Advice on P150, Conroe build

JPOnion · Post by **JPOnion** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 2:51 pm

Ok guys, I'm a general forum lurker asking for your advice on a loooong needed system upgrade. My current system is an AMD 1800+, 512 megs RAM, GeForce 4200ti. Sound was not a consideration when this was originally built about 6-7 years ago (small upgrades stopped 4 years ago), so I now have a jet engine sitting in my room thats unable to play new (FarCry and newer) games or even do much photo editing in photoshop.

I've added more and more fans to the 9 year old case as I moved to warmer and warmer areas, and...well, bargain bin (literally) case fans arent quiet, and they dont move much air which only makes one buy more cheap case fans. It's a loud, downward spiral. I live in a small dorm room, we have 4 large AC fans attempting to cool our room...my PC overpowers them all

So yeah, I'm looking for a PC that I can game on now and for a few years to go, and one thats much quieter than what I have.

Here's what I'm looking at getting:
Antec P150 $145 (I'll order a B-stock version directly from Antec for $72) (Comes with 430W PS)
GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS MB $150
C2D E6400 $224
Sapphire X1900XT $319 (I know DX10 cards are coming soon, but how I upgrade, DX12's will probably be my next card)
Patriot 2GB DDR2 $182 (Hopefully newegg is right in saying they'll get more next week)
SAMSUNG SpinPoint P Series 250GB HDD $70
ViewSonic VX2025WM LCD Monitor $319

I'm a gamer, but I dont need everything top of the line. I'm more interested in being at a nice price/performance/future upgradeability balance.

Total is $1336, which is around where my budget is. Any suggestions, or incompatible parts? How good is the PS that comes with the P150, will it be able to run all this, GPU and later aftermarket CPU/GPU fans included? I can get much better sound with an aftermarket CPU and GPU cooling system, but I think I'll wait until the build is finished before seeing if my ears demand it.

yacoub · Post by **yacoub** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 4:26 pm

may I ask what a b-stock version of the P150 is and how one orders it? I would love to get my hands on a second P150 w/o paying over $100 to do so!

I dig mine

http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewto ... 139#291139

Regarding Conroe builds, my only recommendation is to hold off until better/more motherboard options come out. Right now most of them are overpriced and often not featured too well. The P965 boards also have issues with RAM voltage for most DIMMs over DDR2-667 speeds (ie, anything DDR2-800 generally needs more than 1.8v and you can't boot into the BIOS to up the RAM voltage unless you have a stick of DDR2 that will run at 1.8v or less).

jackylman · Post by **jackylman** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 5:05 pm

Based on this site's review of the WD 5000KS, my own personal experience, and a few other members reporting that the latest Samsungs aren't quiet, I would recommend the WD 2500KS over the Samsung.

To save some money and leave yourself room to upgrade, I would look to the AM2 side of things. An X2 3800 or 4200 and an MSI K9A Platinum would be a good alternative to the C2D platform if you're interested.

JPOnion · Post by **JPOnion** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 5:10 pm

http://www.antec.com/us/pro_b_stock.php

Returned, but fully functional cases directly from Antec, sold at a discount. I've read plenty of accounts of people who have bought them, some report small blemishes, some report it looking 100% new, but they all work great. Just dont take the last one, since I hear they have limited stock

I'm getting impatient about upgrading, though. I've been putting this upgrade off for over 2 years now, and I've been building realistic "dream rigs" (like I am now) every few months since then. Either my finances dont come through, or something is just around the corner that I always want to wait for. I've been hearing good things about this MB, but I'll research it some more, though, just to make sure.

jackylman: I'm not intel or AMD biased, I'll take a looksee into that option. Thanks

yacoub · Post by **yacoub** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 6:04 pm

Thanks for the link!

Btw, Anandtech just posted a nice guide - maybe parts of it will be helpful for ya:
http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=2839

jackylman · Post by **jackylman** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 6:06 pm

I'm not sure of your financial situation, but if you're strapped for cash, you could save even more money by going with a single-core Athlon (3500 or 3800 offer excellent value) now and upgrading to dual-core down the road when your finances are a little more stable (and AMD has transitioned to 65 nm). If you don't do anything CPU-intensive in the background while gaming, you probably won't miss the second core. And AMD has even hinted at the possibility of upgrading to K8L chips with the AM2 socket.

I really hate to see people waiting for the next great thing because they'll always be waiting. I'm all for researching your purchases, but it can get disorienting looking at all the performance graphs and trying to figure out whom to get your advice from. Hardware enthusiast sites are focused on the cutting edge because it's more exciting, but it doesn't mean you need it.

hravn · Post by **hravn** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 12:46 am

Now, I haven't been in the graphics card upgrade business for a while, but if you're going to go stock cooling for the time being, maybe you should think about an Nvidia 79xx series card, the stock cooling should be much quieter.

Maybe someone else can chip in about the sound of the stock ATI X1900XT cooler. The X1800 coolers were horrible at least.

JPOnion · Post by **JPOnion** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 6:37 pm

Thanks for the help guys. I've ordered the parts, and hopefully will be playing some long awaited games soon

I have one last (I hope) question, though. Do you think I can get away without the stock fans on the P150 case, or do you think I should get something extra?

Post by **MikeC** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 7:39 pm

JPOnion wrote:Thanks for the help guys. I've ordered the parts, and hopefully will be playing some long awaited games soon

I have one last (I hope) question, though. Do you think I can get away without the stock fans on the P150 case, or do you think I should get something extra?

Considering what you are used to... everything in the P150 will be a whisper. Besides, there is only one fan -- the 120mm case fan -- besides the one in the PSU.

JPOnion · Post by **JPOnion** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 7:59 pm

Whoops, sorry, typo in my question

I meant "Do you think I can get away with the stock fans in the P150 case", as in temp wise. Does the stock fan setup create good airflow, is what I meant to ask.

Worker control · Post by **Worker control** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 9:46 pm

JPOnion wrote:Whoops, sorry, typo in my question :( I meant "Do you think I can get away with the stock fans in the P150 case", as in temp wise. Does the stock fan setup create good airflow, is what I meant to ask.

To help prevent dusty air from getting sucked in unfiltered, you might want to get a couple low-speed 92mm intake fans to suck air through the intake filter. A slow 92mm fan really makes very little noise at all.