My 1st Quiet/Overclockable Build (C2D) - Thoughts?

GaryJ · Post by **GaryJ** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 9:20 am

Great site - I've been reading it for a month now. Very happy I found it as I want to reduce the noise generated by my home PC (nothing like an office with hard wood floors). A few facts:

1) This build will be my first attempt at overclocking. I'm not going to be super-aggressive, I just want to do it learn more about my PC. I'm thinking of getting an e6600 and overclocking by 25% to 3.0GHz.

2) This will be my 2nd PC build. My first is now 3 years old and it's time to upgrade. I'm coming from the following: Antec Sonata, Asus P4C800-E, ATI 9800Pro, Plexor 708A DVD Burner, Intel P4 2.8, Seagate 120GB 7200.7.

3) I value stability & reliability over anything else. I'm willing to pay the premium for peace of mind. My new priority with this build is noise (and lack there of).

4) This will be a home PC that does some low-level video editing, gaming (mostly single player RPG such as NWN2, Titan Quest, etc). I'd like a little "future-proofing" built-in, in case streaming wireless HD content from the internet to my home theater is in its future (I haven't looked into this too much).

------------------------------------------------------------

So here's the build so far:

1) Antec Solo Black/Silver Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail - Highly recommended here. I like the smaller form factor. The Sonata was easy to work with and I had no problems with it.

2) SeaSonic S12 Energy Plus SS-550HT ATX12V / EPS12V 550W Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, CE, CB, TUV, FCC - Retail - Again, highly rated here. Looks to be high quality. Plenty of clean power for my build.

3) Intel BOXD975XBX2KR LGA 775 Intel 975X ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail - Plenty of good buzz about this board. Seems very reliable/stable. Good fan control for optimizing fan speed to reduce noise. I will be using on-board sound, but not RAID or LAN controllers. I'm not sure if this is considered a good choice for a "quiet" rig board. Thoughts on this choice? Do you think I would need additional fan control (other than what comes with the board)? I didn't see any way to control the power supply fan - is that a negative?

4) Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6600 - Retail - Seems like a good price/performance place to stop on the processor path. Should overclock to 3.0GHz fairly easily.

5) CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X2048-6400C4 - Retail - I'm planning on setting this to 667 for 1-1 on my overclock above, but am buying the 800 in case I really get into the overclocking and want to go to 3.6GHz on the processor.

6) Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM - Comments here say its fairly quiet. I don't mind paying the premium for a little extra performance at times, although I hear differing thoughts as to whether this is worth it. Drive would be used for OS & Games.

7) Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM - Hard drive for data. Recommended here as quiet.

Scythe SCNJ-1100P 120mm CPU Cooling Fan - Retail - Highly recommended here. Not sure it fits on the MB or not.

9) Scythe S-FLEX SFF21E 120mm Case Fan - Retail - To replace the stock fan on the Antec case.

10) D-Link DGL-4300 IEEE 802.3/3u, IEEE 802.11b/g Wireless Gaming Router - Retail - Good reviews on Newegg. My current router is a D-Link and I've never had issues with it. Honestly I don't know much about the differences in router brands. Let me know if you think this is a poor choice.

11) PLEXTOR DVD Burner Black IDE Model PX-708A/SW-BL - Retail - I see no reason why not to re-use this from my last build.

12) Video Card - This is where I could use some help. I've used ATI in the past and have been happy with them all so I lean that direction just because of the familiarity. I'm thinking I want a passively cooled unit (for less noise) but not sure if I should be looking solely at units that come passively cooled, or should I be looking at adding passive cooling to a card with a fan. I've read the PowerColor is coming out with a passively cooled X1950. No idea if this is a good choice and by looking at it, no idea if it would fit the Antec case. Basically, this is the area I could use the most help from SPCR.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

That's it. I'd love any/all comments/flames. Thanks for all the archived comments that helped me put this rig together.

GaryJ

jackylman · Post by **jackylman** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 1:04 pm

I don't have advice on the video card, but I wanted to tell you that I have both the WD 2500KS and the new Samsung 321KJ and the Samsung is much quieter with a less obtrusive noise character. It could be that I got a bad sample of the WD and a good Samsung, so don't take it as a divine revelation, but I have read a lot of positive comments on the latest Samsung T166 series and mixed comments on the 2500KS. It seems that the 5000KS (which got a great review here at SPCR) is, for some reason, quieter than the 2500KS.

GaryJ · Post by **GaryJ** » Sat Jan 13, 2007 7:32 pm

Thanks for the heads-up. I'll look around for some other reviews on that Samsung.

GaryJ

jackylman wrote:I don't have advice on the video card, but I wanted to tell you that I have both the WD 2500KS and the new Samsung 321KJ and the Samsung is much quieter with a less obtrusive noise character. It could be that I got a bad sample of the WD and a good Samsung, so don't take it as a divine revelation, but I have read a lot of positive comments on the latest Samsung T166 series and mixed comments on the 2500KS. It seems that the 5000KS (which got a great review here at SPCR) is, for some reason, quieter than the 2500KS.

GaryJ · Post by **GaryJ** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 11:17 am

Would love a few more opinions.

GaryJ

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 12:16 pm

2) SeaSonic S12 Energy Plus SS-550HT ATX12V

Just a heads-up, some people have reported buzzing w/ the S12E+, eg:

viewtopic.php?p=294960&highlight=s12+en ... uzz#294960

S12-430 (or 500 if you think you'll upgrade to a power-sucking GFX card) can't be beat for near-silent, reliable power.

12) Video Card

Here is a comparison of the X1950pro against a 7900GS:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/ ... gs_19.html

There are few tests in which the Radeon X1950 Pro is slower than its main opponent GeForce 7900 GS. And the difference in speed is usually very small and often can be seen in certain resolutions only. These tests are Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, Prey, Quake 4, Pacific Fighters and TES IV: Oblivion. These are mostly OpenGL games, some of them are also optimized for the specific features of the Nvidia GeForce 7 architecture.

If we were to compare the available $199 graphics cards in terms of performance, the new ATI Radeon X1950 Pro is not just better than the Nvidia GeForce 7900 GS but can successfully compete with the more expensive Nvidia GeForce 7900 GT that belongs to the $259 category. Also important is that the Radeon X1950 Pro offers you the option of enabling high-quality anisotropic filtering that surpasses everything Nvidiaâ€™s solutions can offer as of today. In other words, the ATI Radeon X1950 Pro is overall the best graphics card in the $199 price category. It is possible, however, that the price of products like GeForce 7900 GS, 7900 GT and 7950 GT will be going down at a fast rate and the Radeon X1950 Pro may find itself between a cheaper 7900 GS and a tremendous 7950 GT.

I know there are passive versions of the 7600GT, but I'm not sure if it will be sufficient for your needs. Check the VGA forum for more advice.

Dephcon · Post by **Dephcon** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 2:13 pm

You might want to think about getting an e6300 or e6400. You'll save some cash and both can get you pretty close, if not to 3GHz. You'd probably be better off with the e6400 over the e6300 if you dont want to overclock AS much and still save some money.

Another option to consider for the psu would be the Corsair 520HX, i just got one for my friend and its really quiet.

And for the mobo, you might be better off with one of the other brands (evga, asus, dfi, gigabyte) if you plan to overclock. But i dont know a greal deal about conroe overlcoking so thats up to someone else to go into

wpb · Post by **wpb** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 8:11 pm

Unless you really need the extra speed, I too would go with a e6300. You can easily overclock it to 2.8 GHz with DDR2-800 RAM at stock voltage. And you'll save about USD $120.

If you can wait, I would even consider Intel's 4300 that's coming out later this month. It's getting rave reviews and will initially sell for about $130 and then go down to $113 in February. Very overclockable, based on the reviews.

Anvar · Post by **Anvar** » Thu Jan 18, 2007 12:06 am

And if you can wait a little while, I'd check out the new video cards coming out in february (Nvidia) and march (ATI). Since the launch date for Vista is looming and with that the introduction of DX10. The only cards right now that are DX10 compatible are Nvidia's Geforce 8800 series, but they are releasing cheaper cards next month.

Just my two cents.

dnoiz · Post by **dnoiz** » Thu Jan 18, 2007 4:23 am

For now the ATI 1950PRO is your best bet (performance/budget wise). Or wait till March (or May) for better priced DX10 cards.

R.

GuyClinch · Post by **GuyClinch** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 6:43 am

Personally I'd buy a modular power suppy...like the M12 instead. I have built a few computers now and I hate all those extra wires. that I have to stuff in places.

Pete

wpb · Post by **wpb** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 9:51 pm

Another thought...

Good choice on the MB. I have the D975XBX and I'm very pleased with it. However I had to do a slight mod to get the overclock voltage options to appear in the BIOS. On the D975XBX2 that you're going to get, you won't have to do any mod. All of the overclock options will be available. You're going to like that MB.

GaryJ · Post by **GaryJ** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 5:08 pm

Thanks all for the great suggestions. I need to do some more research on all the opinions. Great forum.

Kipa