quiet gaming rig

cass · Post by **cass** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 2:55 pm

hi
im considering building a quiet gaming rig. as im a poor penniless student im going to do it in two stages (cos i have to wait till i get my next loan

). anyhow, here goes

stage one:
case - my existing antec sonata with truepower psu
mobo - asus A8R32-MVP deluxe crossfire
cpu - amd athlon 64 x2 4200
hs - scythe ninja
hd - samsung spinpoint p 160gb
gfx - asus x1600xt silent

then when i have some more money ill move on to stage 2, making the following changes:
case - antec p180, possibly with some acoustipack deluxe damping in it
gfx no.2 - another asus x1600xt in crossfire mode
ram - 2x512mb corsair xms
case fans - silenx : 2 exaust fans and one in the psu chamber
psu - not sure, considering a nesteq (formerly elan vital) semi fanless

this will mostly be used for games, but also for cad applications (though its pretty rare for me to actually do some work...). my pc also serves as a hifi, so it needs to be fairly quiet at idle.
anyhow, any comments/criticisms would be greatly appreciated

Kevinn · Post by **Kevinn** » Wed Mar 08, 2006 12:47 pm

sounds nice. that should have some power

. If you want another PSU, you could think about the antec NEO HE-430, or a seasonic s-12 430. I think that will be enough power to run the system.

OverTheTop · Post by **OverTheTop** » Wed Mar 08, 2006 6:16 pm

Hey sounds like a good system, but i would reccomend a nVidia based system. The DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 SLI-DR Expert is a great board but im not sure where you live or what your budget is.

~El~Jefe~ · Post by **~El~Jefe~** » Wed Mar 08, 2006 7:15 pm

well hm the chip I have, the hardrive too.

great choices.

The two xt's in crossfire = you wont need to heat your room in the winter. There is always an issue of removing heat from two vid cards that are next to one another so closely. the largest source of heat will not be the cpu which has its own exhaust on the top rear of the case, but it will be the two cards jammed in the middle.

Could I sway you to just buy one 1900xt? it will have less heat than 2 1600's.

Is it that they bench better as a set?

give me a link if you have the benchies compared. I am interested in what you have found. It would be nice if x1600 xt 's could beat a 1900 in dual mode. that would allow for someone to buy a decent speed rig and then bam it up when the other x1600xt goes cheaper.

cass · Post by **cass** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 11:59 am

two x1600xts are actually a bit slower than an x1900xt (theres some performance specs at http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/03/01 ... ress_3200/ )
the reason i was thinking of 2 x1600xts is that they are passively cooled and i dont have to shell out for them in one go. id be tempted by an x1900xt if i could find a way to cool it silently without resorting to watercooling...
2 passive card would still probably need some fans to cool them (the vga duct in the p180 perhaps), but at least i could turn extra fans off when im not playing games

Gojira-X · Post by **Gojira-X** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 12:22 pm

you might as well save yer self some money and forget the switch to the Antec P180, as it seems to me pretty pointless if you are short of money.

You could put the money that you would spend on the P180 on ram or textbooks or somat.

As for fans, I would steer away from SilentX fans, they have a bad rep here.
If you need cheap (semi) quiet fans, the Xilence fans from Levicom are pretty good at 1500rpm and rated at 15dB. Not on the same level as Nexus or Panaflo, but a start.

QuietOC · Post by **QuietOC** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 12:23 pm

cass wrote:two x1600xts are actually a bit slower than an x1900xt

Just looking at the pixel pipeline specifications it would take 4 X1600's to equal one X1900. Dual X800's should be close to a single X1900. ATi doesn't have anything new and cool to match the new 7600GT, ie new mainstream 3D segment.

~El~Jefe~ · Post by **~El~Jefe~** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 4:41 pm

x1600's have avivo, hardware acceleration for encoding, and smartshader 3.0.

really, the x800 series is a bit old for what is offered now, even if it does get higher frames.

Passive makes them a very nice option. I didnt know this.

Now, I would never run them passive, that's a risk for longevity, and a needless one at that. mount a 120mm nexus at like 8 volts above them or blowing accross from their ends is what I would do in order to keep them silent yet cool. passive cards are the best to actively cool, my motto.

QuietOC · Post by **QuietOC** » Fri Mar 10, 2006 11:28 am

~El~Jefe~ wrote:Passive makes them a very nice option. I didnt know this.

Sapphire had a passive X800GTO but is no longer selling it. It is definitely possible to cool a X800 passively, especially the slow <$100 ones. And some of them actually have fairly quiet stock fans anyway.

~El~Jefe~ · Post by **~El~Jefe~** » Fri Mar 10, 2006 8:52 pm

yeah i remmber them for a bit.

makes life super easy to cool them with a slow fan.

If i ever ditch my zalman reserator, this is the way I would go.

jackylman · Post by **jackylman** » Fri Mar 10, 2006 10:04 pm

I've got issues with this -

1. That's an expensive mobo there. Try the Abit AN8-SLI (w/heatpipes) to save $$

2. If your primary focus is gaming, the 7600GT offers loads more over the X1600XT and uses a little less power. Plus, the price should fall nicely when you want another one.

3. Unless you do INTENSIVE multitasking (encoding a DVD while playing BF2), dual core is overkill for gaming on a budget. Get a Venice 3200/3500 and OC if needed.

To clarify, I'm not an Nvidia fanboy (I'm more of an ATI/HTPC guy), but they've got the best sweet spot for gamers right now.

~El~Jefe~ · Post by **~El~Jefe~** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 8:09 am

I almost agree.

but then theres image quality.

ati owns it for like hm... 6-7 years, now with the new x1000 series, kinda destroys the competition.

hercules was the best by far though.