The (new) Official PC building thread!

on the gigabyte boards mainly the GA-P35C-DS3R how do you tell what version you got?


lets see if i can answer my own question...lol

in the bios??????

 

cincyrob,

It's in white lettering, usually on the lower left side of the motherboard as you are looking at the computer with the side cover off!

Fred,

Do yourself a big favor then and replace the 4 stock case fans with 4 of these babies.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835220014
Comes in silver as well for $1 less???
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811999344

You can cut the fan speed down which greatly reduces noise and still have better airflow. Each comes with it's own controller. I've got one as my rear case fan and I run it at 1400 rpm. It still moves about 70 cfm and is very quiet doing it. Way better than the stock Cooler Master fans that came with the case, and a whole lot quieter. With 4 fans in the Cosmos case you like, you can probably runn them even slower and quieter than mine! Now why do I know I'll be catching it from the "Silent PC" crowd! LOL!! I'll put it this way, They are the best fans I ever used. Nothing else comes close to matching the performance at low RPMs! They move more air at 800 rpm than the stock Cooler Master case fans do at full speed!

I drilled out a blank plastic panel and mounted the tiny little potentiometers in my top 5.25 bay. Just be sure to see that the knob will fit with the door closed like it does on mine. Another option would be to drill a case slot blank (That covers unused case slots, shaped like an L) and put it in an unoccupied slot!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Alright so I just installed Windows XP SP3. The system feels more responsive overall and they are no hangups. I get a few more frames per second on Crysis on High.

Overall VERY good as I was just expecting security and bug fixes.

 

@ Fred....
L@@K at these and see what you think buddy. I really like the Cooler master cases. (I've got 3) The deal on the Evo 830 is HARD to beat....

That deal at Tiger looks pretty good to. Right now the Q6600 is about $280-$300 so you're getting a mobo and good RAM for less than $100. NOT a bad deal for sure. Like Russ I don't know anything about XFX mobos but I have a friend that works at a computer shop and he seems to like them.

This fan isn't a bad fan either. Like most you can't run it at full bore and expect QUIET!! @ little sammy.....hehehe...

This fan ... decent air flow and NO noise....sam would love this baby!!!

Thermaltake Silent Cat $6.99 (WOW!!)

OK Fred is your head spinning yet??? LOL. Just remember you asked and WE SHALL GIVE.........Mwuahahahahahaaaaa!!!

If you're serious about buying something now WE'LL provide the links as long as you can handle the clicking...

btw Fred the Stacker 810 is kinda heavy like the Thermaltake FULL tower so take that into consideration. The Evo 830 is aluminum and quite a bit lighter!! @40 lbs compared to 30 lbs....

....gm

 

greensman,
The Silent Cat is pretty good, but it can't match the Silverstone in airflow at the same RPM! The Cooler Master would essentially be the same thing, and the Scythe at just over 33 cfm just doesn't have the airflow. Besides that, all of them are more expensive then the Silverstones! 4 fans of that caliber for $60 is going to be tough to beat! The 9 bladed Cooler Master equals the "Stones" performance, so why spend $10 more for it? I've lived with my two Silverstones for a good while now, and at the speeds I run them (800 and 1400), they are the quietest fans in the case along with the Freezer 7! They have actually gotten quieter after the ball bearings bedded in! I wouldn't buy anything else but Silverstones unless I was to find something better, I've tried a bunch of different fans, and the Silverstones are the best!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Russ you have me confused... :S The Cooler Master fans I linked to where $11.99 each and if you purchased 4 of them plus shipping it would be a few pennies under $56. NOW the Silverstones would be about $71 for 4 delivered. You did check out the link from SVC?? right?

Remember I'm a n00b when it comes to some of this stuff and I have a couple of the CM fans waiting to put into this new system as soon as my frikkin thermal paste gets here. I'm blaming docTY for this wait. hehehe.

awaiting retort!! j/k buddy, you know me.....

....gm

 

greensman,
I know they are on sale for $11.99, but I was going by the regular price as none of the others are on sale right now. The Silverstones can be had for about the same price when they are on sale too!

As far as the Thermaltake Silent Cat, Thermaltake flat out lies about their noise levels when it comes to fans! After the disappointing noise levels of the Thunderblade, I wouldn't buy any fan they make ever again! I have a long memory, and I don't like being lied to! Sam will tell you, Thermaltake Lies about the sound levels of their fans!

As for the Silverstones, I sit about 3 feet from one of them and maybe another 8" more from the other. I've measured their airflow at reduced RPMs and I haven't found anything that can equal their airflow at any given RPM. At 1400 RPM the 120 case fan produces 73 CFM. the 80 side cover fan produces 33 CFM at 800 RPM. Both are exhausts so it's not too hard to believe that I have over 100 CFM of airflow going through my case. I've loved these fans since I installed the first 120 as a case fan. I had some theories I wanted to try out and so I bought the 80 and mounted it on the side cover running at 800 RPM.

So far I've had two different systems in this case. With the E4300 on a GA-965P-DS3 I had temps so low they were called into question on another forum. I did everything they asked of me to prove my temps, even running the required tests twice because I had hidden a window I should have kept open for refrence and it turned out to be exactly as I said it was to begin with. I can't do much about the motherboard temp as the P35 chipset runs hotter than the 965P did but my temps are still very low. I've been running this setup for about 8 months now and have had no cooling or noise/vibration issues. I recommend the Silverstones based on the flawless performance I've gotten with the, the superior cooling of my case and the overall quietness at the speeds I run them at. My hearing hasn't gone to hell like most people my age in case you are wondering, in fact my hearing is better than most peoples is in their 20s. I can hear all the way to almost 22,000 cycles so if you are thinking that at my age I might not be able to hear noises that well, forget it! LOL!!

You shouldn't blame DocTY for the shortage of AS5! You should blame NuckNFuts! He's the one doing all the building! LOL!! Just kidding Nuck!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Abuzar: Wow, I'm definitely trying it!
Greensman: No noise? Do you think I'm a mug? It'as thermaltake. No noise = you're not deafened. The Silent Cat at full speed is as loud as the S-Flex Fast, which even in Russ' ears is too noisy. Thermaltake fans are crap for silence, always have been.
The FM121s are useless for silence, but for an overall low noise level they're pretty good. If you want truly quiet computing though, you want these
http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/std/sku=nexus120mm
Incredibly quiet - don't push lots of air, but what they do put out is perfectly sufficient to cool any gaming PC if the case is designed right. The noise level even satisfies silentPC enthusiasts like me - just!

As a comparison:
Nexus at full speed, 1000rpm: 45CFM, 22dB
Scythe at full speed, 1600rpm: 70CFM, 31dB
SilentCat at full speed, 1600rpm: 55CFM, 32dB
Silverstone at 1400rpm: 70CFM, 32dB
Silverstone at 1600rpm: 80CFM, 36dB
Silverstone at full speed, 2200rpm: 110CFM, 48dB

 

Right, im a kind of a demanding person. On my new rig ill prob have the following running at once........

Ulead Movie Studio Pro 8, folding@home, Azureus/Utorrent, MSN and VLC media player listening to music, IRC chat and a program to encode DVD's.

Do i need to get a q6600 or a e6750?

I really need the chip to run for about 2-3 years on a decent oc.

On one hand i know my e6750 would be ok but then again more and more stuff is becoming compatible with quad. Ill be using 800mhz Corsair XMS2 RAM btw.

 

if all that lot will be running at once, get a Quad core. I don't usually recommend them but then not many people edit video and fold at the same time! The Q6600 will be far superior to the E6750 in that environment. You can probably overclock it to around 3Ghz before you have to worry about voltage. As long as you don't increase the voltage very much, you don't have to worry about longevity of the CPU.

 

@sam,
Went to the Nexus website to look for other venders that offered the SAME fan but in another color. If you were a Red Raider you would understand that anything orange is BAD!!! lol.

Anyway... from what I read the Nexus Real Silent Case Fan puts out about 37 CFM at 23 dB (1000 rpm) and the CM Dual Ball Silent Fan puts out about 35 CFM at 17 dB (800 rpm). The Scythe is even quieter (9 dB) at just about the same CFM (34). I won't comment on the Thermaltakes cause I kinda agree.

I'll let Russ have fun with the Silverstones. I know nothing about them and don't want to step on anyones toes about how they perform since he (russ) has already gone over them. hehehe. ;P

The Silerstone and CoolerMaster are eerily familiar.

....gm

 

Ah, but the difference with the nexus fans is that the specs are actually true. Scythe, Coolermaster, Thermaltake, and to an extent even Silverstone lie about the capabilities of their products. The 9dB Scythe is actually around the 20dB mark, and pushes 32CFM versus the Nexus' 45. If you want to learn more about fans' actual ratings, http://www.silentpcreview.com

 

I went there and maybe I don't know how to navigate their website but I couldn't find a few of the fans that we have been looking at or better yet talking about. I understand they do silent fans and such but how bout looking at some other fans besides the 3-4 THAT THEY LIKE!!

Where are you getting the CFM readings for the Scythe and Nexus? NOT the website I take it. Why would the fan makers website POST lies about the product they make or distribute? It makes no GOOD business sense... Maybe they test a few and do an "average" or take the "lowest" value and post that but to OUTRIGHT lie is BAD business!! Like you don't know already know that.

I also know (understand) the tests and measurements are probably taken differently than the other company so that could influence the "results" as well but how do you set a "standard" in an industry that has so many players vying for so many different products??

I give way to the fact that you know much more about fans than I do, but as I've said before I don't really want to get involved with that research cause I already do enough on CRAP that most of you could care less about. lol. You know GROWING grass!!!

Again awaiting retort!!

.....gm

 

Well put it this way. The Scythe fan that's puportedly 9dB is audible, clearly audible. Only in a quiet room, but audible. From what I remember, the human ear can't identify noises below around 15dB. If I run my Scythe fan at 800rpm and the Nexus fan at 800rpm they make the same amount of noise. Common sense therefore tells me that at 1000rpm they'd both produce either the 22dB of the Nexus, or around 12dB if Scythe are to be believed. Most of the fans I've seen at that speed have reported to be between 16 and 23dB, so 12? Unlikely methinks.
Through looking at loads of different specifications the general trend seems to be:
800rpm: c. 20dB
1000rpm: c. 23dB
1200rpm: c. 25dB
1600rpm: c. 32dB
2000rpm: c. 36dB

Thermaltake's 2000rpm fans say they're 21dB. So why then are they audible from the next room with the door shut?

 

Oh god the fan discussion is starting again!

As far as performance/sound ratio goes the Scythe seems to be the best.

 

Well, none of my case fans are audible at all. It's a question of "how much air will they push before I can hear them" - in the case of the FM121s it's unfortunately pretty much none, as they're clearly audible at their minimum speed on the controller, and even down as low as 600rpm. I can push 750 out of my Scythes and Nexus fan before I hear a whisper. Now if only I had a quieter Power supply fan...

 

I just like to PUSH his buttons. Someday he'll figure that out.

Thanks for your input. I've already got 5-6 fans waiting for me to start this new build. My thermal paste is slated to come in today so I'll prolly start my new build this evening and have it up and running tomorrow me hopes!!! I can't wait. Got goosebumps thinking about it. hehehee.

btw it's not really a discussion on the best fan it's about the companies willingness to lie about their fans and products to make themselves look better and the product that they offer as well. ;P I still think each company should have to go by a "standard" and follow it to a T!!

...gm

 

Yep, of all the companies I use, I like Nexus' ethic as they don't overblow their products that much and usually give accurate technical info about the stuff they make. Plus, it's good quality stuff too.
Zalman aren't too bad at that either if I'm honest, but they are getting a bit usurped in the top notch cooling department...

 

So you are saying we should have a standard of fan quality/speed/sound that all manufacturers should abide by?

That would lead to fair competition in the market...........guess that's out of the window.

 

sammorris,

You and I both know as far as the Silverstones go those figures are rubbish. What did they do, test them on the sidewalk in NYC, Paris or London during rush hour? LOL!! As you know, sound levels are a big part of what I do for a living. As you can well imagine just the pitch at 400,000+ rpm would drive you crazy and damage your hearing over a prolonged period of time. We allow a maximum of 70dBA unless the Manufacturer's specs are higher (83 dBA is the highest) in order for a turbine to go out the door, and every one is tested for sound level, and the results go into the computer for each and every turbine made, matched to it's serial number.

The sound levels of the Silverstone FM-121 as tested in the Anechoic chamber at my office are as follows:

800 rpm: 20.9 dBA @36 cfm
1400 rpm: 24.8 dBA @73 cfm
1600 rpm: 26.3 dBA @82 cfm
2400 rpm (full speed): 41.3 dBA @108 cfm

He also sent me the results on the Thunderblade as well! LOL!! Try not to laugh too hard!

2000 rpm: 32.7 dBA @74 cfm! That's a far cry from Thermaltake's claimed 21 dBA!

The Anechoic Chamber used is rather large as sound chambers go. It was specifically designed for it's application and is aprox a 3' cube and uses Custom sound measuring hardware and software from Monitor Instruments. A 3 foot chamber may seem like overkill for something as small as a Dental Handpiece but the reason for the large size is simple. You are trying to measure the sound in a typical operatory so it has to be done in an approximate scale for the results to be valid.

The reason the tests were done in the first place was because of the Auto-Cad computer they use there. It had 4 Thunderblades in it and was driving people crazy with all the noise. All I know about the computer is that it's an AMD 64x2 Opteron 185 on an Asus SLI motherboard with 2 Hi-End ATi video cards in a Thermaltake case, that runs 24/7, and it can get pretty warm! The Thunderblades kept it cool enough but as you can well imagine, it was pretty loud running all 4 fans at full chat! Because of all the computer work I do, they asked me to recommend better fans for the case, and I suggested the FM-121s at 1400-1600 rpm which would produce the same airflow as the Thunderblades but with reduced noise. I had no idea that they had gone ahead and tested the fans or even replaced them until this morning when I called and asked the engineer if he would test mine for me and he e-mailed me the above results. After thorough testing they bought 4 FM-121s to replace the Thunderblades and run all 4 of them at 1400 rpm and are very pleased with the results!

Sound readings are not exponential, dBa does not scale the way a harmonic pitch does, so doubling the speed does not double the noise, but does double the pitch. There are many other considerations, such as the material it's mounted on, blade design, motor design and bearings, harmonics, back wash caused by back pressure where the restriction of the airflow by the holes in the case cause some air to bounce back and be hit by the fan blades and even the noise of the airflow through the grille holes. All of their case grilles have been cut out to eliminate the noise of the air going through the grille holes and replaced by external circular "wire" grilles which reduced the airflow noise considerably!

If you remember, you and I had a discussion a while back as to how much noise we thought my fan made at 1400 rpm and I thought it was about 22-23 dba and I believe you thought closer to 30 dBa. Turns out I was pretty close! The tests also show that Silverstone was being more honest than most, as the tests show 20.9 to 41.3 dBa from 800 rpm to 2400 rpm while they advertise 17-39.5 dBa. A lot more honest than either Thermaltake or Silenx, that's for sure! ROFLMAO!!

Also, bear in mind that there's a lot of difference caused by outside factors between how much noise a bare fan running inside an Anechoic Chamber makes compared to one installed in a case. That's why I hate those Silicone fan mounts as while the noise level does drop slightly, the vibration you feel on the case goes up. I would almost bet that those results would be different in an Aluminum case. With my fans bolted securely to the steel case, the vibration, in spite of all 7 fans running is barely able to be felt with your fingers!

You do have to consider the Ambient noise level when making that statement. That's why you can only hear the fan in a very quiet room. Mid-day in a large city, you wouldn't hardly notice most fans as it's sound is wiped out by the Ambient noise around it!

@abuzar1,

Since I'm the only one here with access to the proper sound and airflow measuring equipment, it's my duty to pass this information on so that others may benefit from it!

You are also dead wrong about the Performance/sound ratio of the Scythe! It makes more noise and moves considerably less air than the Silverstones do at 1400 rpm!

Best Regards,
Russ