Need advice on building a quiet C2D system and server

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Vampirtc
Posts: 22
Joined: Sun Feb 18, 2007 9:00 am

Need advice on building a quiet C2D system and server

Post by Vampirtc » Sun Feb 18, 2007 9:22 am

Need a new system that I plan to OC only when needed (probably when Crysis comes out). My first priority is that I can't hear it from 2m where I sleep.

I've been thinking about the following components:
Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Sockel-775 boxed
OCZ Gold GX XTC DIMM Kit 2048MB PC2-5300U CL4-4-4-12 (DDR2-667)
ASUS P5B-E, P965 *or* Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 V1.0
2xHitachi Deskstar T7K500 320GB 16MB SATA II (HDT725032VLA360)
OCZ GameXStream 600W ATX 2.2 *or* Levicom Polar Power 400W ATX 2.2
PowerColor Radeon X1950 Pro Extreme, 256MB GDDR3, 2x DVI, ViVo

I mostly need advice on the case, I want something classy such as Antec P180 or Lian Li PC-101 or Lian Li PC-B20 or similar. It has to tone down the HDDs. Btw is having Raid0 worth the noise they make? It needs room for Powercolor GPU cooler as well
Not sure about the power supply as well, atm I need around 300W but I would like to upgrade to DX10 card in the future (possibly this year). And of course it needs to be quiet.
Which CPU fan would work best with the case?
What can I do about cooling down HDDs and making them more quiet?


The second PC I need advice on is my server that is on 24/7/350 and is next to my main PC and again 2m away from where I sleep.
Components: AMD Semprom 2400, 1GB RAM, 2x SATA 200GB HDD, 1xIDE HDD, graphic card is some AGP without cooling. CPU is being cooled by a Zalman, power supply is quiet as well. The biggest problem is the HDD which is often in use for downloading and is the loudest. Case is a cheap one without internal fans.
I need advice on a case, possibly CPU cooler (passive if possible) and how to quiet and cool HDDs. I don't plan to upgrade so if possible I would like to use as little fans as possible.

Thanks for reading.

Mescalero
Posts: 61
Joined: Sun Jan 14, 2007 9:02 am
Location: TU-BS, Germany

Post by Mescalero » Mon Feb 19, 2007 8:42 am

The standard answers for your 1st PC are:
Case: The Antec Solo, it has build in HDD suspension
PSU: The Seasonic S-12 are pretty godd, a 330W or 380W should do.

And I would get Samsung Spinpoint HDD instead of the Hitachis. The Samsung HD321KJ are supposed to be much quieter.
For fans and and CPU cooling you should have a,look around in the forums. A passive Scythe Ninja coupled with a quiet exhaust fan is what a lot of people here are using.
If you really need HDD cooling, the Antec Solo has space for one or two 92mm font fans.

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