What do you think of this system?

Ted · Post by **Ted** » Wed Sep 21, 2005 4:48 am

Hello,

I asked a local shop for a quotation for a silent PC and here it is. Thank you for helping assess this system because my knowledge is very limited.

- ATX Antec Sonata II 450W case
- P4 640 3.2 Ghz processor
- ASUS P5GDC PRO 1915P Socket 775 board
- Seagate Barracuda 250 Go 7200 tr/min SATA hard disk
- LCD 19" IIyama PLE481S-B monitor
- Infineon 1Go DDR PC 3200 400 Mhz memory
- SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON X700 PRO 256 Mo video board
- DVD/CD Pioneer DVR-110DBK recorder
- IDE UDMA 133 45 cm ribon cable

What do you think? How silent is it?

Thank you!

Cheers

Ackelind · Post by **Ackelind** » Wed Sep 21, 2005 6:04 am

You need to choose cooling for your CPU and GFX. I recomend TT schooner for the GFX and Scythe Ninja for the CPU. I would also recomend a undervolted nexus as case fan at the back. You will probably not need an intake fan.

Intel P4 are not recomended for a silent PC though. They produce much more heat than AMD dito, which means you have to have better cooling -> more airflow and thus more noise.

I would also recomend Samsung Spinpoint P120 250GB SATAII instead of the Seagate. Be sure to make some kind of suspension for it. Mounting it in the Sonatas disktrays will make excessive noise.

Ted · Post by **Ted** » Wed Sep 21, 2005 6:19 am

Thank you for your post.

My local shop is assembling the PC for me because I have no knowledge in that matter. I just asked them a quotation for a silent PC.

Bar81 · Post by **Bar81** » Wed Sep 21, 2005 6:45 am

That's not a silent PC by a long shot. What exactly are you looking for, silence or quiet or quieter than your last rig? What about PC Noise is bothering you?

steveo · Post by **steveo** » Wed Sep 21, 2005 7:59 am

if you don't mind my asking, what is that pc gonna set you back, after labor and everything?

Ted · Post by **Ted** » Wed Sep 21, 2005 9:29 am

I am looking for a quiet PC (30dB max at operator's seat). My business is in digital imaging, graphics (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.) and web site design.

spworley · Post by **spworley** » Wed Sep 21, 2005 9:35 am

Bar21 is right, that's not a silent PC at all. Maybe more quiet than the average (mostly due to the Sonata).

Clues that it's not silent:

1) Using an Intel CPU
2) No mention of CPU cooler.. which means stock Intel fan, which means noise
3) No mention of case fans
4) No mention of northbridge cooling. Stock fan? I promise it won't be silent
5) The X700 runs reasonably cool, but this model has a very small heatsink and a tiny whiny 30mm fan.

I admit that it's proabably not a builder's usual goal (silence) and they don't know a lot of the standard methods like the SPCR members here. Unfortunately I think that true silence pretty much needs to be done by lots of user tweaking and experimentation. That's also fun and rewarding, to be honest, but definately work.

Ted · Post by **Ted** » Wed Sep 21, 2005 10:47 am

spworley wrote: 2) No mention of CPU cooler.. which means stock Intel fan, which means noise
.

I talked to my local assembler and they suggest a Zalman CPNS-7700 CU fan.

Shadowknight · Post by **Shadowknight** » Wed Sep 21, 2005 10:58 am

To all those claiming that P4s making it extremely difficult to make a quiet PC. In both my old 3700AMB and my P180, I have a fanless Ninja with a rear Nexus at 700rpm. Temps are 40/60 at idle/load.

Please stop claiming that it costs a lot more to make a near silent PC using Intel. It shows a bias towards AMD and it simply isn't true. The P180 even used a Prescott with extremely low airflow cooling and a Ninja and it was more than adequately cooled.

Ackelind: You even recommended the exact same CPU cooling arrangment, undervolted Nexus and Ninja, which will create next to no noise.

slipknottin · Post by **slipknottin** » Wed Sep 21, 2005 11:40 am

Shadowknight wrote: Please stop claiming that it costs a lot more to make a near silent PC using Intel. It shows a bias towards AMD and it simply isn't true. The P180 even used a Prescott with extremely low airflow cooling and a Ninja and it was more than adequately cooled.

The more heat generated by the components, the harder its going to be to get it quiet or silent. Thats a given. Prescott's give off substantially more heat than the AMDs. You can still have a quiet or silent PC, but perhaps have less wiggle room.

Ted · Post by **Ted** » Wed Sep 21, 2005 11:34 pm

spworley wrote: 1) Using an Intel CPU

I am not looking for a silent PC but a quiet one (about 30 dB max at operator's seat) so maybe an Intel CPU is OK?

spworley wrote:2) No mention of CPU cooler.. which means stock Intel fan, which means noise

I talked to my local assembler and they suggest a Zalman CPNS-7700 CU fan.

spworley wrote:3) No mention of case fans

I thought the Antex Sonata II had fans as standard.

spworley wrote:4) No mention of northbridge cooling. Stock fan? I promise it won't be silent

Could you please explain what this is?

Thank you.