P180 Athlon 64 X2 System... PSU/Mobo/Optical advice?

[jeffbax]

I'm looking to build an X2 4200+ System, and am not sure about the mobo / optical / psu

I'm using the P180, so there is concern about cable length on PSUs correct?

Right now I'm looking at

Athlon 64 X2 4200+
2 GB OCZ Ram
Antec P180 Case
Scythe Ninja 1000 Heat Sink
Audigy 2 Value (this is killing me buying another creative card after the driver disaster known as Audigy and the Doom 3 blackmail...)
Arctic Silver
Samsung SpinPoint 200GB SATA II

Still gotta pick out Video, PSU, Mobo, Optical, and fans.

I was looking at the SeaSonic 430 PSU... but right now I'm hoping that nVidia releases some form of 7600 GT in the near future.... I don't need a 7800 super high end card, but I'd like a little more future than a 6600 GT will supply, and I'm betting 7600 SLI would be a nice bump down the line to keep things in ship shape... if they just release it

But I don't know if the SeaSonic 430 is meant for SLI.. I'm not sure about the requirements... my last PC I build was over 4 years ago and I'm still on it none of this fancy SATA, PCIe, etc hehe.

Also, anyone know of quiet CD/DVD burner drives? Right now I got a pretty loud lite-on and ... hmm maybe phillips or pioneer dvd burner i'm not sure which, but they have drives that burn cds and dvds now so I want one of those if quiet

About the PSU, I just need some room for maybe an SLI down the line and another hard drive or something...

Also need advice on case fans ... do you think that the two case fans on a P180's rear and top would be enough to not put one directly on the Scythe Ninja?

Mobo I was thinking DFI Lanparty or something, any recommendations for quiet operation / scythe heat sink?

As for a budget, I'm on one but my comps last me a while, so I'm willing to stretch a bit if its reasonable to do so and better for the long run.

Any other input appreciated Thanks!

[jeffbax]

Nothin?

[teknerd]

sounds like a nice setup, especially the 2 gigs ram, anyway, lets get down and dirty:

mobo: asus a8n-sli premium - passive northbridge, sli support, dual gig ethernet, rock solid stability, its the best board for your desired setup

video: 6800GT sounds like it would fit the bill. its more than a 6600GT but less than a 7800GTX, plus SLI compatibility gives you an upgrade path in the future. I would recommend a zalman GPU cooler though, as most 6800GT stock coolers are loud.

PSU: The 430 works great, but if you are getting high powered graphics cards you might want to got for the 500 since it has the native PCI-E connectors (so you dont use up a pair of molexes) and a little more headroom for SLI.

fans: nexus are always the highest recommended. Personally i'd go for yate loons with a front panel fan controller so you can keep them low at idle (when they'll be as quiet as a nexus - especially since nexus fans are simply yate loon's with an inline resistor so they spin at 1000rpm instead of 1350) and ramp them up for gaming (when the sound of you blowing other people away with a machine gun covers the noise of fans anyway).
as far as fans go i would recommend using only the back one and also putting a fan on the ninja. Dont bother with a bottom chamber fan. the 9 watts of heat generated by the samsung will easily be disappated by the seasonic without much negative effect. However make sure you tape off the back holes around the PSU so the bottom chamber air is drawn through the seasonic's fan and evacuated.

optical drives: sorry cant help you there, i dont know any.

just a heads up for vendors- monarchcomputer.com has great deals on the hardware and i would highly recommend jab-tech.com for the fans, fan controller, and other small accessories. They have yate-loons for about 8 bucks apiece, better than tek-gems.

[Freelancer77]

I'm going to piggy-back on teknerd's comments.

A8N SLI Premium. Agreed on all counts, plus the onboard SATA controller supports SATA II. If you want the most out of that Spinpoint, that is. I personally very much favor the 74GB Raptor, and in the second edition they are not noisy at all. In a P180's lower drive cage you won't know it's there.

If you're gaming, do NOT employ the ASUS C'n'Q. Then install Speedfan to temp control your top case fan by plugging it into the CHA1 MOBO fan header. As a gaming rig I'd use both of the 120mm case fans, (rear running fulltime on low) ESPECIALLY if you are thinking of running a Scythe HS passively. The top one won't have to run at all when the machine idles.

PSU - Seasonic S12-500 - the cables will fit, with a tiny bit of slack. SLI-ready, and very quiet.

Optical drives - ASUS makes a QuietTrack line of DVD-ROM and DVD-RW drives, and I'm happy with them.

[jeffbax]

Few things:

Yate-Loons? Even on the Scythe Ninja?
If I put the top and high rear yate-loons would Scythe be safe passive?

Oh, as for fan controller, I conveniently have a Vantec Nexus black 5.25" fan controller already That can take 4 Fans on it.

The P180 has 3 or 4 case fan spots? Top and High Rear, PSU Cage, is there a front intake? I forget heh


Also, I was leaning away from 6800 GT b/c of noise.. and I am hoping a 7600 GT would be pretty close but with the same good power consumption / noise of a 6600 GT has.

Also, I don't see the quiettracks at newegg, any info where to buy? preferably a place with yate-loons


Another thing, Cool 'n Quiet... I thought that that toggled on and off depending on CPU demands? Automatic throttling? no?

[nomoon]

I posted details about my setup here. The P180 and Ninja work fine to cool my 4600 using the stock fans. I made a small mod and lowered temperatures further. The DFI has an annoying chipfan, and the ASUS Premium is completely quiet. I've run bencharks with CNQ both on and off and only saw a mild reduction in scores, so I'm leaving mine turned on.

I have a passively cooled video card and don't know how the noise from a non-fanless video card compares to noise from the stock P180 case fans. Is it worth getting quieter case fans if you have a noisy video card? If the house is really quiet, I can hear the case fans and the hard drive.

Jason

[jeffbax]

Wow, your X2 runs better under load than my XP Palomino under idle :p

So you think the default 180 fans are nice?

As for passive VGA ... I don't know, that just seems like risky business to me ... specially in my dorm where there will be no AC and it can be a little warm the first month of school... though I probably won't build it until a month or two into the year :p

I was thinking of those NV Silencers instead?

I'm glad to hear your components all play nicely though, interesting about that cardboard piece.

[~El~Jefe~]

For dvd there's only one in my mind, and I have been testing them for a couple of years having all sorts of crap ones.

Pioneer's retail box version, their highest model the:

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/s ... 65,00.html

that's on the webpage, that one. the non retail boxed version often lacks something key.

its like spcr perfection. i have it now, i cant imagine something beating it out. it even is incased in rubber for reduced vibration.

plextor i hear is great too, but i bet its more money and not better.

[dexton]

I'm looking to build an X2 4200+ System, and am not sure about the mobo / optical / psu

I'm using the P180, so there is concern about cable length on PSUs correct?

Yes, the ATX and ATX12V cables on my Seasonic Super Tornado(bulk version = SS300FT) were too short. The problem was easily solved with extender cables though. Id recommend a passively cooled PSU for the P180. Im running my Seasonic 300W passive right now. I have a Yate Loon fan in the lower chamber running at ~700rpm. You still need that fan to keep the drives cool in the lower HD cage. My raptor is 32-37C depending on the ambient temperature.

http://aegd.cjb.net/dexton/osorterat/Dsc08805_800.jpg
http://aegd.cjb.net/dexton/osorterat/Dsc08807_800.jpg
http://aegd.cjb.net/dexton/osorterat/Dsc08813_800.jpg

But I don't know if the SeaSonic 430 is meant for SLI.. I'm not sure about the requirements... my last PC I build was over 4 years ago and I'm still on it none of this fancy SATA, PCIe, etc hehe.

About the PSU, I just need some room for maybe an SLI down the line and another hard drive or something...

For a 7800GTX SLI setup, I would probably go for the Seasonic 500W or 600W. For a lower-end SLI or single card setup, 430W will be fine.

Also need advice on case fans ... do you think that the two case fans on a P180's rear and top would be enough to not put one directly on the Scythe Ninja?

The included fans arent comparable to Yate Loons. Sure, they are quiet in the LOW mode, but with all 3 fans running at Low, the system wont be silent. As for a good CPU cooler I would go for a Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 and have it temperature controlled through BIOS(Abit AN8). The Abit AN8 features temperature control for up to 6 fans!
Look at page 58 in the manual:
ftp://ftp-usa.abit.com.tw/pub/download/ ... series.zip

Mobo I was thinking DFI Lanparty or something, any recommendations for quiet operation / scythe heat sink?

Id go for Abit AN8 Ultra or AN8 SLI. They both feature passively heatpipe-cooled nForce4 chipsets.

http://www.abit.com.tw/page/se/motherbo ... DEFTITLE=Y
http://www.abit.com.tw/page/se/motherbo ... DEFTITLE=Y

If youre building a silent system, SLI probably isnt the best way to start off. If youre looking for performance, an X850XT with the Arctic Cooling ATI Silencer 5 (rev2) is probably a balanced choice. The clicking issue with the rev1 coolers seems to be gone, at least with my ATI Silencer 1 rev2. The X850XT also features temperature based fan controls, which means that the fan speed can be dropped to silent speeds at idle. My ATI Silencer 1 rev2 is spinning at 1500rpm all the time and the fan is totally silent, only some vibration from the fan makes the cooler slightly audible.


// Johan

[amplemind]

Get Audigy2 ZS for 22$ more. Value is a rip off.

[jeffbax]

What is the difference between Audigys? I just need a sound card thats about it, the extra stuff that comes with the high end models would be wasted on me, since the card is all I use and they are all the same (right?)

And the reason I want an nVidia card is for Linux, ATi Drivers are no fun

Yate-Loons will plug into the mobo and get regulated by CnQ ?

[jeffbax]

another question, does DDR Ram above 3200 spec really matter?

[rpsgc]

another question, does DDR Ram above 3200 spec really matter?

Not really... says Anandtech

The plain fact of the matter is that at the current clock speeds at which the Athlon 64 and X2 line are running, most desktop applications see virtually no benefit from higher bandwidth memory.

[amplemind]

teknerd is right about the Asus Premium mobo, but for the video card, you should get an X800XL, cheaper and performs alongside the 6800GT.

[jeffbax]

teknerd is right about the Asus Premium mobo, but for the video card, you should get an X800XL, cheaper and performs alongside the 6800GT.

Again, don't want to deal with ATi Linux Headaches.

And gonna hold out for a 7600 GT probably.

But thanks

[elg2001]

linux is a headache regardless of what card you have. i've used both a radeon 9700 and a geforce 6800gt and both suck in linux. the 6800gt was obviously faster, but my recommendation is to stick to linux for servers (its all i use for servers, windows servers suck, i used to have one) and windows for a desktop. another option im trying now is the new BeOS distribution called Zeta. email me at [email protected] if you wanna know how things pan out with Zeta and my 6800GT.

overall, i think ATI makes better drivers (in windows). 3 years ago the total opposite was true.

[amplemind]

Linux, rofl.

GL.

[~El~Jefe~]

Ubuntu, wine, gnome as an GUI.

pwnage.

windows = suckage unless you format reinstall every 3-4 months and dont install anything truly useful (and especially automated) on it.

it's only good for gaming types who dont want to read about how to tweak their vid cards to properly work with them. you can get any card to work right, and when you do, it works... right. I have seen it so. I am not saying that I MYSELF can do such things, but I have seen it full blown gaming with nice frames per second. shrugs.

[dexton]

teknerd is right about the Asus Premium mobo, but for the video card, you should get an X800XL, cheaper and performs alongside the 6800GT.

The Abit AN8-SLI is a lot cheaper than the Asus Premium board though and the Asus board doesnt seem to feature the nice 6-way fan speed controller found on the Abit board.

[Teecee]

I'm looking to build an X2 4200+ System, and am not sure about the mobo / optical / psu

I'm using the P180, so there is concern about cable length on PSUs correct?

Yes, the ATX and ATX12V cables on my Seasonic Super Tornado(bulk version = SS300FT) were too short. The problem was easily solved with extender cables though. Id recommend a passively cooled PSU for the P180. Im running my Seasonic 300W passive right now. I have a Yate Loon fan in the lower chamber running at ~700rpm. You still need that fan to keep the drives cool in the lower HD cage. My raptor is 32-37C depending on the ambient temperature.

http://aegd.cjb.net/dexton/osorterat/Dsc08805_800.jpg
http://aegd.cjb.net/dexton/osorterat/Dsc08807_800.jpg
http://aegd.cjb.net/dexton/osorterat/Dsc08813_800.jpg

But I don't know if the SeaSonic 430 is meant for SLI.. I'm not sure about the requirements... my last PC I build was over 4 years ago and I'm still on it none of this fancy SATA, PCIe, etc hehe.

About the PSU, I just need some room for maybe an SLI down the line and another hard drive or something...

For a 7800GTX SLI setup, I would probably go for the Seasonic 500W or 600W. For a lower-end SLI or single card setup, 430W will be fine.

Also need advice on case fans ... do you think that the two case fans on a P180's rear and top would be enough to not put one directly on the Scythe Ninja?

The included fans arent comparable to Yate Loons. Sure, they are quiet in the LOW mode, but with all 3 fans running at Low, the system wont be silent. As for a good CPU cooler I would go for a Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 and have it temperature controlled through BIOS(Abit AN8). The Abit AN8 features temperature control for up to 6 fans!
Look at page 58 in the manual:
ftp://ftp-usa.abit.com.tw/pub/download/ ... series.zip

Mobo I was thinking DFI Lanparty or something, any recommendations for quiet operation / scythe heat sink?

Id go for Abit AN8 Ultra or AN8 SLI. They both feature passively heatpipe-cooled nForce4 chipsets.

http://www.abit.com.tw/page/se/motherbo ... DEFTITLE=Y
http://www.abit.com.tw/page/se/motherbo ... DEFTITLE=Y

If youre building a silent system, SLI probably isnt the best way to start off. If youre looking for performance, an X850XT with the Arctic Cooling ATI Silencer 5 (rev2) is probably a balanced choice. The clicking issue with the rev1 coolers seems to be gone, at least with my ATI Silencer 1 rev2. The X850XT also features temperature based fan controls, which means that the fan speed can be dropped to silent speeds at idle. My ATI Silencer 1 rev2 is spinning at 1500rpm all the time and the fan is totally silent, only some vibration from the fan makes the cooler slightly audible.


// Johan

Where did you get those extender cables?

[IonYz]

teknerd is right about the Asus Premium mobo, but for the video card, you should get an X800XL, cheaper and performs alongside the 6800GT.

The Abit AN8-SLI is a lot cheaper than the Asus Premium board though and the Asus board doesnt seem to feature the nice 6-way fan speed controller found on the Abit board.

Gigabyte also offers their GA-K8N Ultra-SLI with passive chipset.