Building a new box, please critique!

[trpltongue]

Hello all,

I am building my new htpc for the living room and could really use your comments/critiques.

My goals are:
PVR functionality
DVD playback w/dscaler
Light Gaming (UT, Need for Speed, EQ, etc)

My room conditions are:
~40db ambient noise (loud fridge and A/C)
~10ft from seating position to pc
I'd like the pc to be inaudible or at least barely audible at the 10ft distance

My plans are:

Antec Sonata Case
Abit NF7-S MB
WD 250GB 8MB HD
(2X256)Geil Golden Dragon Dual DDR 3200
Lite-on DVD
ATI 8500DV
AMD "Barton" 2500+
OR
AMD "thoroughbred" 2600+
Retail H/S fan (acknowledging that I will most likely have to upgrade)

Those items in bold I already have. I'm undecided on the processor though, the slower barton or faster thoroughbred? Does anything stand out as glaringly loud?

Your comments are greatly appreciated.

Russ

[mrzed]

The only remotely silent part of that setup is the case. Radeon 8500 fans are not great. The western digital drives are among the loudest of the current generation. Lite-on has a noisy reputation (my burner is nasty, but I rarely use it, so I don't care). And as you mentioned, the retail AMD HSF is not great.

I doubt that that setup, even as is, would be really noticeable at 10' in a room witha fridge and AC. But when neither is running, it would be obvious.

I would say get a quieter hard drive, because the perfomance difference is not that huge. Do a search around here and avsforum for a quiet DVD drive. Mod the 8500dv if and when you notice the buzzy little fan, or get a seperate tv card and a nice 9600 passive if you can afford it. Buy the retail processor for the warantee, and switch it right away for a SLK800/900 plus quiet fan if it bugs you as much as it would most people here.

Basically silent computing is about making it comfortable for you. As long as you start with a good case, you should be able to make even a fast computer tolerable.

[ez2remember]

My room conditions are:
~40db ambient noise (loud fridge and A/C)
~10ft from seating position to pc
I'd like the pc to be inaudible or at least barely audible at the 10ft distance

If you are looking for inaudibilty at 10 feet distance, it is not too hard to achieve.

If your fridge is making 40dB @ 1m I presume, I don't see any component being louder than your fridge. All you need is just to undervolt a few fans. You don't even need any quiet/low airflow fans, just undervolt generic ones and it should be inaudible above your fridge noise.

Decouple the noisy WD harddisk (40dB fridge noisier though).

[trpltongue]

Thanks for the suggestions!

I forgot to mention that I'd probably get the Zalman heatpipe cooler for the 8500DV as well.

Regarding the DVD, I was under the impression (avsforum) that the lite-on DVD drives were very quiet. Is this in fact not the case? I'll do some more searching here regarding the DVD. The WD is not loud at all. I have it decoupled in my current system and can't hear it at all. I planned on undervolting using the Sonata's "fan-only" connectors. I just wanted to make sure that there was nothing that was going to be glaringly loud that I hadn't already addressed (h/s fan etc.).

Any opinions on which processor to go with? Do the Bartons run cooler/faster than the thoroughbreds?

Thanks again,

Russ

[goose_wh]

zalman heatpipes will be overkill on the 8500.
either do the budget option & simply disconnect the fan (which i have done & my 8500 has been fine for the last 4 months, even coming into peak of summer),
or opt for the less expensive zalman HS for lower powered graphics cards if you want to be extra safe.
just make sure the airflows alright in the case 7 itll be fine. (i used to have a 92mm blowing onto the card, but the noise got to me, so ive switched it off with no adverse effects.)

[trpltongue]

I was wondering if the heatsink would be alright for the 8500DV. Like I said, I'll not be doing any serious gaming so it should be fine. Just wasn't sure if that'd be enough cooling.

Russ