thing to do to make sure is to place some foam (like what comes as packaging with hard drives) underneath the drive so that if it does drop, it's not so bad - also adding a drive sled underneath in the slot below so if it did snap, the fall wouldn't be quite so great.
 
The original suspension bands had the issues, although these were pretty sparce from what I can gather. Those were slightly grey in colour and had a powdered material on the surface, but the new models all have the jet black bands and there haven't been many (if any) reports that I've read of them failing.

Best thing to do if you're really worried (and you need not be) is to mount one of the drive sleds upside down in the bay beneath - that way the bottom of the sled is the top, is thus closer to the HDD and leaves a smaller distance to fall.
 
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