Spec check

quickfix · 27 May 2006 at 23:26

Trying to be as quiet as possible without losing any power.

Budget ~£1000 (not inc. vat)

Need everything apart from keyboard and mouse (a total overhaul).

Was thinking along the lines of:

AMD 64 X2 3800+
Asus A8N32-SLi Deluxe nForce4 SLi X16 Mobo
G.Skill 2GB DDR HZ PC4000 (2x1GB) CAS3 Dual Channel RAM
Antec P180 case
Scythe Ninja Plus (works well in the case)
OcUK GeForce 7900 GT 256MB
Samsung SpinPoint P SP2504C 250GB SATA-II
Akasa AK FC-03 Fan Controller Pro
Akasa AK FC-06BK Fan Controller Junior (yes, two controllers, I might have five fans running if the system is rather hot)
Samsung SH-W163 16x16 DVD±RW Serial ATA Dual Layer ReWriter
Samsung SM-920N 19" LCD Monitor

I have some Nexus 120mm fans on order from somewhere else and I'm importing a Seasonic S12 500W (sleeved version) from the USA (SUCH a hassle). Neither are included in that budget.

Hopefully that's everything.

So, what do you think...?

Monstermunch · 27 May 2006 at 23:42

Money much better spent I think:

MB-014-DF DFI LanParty UT NF4 Ultra-D (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-014-DF)
£74.95 £74.95
CP-152-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-152-AM)
£161.95 £161.95
FG-000-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR)
£14.95 £14.95
MY-057-OC OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC3200 Dual Channel Platinum Series EL-DDR CAS2 (OCZ4002048ELDCPE-K) (MY-057-OC)
£139.95 £139.95
HD-002-HI Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 NCQ 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (0A31636) (HD-002-HI)
£52.95 £52.95
CD-033-NE NEC ND4571 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer LabelFlash ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-033-NE)
£24.95 £24.95
CA-049-AN Antec P180 Advanced Super Midi Tower Case - No PSU (Black) (CA-049-AN)
£82.95 £82.95
GX-044-CO Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-044-CO)
£144.95 £144.95
MO-012-AC Acer AL1916WS 19" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black/Silver (MO-012-AC)
£149.95 £149.95
Subtotal £847.55
VAT £148.33
Total £995.88

quickfix · 28 May 2006 at 00:30

Looks like a good build, I probably forgot to mention/stress a few things enough...

Like how anal I am about sound. The reason I wanted to spend a silly amount on a Scythe Ninja is because aparrently you can let it passively cool lots of chips, or otherwise run a seriously undervolted fan attached.

Also, for the same reason I was looking at the asus mobos, with the heatpipe technology. I can't work out what features I'd lose going to the Asus A8N-SLi Premium, anything important?

One other thing I forgot to say was that I want the option to just buy another graphics card and bung it in for SLi/crossfire without any more upgrades... And for the sake of a few quid is it not better to get the 7900?

squiffy · 28 May 2006 at 00:39

If you want a near silent system don't get the X1800XT, unless going to buy a quieter VGA cooler. That DFI has a fan so therefore noisy. Crossfire will require 480 or 580 chipset (see my sig) SLI will require Nforce 4 SLI ie Asus A8N-SLi Premium nForce4 SLi. The 1800XT is faster than 7900GT (both at stock) but the X1800XT is louder.

I would set the Ninja fan to low, don't run it passive unless in a HTPC, but I guess this is a gaming machine so bit daft undervolting CPU...so what's a bit of whirring when speakers are on? A Western Digital 7200rpm is not loud at all.

ACESHIGH · 28 May 2006 at 04:32

The X1800XT is the better card for price / speed & recently noise.

The X1800XT is only slighlty nopisy at startup & quiet therafter. Whereas many 7900GT have benn making lots of noise recently (search & you will see).
Dont know whats up with that though!

Monstermunch · 28 May 2006 at 10:09

quickfix said:
Like how anal I am about sound. The reason I wanted to spend a silly amount on a Scythe Ninja is because aparrently you can let it passively cool lots of chips, or otherwise run a seriously undervolted fan attached.

The Freezer 64 is one of the best coolers around and runs nearly silent anyway, but if that's still a concern you can also look at the Thermalright SI-120 and stick a 120mm fan with it which should be nearly silent.

quickfix said:
Also, for the same reason I was looking at the asus mobos, with the heatpipe technology. I can't work out what features I'd lose going to the Asus A8N-SLi Premium, anything important?

No problem with the Asus mobo's, but the DFI's outperform them, personally I would just get the DFI I specc'd and stick the Zalman chipset heatsink on and remove the chipset fan.

quickfix said:
One other thing I forgot to say was that I want the option to just buy another graphics card and bung it in for SLi/crossfire without any more upgrades... And for the sake of a few quid is it not better to get the 7900?

SLI is pointless IMO unless you're running a 24" or above monitor. The only advantage the nVidia's have over the ATI's is heat and volume.....The ATI's are cheaper, faster and generally better than the nVidia rivals. BTW for reference.......

7900gt(256mb) @ £188 vs x1800xt(256mb) @ £199 - Roughly Equal, except the AA & HDR and £11 more.

7900gt(512mb) @ £270 vs x1800xt(512mb) @ £235 - Roughly Equal, except AA & HDR....Plus the ATI is £35 cheaper!

7900gtx(512mb) @ £305 vs x1900xt(512mb) @ £276 - Roughly Equal, except AA & HDR....Plus the ATI is £29 cheaper!

x1900xtx(512mb) @ £311 - Only £6 more than the 7900gtx and faster than all of the above!