New System and a Graphics Card Question...

philschl · Post by **philschl** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 3:23 am

Hi all,

My wife and I have decided it's time to retire the 6yr old noisemaker and I've completed the shopping list for a new PC. I plan to run Debian with XP in VMs as required.

The new PC should be quiet, but not necessarily dead silent. I compiled the shopping list with components I thought represented the best value in price/performance/noise equation. Your input is appreciated.

Case: Antec P182
P/S: Seasonic S12+550W
CPU: Q6600
CPU Cooler: Noctua NHV120
Graphics: Nvidia 8800GT (generic)
HDD: 2 x WD500GB
RAM: 2 x 2GB 1066
MB: Asus P5K E Wifi
DVD: Asus Lightscribe
Display: Viewsonic 22"

Most importantly, I have not been able to find any info at all regarding the noise the graphics card is expected to make. Is the 8800GT going to be the loudest part of the system? What can I do to make it silent?

For interests sake, I've priced the lot at AU$1874 (~US$1500)
The plan is to go shopping next weekend

Cheers,
Phil

FartingBob · Post by **FartingBob** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 3:59 am

The GPU wont be silent, although its not as loud as other stock coolers. You can get a S1 Accelero to go on one, it can run a 8800GT passive, although putting a low rpm fan on it will lower temps considerably. For the price its outstanding, make sure you get a rev 2 as it supports more cards and has better adhesive for the heatsinks.

Aard · Post by **Aard** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 5:52 am

Are you planning on overclocking?

If not the first thing to do would be to ditch the 1066 speed ram and use cheaper and more readily available 800, the speed difference is negligible in real applications (in fact even in synthetic memory benchmarks the difference isn't much to write home about).

The second thing would be to drop the 550W PSU and use a 350-450W unit, if you want modular this would be worth investigating, although it doesn't seem to be available in Australia at present.

EDIT: Just saw you were purchasing this weekend, probably not wise to hang out for the M12-430 then

philschl · Post by **philschl** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 1:30 am

Thanks guys,

- I don't plan on overclocking. Instead I hope to run the system stable in our 45 degree summers without airconditioning..........

- The 4GB of ram cost me AU$125, not much money to be saved by going 800 spec. But if it's more stable I'd go 800 no question.

- The rather large 550W PSU so it's not running at full tilt and can service the multiple hard drives the system will no doubt eventually be cluttered with - my current system is on 2 x 2 disk mirror plus 2 x single disks

- Planning to buy next weekend, but no pressure. If there's a better product to wait for, I will wait but within reason as taking that argument to its logical end, I'd never pull the pin!

Cheers guys for your comments! I'm also following the 'other' thread on similiar system build and came across the S1 graphics cooler. For now, I'll just stick with stock GPU cooler, if it's too loud or lacks in cooling efficiency
I can still clamp on that behemoth of GPU cooler+fan...

Any more ideas, I'm still listening

Phil