Help with new 920 system that needs to be silent!

Got a shopping cart of parts that you want opinions on? Get advice from members on your planned or existing system (or upgrade).

Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee

BlueSwan
Posts: 23
Joined: Mon Mar 01, 2010 4:16 am
Location: Denmark

Help with new 920 system that needs to be silent!

Post by BlueSwan » Mon Mar 01, 2010 4:21 am

Dear SPCR's,

First post here and yes, I’m asking for input! :) I’ve been reading reviews and the forum here on SPCR for several days now and have come up with a tentative system based on that. What I would love is some feedback on the system and possible ways to improve it. I also have a few questions here and there which you’ll see.

My situation: I’m a hobby musician whos about to build a new DAW (digital audio workstation). Unfortunately I’ll be recording vocals about 2m from where the PC will be situated so I need the system to be very quiet. Last time I built a system was in 2006 and despite some efforts to make it quiet, I was never happy with the results, so I definitely want it to be better this time around and I’m willing to pay for it.

Also know that I have no plans of overclocking.

Here’s what I’ve come up with so far:

Cabinet: Antec Performance One P183 (edited, I mistakenly wrote P193)
This cabinet seems to have gotten nice feedback. [Still partial to this case]

PSU: Antec CP-850
Now I would have chosen the Seasonic X650, but that is not available in Denmark. Neither are the Nexus PSU’s. Infact, quite a bit of gear recommended around here isn’t available in Denmark, unfortunately. The Antec CP-850 review on this site was excellent, so while I’ll never need 850w or anything approaching it, I’ve picked this one so far.
[Still partial to this PSU, I think]

Cabinet fans: 3 x Scythe Slip Stream SY1225SL12M
I’ve read that these fans are very quiet, so I would replace the stock cabinet fans with these. I’m not really sure if I need three of them, though. What do you think?

Cabinet damping: Be Quiet! Noise Absorption Kit
Not sure if this is pointless on the P183?? [This has been dropped unless someone thinks its a great idea]

Board: Asus P6T SE
I haven’t researched boards too thoroughly yet. I went for this since Asus is reputable. Would happily be convinced otherwise. [I've done a turnaround on this. I hadn't researched this too much back when I wrote the first post. Making a decision here isn't easy. I probably need a Texas Instruments firewire chipset, but only the Gigabyte boards have those onboard. However there's been the dreaded issue of coil noise with many of the Gigabyte boards and that is obviously a complete no-go. So I went off Gigabyte again and back to Asus with an added TI PCI card. However I guess I also wanted the board to be compatible with USB 3 and SATA 3, so right now I'm partial to the stupidly expensive option of getting a Asus P6X58D board with the added TI PCI firewire card. Definitely not a great solution though.]

CPU: Intel Core i7 920
Pondered the 920 vs 860 issue for a long time, but ended up with the 920 due to the 1356 platform allowing for triple channel RAM, which could potentially make a difference in audio production. [Still partial to the 920/930, but considering shifting to the 8xx series and the 1156 platform, which would then obviously mean that I would have to pick another motherboard and RAM as well.]

CPU heatsink: Scythe Mugen 2
Read a lot on this topic and is still undecided. I’m also currently considering the Noctua NH-D14 and the Prolimatech Meganahalems. [I've gone off the Scythe a bit. Stuck between the Prolimatech and the Noctua at the moment]

RAM: 6GB Corsair XMS3, 1333 mhz (3x2gb)
No real thought went into this choice. :wink: [Still an issue that I haven't really focused any energy on]

Harddisk #1: Kingston Drive V+ 64 GB
A DAW needs quite a few harddrives, so I went for this for the low noise levels for the system drive. [Still partial to this for a system drive]

Harddisk #2: Samsung Spinpoint F3, 1TB
Harddisk #3: Samsung Spinpoint F3, 1TB

I hate the fact that I have to have two of these, but I’m afraid I do. At least that seems to be the consensus in the DAW community. Not sure how to minimize the noise from these. The Scythe quiet drive doesn’t seem to be available here in Denmark?? [Currently considering switching these for the more silent 5400 rpm drives. Also considerning just getting one big drive instead of two.]

OS: Windows 7 Professional, 64 bit[I haven't actually researched the difference between pro and ultimate. I currently use XP but I definitely want to make the switch to a 64 bit version of Win 7.]

DVD-writer: Samsung SH S223B
Just went for the cheapest Samsung drive there was. I’d take any recommendations if this is a crap drive.

GPU: ASUS Radeon HD4350 SILENT
I’m not a gamer. I would like to be able to watch HD video in nice quality though. I know nothing whatsoever about GPU’s, but I wanted a silent one, so I went for this passively cooled one. Recommendations would again be appreciated.[Considering the much better Gigabyte fanless Radeon HD4850 just for the hell of it]

So what do you think? Will this system be quiet? Any possible improvements? Any input is appreciated. :D
Last edited by BlueSwan on Sun Mar 07, 2010 3:41 am, edited 3 times in total.

Parappaman
Posts: 419
Joined: Mon Aug 31, 2009 12:30 am
Location: Italy

Post by Parappaman » Mon Mar 01, 2010 4:39 am

The P193 is unnecessarily big and has lots of fans. You'll be better served by a P183.
Motherboard is way overkill, get a cheaper X58 board, the cheapest one you'll find will suffice.
As far as drives go, I think the quietest ones are Samsung EcoGreen F2, I have used a few 1,5 TB ones and am very happy with their acoustics and performance. RAID two of them for some impressive 200+ MB/s results. The P183 has some nice cushioning to quieten them down (the middle cage with its two trays would be the ideal placement for them), there's no need for a QuietDrive or the BeQuiet damping kit.
The CP-850 is a great choice but you might be better served by a BeQuiet E7 at around 400-500w, either modular or not: it will be plenty power and I think a touch quieter, all while being cheaper.
Noctua D14 is right now the ultimate cooler choice: if you have the funds, get it. You could use it with the single 14cm middle fan and reuse the second 12cm Noctua as back case exhaust. The only other case fan you will need is the one in front of the disks: get a Scythe Gentle Typhoon 800 RPM and you'll be good. Block off the top exhaust one and you'll have one hell of a quiet machine! :D

BlueSwan
Posts: 23
Joined: Mon Mar 01, 2010 4:16 am
Location: Denmark

Post by BlueSwan » Mon Mar 01, 2010 5:17 am

Parappaman wrote:The P193 is unnecessarily big and has lots of fans. You'll be better served by a P183.
Indeed. I mistakenly wrote P193 - I meant the P183. It's edited now! :)
Motherboard is way overkill, get a cheaper X58 board, the cheapest one you'll find will suffice.
OK, will look into it. It needs to be rock solid though.
As far as drives go, I think the quietest ones are Samsung EcoGreen F2, I have used a few 1,5 TB ones and am very happy with their acoustics and performance. RAID two of them for some impressive 200+ MB/s results.
Daw forums always recommend 7200rpm drives, but maybe I should look more into it. I know nothing about RAID but this too could be an area I should investigate more.
The P183 has some nice cushioning to quieten them down (the middle cage with its two trays would be the ideal placement for them), there's no need for a QuietDrive or the BeQuiet damping kit.
Sounds great! Will very happily drop it if there's no use for it!
The CP-850 is a great choice but you might be better served by a BeQuiet E7 at around 400-500w, either modular or not: it will be plenty power and I think a touch quieter, all while being cheaper.
This PSU doesn't seem to be available in Denmark, like many of the other recommended PSU's. The CP-850 is one of the few SPCR recommended PSUs I could find.
Noctua D14 is right now the ultimate cooler choice: if you have the funds, get it. You could use it with the single 14cm middle fan and reuse the second 12cm Noctua as back case exhaust. The only other case fan you will need is the one in front of the disks: get a Scythe Gentle Typhoon 800 RPM and you'll be good. Block off the top exhaust one and you'll have one hell of a quiet machine! :D
Very valuable advice, thanks. :D I noticed in the SPCR review of the D14 that they recommended replacing the stock Noctua fans with something quieter like the Scythe Slipstreams.

ces
Posts: 3395
Joined: Thu Feb 04, 2010 6:06 pm
Location: US

Post by ces » Mon Mar 01, 2010 5:38 am

If you are doing any recording, the best solution is to move the computer outside the room and leave the keyboard, display and microphones in the room.

The Lian Li A05 is a small case and can handle pretty much any cooler there is. Its very light... made out of aluminum. You can put some handles on it so it is easy to move around.

BlueSwan
Posts: 23
Joined: Mon Mar 01, 2010 4:16 am
Location: Denmark

Post by BlueSwan » Mon Mar 01, 2010 5:43 am

ces wrote:If you are doing any recording, the best solution is to move the computer outside the room and leave the keyboard, display and microphones in the room.
Not really an option, I'm afraid. Or at least the very very very last resort. I'd like to first see if I can get a system which is quiet enough.

danimal
Posts: 734
Joined: Mon Jun 08, 2009 2:41 pm
Location: the ether

Post by danimal » Mon Mar 01, 2010 9:50 am

what about recording vocals to one of those portable mp3 players? you wouldn't have to worry about fan noise on the computer.

Parappaman
Posts: 419
Joined: Mon Aug 31, 2009 12:30 am
Location: Italy

Post by Parappaman » Mon Mar 01, 2010 9:54 am

BlueSwan wrote:I noticed in the SPCR review of the D14 that they recommended replacing the stock Noctua fans with something quieter like the Scythe Slipstreams.
If you run them at the lowest speeds with the included resistors, they will be extremely good sounding, don't worry. Noctua fans are of much higher quality than the Slipstreams, the 14cm one might be "noisier" only because of its higher airflow, but I don't think there is a dramatic difference. :wink:

BlueSwan
Posts: 23
Joined: Mon Mar 01, 2010 4:16 am
Location: Denmark

Post by BlueSwan » Mon Mar 01, 2010 10:52 am

danimal wrote:what about recording vocals to one of those portable mp3 players? you wouldn't have to worry about fan noise on the computer.
I'm recording on pro equipment all the way through. A Neumann u87 microphone, a Great River Me1NV preamp, a DIY PEQ1 EQ, a UA 1176 compressor into an RME Fireface 800 and finally into the PC.

A mp3 recorder won't do. :wink:

Besides, I thought this place was all about achieving a quiet PC. Are you saying that it can't be done? :shock:

Parappaman
Posts: 419
Joined: Mon Aug 31, 2009 12:30 am
Location: Italy

Post by Parappaman » Mon Mar 01, 2010 12:37 pm

LOL :mrgreen:

danimal
Posts: 734
Joined: Mon Jun 08, 2009 2:41 pm
Location: the ether

Post by danimal » Tue Mar 02, 2010 11:47 am

BlueSwan wrote:
danimal wrote:what about recording vocals to one of those portable mp3 players? you wouldn't have to worry about fan noise on the computer.
I'm recording on pro equipment all the way through. A Neumann u87 microphone, a Great River Me1NV preamp, a DIY PEQ1 EQ, a UA 1176 compressor into an RME Fireface 800 and finally into the PC.

A mp3 recorder won't do. :wink:
um, no, they typically also do 24-bit/96khz linear pcm... why do you think that they cost upwards of $400 or more? :lol:

you are spending a fortune on pro gear, then recording vocals in an open room?? that's like trying to shovel the snow off of your sidewalk with a skip-loader.

here, i'll do your homework for you:


Image
For a start, the FR-2LE records to CompactFlash in Broadcast WAV Format (BWF) at 24bit 96kHz quality.
•MP3 recording/playback
•Up to 24 bit 96kHz audio performance
•2 x professional phantom powered XLR mic inputs with precise recording level adjustment control
•ALC (Off/On/Limiter) and HPF
•(On/Off, 100Hz -12dB/Oct)

BlueSwan
Posts: 23
Joined: Mon Mar 01, 2010 4:16 am
Location: Denmark

Post by BlueSwan » Tue Mar 02, 2010 1:50 pm

I do acoustically treat my room (to some extent) and I do record fairly dry vocals. But it's obviously not good having a noisy PC within a couple of meters of recording.

bonestonne
Posts: 1839
Joined: Mon Feb 05, 2007 2:10 pm
Location: Northern New Jersey
Contact:

Post by bonestonne » Tue Mar 02, 2010 3:16 pm

I'm just going to put this out in the air.

Silent computer, i7 920. Somehow it doesn't quite sound right.

Try the 8xx series? I mean really, it saves a lot of money, and with the lifespan (and power) of the machine, does future upgrading really matter? I mean, with a quad core + hyperthreading, will you really need an upgrade in 3-5 years? There are many people still rockin' the dual core models.

Maybe this:

Core i7 820
[whatever mobo]
[whatever RAM]
[whatever GPU]
Solid State hard drive for OS
Green Power drive/Eco drive (Western Digital vs Samsung)
Antec P183
Antec CP850

Scythe Mugen 2
Accelero S1 (only if needed)

Scythe 800RPM slip stream fans for rear exhaust, top exhaust, CPU
one 500RPM slip stream in bottom chamber between hard drives and PSU

I mean, I've got a DAW too, but realistically, with the performance gain of triple channel RAM vs Dual channel RAM make that much of a difference with your audio app of choice? I would want a definitive answer over Dual vs Triple channel RAM before pulling the trigger.

Food for thought:
is the CP850 really the best choice for this? why not a 500W or so? I see no need for such power on reserve if it wont be used.

you could get away with just 3/4 500RPM slip streams, I would say you could block off the top exhaust and just use the rear exhaust. I don't think 1200RPM slipstreams are needed, but 800 should be plenty. maybe a PWM slipstream for the CPU?

I'm an advocate of isolating the computer to an out of room source when it comes to studio recordings or anything of that nature, but at the same time, I didn't go through each component in my list...I would think that the general idea is pretty solid, and you can fill in the blanks.

I use adobe audition, and I'm happy with a quad core + 8gb of RAM. LGA775 is all I really need, considering the application is not really optimized for a quad core, much less a dual at that matter, despite having "multi-core support"

BlueSwan
Posts: 23
Joined: Mon Mar 01, 2010 4:16 am
Location: Denmark

Post by BlueSwan » Tue Mar 02, 2010 10:37 pm

bonestonne wrote:I'm just going to put this out in the air.

Silent computer, i7 920. Somehow it doesn't quite sound right.

Try the 8xx series? I mean really, it saves a lot of money, and with the lifespan (and power) of the machine, does future upgrading really matter? I mean, with a quad core + hyperthreading, will you really need an upgrade in 3-5 years? There are many people still rockin' the dual core models.
I've thought the same on previous occasions, yet somehow after a few years I find myself lacking CPU power. Are you saying that a 8xx series CPU will be clearly more quiet than a 9xx series CPU? If that's the case then that is certainly a strong argument for a 8xx series CPU.
Green Power drive/Eco drive (Western Digital vs Samsung)
Still doubtful on this given the audio communitys advocacy of 7200 rpm drives, but it wure would be nice with less noisy drives.
Scythe 800RPM slip stream fans for rear exhaust, top exhaust, CPU
one 500RPM slip stream in bottom chamber between hard drives and PSU

I mean, I've got a DAW too, but realistically, with the performance gain of triple channel RAM vs Dual channel RAM make that much of a difference with your audio app of choice? I would want a definitive answer over Dual vs Triple channel RAM before pulling the trigger.
Yeah, I have no idea really, except that I've seen a statement from a pro DAW builder that one should go for triple channel RAM.
is the CP850 really the best choice for this? why not a 500W or so? I see no need for such power on reserve if it wont be used.
The problem here is that the SCPR recommended models in the "lower" power range (Nexus, Seasonic, etc.) does not seem to be available in Denmark. There are some Seasonic models available, but they're older S12 models and they're very expensive. The most popular models in Denmark seem to be the Corsair line.
you could get away with just 3/4 500RPM slip streams, I would say you could block off the top exhaust and just use the rear exhaust. I don't think 1200RPM slipstreams are needed, but 800 should be plenty. maybe a PWM slipstream for the CPU?
Thanks. This is the part I really need to experiment with I think. I'll probably buy a bunch of quiet fans and experiment. They're not that expensive anyway and I guess I could use leftovers in my wifes PC (which is also rather noisy).
I'm an advocate of isolating the computer to an out of room source when it comes to studio recordings
I'll hopefully be doing that when we move to a bigger house sometime in the future.

danimal
Posts: 734
Joined: Mon Jun 08, 2009 2:41 pm
Location: the ether

Post by danimal » Wed Mar 03, 2010 1:09 pm

someone out here made the point that, depending on the number of memory slots on the motherboard, it can be cheaper to install large amounts of ram with the 1366 socket configuration, because you don't have to pay the premium for 4 gig sticks on an 1156 socket setup.

i figured out how to quiet the i7 920 down while you are recording audio.

you go into the bios and undervolt the heck out of the cpu, then save that configuration in a "undervolted" profile... some or of the all case fans would be hooked up to a fan controller that shuts 'em off completely, or else you could cut into one of the fan wires and run it through an external switch... so the only fan running would be in the power supply, and something like a cp-850 would be super quiet at low wattage use.

when you finish recording, simply reboot and go back to the standard profile, or even an "overclocked" profile, and flip the switches to turn the case fans back on.

of course you'd need a big cpu cooler... the latest noctua, mugen2, etc., something that performed well with very little to no fan use... worst case, this could be a situation where the spcr nexus replacement cpu fan could be used, per their testing.

you could also use an ssd for booting the operating system, and recording the audio with... then copy the recorded audio over to a 7200 rpm drive for editing.

cut one power supply wire to each of the 7200 rpm drives, hook up an external case switch to each of those wires, and you could shut off the drives while recording... of course, i mean that you'd have to turn the drive power switches off while the computer was turned off, then turn 'em back on when you rebooted under the standard or "overclocked" bios profile.

kittle
*Lifetime Patron*
Posts: 336
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2006 4:44 pm
Location: San Jose, CA

Post by kittle » Thu Mar 04, 2010 2:18 pm

One other thing to consider here is building this PC for the future.

What is overkill *now* wont be in a year or 2, and eventually it will be just plain slow.
5 years ago my dual socket system was major overkill for things. but nowdays, after upgrading to 2x dual core Opteron CPUs it can keep up just fine. Is it top of the line and fast? no. but it saved me many thousands in uneeded upgrades.

If you get good underlying hardware - motherboard and CPU, then you can upgrade other stuff as technology progresses.


my comments on components:
Mobo - Asus usually makes good stuff. Watchout for cheap alternatives, normall you get what you pay for, but dont throw money away either.

CPU - Have a look at the i7 930 -- 3ghz seems to be the sweet spot for price/performance trade offs

CPU HS - im partial to the Xigmatek series - have a look & see what you think.

RAM - as much as you can reasonabley afford. "only" 6GB? howabout 12?

bonestonne
Posts: 1839
Joined: Mon Feb 05, 2007 2:10 pm
Location: Northern New Jersey
Contact:

Post by bonestonne » Thu Mar 04, 2010 3:08 pm

considering i do professional audio work, i'm skeptical about this "you need 7200RPM" crap.

Anyone who uses a laptop for DAW work...most (not all, but most) laptops have either 4600 or 5400 RPM drives. I have a 5 year old Powerbook G4 with a 5400RPM drive in it, and i'll be honest, it doesn't feel slow when i use Logic Pro for recording. granted compared to the Raptor in my PC, it feels sluggish.

I think the i7 920 is good enough, i mean, it's down to less than a 400mhz difference.

as for everything else, i'm simply wondering. I have 8gb of RAM in a dual channel setup, and it works great. there are definitely times i wish i had more, and when you have 93% of your RAM used at any given time, it's about time to think of an upgrade. I've been held back by nasty prices for a 16gb upgrade, which would max out my motherboard.

@danimal:

I think you kind of misunderstand the idea of having massive drive space in a DAW. they're scratch disks, having them off at any given moment means you can't use them, which is bad. no other way of putting it.

any reasonably priced SSD simply isn't big enough to hold an OS and be a scratch disk at the same time, given the space for the OS, software, drivers and then RAW audio data....i have an 80gb drive, recording 3 hours (yeah, a measly 3 hours) took up 32gb of space....would need at least a 64gb SSD to do that, but it would start to get too full, too fast.

as for in general again, I think the Mugen 2 would be a contender. I've forgotten about it a little, but i think it's suitable for the job.

space is definitely an issue. I would say if money isn't that tight, a rackmount setup might help, you could get any rack imaginable, even one that has a good door in the front, and you could build custom fan brackets for keeping steady airflow to keep the "mess" cool...which would help you out, because if you get a rack with a door in the front, it would reduce the noise you have. I have a lot of rackmount equipment, but no rack, and i have to say, it's annoying as anything, especially when looking for new equipment.

ces
Posts: 3395
Joined: Thu Feb 04, 2010 6:06 pm
Location: US

Post by ces » Thu Mar 04, 2010 4:14 pm

The Enermax Modu line of PSUs is good. Are they not available in Denmark? They seem like they have good availability in Europe.

danimal
Posts: 734
Joined: Mon Jun 08, 2009 2:41 pm
Location: the ether

Post by danimal » Fri Mar 05, 2010 11:29 am

bonestonne wrote:@danimal:

I think you kind of misunderstand the idea of having massive drive space in a DAW. they're scratch disks, having them off at any given moment means you can't use them, which is bad. no other way of putting it.
i've been doing video and audio editing since the mid '90's, so i'm all for lots of drive space.

a scratch disc would only be needed for editing, which he isn't doing in low-power mode.

the reason that i suggested turning off the power to the big drives is so that he could do his audio recording in the quietest possible environment... he needs to have the pc in the same room as his microphone, so powering down the drives is the only alternative.

when the hard drives are turned off, there is a smaller draw on the power supply, which means that the power supply fan doesn't need to turn as fast.

so he boots up in undervolted mode, with the drives turned off, records to the ssd, then reboots in high-performance mode, all drives turned on, copies the new audio recording over to the big drives, deletes the audio from the ssd, and edits the audio off of the big drives.

this is very doable.

BlueSwan
Posts: 23
Joined: Mon Mar 01, 2010 4:16 am
Location: Denmark

Post by BlueSwan » Sat Mar 06, 2010 2:58 am

ces wrote:The Enermax Modu line of PSUs is good. Are they not available in Denmark? They seem like they have good availability in Europe.
YES! Those are infact available in Denmark! Any particular model recommended?

http://www.edbpriser.dk/Search/Products ... g%7c159%24

BlueSwan
Posts: 23
Joined: Mon Mar 01, 2010 4:16 am
Location: Denmark

Post by BlueSwan » Sat Mar 06, 2010 3:02 am

bonestonne wrote:considering i do professional audio work, i'm skeptical about this "you need 7200RPM" crap.
Well, I would certainly love to drop the noisy 7200 rpm drives. Thanks for the input!

Honestly right now I'm disllusioned with the whole "screaching motherboard" issue I've been hearing about, especially concerning Gigabyte MB's. The Asus MoBo I was looking at apparently doesn't feature TI firewire chipset, although I guess I could buy a seperate PCI-e TI firewire insert card.
as for everything else, i'm simply wondering. I have 8gb of RAM in a dual channel setup, and it works great. there are definitely times i wish i had more, and when you have 93% of your RAM used at any given time, it's about time to think of an upgrade. I've been held back by nasty prices for a 16gb upgrade, which would max out my motherboard.
Money isn't a huge issue at all. I just figured that 6GB would be plenty given that I've been working with 2GB for years with little trouble - my trouble is rather due to limited CPU power.

ces
Posts: 3395
Joined: Thu Feb 04, 2010 6:06 pm
Location: US

Post by ces » Sat Mar 06, 2010 9:04 am

Any of the Enermax MODU82 PSU's are good. Take a look at the SPCR review on the 625 watt one.

The Pro series and the MODU82 series are the same except the Pro series is not modular. But it is the same electronics.

You can't go wrong with them, except they are being replaced with a new and improved series. Though the new and improved series costs a lot more. So depending on your finances you should hurry up and get the old model or wait and pay more for the new model.

ces
Posts: 3395
Joined: Thu Feb 04, 2010 6:06 pm
Location: US

Post by ces » Sat Mar 06, 2010 9:05 am

BlueSwan

Why don't you collect and summarize all the info you have received into a single message?

BlueSwan
Posts: 23
Joined: Mon Mar 01, 2010 4:16 am
Location: Denmark

Post by BlueSwan » Sat Mar 06, 2010 10:46 pm

ces wrote:Any of the Enermax MODU82 PSU's are good. Take a look at the SPCR review on the 625 watt one.

The Pro series and the MODU82 series are the same except the Pro series is not modular. But it is the same electronics.

You can't go wrong with them, except they are being replaced with a new and improved series. Though the new and improved series costs a lot more. So depending on your finances you should hurry up and get the old model or wait and pay more for the new model.
I definitely want a modular one. It's rather expensive though. About 40% more expensive than the Antec CP-850.
Why don't you collect and summarize all the info you have received into a single message?
Yeah, I'll probably edit the original message later today! :)

Flanker
Posts: 129
Joined: Wed Jan 27, 2010 8:14 pm
Location: New Zealand

Post by Flanker » Sat Mar 06, 2010 11:50 pm

have you considered the antec signature series?

BlueSwan
Posts: 23
Joined: Mon Mar 01, 2010 4:16 am
Location: Denmark

Post by BlueSwan » Sun Mar 07, 2010 1:24 am

Flanker wrote:have you considered the antec signature series?
It is amazingly expensive (at least in Denmark). I would need to hear some very good arguments as to why I should pick it over the CP-850.

Parappaman
Posts: 419
Joined: Mon Aug 31, 2009 12:30 am
Location: Italy

Post by Parappaman » Sun Mar 07, 2010 2:54 am

Can't understand why so many people are trying to get you off the CP. At least I was recommending something cheaper and lower wattage, not those insanely powerful and expensive units.
It's an amazing PSU, both in terms of performance and noise! Efficiency alone is not the way to judge a power supply: it might not be the best in that field, but offers voltage stability and ripple suppression that are second to none. And those things might be very important in audio recording, as lower ripple means lower electric noise and static. :wink:

BlueSwan
Posts: 23
Joined: Mon Mar 01, 2010 4:16 am
Location: Denmark

Post by BlueSwan » Sun Mar 07, 2010 3:42 am

Parappaman wrote:Can't understand why so many people are trying to get you off the CP. At least I was recommending something cheaper and lower wattage, not those insanely powerful and expensive units.
It's an amazing PSU, both in terms of performance and noise! Efficiency alone is not the way to judge a power supply: it might not be the best in that field, but offers voltage stability and ripple suppression that are second to none. And those things might be very important in audio recording, as lower ripple means lower electric noise and static. :wink:
Sounds good. So far I'm keeping it, I think.

BTW, I just edited the first post.

bonestonne
Posts: 1839
Joined: Mon Feb 05, 2007 2:10 pm
Location: Northern New Jersey
Contact:

Post by bonestonne » Sun Mar 07, 2010 9:03 am

Here's some food for thought, you mentioned the FW chipsets (which i've seen as a growing issue with DAWs lately, so I'm wondering what units you're running?

I've actually done limited testing with other chipsets, and found that some Belkin 3 port cards work well with the Agere chipsets. My Powerbook G4 has a TI, and my "main" FW PCI card is TI based, but the Agere performed equally, with no problems.

It's also been found that some VIA FW chipsets are good as well, but I don't know exactly which ones offhand.

I think your hardware list is becoming more solid, mostly down to the hard drives at this point.

xan_user
*Lifetime Patron*
Posts: 2269
Joined: Sun May 21, 2006 9:09 am
Location: Northern California.

Re: Help with new 920 system that needs to be silent!

Post by xan_user » Sun Mar 07, 2010 9:24 am

Build looks like it will be nice.

-didn't see this answered,
BlueSwan wrote: OS: Windows 7 Professional, 64 bit[I haven't actually researched the difference between pro and ultimate. I currently use XP but I definitely want to make the switch to a 64 bit version of Win 7.]
pro7 vs ultimate7= bitlocker encryption and support for 35 languages.

BlueSwan
Posts: 23
Joined: Mon Mar 01, 2010 4:16 am
Location: Denmark

Post by BlueSwan » Sun Mar 07, 2010 12:29 pm

bonestonne wrote:Here's some food for thought, you mentioned the FW chipsets (which i've seen as a growing issue with DAWs lately, so I'm wondering what units you're running?

I've actually done limited testing with other chipsets, and found that some Belkin 3 port cards work well with the Agere chipsets. My Powerbook G4 has a TI, and my "main" FW PCI card is TI based, but the Agere performed equally, with no problems.

It's also been found that some VIA FW chipsets are good as well, but I don't know exactly which ones offhand.

I think your hardware list is becoming more solid, mostly down to the hard drives at this point.
I use an RME Fireface 800. I currently have a Gigabyte board with TI chipset and this works flawlessly. But as I stated I'm reluctant towards getting a new Gigabyte board given the issues with coil whine.

Post Reply