Hewwo!

[Kate]

Wow, I cannot believe I could get this nick, not many girls around here I take!

Anyways, Id like to say its a pleasure to be part of such lovely forum, and i do hope to learn, and share experiences with other users.

I started building my own computer a couple of weeks ago (at that time I wasnt aware of silentpcreview), so I bought the following parts so far:

- Thermaltake Tsunami Dream VA300BWA;
- EVGA 790i mother board;
- Intel C2Q 9550;
- Cooler Thermalright HR-01 Plus;
- Nexus fan with PWM;
- 4GB Ram Corsair;
- 1 GTX 260 (Still will buy one or two more);
- PSU Zalman 850w;

After reading the forum I noticed that Tsunami is not a good case, because its "noisier" than most, I have to admit that I bought it without the knowledge, It was interely based on looks.

The reason I built my own machine, is not only because I love MMORPG games, but I also study medicine, and I need a powerful computer for protein simulation software.

And that was the best I could afford.

Now to the questions...

Have I made a good choice?

Is there ANYTHING I can do to silence the Tsunami a little bit? I cannot return the case, as it was on sale.

Can I use the Thermalright cooler, without that HUGE fan?

Please help me, as I am sick and tired of the "dell noise", so I decided to build my own, but I am starting to regret as I read Tsunami is not good.

Thank you!

[pixel]

Hello,

I am also kind of new to SPCR, but still, I'd like to say welcome.

The parts aren't bad.. The Tsunami Dream is not very popular here (I don't mean it has a bad reputation; just that not many people have it here), but still, I think it can be quiet enough for most people with the right components. I have a cheap ASUS case, and after choosing silent components and undervolting quality fans I've got it down to a very acceptable noise level.

I don't have much experience with nVidia-chipset motherboards, but the 790 is generally well-regarded and nVidia chipsets the only way (except getting a Nehalem system with an X58 motherboard) to have SLi with Intel CPU's. I don't think you will have problems mainboard-wise.

The Core2Quad 9550 is a very respectable CPU; I'm sure it will help with simulation software (and, in general, running many applications at once). I think it produces less heat than the old Q6600's, so you wouldn't need as noisy a fan to cool the CPU.

The CPU heatsink is probably the best you can get if you aim for quietness. It has a very good review on this site; and you can see it scored very high points in the "Recommended Heatsinks" list. For most CPU's it's possible to put a "duct" between the end of the heatsink and the case exhaust fan; thereby causing the exhaust fan to draw air through the heatsink and eliminating the need for a separate fan on the heatsink. I don't know how it goes with a Quad processor, though - but I'm sure someone will clear this question.

Nexus fans are well-regarded, good choice here. Have you got one of them, or two? PWM will control the fan speed according to CPU load, it can help achieve low noise at "idling" without the need for SpeedFan or voltage-reducing adapters.

4 GB RAM is a good choice. Is it DDR-2 800 or 1066? It doesn't matter THAT much; but if it's 1066 you could choose an appropriate multiplier in BIOS to get it to run at 1066 and get a little bit more speed.

The Q9550 has a FSB of 333 IIRC, so you would need to choose a multiplier of 3,2 in the BIOS to get it to run at its intended speed. If no multiplier is selected it will run with a multiplier of 2, therefore running at 666 mHz. Also, you might need to adjust the voltage and timings of the RAM if they are off. Some motherboard and RAM combinations to this automatically; I'm not sure if your combination does this so I wanted to write them here. The multiplier might be mentioned in some other way on your motherboard's BIOS - it might even be totally different on nVidia motherboards - so I'd advise that you do a quick check of the RAM settings (The program CPU-z will do fine on Windows) to see what they read.

The GTX 260 is a good choice; an ASUS GTX260 was reviewed here on SPCR and it was found to be very quiet (for a card of this power). Might I ask what brand did you get? (It might make a difference in the cooler - the rest of the card is the same. There's not a clear consensus here if all GTX260's use the same cooler and thus produce the same amount of noise.)

Also, there are versions of GTX260 with 216 working lines (the first ones used 192). The newer ones with 216 lines (shader units, IIRC) have a bit more of a punch than the older ones. I hope yours is one of the newer ones.

One final thing about the video card: You have mentioned that you plan to buy one or two more GTX260 cards. Two, or even three GTX260's in SLi mean SERIOUS power - I think they will be truly overkill for MMORPG's. I think a single GTX260 would not be strained - unless you plan to play Crysis on a 24" LCD with Very High settings.

I don't have much knowledge about the PSU you have bought; but I think it's quiet enough to satify most people.


Some steps you could take to make your PC more quiet:

- How many fans do you have at the moment? If you have some "cheap" fans in your case; changing them with better brands (like Nexus or Scythe) could help with noise. Also, I don't think you would need fans to run at more than 1000 rpm - you might consider running a software like SpeedFan to control the fans and set them to a quieter speed.

- Doing some good cable management in the case would help with airflow, and may help you lower the fan speeds further. It could also lower components' temperatures.

- If all other components are quiet; the noise coming from hard disk drives might become more obvious. Most of the noise from HDD's doesn't come from the motor used to spin the disk (WD Raptors might be an exception); but from the vibrations transmitted to the case. Most cases use screws to hold the HDD's to a metal "HDD cage", and this can transmit vibrations and cause noise (especially if the HDD cage is made out of thin metal sheet). If you feel comfortable doing so; you might consider "suspending" the hard drives with elastic string of "Stretch Magic". Check out some examples in the "Silent Storage" sub-forum - there are lots of pictures and explanations in the "Show your pictures" thread.


I think you can do just fine with the Tsunami, as long as you choose the right components (you seem to have done so already), quiet fans, and some small corrections like slowing down the fans, improving the cable layout and reducing hard drive noise.

If I have written something in error; I hope someone here will correct it - I definitely cannot claim I know better than most people here about silencing. Have fun with the new computer!

[Kate]

Hello Pixel,

Im glad for you help, actually, I bought the Tsunami case before I read the forum in here.

Then the CPU cooler and the Nexus fan, I bought AFTER reading the forums.

The video card i got the Evga GTX 260 FTW, again that was the best I could afford, I know that there are better cards, but they get pretty expensive.

I only bought ONE Nexus PWM, I am thinking about getting two more and remove the original ones from the Tsunami but then I believe it should not be PWM.

Memory I choose TW3X4G1333C9 from Corsair, I trusted the seller on this, and bought 2 pairs. He even made me buy a memory cooler, which I dont use it, I dont believe memory needs cooling, so I didnt use it

I bought a Seagate 500gb HD, I do not need that much space, but it was cheap enough for me to buy, and i decided to buy it.

I never play 1st person shooting games, the last I played was Quake 3 against my brother, when I was in HighSchool...

The idea of having 2 or 3 video cards is that in the near future I want (and need) to have more desktop space, I am considering buying the TripleHead2Go from matrox and hooking 3 22" monitor, I currently use 2 22" (the samsung T220). We have a couple of machines like this in the med school lab.

This will not be primarely for gaming, it will be for my study, there is a field in medicine that I really love, that is nuclear medicine, and the other thing I want to study is protein simulation, so the idea of having a HUGE desktop is nice.

My only concern is the noise generated from fans, power supply and coolers... I still have an Dell Optiplex 755, and I find it pretty noisy, the HD i can hardly hear it, but I can hear the coolers, fans and the power suply.

To study with all that noise, is impossible, after a couple of hours I get some sort of headache, thats why I started researching for silent PCs.

I even asked for help from a computer engineer professor from my university, he said he will aid me with the task, but he said he is not specialist in case "modding". I also do not intend to overclock the CPU, as he said it might shorten the CPU life, and the CPUs are not intended to be overclocked.

I spent the whole morning digging information if I could turn off the Nexus PWM and use the HR-01+ alone without the fan.

And after xmas, I will replace all the case fans with nexus fans.

But still i have many many question, especially if anyone in the forum have experiences with Thermaltake Tsunami Dream case, and the best way to silence it.

Thank you!

[QuietOC]

The video card i got the Evga GTX 260 FTW, again that was the best I could afford, I know that there are better cards, but they get pretty expensive.
...
The idea of having 2 or 3 video cards is that in the near future I want (and need) to have more desktop space, I am considering buying the TripleHead2Go from matrox and hooking 3 22" monitor, I currently use 2 22" (the samsung T220). We have a couple of machines like this in the med school lab.

This will not be primarely for gaming, it will be for my study, there is a field in medicine that I really love, that is nuclear medicine, and the other thing I want to study is protein simulation, so the idea of having a HUGE desktop is nice.

My only concern is the noise generated from fans, power supply and coolers... I still have an Dell Optiplex 755, and I find it pretty noisy, the HD i can hardly hear it, but I can hear the coolers, fans and the power suply.

AMD has low power video cards designed to drive 4 displays. Looks like nVidia has them too even a wierd one with 4 VGA outputs. If you did want to game, one of these would be much faster with four outputs in one card.

The simpler budget recommendation is to just get a motherboard with a couple of x16 compatible PCIe slots and a couple of cheap dual head passive video cards.

Edit: Reading it again, you do want to game. Okay, get a low power passive nVidia card like a 9500GT to pair with the GTX 260.

[Kate]

Hello QuietOC,

I have seem those video cards, I almost bought the Quadro4 NVS450, but after much thought, and asking people, I have decided to go with the GTX260, save money, then buy another T220 and a triplehead2go, as it would open "more" possibilities in the future.

The idea of having a strong desktop for the things I want to study/research and also have the possibility to use it as a gaming machine is pretty good.

Even tho I am not a "pro-gamer", I do play SOME pc games, mainly MMORPGs, but since I have a much better machine for gaming (than the dell optiplex 755 that is) I might try different games to see how it is.

I like playing wii, wiifit is great, and IMO no PC can beat it. However I am fully aware that for simulation games the PC is umatched, so maybe it will be fun to see how things are in simulation games, maybe racing? Not sure if there is racing simulation, not racing games... I might even try flight simulators, just for curiosity!

Furthermore, my computer engineer friend said that in the near future, a lot of software for protein simulation, will be able to use the graphics card for calculation, so I guessed that going for a better card would be a better option.

Thank you for your advice!

[QuietOC]

I have seem those video cards, I almost bought the Quadro4 NVS450, but after much thought, and asking people, I have decided to go with the GTX260, save money, then buy another T220 and a triplehead2go, as it would open "more" possibilities in the future.
...
Even tho I am not a "pro-gamer", I do play SOME pc games, mainly MMORPGs, but since I have a much better machine for gaming (than the dell optiplex 755 that is) I might try different games to see how it is.

nVidia SLI setups are currently not very compatible with multiple monitor arrangements, so you would be better off with one of the single card four output dual-GPU Radeons than running any kind of SLI setup. A dual card Radeon Crossfire setup is also fine with multiple monitors.

The mixed nVidia card setup would be fine for multiple monitors. No multiple SLIed GTX 260s unless you like rebooting a lot.

[m0002a]

Wow, I cannot believe I could get this nick, not many girls around here I take!

Most girls like to use a computer for what it is intended for. They turn it on and it works.

Most guys like to build things, even if we have to make up an excuse for using the thing we end up building. It is sort of like when a guy builds a workbench to hold all his tools, and he will justify the purchase of more tools just to build the workbench. This addiction to building things usually gets out of hand, and most of us have 3 times as many computers as we really need.

[Kate]

QuietOC,

HI! And thank you again!
I have read somewhere that the ATI cards are not compatible with a tri-monitor setup thru triplehead2go, when using 22" or bigger monitor, its something about ATI software not being able to deliver the full needed resolution...

And I sent an email to matrox, and they replied that at the moment only nVidia cards can be archieve the full 3-monitor setup with triplehead2go, so i decided to go with the nvidia setup.

Rebooting is a no no... I like to turn it on and use it, no hangs, no crash, no configurations no fiddling, once its done, it should work, 100%.

A single card would be enough, I do not believe I need more cards, but I have the possibility of using more than one card if i ever need.

I am still considering buying more one or two cards, but it in a very distant future!

Thanks!



m0002a,

I totally agree with you, but when we need computers for special kind of software or for unparalled performance, we need to resort to custom assembly.

I do not want to buy a VERY VERY expensive brand name computer to be able to run my simulation software, I prefer saving money buying parts, and trying to build my own, and even asking for help from friends, professors and forums!

However, for daily use, there is nothing better than the "turn on and it works" approach, thats why I still have a Dell Optiplex 755, and a Sony Vaio CR series notebook, that I take to university.

Most girls, have yet to see usage on custom built or "built-your-own" computer. But trust me, I have seen many girls in my university that end up asking someone or trying to build their own machines, because they need it to study or work.

I do not think I would try to do this if I didnt have a reason to!

I do admire how boys build their computers, I think that its good have a hobby, no matter how expensive or difficult it is, having a hobby is important!

Thank you for your input!

[Nick Geraedts]

I'd second the recommendation for multiple video cards. I'm running a triple monitor setup off my two ATI video cards (4850+3650), and it's a far cheaper (and simpler) route than having a triplehead2go. I haven't played with Crossfire, mostly because I've never had a need for it, but like QuietOC said, it should be possible.

Another thing to realize with the matrox route - you can forget about maximizing windows to a screen. Since the triplehead2go makes the computer "see" one giant monitor, if you maximize a window, it'll go to the whole triple-monitor setup. Just something to keep in mind. Furthermore, if you have your taskbar on the bottom, there's a chance that taskbar items will clip from one screen to another. By keeping the screens separate, and then using UltraMon to add the additional taskbars on the additional monitors, you keep the ability to maximize windows "normally" and prevent clipping across screens.

[Kate]

Hi nick!

Problem is.. with ATI and or Nvidia on windows vista, there is no way to create one big desktop of lets say 5040x1050, which is interesting for games.

I know it is a hassle to have one single desktop, I am currently using my 260 feeding my 2 samsung t220 22" and it works beautifully.

The thing about triplehead2go is just to "experiment" with high end games, I will have the gear anyways, ahd the triplehead is not expensive, so I was willing to try!

But yes, I like the idea of driving the 3rd monitor of another video card, that seems to be a cool solution.

However, up till now.. Nobody answered me the questions...


How can I silence a Thermaltake Tsunami?

Do i have to buy the same fan specs? like 2 1400 rpm 120mm fan? Or can i go with the ultra silent 800rpm 1200mm?

What about the 790i cooler fan? can it be replaced?

How about this items: http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/std ... d=pAIMiWqD
are they any good?

Thanks!

[Nick Geraedts]

As long as the size of the fans are the same, they should work. I use the 800RPM Scythe Slipstream fans in my system (similar overall power draw to yours) and they manage to keep everything nice and cool.

You might be able to replace the northbridge fan, but considering that it's got its own little case, that might be tough.

You might be able to run the Q9550 with the HR-01 passively, if you duct the rear exhaust over the heatsink. I have a fan on my TRUE to keep my Q9550 cool, but then again I have my CPU overclocked 20%. I find that three 800RPM fans aren't instrusive, but I often have music playing, so the faint background hum of my system doesn't bother me in any way.

[Kate]

Hi Nick,

hmm... very interesting.. so I might just buy 2 more 120mm fans, but non PWM...

Thank you!!

[Eyedolon]

I'm running not quite the system you have (coming), but also with an unfavored case (the antec 900, which is very open and thus noisy). I've swapped all the stock fans with Enermax Marathon 120mm fans, picked up a scythe heatsink and the computer is very quiet.

Dual monitor on nvidia graphics is fairly simple. Using the bottom-most option results in a second native display, easy to move windows from one to the other. UltraMon then adds a taskbar to the second if needed.

I'm not quite spendy enough to have 3 monitors lying around, but I don't imagine any trouble with it. I would say this though - when I hooked up my two monitors (a 24 and an ancient 19), I did both of them to my first GTX260 by mistake (a core 216 variant, all of 7% faster then a stock 260 and probably a wash with the FTW) and never saw any slowdowns in Team Fortress 2. It didn't like me choosing songs manually on the second monitor while "full-screening" TF2 on the first, forcibly minimizing every time, but beyond that the 260 had little trouble.

I DID have to disable SLI, so I imagine running a graphically demanding game like Far Cry 2 might be asking for trouble with a larger monitor, but from my old MMO days I know WoW can be run on a napkin and only the soon-to-be-defunct Age of Conan really stresses hardware.

Rather then fooling the computer into thinking it has a ginormous monitor attached with triplehead2go, I'd use two graphics cards not-SLI, with your primary monitor (ie the games one) on the first and the other two on the second.

For temps, take the fan off the heatsink on the 790i. You'll quiet the case down a lot, and if it ever gets unstable just cry a bit and put it back on.

If the ram is 1066 (I'm not familiar with Corsair in particular, I use a tiny performance brand), simply hop into BIOS after hitting the power button (I achieve this by mashing F12, Delete, F8 and F2 since I've used a lot of different motherboards and get the key mixed up), and tell the system your RAM is "SLI-Ready". It may not have the stupid sticker on it, but that's what SLI-Ready means, and it's an easy way to get the 7xx series to set your RAM where it needs to be to operate at 1066. I just realized, after writing all that, that the 790 is the DDR3 variant, so my advice may not apply. Oops!


One other thing. EVGA sent me an email stating they just brought the GTX260 to a 55nm spec, so the newer ones should run cooler and thus quieter. You will have no trouble mixing and matching the various GTX260 tiers though - my case has a GTX260 Core 216 as primary and a GTX260 Superclocked as secondary. Everything works as intended. Two GTX260's SLI'd smoke every game I have, and I went on a little buying spree after TF2 told me it was running at 200fps.

The Zalman 850W was recommended to me on this very forum for my rig, which as above is in the area of yours but not quite. I have the Q6600 which is a heat machine and the DDR2 board, but very similar across the board. You will have enough power cables for two video cards - *but not three*. I don't believe the stupid Molex-to-PCIe adapter cables are safe. I don't trust them!

As well, taking the time to hide wires out of the way isn't just for looks. All those wires running everywhere block airflow! I remember WAY back in the day at a LAN party my buddy's computer kept crashing, and we didn't know why. I took it apart as my box was down with faulty hardware, and it was a MESS of wires and dust. After rewiring EVERYTHING, he not only got use of his fan controller for the first time, but the case temps at idle dropped a full 10*C and the crashing vanished.



Noisier here is a relative term. Everyone I know states my box is silent, but compared to most of the rigs here it's a jet engine. At some level, to fit the needs you have/will have, silent as defined here is completely impossible. Get it to where it doesn't bother you, and enjoy it.

[Kate]

Eyedolon,

Thats nice!

Ya, there is a solution called SoftTH, that seems to work quite well. But I have never tested it, I will test it without the matrox 1st and see how it works.

I REALLY dont want to take the fan off the 790i, I would prefer using a more efficient fan to cool it down better than the original fan.

Somewhere along the internet, I read that heat can dimish the hardware life time considerably, so I do not intend to turn off or remove the fan, I just want to find a better and preferably more silent one.

The ram 1600 DDR3 (dance dance revolution?)

People said to me that the Zalman is not the best but it is pretty good, For me.. it seems to be nice, It pretty much looks "nice", not sure how it performs!

Assembly wise I will have the help of an computer engineer, he works for IBM, and I am sure he will be able to aid me into the task... I told him I do not want him to assemble it for me, I want to do it, with his help... Learning is the key!

[Eyedolon]

Lifetime is a relative thing. For high needs environments, I doubt you'd have a part "age out", but I might be wrong. The second computer I ever built, an early Athlon 64, is still running with a substantial overclock on the stock fan as my dad's computer (the so called mombox.) My guess is your computer wouldn't be able to keep up with the needs of modern applications in your field long before the parts fail of age. There are people on this board using computers long predating my A64, but I've built 3 computers since the A64 stopped being able to keep up.

My 780i has never had that little fan attached, and I've never had the slightest problem with temperatures. In fact, if it's like mine, you'd have to ADD the fan, as it doesn't come installed stock. My guess is it serves the same purpose as the fans included with old A8N-SLI boards (of which I owned several, they were touchy beasts), which was to be added in case of watercooling.

The reason I'd leave it off is if you put it on, it WILL be the loudest thing in your computer, bar none. I'd go so far as to say don't even bother trying to silence with a little 1600RPM jet engine sitting in there. I don't think there are any "quiet" solutions in the 40mm range. To pull any kind of air at all at that size they have to spin like none other, and that's noise.

A hop to NewEgg shows DDR3 for the 790i going up to 2000, with that being the "SLI-Ready" speed for DDR3. That being the case, set your RAM manually! It is possible the 1600 can be run at 2000, but it's not totally certain. Also, I'd forgo the use of a specific RAM cooler. You have a tower heatsink pulling air across the ram sticks, that should more then suffice to keep them nice and frosty.

Best is ever changing. I'm eyeing the SeaSonic M12D when it returns to the market, but in the time I've been hunting for a replacement for my ailing OCZ I've changed targets three times (Enermax 625, Zalman 850, M12D 750). Who knows what'll come on the market next month, and that's not a good way to try to pick parts. You'll never get "the best part ever", because they're always getting outdated by newer designs!


The tool I used was built into Nvidia's control panel. I no longer have my 19, so I can't check, but it was easy to access and use when I fiddled around with it.

[Kate]

hello Eyedolon,

I like to think in terms of expanding its lifetime, not shorten it!

I had to work HARD to buy those components, and I do intend to take great care! The 790i owner´s manual says that the fan is recomended for daily basis usage, so I dont think I would remove...

I was looking for an adaptor of some sort, to use a lager hence more silent fan to use it in place, but I failed to find such adaptor. In my university I know people who could "fabricate" this adaptor with those plastic injection machines, and I might go there, and ask around after the holidays.

Furthermore, the overclock is something I will trully avoid, as it generates more heat, heat translates to bigger, powerful fans, which leads to noise... I wont even touch the "it will shorten the computer life time" thing.. So.. No Overclock is not an option...

For a moment I thought about watercooling, and I was honestly considering it, but after reading about the dangers of watercooling, I decided it is not for me!

Hey my father has a Dell optiplex 755 with a quad! And he uses it to listen to iTunes and play solitare, and occasional web browsing. My mother has an even older machine, a Dell Dimension 5150.

Yes, the "Dance Dance Revolution 3" memory was pretty expensive! I payed a lot of cash for my 8gb, funny is that there is lot more memory in my iPod and it costs less than those memories!

The vendor made me buy a blue/black corsair memory cooler, but people said its not really necessary. So I dont know if I should use it or not.

I regret buying the Thermaltake Tsunami, Ok, it looks cute, but my brother says it fits me as it looks like a little " fridge".. But thats not the reason of course, I regret buying it because people cursed it so much, not only my friends, but also the forums, so I have to confess that I am a little bit sad with my purchase.

The powersupply, I know that sooner or later I will have to change if I ever decide to go with 3 video cards, I would not mind changing it, but when I do I want to buy the best, the crème de la crème powersupply so I wont have to worry about that anymore...

And well the case.. Ill survive.. I still think its pretty, even if people condenm me for buying it!

Btw, thank you for your adivces and tips!

[Eyedolon]

I wasn't really suggesting an overclock so much as relating my experience with what should be compromised lifetime parts. The A64 dates back to I do believe around 2001 or so, possibly a little later, and I threw a decent overclock on it just to see. It's held it since, and that may just be the overall beastly nature of the Barton core, but I'm thus skeptical that decreased lifespan concerns are really too major.

Heh, I opened mine, took one look at the fan, and threw it in my parts box. I'm using a radial-type cooler (top down as opposed to front to back like your tower cooler), so mine has increased airflow from the cpu heatsink.

I've thought about watercooling but it just seems like too much hassle. I'm long past my overclocking phase and beyond that it seems like a lot of money for no gain, as I've never had temperature issues before. I wouldn't use the memory cooler. It's got three of those dinky little screamer fans doesn't it? In general, I only work to increase cooling if the computer is unstable. I'm using low noise fans, no motherboard fan, and the highest temperature my quad's ever recorded was 52*C, after 5 minutes of a heavy burn test to check some components.

The difference between the ipod memory and the RAM is the Ipod is NAND flash (I do believe) and really doesn't have anything like the read-write of RAM. RAM is written read and rewritten astonishingly quickly, whereas you probably know how long it takes to add a song to your iPod =). Not all memory is created equal. 8gb should be relatively future-proof, I intend to bump mine up this summer or so. For the record, DDR in this usage is Dual Drive Rate. XD


I honestly think the triple video cards is a gimmick. They say it's for high end video games, but SLI seems to be very vulnerable to diminishing returns, as SLI itself usually works out to be a 30% increase over the single card, and I've seen double out-do triple in benches before.


The problem I could see with adapting a larger fan for that heatsink would be running into the CPU cooler and/or RAM. At the very most you might be able to get an 80mm in there. My case has been built out of summer's work and leftover grant money, so it's been a while in the works. Don't bum yourself out because you bought a case not "in the spotlight". It's not their computer! I actually knew a guy who had a pretty beefy rig built in a Tsunami back in the day (not long after my A64), and he never had trouble with his. I like my antec 900, though doing it again I might buy a P182 for noise, but my heat levels would almost certainly be higher, and this way I'm never concerned in the slightest about overheating.

I loves me computers!

[Kate]

hmmm lol..

You kinda made me laugh, actually it was a laugh and shame at the same time... I knew DDR wasnt Dance Dance Revolution, that was just a joke, it is one of may favourite games! I didnt know the correct name tho!

Oh! I know you are not suggesting overclock, I just mentioned it because I do not want want it...

I do not intend to use 3 cards right now, that.. will be in the future, and only if really needed because the investment is pretty high! So baby steps for me, for now one card will do...

You know, we get sad when a lot of people criticize about the things you do or buy, thats life... Maybe people hardly admit it, but the feeling is not very good...

I like the tsunami, and I intend to keep it for a long time, I´ve seen the silverstone tenjim series, I should have bought it instead of the thermaltake one.

[kittle]

Building a PC "to last" can also cause its own set of problems...

When I built what is my current fileserver box, I got known reliable parts (and paid extra), did zero overclocking and watched my temps carefully. And I got what I set out to build. A PC that lasted a LONG time. My file server has since outlasted 1 case, 2 power supplies, a set of CPU fans and 1 system drive.

but lately I found this is a problem ... the thing is 8 years old now and it wont break or fail so i have an excuse to upgrade it (and I cant remember it ever having a bluescreen).

And now my desktop is starting to suffer from the same issues. its 3.5 years old and running flawlessly. Plays all the games I want.. but WoW is starting to slow down.

But back to practical matters..
If you keep your components running under their temp limits and dont overclock, the system should be quite stable for you.
Since the board will support up to 3 PCIexpress cards, getting one now and more as needed in the future is the best bet.

As to "silencing" your case. I would look into cutting the grill off the exhaust vent on your case and then installing your fan. Removing the grill gives much better airflow and removes a source of air turblence and its resulting noise. Theres lots of descriptions and pictures on how to do this scattered around the forums.
After that - just put your system together and see how loud it sounds to you. If its too loud after you build things, then go looking for noise sources and silence them.

[Kate]

Hewwo Kittle,

I prefer paying premium to have good components, and building it to last is something I really want, I do not intend to change computers every 2 yeears, I want to build a computer that will last a long time.

If I ever decide to get a new computer, maybe I can use some parts of the previous computer, (the case maybe) and re-build a new one.

Or if it ever gets too old, well, then I am pretty sure someone will make good use of it, playing spider solitare!

I made a radical change to my computer, I talked to the store owner and exchanged the TT Tsunami and got myself an Antec P182, replaced all the 3 fans with Noctua, and added ONE frontal fan, also noctua... I even removed the upper HDD cage, actually the cage is there, I removed the HDD "trays"...

My system is NOT ready to be turned on, because I am still waiting for the cooler to arrive... Well.. have to wait a few more days...

After that I will check the noises and try to silence, if possible.. howeve I belive that with this new setup the noise will be minimum.

[ddrj]

Hewwo Kittle,

I prefer paying premium to have good components, and building it to last is something I really want, I do not intend to change computers every 2 yeears, I want to build a computer that will last a long time.

If I ever decide to get a new computer, maybe I can use some parts of the previous computer, (the case maybe) and re-build a new one.

Or if it ever gets too old, well, then I am pretty sure someone will make good use of it, playing spider solitare!

I made a radical change to my computer, I talked to the store owner and exchanged the TT Tsunami and got myself an Antec P182, replaced all the 3 fans with Noctua, and added ONE frontal fan, also noctua... I even removed the upper HDD cage, actually the cage is there, I removed the HDD "drawers"...

My system is NOT ready to be turned on, because I am still waiting for the cooler to arrive... Well.. have to wait a few more days...

After that I will check the noises and try to silence, if possible.. howeve I belive that with this new setup the noise will be minimum.

Hey Kate, just wanted to say great decision on swapping for the P182. If you haven't already, check out this thread for getting the most out of your p182 (silence and cooling): viewtopic.php?t=44067&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=60