Hello!
Finally, I got a Starcraft 2 beta key javascript:emoticon(':D') and now I need to upgrade my computer so I can play the game. Now I have an Athlon 64 at 1,6 Ghz and an old 128 mb gpu. I want the new computer to be quiet, just like my current computer, and I also want it to be fast so I can play games.
I have browsed SPR for a few days now, and here is my setup. It looks pretty good right. Does anyone have any comments?
Mobo: some cheap one that is not a microATX, because I want to be able to fit heatsinks safely.
Asus - Socket AM3 - ATX AMD 770 (M4A77TD PRO) - DDR3
It has a SB710 South Bridge so it is likely to be able to unlock two cores in the Phenom X2 cpu...
CPU: AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition 3.2GHz / 7MB / Socket AM3 (Boxed) Good value for money.
CPU-cooler: Noctua NH-U9B SE2, 92 mm fan. I dont think I want the enormous highest performing heatsinks at 800-900 grams. I think this one will be easier to fit in the case, and will be enough. The main sound from my PC now, and probably also in the future, are the case fans. The CPU fan is in the middle of the foam-damped case so it should be ok.
Memory: will buy 4 gb of DDR3. Should be enough for gaming.
GPU: I will take a passively cooled card that seems to be quite fast too: Gigabyte HD5750 Silent Cell HDMI Dual-DVI 1GB
I think that the small fans on most video cards would be too noisy.
Case and PSU: I have an Antec P150 with its Antec 430 W PSU that I bought about 4 years ago. I will keep this. I will also keep my Audigy sound card and dvd drive.
Hard drive: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB (7200RPM / 32MB Cache / SATA II) Seems to be very quiet and also very fast. Do they have good reliability?
I currently have a 160 mb Samsung HD160JJ mounted in elastic bands and I will do the same mounting with the new hard drive. I will sell the old one, since I do not want two hard drives to cause extra noise and heat.
Case fans: Aside from the (not optimally quiet, but it is there) 80 mm fan in the PSU, I have a 120 mm Nexus exhaust fan at around 7 V with a zalman fan mate installed at the back. I think I will put in a similar fan at 7 V also in the intake of the case. That would be advisable right? Since I will have a faster cpu and gpu soon.
Thanks in advance for comments!
Quiet comp that can play Starcraft 2! Feedback appreciated
Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee
Grats on your beta key, make the most of it, the beta expires on the 31st of may!
Regarding your hardware:
-Unless there is something special about AMD mATX boards, having an mATX shouldn't cause problems with heat sinks. There are definitely reasons to go full size over mATX, but I don't think heat sink choice is one of them.
-GPU's are definitely stupidly noisy (part of the reason I WC!), passive should help that, although you will still need some air flow over it
-Have you considered an SSD? It will give you a huge performance boost, and is silent (although realistically you still need a HDD for bulk storage, but it can spin down when not in use).
-Given you are choosing to go with a fanless GPU, I suspect you will need both fans. Of course, try it a see is the best approach.
Regarding your hardware:
-Unless there is something special about AMD mATX boards, having an mATX shouldn't cause problems with heat sinks. There are definitely reasons to go full size over mATX, but I don't think heat sink choice is one of them.
-GPU's are definitely stupidly noisy (part of the reason I WC!), passive should help that, although you will still need some air flow over it
-Have you considered an SSD? It will give you a huge performance boost, and is silent (although realistically you still need a HDD for bulk storage, but it can spin down when not in use).
-Given you are choosing to go with a fanless GPU, I suspect you will need both fans. Of course, try it a see is the best approach.
31st of May, noooooo.... I better hurry.
I thought about a SSD, but I read that people have had doubts about their reliability. That bothers me. If I would get a SSD, I guess the way to use it would be to put all programs including Windows on it, so that they load fast. And all other data, movies, documents etc, on the normal hard drive.
I will have to do measurements with the case fans and gpu to see what air flow is required. What is the most popular program for measuring temperatures?
I thought about a SSD, but I read that people have had doubts about their reliability. That bothers me. If I would get a SSD, I guess the way to use it would be to put all programs including Windows on it, so that they load fast. And all other data, movies, documents etc, on the normal hard drive.
I will have to do measurements with the case fans and gpu to see what air flow is required. What is the most popular program for measuring temperatures?
Reliability concerns with SSDs are definitely the worst thing about them. I only just received mine back from RMA today! If I was to buy another one, I'd probably get an Intel one, they seem to have the best track record so far. Either way, if you do get one, make sure its got a decent warranty.
That said, its a massive relief to get it back. My system feels fast again, and while RMA is a pain (a royal pain), OCZ made it pretty painless. I guess I am trying to say, in a long rambling kind of way, that even tho I had to RMA my SSD, I still would get one if I could go back to when I made the decision.
And yes, if you get an SSD, you pretty much need to have a HDD as well, for bulk storage.
For measuring temps, I like hwmonitor for an over view, and CoreTemp for CPU temps. GPU-Z for GPU temps is good too. There are many choices (speedfan, everest, realtemp, etc) and it doesn't matter too much what you use. The one thing I would be a little careful with, is anything that probes your HDD temp will not let your HDDs sleep. If you have a system drive (SSD!!) and storage drive(s) like me, I would much prefer the storage drives sleep, as I don't use them very often.
That said, its a massive relief to get it back. My system feels fast again, and while RMA is a pain (a royal pain), OCZ made it pretty painless. I guess I am trying to say, in a long rambling kind of way, that even tho I had to RMA my SSD, I still would get one if I could go back to when I made the decision.
And yes, if you get an SSD, you pretty much need to have a HDD as well, for bulk storage.
For measuring temps, I like hwmonitor for an over view, and CoreTemp for CPU temps. GPU-Z for GPU temps is good too. There are many choices (speedfan, everest, realtemp, etc) and it doesn't matter too much what you use. The one thing I would be a little careful with, is anything that probes your HDD temp will not let your HDDs sleep. If you have a system drive (SSD!!) and storage drive(s) like me, I would much prefer the storage drives sleep, as I don't use them very often.
In my experience a Micro-Atx board, plus a GPU with a large heatsink can block 2 expansion slots. When I used an AC Acellero, it blocked both of my PCI slots which limited me to the very pricey pci-e network cards when I needed an extra.ascl wrote: Regarding your hardware:
-Unless there is something special about AMD mATX boards, having an mATX shouldn't cause problems with heat sinks. There are definitely reasons to go full size over mATX, but I don't think heat sink choice is one of them.
-GPU's are definitely stupidly noisy (part of the reason I WC!), passive should help that, although you will still need some air flow over it
-Have you considered an SSD? It will give you a huge performance boost, and is silent (although realistically you still need a HDD for bulk storage, but it can spin down when not in use).
-Given you are choosing to go with a fanless GPU, I suspect you will need both fans. Of course, try it a see is the best approach.
For GPU cooling, yes. However, it's not really an issue with CPU cooling. Well, it kinda is, but the issue exists regardless of whether you're using mATX or ATX since the width of the spec for both is the same (9.6").zodaex wrote:In my experience a Micro-Atx board, plus a GPU with a large heatsink can block 2 expansion slots. When I used an AC Acellero, it blocked both of my PCI slots which limited me to the very pricey pci-e network cards when I needed an extra.
A tower CPU cooler will overhang the RAM slots on many microATX motherboards. Usually isn't an issue unless you have RAM with tall heat-sinks. I've got a thread about it here.
Judging from pictures, the same problem exists on their ATX boards. It's not really limited to mATX.fwiffo wrote:A tower CPU cooler will overhang the RAM slots on many microATX motherboards. Usually isn't an issue unless you have RAM with tall heat-sinks. I've got a thread about it here.
mATX
ATX