Silent spec for £950

[Indefatigable]

I am going to build a new PC for my girlfriend and myself in the beginning of January. We both love to play online games and eagerly await the release of games like Age of Conan however the sound that the current PC we have drives her insane. The only things that we will save from the old system are monitor/keyboard/mouse/headphones so we need everything else including operating system.

I am probably not going to overclock the system and not interested in modifying the case or components a lot but would like a fast gaming PC for £950 or under. As I said we will be ordering in early January so if there is any new hardware that will be released then please say so but we are reluctant to wait beyond that time as well.

Could anybody help with a spec that is silent and that will see us into the next 1-2 years?


Many thanks,
Oliver

 

[semi-pro waster]

I haven't used up all the budget but I reckon this would make for a pretty healthy system, you could also overclock quite easily if you wanted to but there is no real need to.

Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-520HXUK) £57.99
(£68.14) £57.99
(£68.14)
Tuniq Tower 120 CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775) £27.99
(£32.89) £27.99
(£32.89)
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - OEM £131.99
(£155.09) £131.99
(£155.09)
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £64.99
(£76.36) £64.99
(£76.36)
OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 Dual Channel Vista Gold Series DDR2 (OCZ2G8004GK) £71.99
(£84.59) £71.99
(£84.59)
PNY GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £179.99
(£211.49) £179.99
(£211.49)
Antec P182 Super Midi Tower Case - No PSU (Gun Metal Black) £74.99
(£88.11) £74.99
(£88.11)
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 32-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66I-00715) £59.99
(£70.49) £59.99
(£70.49)
Pioneer DVR-212BK 18x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
(£19.96) £16.99
(£19.96)
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) £5.99
(£7.04) £5.99
(£7.04)
Samsung SpinPoint T 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD501LJ) £56.99
(£66.96) £56.99
(£66.96)
Sub Total : £749.89
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £133.50
Total : £896.34

 

[Fire Wizard]

That's a very nice system that semi-pro waster has put together for you Indefatigable. One thing I will mention though, is the choice for going for the 32-bit version of Windows Vista as opposed to the 64-bit version semi-pro waster?

 

[melbourne720]

That case will keep the system quiet, but make sure you either turn the speed of the tuniq fan down low, or replace it with a quieter one (I would suggest sharkoon).

 

[semi-pro waster]

One thing I will mention though, is the choice for going for the 32-bit version of Windows Vista as opposed to the 64-bit version semi-pro waster?

Gah, that wasn't intended, I thought I'd selected the 64bit version but I clicked on the wrong icon. Thanks for pointing it out, best if it gets swapped as otherwise the full 4gb won't be viewable by Windows.

 

[Indefatigable]

The spec also looks really good to me as well so a big thank you. The only question I have is about new hardware...Is anything decent/worth getting coming out in the beginning of January?

 

[Indefatigable]

Oh and one more thing...for the sake of noise reduction is it wise/necessary to replace the tuniq tower fan as suggested?

 

[melbourne720]

Try it out, some are noisy some aren't. You could always swap it out later, its a 10 minute job.

 

[Cr0fty]

The fan won't need to go on high at any point... it'll stay nice and quiet.

If it's not overclocked then the heatsink will do a really good job of cooling it at low fan speeds.

MX-2 Is a better thermal compound, from the reviews i have read.

 

[fobose]

Seems very expensive for a heatsink which isn't going to be used to overclock. I recommend the Arctic Freezer 7 Pro as when set to "silent" in bios it really is silent to me (805RPM on the fan speed) and 30c idle temp. Its also half the price too

 

[Indefatigable]

Thanks for the help so far. I have just a couple more questions since having as close to silent PC as possible is extremely important. As I am ordering from Sweden I can't easily order more parts at a later date so I would like to get them right now.

I have been reading up a little on the parts and some people say that the Tuniq fan can get noisy under load. Are there any better alternatives such as
Noctua NH-U12F CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/LGA775)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775)
The Tuniq Tower with Silent fan purchased seperately
etc? or what do you think?

I have pretty much the same question for the graphics card too. Is the case sufficient to block out nearly all of the noise (of a 8800 GTS) or are there even better choices for a similar price such as a 8800GT with a custom heatsink etc. Is (Sparkle GeForce 8800 GT "Cool Pipe 3" 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)) an alternative or am I losing too much by dropping down from a PNY 8800GTS?

If anybody notices anything else help is appreciated. I can even stretch the budget a tiny bit if needed.

Many thanks and a Merry Christmas
Oliver

 

[semi-pro waster]

I'd go with the Noctua and the Zotac if you want an 8800GT but if you aren't too bothered and can spend a little extra then the 8800GTS is worthwhile.

Oliver? You aren't from Germany originally are you? If so were you in Finland a couple of year ago?

 

[Indefatigable]

I'm from england up until March this year

I think i'll go with the Noctua then but about the 8800 GTS, will it operate almost silently?

 

[semi-pro waster]

The 8800GTS has a larger fan than most of the 8800GT cards so it rotates a bit slower and is quieter because of this.