p180 v Sonata II

slothmeister · 17 Mar 2006 at 17:17

hi guys, i'm on the hunt for a cool silent case, and had originally settled for the Sonata case, but i've decided against the looks of it now. Is the P180 a silent pc, or can i expect the sonata to be quieter.

If it is, can anyone reccomend a good silent 450W + PSU to fit in the case??

Ta.

Noni · 17 Mar 2006 at 17:41

P180 is a little more silent, but has better cooling.

Silent PSU is 500W Seasonic.

Yewen · 17 Mar 2006 at 17:43

Nail - hit - head.

That is about all you need to know, will match the sonata for noise.

Just remember that graphics card, northbridge and cpu fans will make a lot of noise, and the case will not be able to dampen it all out unless they are quiet or passive.

slothmeister · 17 Mar 2006 at 17:50

well this was the spec that i've been suggested from you guys, so what's the best way to keep it quiet, staying away from watercooling and all that. might possibly be upgraded to a 4200 or a x1900?

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler
Asus A8R-MVP Crossfire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard
MY-046-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit
PowerColor ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)
Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 2500KS SATA-II 16MB Cache
16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer LabelFlash ReWriter (Black) - OEM

Noni · 17 Mar 2006 at 17:52

Sonata 2 is good, but I feel that 500W (even though u might not use it all) is just right.

P180 IMO, for silence. Remove some fans, or hit me up on MSN- [email protected], ill give you some tips to silence your PC.

Thanks.

Yewen · 17 Mar 2006 at 17:54

The graphics card cooler in any pc unless you change it will make more noise than any pc case can dampen, you will need to change that for sure.

The p180 is the best one to go for in this case, but you need to consider using a after market GPU cooler otherwise silence will elude you.

slothmeister · 17 Mar 2006 at 18:10

that PSU looks like it might have killed my budget, any that are cheaper?

Noni · 17 Mar 2006 at 18:25

Enermax Liberty 500W

Enermax Noisetaker 535W <-- Great

Tagan TG530-U15 530W ATX2.01 Easycon SLi<-- Got one, OKish PSU

Tagan TG530-U22 530W <-- Good for p180, because of fan arrangement.

Yewen · 17 Mar 2006 at 18:30

How much money you got in total, and noni get on msn

slothmeister · 17 Mar 2006 at 20:53

well i originally had planned for 800 - 850 but i might be able to go up to a grand now, possibly more, depends on how much i get payed on thursday!

Noni · 17 Mar 2006 at 20:54

How much u wana spend on a case and psu?

Raikiri · 17 Mar 2006 at 20:56

slothmeister said:
well i originally had planned for 800 - 850 but i might be able to go up to a grand now, possibly more, depends on how much i get payed on thursday!

Remember you can always sell your old bits to make up the diference

The spec you had was pretty good, although if you want a cheaper PSU maybe the Akasa 460w, should be able to handle that system

slothmeister · 17 Mar 2006 at 21:03

no i can't sell my old bits, keeping it as a media center. I don't really know how much to put aside for my case and psu, as long as i can keep the rest of the bits in the spec.

Yewen · 18 Mar 2006 at 01:18

1/10th of the money on the rig I usually set aside for the PSU, and then what ever case I feel like.

megatron · 19 Mar 2006 at 15:34

slothmeister said:
well this was the spec that i've been suggested from you guys, so what's the best way to keep it quiet, staying away from watercooling and all that. might possibly be upgraded to a 4200 or a x1900?

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler
Asus A8R-MVP Crossfire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard
MY-046-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit
PowerColor ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI £30 more for x1900xt?(PCI-Express)
Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 2500KS SATA-II 16MB Cache
16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer LabelFlash ReWriter (Black) - OEM

slothmeister · 19 Mar 2006 at 20:24

groovy! thanks very much, so do you think it is a better idea to go for a better graphics card or processor, as i probably can't do both?

Mason64 · 19 Mar 2006 at 20:42

i would go for the SONATA 2 imo

=assassin= · 21 Mar 2006 at 11:18

SLK3000B??

gt_junkie · 21 Mar 2006 at 12:39

Hi slothmeister,

You've spec'd a nice machine there. I've had the p180 for a few months now and it's a great case. A little awkward to fit certain components but all worth the trouble.

With regards to a possible increase in spec from either the 3800 to 4200 or an x1800 to x1900 i'd go with the graphics card. Remember, athlon's are cool runners and great overclockers - you'll get that 3800 to 4200 speeds with no problems. A friend of mine has a 4400 and it happilly sits at 4800 speeds at 35 degrees C. Plus that's with the standard x2 cooler (still a very large, impressive and effective heatpipe design!) so you could leave the freezer 64 cooler til later if you liked and save a little money to put towards your graphics cooler!

The comments about silent cooling for the graphics is bang on. I thought my case was really quiet when i first got it, but only when i replaced the cooler on my x850 did i realise how much noise the card's cooler created! I fitted the arctic cooler and never looked back. You could purchase a Zalman cooler for it that would be much quieter in operation. I believe one that'll fit the x1900 is being released tomorrow!

Finally, one word of caution regarding the p180, power supply and motherboard combination. The layout of the case means the power connectors for the board can sometimes be too high for the psu's cables to reach. I bought mine without thinking - the sapphire's 12v connector is just above the processor meaning quite a journey from the psu at the base of the case to the very top. I was lucky as the tagan i had bought had very long cables - it still only just fits and is a little stretched as it passes over the x850! If i were to crossfire two cards the cable would probably not reach!

Hope that helps!