Feedback on Silent PC

[jebus_beler]

I haven't built a PC in years and have never thought to build a silent one so this is somewhat new to me but after some research I've opted for the following components for a linux workstation I wanna build (mostly for mathematica and photo-editing -- gimp/bibble). Feedback on components or any overall choices would be appreciated, both from a sound/temp standpoint and also linux compatibility or general HW choice. Thanks in advance!!

Cooler Master CM-690 II Advanced
Cooler Master Silent Pro 500W (M500)
Core i7 2600K
Asus P8P67 Pro (Rev. B3)
MSI GeForce GTX 560 Ti Twin Frozr II (1 Gb)
Corsair Vengeance - 8 Go : 2 x 4 Go - DDR3 - 1600 MHz / PC3-12800 (1.5V)
Western Digital HD - Caviar Black - 3,5“ - 1 TB - SATA III

I couldn't find a Silent PC review of the Cooler Master M500. Any experience on how well/silently it runs? Is 500W enough given that i probably won't add another video card?

Also, the CM-690 has some audio, usb, e-sata ports in front -- can these connect to any motherboard or do I need to check compatibility with the P8P67?

[netmask254]

The build looks pretty solid if you don't quite care about silence.

Regarding Silent Pro, you can refer the 700W model's review.
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article936-page7.html
As you can see, it is just ok and doesn't belong to the best class. I would recommend Seasonic X-560, though more expensive, which is significantly better on both quality and silence. Besides, if you can consider Antec P183 as the case, CP-850 is also a very good selection.

You need to invest money on a good CPU cooler, the stock one would be the major noise source by default.
http://www.silentpcreview.com/Recommended_Heatsinks

I'm quite confusing that if you are using this machine for Linux, why do you need such a powerful VGA card (GTX 560)? In my personal experience, due to driver and application limitations, generally VGA card become useless in Linux (perhaps I'm somewhat old fashioned ).

[kuzzia]

Also, the CM-690 has some audio, usb, e-sata ports in front -- can these connect to any motherboard or do I need to check compatibility with the P8P67?

You shouldn't be afraid of that. Audio, usb, e-sata connect to headers which practically every contemporary motherboard has. However, you might check for e-sata compatibility.

Cooler Master CM-690 II Advanced: though a great case, the mesh might leak too much noise. But if that's ok with you, then it truly is a great case. If not, you may take a look at:

Fractal Design R3
Fractal Design Mini
Fractal Design XL
NZXT H2
Antec P183 V3

Cooler Master Silent Pro 500W: I asked one of the other members, Andy, who said the PSU is very quiet. The fan should also be the same as the one used in the CM m700W, which is reviewed here in SPCR. 500 W should also be ok for a single video card. TheGeforce 560 + Core i7 920 @ 3,70 GHz (very power hungry CPU) consumes 358 W.
http://www.techspot.com/review/359-nvid ... age11.html

And oh, that Caviar Black.. that drive is not recommended in any silent built.

[jebus_beler]

Thank you very much for your responses. To clear up a few things: I am interested in having as silent build as possible though maybe not if it drives up the price too much.

- For the HD I have to admit I didn't bother looking into it yet so I just borrowed a friend's recommendation. Any recommendation for a quiet, fast HD?

- I was originally gonna get the Nexus NX-5000 over the Cooler Master m500 but opted for the latter because of availability. I might try harder to get the nexus since it seems to be highly recommended.

- All the reviews of the Cooler Master CM690-II advanced have been pretty stellar. Why is it not good for a silent build? I thought the whole point of the ventilation was to keep it cool and quiet.

[jebus_beler]

I posted a reply but it didn't appear ... not sure if replies also have to be approved so gonna just try again (to moderators: last time I do this ...sorry!).

Anyway, thanks a lot for your responses. I'm a little confused now as I had thought the system I spec-ed out would be silent which _was_ definitely one of my goals.

- For the HD I didn't really research it (it was the last item on the list). Any idea on a fast, quiet HD?

- For the PSU - I am considering changing to a nexus nx5000 since that gets very good reviews. Unfortunately its harder to get hold of locally. Is it really much better than the cooler master?

- I'm quite sold on the Cooler Master Cm 690 II advanced. It has nice features, isn't expensive and looks nice. I thought it would also be silent since it has so much ventillation. Would you _not_ recommend this case for a silent box or is it just not the most silent?

- I also got the gtx 560 on the assumption that it was like the gtx 460 and was relatively low power. The article you sent me seems to suggest otherwise. Would you not recommend this for a silent configuration?

Regarding video cards and linux the situation is not so bad. NVidia apparently has performance parity between its windows and linux drivers (almost):

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=a ... nlin&num=1

Thanks, again for the responses.

[kuzzia]

uhh, a lot of questions, let's take them one at a time.

HD: if you need a fast 7200 rpm drive, then SPCR has reviewed a Hitachi and a WD Blue (both 1 TB):
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1163-page5.html

The Hitachi is the more quiet of the two but vibrates a lot. Recommended if suspended. For any other mounting methods, I'd recommended the WD. The Samsung F3 has also been praised a lot, albeit in other places on the internet:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/storag ... -review/10
http://techreport.com/articles.x/19330/11

If you can suspend the hitachi, then the idle noise at 13 dBa @ 1m will suffice for a very, very quiet system. If not, the combo of a SSD and a "green" drive would be the best option, noise wise. And performance wise.

PSU: If the acoustics of the 500w matches that of the 700w, then I would recommend the 500W, hands down. 14 dBa @ 1m until 150W, modular, 5 year warranty, made by a well-regarded manufacturer. Availability, as you mention. In my country a similar sized PSU (in terms of wattage) cost twice as much. Not viable.

Case: Most "silent" cases have a door to stop the noise leaking through the front. Instead, the noise must escape through small vents on the side. To be honest, I don't know much about the door approach, so I can't really comment on that. If you go for very quiet components, then you could probably use CM 690 II A. Heck, I even considered buying it once. But what do you find appealing about the case? Besides the many (unnecessary) fan mounting holes and options for water cooling, you could probably choose another case with similar features but WITH the door.

Graphics card: The link to techspot was not meant to say that a GTX 560 couldn't be quiet, though the power consumption and heat dissipations is probably too high for a silent built. Does mathematica and photo-editing require lots of graphics power?

CPU cooler: I'd personally recommend the Scythe Mugen 2 rev. b: Cheap, Editor's Choice here in SPCR, VERY good & silent stock fan, easy installation (only experience with AMD, but mounting on an Intel board should be quite similar). The Intel heatsink & fan is simply out of the question.

I hope you end out with a great system

[jebus_beler]

Thanks a lot for such a great and detailed response, Kuzzia. I guess I just like the look of the cooler master 690 II advanced and some of the nice features like the HD bay opening on top. The antec p183 is a bit pricy and kinda ugly.. I'm willing to trade off some functionality for looks and would rather not splurge too much on a case but I'm not completely stuck to the 690 -- it also just got very good reviews (though not on this site). Should I really be looking at the antec? Is it comporable in terms of being easy to use/setup? I just don't find it looks that great. I don't need my system to win silence awards but I basically don't want to hear it much when its idle.

I'll eventually get a CPU cooler and an ssd drive (once the price of the latter goes down). I want to build the system slowly over time so am getting the "minimal" components to have a running system. It doesn't have to be silent in its first iteration but the components should be "silent-ready".

If the P67 boards let me use the sandy bridge intel graphics driver i would just do that and get a GPU later but they don't so I need to splurge on a video card in the initial build. I probably don't need the gtx 560 but I'm trying to future proof myself to some degree. Mathematica and Gimp/Bibble don't yet support cuda (well mathematica a little but not the stuff I use it for) but I hope they might one day and the only other likely 3d I'll use is compiz which doesn't need much of a card. I don't play video games but like the idea of maybe cuda programming someday. I'm considering the gtx 460 but it doesn't seem to be much more power efficient and is "old tech" so less value for money (maybe this is a bad mentality). Anyway I think idling the 460 and 560 aren't so different so the hit is mostly financial.

I'll look into the HDs you recommended. I might try to go get these components tonight!

[jebus_beler]

Sorry one more question. I've equally ignored the choice of DVD drive/burner because I mostly don't use it except maybe for installation (which is why i need to get one right away). Does it really matter in terms of silence/power consumption as long as the drive is idle? Since I rarely use it I don't care how much noise it makes when its running.

[kuzzia]

The Antec P183, IMO, is a bit outdated as a similar case (like the Fractals) can be had for a smaller price, so that case is probably out of the question. But you should take a look at some of the other cases that I mentioned just to consider any alternatives.

About graphics, video cards becomes almost unimaginably much quicker for every single generation. In late 2009, the Radeon 5850 was released with a price tag of 259 USD (which rose due to shortage) and instantly became the new GPU darling. But Nvidia's release of the 460 forced the price down, which was further consolidated by the 6850. So what was once the BEST performance-to-price video card just 1,5 year has now been replaced by roughly similar performing cards that are much cheaper. And these cards all use a 40 nm manufacturing process. the 28 nm should be out before a year has passed, which will hopefully bring along a much greater performance jump than the one from Radeon 5000 to 6000. My point is simply: in the computing world, one can only be future proof for roughly two years, which also counts the world of CPU's and perhaps SSD's. I know the 560 does support CUDA, but as you mention, that feature is not put to use at this moment. Who knows how long before your programs fully support CUDA? So you can always invest in a video card later on which will undoubtedly give you better performance, efficiency etc. The 28 nm is just around the corner.

And a last recommendation about harddrives. 2,5" drives, though a bit more expensive per GB and worse performance wise, are usually more quiet and MUCH easier to suspend. So consider that option, too.

[kuzzia]

ehh, by idling, do you mean "no CD is in the drive"? In which case, does the DVD drive even spin?

[jebus_beler]

ehh, by idling, do you mean "no CD is in the drive"? In which case, does the DVD drive even spin?

Yeah that was basically what I was asking. When I'm not using it it won't draw power or make noise so it doesn't really matter which drive I choose, right?

Photo-editing is going to be quite read bottle-necked I think so a fast HD is important for me. i would buy a large SSD if it was affordable but I figured a cheapish 7200 rpm for now replaced by SSD as it becomes cheaper is a better option.

The 460 1 gb sells for around 150€ while the 560 is for around 210€ which seems worth the price difference given the significantly faster speed. Of course if I could just use the built in graphics now (i.e. if I had an H67 board) I would just do that and get the GPU later but I have a feeling I'm just gonna stick it out with what i have for a while and the 560 will stay current for longer (probably indefinitely given I'm less likely to do anything too demanding with it).

[jebus_beler]

PSU: If the acoustics of the 500w matches that of the 700w, then I would recommend the 500W, hands down. 14 dBa @ 1m until 150W, modular, 5 year warranty, made by a well-regarded manufacturer. Availability, as you mention. In my country a similar sized PSU (in terms of wattage) cost twice as much. Not viable.

CPU cooler: I'd personally recommend the Scythe Mugen 2 rev. b: Cheap, Editor's Choice here in SPCR, VERY good & silent stock fan, easy installation (only experience with AMD, but mounting on an Intel board should be quite similar). The Intel heatsink & fan is simply out of the question.

I hope you end out with a great system

Actually the m600 is available but i guess it should be as quiet, right? All the non-cooler master alternatives are twice as expensive.

For the cpu cooler any reason to prefer the mugen over say the Xigmatek HDT-S1283 which is smaller and less likely to interfere with ram sockets (apparenlty a problem for some ram on som asus p8p67 boards)?

Thanks, I'm really looking forward to it!