Hi all,
I want to build a fast but silent PC for around £700. This is the hardware that I need; Case&Power Supply, Motherboard, Graphics card, Hard Drive, 4GB of RAM and CPU & mabye a CPU cooler. I do not use my PC for any gaming but do use it for watching videos online, web browsing, playing music off napster. This is what I was thinking of getting:
Case:ANTEC SONATA III 500, NexusBasicSeries 120mm Quiet Case Fan for the front (do I need this?)
Motherboard:Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS4
GraphicsCard:Asus nVidia GeForce 8600GT 512MB PCI Express Graphics Card - EN8600GT SILENT/HTDP/512M
HardDrive: 250GB Samsung SpinPoint F1 252HJ SATA2 7200rpm 16MB
4GB RAM:X2 OCZ PC2-8500 DDR2 SLI Ready Dual Channel Kit Nvidia XTC 1066MHz 2G RAM Kit
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400/ 3GHz and Kühler CPU Scythe Ninja PLUS SCNJ-1100P µ
*will getting Vista Ultimate make my PC faster than if I used Vista Home Premium?
Please let me know how I could make this set up faster and queiter, and let me know the mistakes I've probably made. Cheers
Newbie wanting to build a silent but fast PC for £700
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Re: Newbie wanting to build a silent but fast PC for £700
You can get something half the price to run those things with no problem. Unless you game or do alot of video/audio encoding you dont need to spend much these days.womble wrote:I do not use my PC for any gaming but do use it for watching videos online, web browsing, playing music off napster.
Judging from other people's experiences with the layout inside the Sonata, I'd switch to a P182 if you can afford it.
Also, consider ATi graphics cards: from what I could see when I was shopping around in May, a HD3850 or 3870 was the best GPU in the pricerange at the time. Probably even cheaper now that the HD4800 cards are out.
Edit: Don't get a 3GHz CPU if that's all you're going to use it for, a 2.4GHz Dual should be plenty fast enough and will save you plenty. It will also make less heat, so you can have your machine even quieter!
You can still get Windows XP SP3 from http://scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=487053 for about £54, which will probably make your machine even faster compared with some overloaded Vista-variant, and be cheaper.
Also, consider ATi graphics cards: from what I could see when I was shopping around in May, a HD3850 or 3870 was the best GPU in the pricerange at the time. Probably even cheaper now that the HD4800 cards are out.
Edit: Don't get a 3GHz CPU if that's all you're going to use it for, a 2.4GHz Dual should be plenty fast enough and will save you plenty. It will also make less heat, so you can have your machine even quieter!
You can still get Windows XP SP3 from http://scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=487053 for about £54, which will probably make your machine even faster compared with some overloaded Vista-variant, and be cheaper.
For what you want to do the asus eee pc would be more than enough, unless you do play some games... or you are trying to future proof yourself for the next 5 years! For the things you want to do I'd personally go with XP and the cheapest components you can find. FWIW I played Crysis on XP with a mere 2GB of RAM (check my sig for full details).
As for the different versions of Vista being slower or faster - there is no difference in speed, the only differences are in the features provided - the differences that I remember between home premium and ultimate are builtin backup software and RDP access are not in Vista HP.
Earlier this year I built a htpc, which would more than adequately do what you want to do. here is scans price:
Link No. Description Ex VAT Inc VAT
LN22057 Asus M3A78-EMH HDMI, AMD780G, S AM2+, PCI-E 2 x16, DDR2 1066/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, HDMI, µATX £43.70 £51.35
LN22647 AMD Athlon 64 X2 4450e AM2 Dual Core 2.3GHz, 512KB x 2 Cache, Retail £34.99 £41.11
LN18053 250 GB Western Digital WD2500AAJS Caviar Blue, SATA 300, 7200 rpm, 8MB Cache, 9 ms £26.87 £31.57
LN11596 2GB (2x1GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-18 £26.64 £31.30
LN18867 Antec P182 Advanced PERFORMANCE ONE SERIES Super Midi Tower Case, Gun Metal Black (no PSU) £78.89 £92.70
LN15216 520W Corsair HX Series Modular PSU, ATX, EPS12V, whisper quiet, 5 year warranty £54.79 £64.38
LN12286 Scythe Ninja Plus Rev B Fanless HeatPipe Cooler S775/S478/S754/ S939/940 c/w 120mm Quiet Fan £27.99 £32.89
LN16381 Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition SP3 OEM - Single Pack £45.89 £53.92
Net Total £339.76
Carriage £11.35
VAT £61.44
Total £412.55
I just saved you 300 quid
As for the different versions of Vista being slower or faster - there is no difference in speed, the only differences are in the features provided - the differences that I remember between home premium and ultimate are builtin backup software and RDP access are not in Vista HP.
Earlier this year I built a htpc, which would more than adequately do what you want to do. here is scans price:
Link No. Description Ex VAT Inc VAT
LN22057 Asus M3A78-EMH HDMI, AMD780G, S AM2+, PCI-E 2 x16, DDR2 1066/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, HDMI, µATX £43.70 £51.35
LN22647 AMD Athlon 64 X2 4450e AM2 Dual Core 2.3GHz, 512KB x 2 Cache, Retail £34.99 £41.11
LN18053 250 GB Western Digital WD2500AAJS Caviar Blue, SATA 300, 7200 rpm, 8MB Cache, 9 ms £26.87 £31.57
LN11596 2GB (2x1GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-18 £26.64 £31.30
LN18867 Antec P182 Advanced PERFORMANCE ONE SERIES Super Midi Tower Case, Gun Metal Black (no PSU) £78.89 £92.70
LN15216 520W Corsair HX Series Modular PSU, ATX, EPS12V, whisper quiet, 5 year warranty £54.79 £64.38
LN12286 Scythe Ninja Plus Rev B Fanless HeatPipe Cooler S775/S478/S754/ S939/940 c/w 120mm Quiet Fan £27.99 £32.89
LN16381 Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition SP3 OEM - Single Pack £45.89 £53.92
Net Total £339.76
Carriage £11.35
VAT £61.44
Total £412.55
I just saved you 300 quid
Look at my sig.
DO NOT ever, ever buy an Asus M3A-78 EMH HDMI. It's a bad motherboard. It has a poorly written BIOS, which cases CPU overheat and thermal throtling problems with some CPUs ( Athlon X2 5xxx, 6xxx and Phenoms). It also has a very small southbridge (SB700) heatsink, which is causing severe overheating problems in my PC. Networking is the most affected. Not good for a low airflow silent case.
If anyone wants a AMD 780G motherboard, should buy a Gigabyte instead.
DO NOT ever, ever buy an Asus M3A-78 EMH HDMI. It's a bad motherboard. It has a poorly written BIOS, which cases CPU overheat and thermal throtling problems with some CPUs ( Athlon X2 5xxx, 6xxx and Phenoms). It also has a very small southbridge (SB700) heatsink, which is causing severe overheating problems in my PC. Networking is the most affected. Not good for a low airflow silent case.
If anyone wants a AMD 780G motherboard, should buy a Gigabyte instead.
No, the basis is the same, only the programs which comes with it do differ. see the MS Website*will getting Vista Ultimate make my PC faster than if I used Vista Home Premium?
Hi, the parts you've picked out look generally fine, I have a few thoughts:
Why 1066 RAM? Unless looking for big over-clocking (and 800 would be good to 3.6GHz+) or the absolute last bits of performance I would say it's not worth the extra cost.
8600GT video card is way overkill if gaming is totally off the menu. I'd suggest an ATI HD3450 (£25) as ample performance, passively cooled and lower power use. You might look at HD3650 (£35) if you want dual DVI.
E8400 CPU is high performance and low heat for modest cost, can't really go wrong with it! I built a system with one that was quietly cooled by Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro so the Ninja will have no problem.
Is 250GB HDD really enough, 500/640GB not much more money for much more space, you can never have too much HDD space! Adding a second drive later wouldn't be good for noise.
Once you get beyond the "normal" levels of quiet you need decoupled HDD(s). I'm not sure if the soft grommets in the Sonata III are good enough or if you'd be better with a P150/Solo/ Sonata Plus case. I don't think your proposed system/use warrants a P180/P182 case.
If you get serious you also need to enclose the HDDs, I've got a Scythe Quiet Drive that I find very good. The stock Antec "tri-cool" fans are OK on low but ultimately you want to replace with a Nexus or Scythe S-Flex. I don't think you need intake fan at all.
I priced up on Ebuyer.com an Asus P35, E8400, 4GB, 500GB, HD3450, Scythe Katana 2, DVDRW, Sonata Plus 550 and Vista Home Premium at £490 For really really quiet I'd add (from QuietPC.com) Scythe Ninja II, Scythe Quiet Drive and 120mm S-Flex fan. (~£80)
Regards, Seb
Why 1066 RAM? Unless looking for big over-clocking (and 800 would be good to 3.6GHz+) or the absolute last bits of performance I would say it's not worth the extra cost.
8600GT video card is way overkill if gaming is totally off the menu. I'd suggest an ATI HD3450 (£25) as ample performance, passively cooled and lower power use. You might look at HD3650 (£35) if you want dual DVI.
E8400 CPU is high performance and low heat for modest cost, can't really go wrong with it! I built a system with one that was quietly cooled by Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro so the Ninja will have no problem.
Is 250GB HDD really enough, 500/640GB not much more money for much more space, you can never have too much HDD space! Adding a second drive later wouldn't be good for noise.
Once you get beyond the "normal" levels of quiet you need decoupled HDD(s). I'm not sure if the soft grommets in the Sonata III are good enough or if you'd be better with a P150/Solo/ Sonata Plus case. I don't think your proposed system/use warrants a P180/P182 case.
If you get serious you also need to enclose the HDDs, I've got a Scythe Quiet Drive that I find very good. The stock Antec "tri-cool" fans are OK on low but ultimately you want to replace with a Nexus or Scythe S-Flex. I don't think you need intake fan at all.
I priced up on Ebuyer.com an Asus P35, E8400, 4GB, 500GB, HD3450, Scythe Katana 2, DVDRW, Sonata Plus 550 and Vista Home Premium at £490 For really really quiet I'd add (from QuietPC.com) Scythe Ninja II, Scythe Quiet Drive and 120mm S-Flex fan. (~£80)
Regards, Seb
Re: Newbie wanting to build a silent but fast PC for £700
Try this config:womble wrote:I do not use my PC for any gaming but do use it for watching videos online, web browsing, playing music off napster. This is what I was thinking of getting
http://lh4.ggpht.com/miketionary/SEfI1h ... U/htpc.JPG
Just add two Nexus-fans from Novatech or Aria. They have free shipping options. If you catch a few posts at the hexus forums, Scan will provide free shipping as well.
edit: something is wrong with picasa. Copy and paste link into the address-bar then it should work.