System advice - 2200$

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JayJay
Posts: 14
Joined: Thu Oct 26, 2006 6:02 am

System advice - 2200$

Post by JayJay » Tue Mar 06, 2007 2:41 am

I am asked by my friend to build a pc for him, and he has about 2200$ to spend on it. There is no need to monitor nor keyboard/mouse or dvddrive.

He wants a geforce 8800gtx, 2gb of ram and a raptor 150gb disc.

So what do you guys recommend? obviously he is a gamer but he do care about noise, although not as much as some of us does.
He wants to get as much power per noise ratio as he can for that amount of money.

need complete setup with fans/heatsinks/grease and all that.

Thanks for all the help i can get.

where?wolf
Posts: 198
Joined: Mon Jul 31, 2006 5:10 am
Location: Southern Sweden

Re: System advice - 2200$

Post by where?wolf » Tue Mar 06, 2007 5:53 am

JayJay wrote:I am asked by my friend to build a pc for him, and he has about 2200$ to spend on it. There is no need to monitor nor keyboard/mouse or dvddrive.

He wants a geforce 8800gtx, 2gb of ram and a raptor 150gb disc.

So what do you guys recommend? obviously he is a gamer but he do care about noise, although not as much as some of us does.
He wants to get as much power per noise ratio as he can for that amount of money.

need complete setup with fans/heatsinks/grease and all that.

Thanks for all the help i can get.
Hi!

Maybe this stuff will suit him?

Powersupply: Be Quiet! Black Power Pro 530W Or Corsair HX 520W. Seasonic is also a good brand.

Just make sure the psu have the corresponding amount of pins on the main power connector for the mobo (20 or 24 pins?) Or you will have to get an adapter cable.

Case: Antec P180B or Antec Solo.
Maybe also check out the Coolermaster Centurion 534? Possible fan replacement needed for more quiet fans? Some of the Silverstone Temjin cases are nice too.

Case fan / fans: Noctua 120mm, 1200RPM, Nexus 120mm. extra 92mm fan for the Solo case: Nexus or Akasa amber series. (If needed?)
Fan control: Zalman Fan Mate 2. (single fan, hardware controller)
CPU: Core Duo E6600
CPU heatsink: Scythe Ninja Plus, Noctua NH-U12 Or cheaper: Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 pro.
Thermal paste: Arctic Silver 5 or Arctic Silver Ceramique.
Mobo: Asus P5W or P5B
RAM: Corsair XMS, G.Skill, Kingston Hyper X or OCZ.
Videocard: 8800GTX. eVGA, Gigabyte and Leadtek are good Geforce manufacturers.

The Raptor hdd's are quite noisy. I have one myself, in a P180B case.

Quiet hdd: Samsung.

P.s. It's possible he can just duct the Ninja to the rear exhaust fan, using a simple duct made out of cardboard.

JayJay
Posts: 14
Joined: Thu Oct 26, 2006 6:02 am

Post by JayJay » Wed Mar 07, 2007 1:51 am

Thanks where?wolf for your input.

After reading some more on the forum and more inputs from what he wants and dont want, so we changed mind about gfx-card.. good/bad?, this is what we compiled so far:

MSI GeForce 8800GTS 640MB GDDR3, HDCP, PCI-Express, 2xDVI-I, Tv-Out, 320bit = 527$
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4GHz = 410$
2x Corsair XMS2 6400 DDR2, 1024MB PC6400 64Meg x 8, CAS 5-5-5-15, 800MHz, 240pin = 163$
Western Digital Raptor X 150GB SATA 16MB 10000RPM = 291$
Antec Performance One P180 Miditower = 208$
Corsair Powersupply 520W, 120mm Fan, 4xSATA, ATX/EPS, 2xPCI-E, 20/24pin = 138$
Noctua NH-U12F, 4 Dual-Heat-Pipes, with 120mm fan. = 80$
Asus P5B-E, P965, Socket-775, ATX, GbLAN, SATAII, Firewire, PCI-Ex16 = 191$

we are up to 2008$ which means we have about 200$ left to spend on fans and to make it as quiet as possible.

Will that be a good system? or Can it be better performance wise for the same amount of money?

We will be placing an order this sunday.

where?wolf
Posts: 198
Joined: Mon Jul 31, 2006 5:10 am
Location: Southern Sweden

Post by where?wolf » Wed Mar 07, 2007 4:04 am

Hi again!

I'm sure that will make a very nice rig.

And the GTS is a great card too. I have just gone from a X1800GTO to a 8800GTS 320mb. And the difference is big!

And I dont think he would have seen more than just a smaller differece, if he had compaired the 8800GTX with the GTS. I bet, he wont miss the GTX much.

The closer you get to the top videocard in a series, or a cpu for ex. The more you pay for very small jumps in performance.


Some small tips about the P180 case.

Before you mount anything into the case.

Cut out all the stamped / honeycombed fan grilles. (Just dont cut away the holes holding the filters in the front intakes).

This will lower the noise, and improve the airflow.

If he wants finger guards for the exhaust fans? Then, get ones made out of rounded wire instead.

You can make the edges on the fan holes look nicer, by glueing "U" shaped window or door isolation strips to the edges. Just make sure you stretch it enough, so it wont get in contact with the fan blades.

Clean the case throughout after the cutting.

Seal all unessisary vents and holes.

Get a 120mm washable fan filter. And mount it into the upper 3 X 5.25 cd bays. Using some foam strips and double sided tape. Just tape the foam strips to the opening. And wedge the filter in place. This, will make an excellent extra passive intake. Seal all holes in the cd cage, to prevent air leakage.

Do not mount the fans with screws! Use rubber pegs or elastic cords instead.

If you flip the psu upside down ( fan up) in the lower hd / psu chamber. And seal up the case vents around the psu. Then you wont need the middle fan down in the tunnel. The psu, will draw sufficient air over the hd(s)

Put foam, in the compartments under the psu and the hd cage.
Those compartments amplifies noise somewhat.

Good luck with the new rig!


angelkiller
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Joined: Fri Jan 05, 2007 11:37 am
Location: North Carolina

Post by angelkiller » Wed Mar 07, 2007 8:12 pm

I dont have time to comment on everything, but 1) Those prices are kinda high. Look at links oakdad provided above. 2) On Newegg.com, A 8800GTX can be found for ~550. I think if your friend is OK spending $525 on a GTS-640, he surely can spend $25 more for a GTX.

ronrem
Posts: 1066
Joined: Sun Jan 16, 2005 2:59 am
Location: Santa Cruz

Post by ronrem » Thu Mar 08, 2007 2:53 am

The GTS cards are $150-$200 less. Save that,get a good soundcard,M Audio Revolution 5.1 at about $80. Not only you get superior sound but the Audio is not bleeding off some system power. Dropping from GTX to GTS would be noticable in a VERY high power system on a FEW games in a FEW situations.

The rest of the time it is a high price space heater,sucking more watts,making more heat. For the $ diff you can do a quality soundcard AND a Theatre 550 TV tuner-capture card,so when the guy outgrows monster shooter games he can do some AV stuff.

ronrem
Posts: 1066
Joined: Sun Jan 16, 2005 2:59 am
Location: Santa Cruz

Post by ronrem » Thu Mar 08, 2007 2:57 am

The GTS cards are $150-$200 less. Save that,get a good soundcard,M Audio Revolution 5.1 at about $80. Not only you get superior sound but the Audio is not bleeding off some system power. Dropping from GTX to GTS would be noticable in a VERY high power system on a FEW games in a FEW situations.

The rest of the time it is a high price space heater,sucking more watts,making more heat. For the $ diff you can do a quality soundcard AND a Theatre 550 TV tuner-capture card,so when the guy outgrows monster shooter games he can do some AV stuff.

ronrem
Posts: 1066
Joined: Sun Jan 16, 2005 2:59 am
Location: Santa Cruz

Post by ronrem » Thu Mar 08, 2007 3:17 am

As for HDD,rather than the single semi-big,noisy,expensive Raptor.....

2 X 36 gb Raptors in Stripping Raid......$105 each

+ 1 Samsung Spinpoint T Series 400 GB $109.

You get System Comander or Acronis and set up partitions,and DUAL BOOT.
The Raptors are the gaming drives,in Raid they give unmatched speed....but they also make heat and quite a bit of chatter. So--for web surfing,other stuff,storage--you have the quiet Samsung. I believe with SATA it's even viable to put an inline power switch in the 12v feeds to the Raptors so they are not even in idle (extending their lifespan)

For the gaming---you want that system as lean and mean as possible-no unneeded frills,processes,apps etc. All that lives on the Samsung.

JayJay
Posts: 14
Joined: Thu Oct 26, 2006 6:02 am

Post by JayJay » Thu Mar 08, 2007 2:53 pm

The prices are from an online store in Sweden.
I see that they are expensive compared to the US.. but this store is one of the cheapest here.. www.komplett.se

We have now placed an order

Antec 180 black case
Core2duo E6600
MSI 8800GTS 640mb memory
Asus p5b-e
Corsair 2x 1gb memory
Scythe Ninja heatsink
3 Nexus fans
Corsair 520W psu
Raptor 150gb


Just hope all will fit with no problems. I will get back with a picture of how it has been setup and with some information from the tempsensors to see if everything is OK.


Any ideas on how to mount the fans in the case for the best performance?

Thanks again for your help.

Plissken
Friend of SPCR
Posts: 235
Joined: Tue Dec 19, 2006 6:22 pm
Location: Seattle

Post by Plissken » Fri Mar 09, 2007 12:37 am

Very nice system.
The only potential issues I see are possible interference with the Ninja on the P5B-E capacitors (file the mounting bracket if necessary) and the RAM with the P5B-E, since it's a somewhat finicky mobo with RAM. You might have to boot with 1 stick and up the DIMM voltage before installing the 2nd.
For fan placement, start with the default P180 setup, and remove the lower fan (take where?wolf's advice and tape the case holes around the PSU). Next you might want to put a Nexus on the upper drive tray for starters. Check the hard drive, vid card, and CPU temps, and go from there as noise and temperature permits.

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