The (new) Official PC building thread!

I just bought 2 Samsung 500's at Newegg for 114.00ea.Just a mon old,
of all my HDD they run the coolest according to everest.They pretty much stay consistent at 26c 79F,where as all my other drives are frm 29c 84F to 38c 100F.(2-Hitachi,2-Maxtor,1-WD all 250's)..I've replaced the WD twice under warranty both times lost all my Data.The Hitachis are Deckstar & on occassion on re-boot loose the drive letter,have to run their test Disc & re-boot again to re-establish drv letter.If the Samsung hold up as well as their other products..I feel they could end up being the better bang for the buck...Just my opinion

 

Wow youve had it even worse with hard disks than I have.

 

Thanks for the input rick!

I haven't made up my mind completely yet but it seems the Seagates are pulling me their way right now. If I get some more favorable votes for the Samsungs I may have to look at them too. I do like the temps you were talking about rick, nice and cool.

....gm

 

Ya !Well many moons ago you could depend on name brands.But nowadays it seem like ya just taken a shot in the dark..Believe it or not G E & RCA were top of the line in consumer products [50's,60's,TV's,Radios,Appliances,etc]
But all kiddin aside I bought Samsung [VCR 49.00]the week they came on the market,a friend of mine bought a top of the line[JVC] for 199.00,BIGGER,PRETTIER.But my Samsung had the same bells & whistles,also better picture.From that point on I bought pretty much just Samsung.Just hope HDD are the same..[Like I said..Pig in a Poke].Ya just don't know
Oh Ya he took back his JVC & Bought Samsung

 

ive been looking around at HDD's i dont remember what site i was at but i thought i seen a 1TB hard drive. was i right or am i just seeing things?

 

your right...

http://www.buy.com/prod/lacie-1tb-b...8&s_kwcid=&dcaid=17888&adid=17888&dcaid=17888

$374.99

http://www.nextag.com/1tb-hard-drive/search-html

some more

 

Well what I've ended up doing is Buying by warranty[Longer is better] If a product is priced right,I'll buy the extended warranty for the 20 or 30 bucks
I think I'll try the lacies next at CompUSA..They go on sale pretty regular

 

LaCie drives from what I can gather use Hitachi Deskstar drives, so I'm unsure of their long term performance. You can however buy a 1000GB 3.5" drive from Hitachi now, providing you have a well cooled case, they get hot!

 

I will investigate further,B4 Buying.My computers don't seem to like Hitachi Deckstar.I'll give these Samsung a little longer try.I guess I'll go with whoever has the longest warranty.
I'm building 2 more computers so I'll need 4 more HDDs

 

At the moment Samsung are who I go with since, assuming you have a well built case, they're the quietest.

 

I go with the Seagates at the moment in Sata drives. The Seagate ST3160811AS 160GB in my E4300 was thrown over the fence by UPS and landed about 30 feet into the yard. Completely smashed the corner of the box and has worked without problem for over a year now. So far I've bought an even dozen of that model and had 1 failure, the one I shipped to Chicago failed after a few months. I think it may have been damaged in shipping.

Before that I was using Maxtor 8,9 and 10 Diamond Plus ATAs with no problems. I did get one that was DOA, but thankfully I bought it on sale at Best Buy so I was able to take it back to the store and return it for an exchange the same day.

The oldest living/breathing drive I own is in my Dell 420 Workstation, an Hitachi 10,000 rpm 37GB SCSI, which will turn 7 in a couple of weeks!

A quick word about fan noise! Noise is a subjective thing. Some people want as silent a system as possible (hi Sam!). Most people are willing to put up with a little more noise to have a cooler running computer. I have a Silverstone FM121 120mm as a rear case fan running at 1400 rpm. At 2400 rpm it would drive you very quickly out of the room. I also have a Silverstone FM83 80mm side exhaust fan that runs at 1300 rpm. At it's top speed of 3600 rpm, again just the vibration would drive anybody crazy. At the low speeds I run both of these, they move about 100 cfm of air, very quietly and do an excellent job of cooling my PC. I just went through a series of tests on another Forum, and left the fans at my normal speeds. The last of those tests, running OCCT, saw 62C for my CPU and 38C for the chipset, Max! My E4300 is overclocked 78% at 3.2GHz, my memory about 11% at 890Mhz and my 7600GT is running at 650/1600, up from 570/1450. I'm happy to say that the tests went well with no problems. My CPU fan, which normally runs below 1000 rpm under PWM control from the MB got into the 2200-2300 range while running OCCT. and the fans remain more than quiet enough for me. Since there are a total of 7 fans running inside my case, counting the 3000 rpm/6 cfm 40mm Silenex I put on the NB heatsink, the PS 120mm fan which is temperature controlled, the 7600GT which runs at max speed and the stock Cooler Master 80mm front intake fan at max speed, I consider it very quiet and my CPU and MB temps this minute are 29C/37C in a 27C room, and it all works well for me! I sit less than 3" away, with my computer on my desktop on the right, and the small amount of noise I do hear is not in the least bit annoying. Much quieter than the stock 120mm and 80mm fans I had before! I highly recommend the Silverstones as you will never need the top speed (and noise) and at the reasonable speeds I run them at they move a huge amount of air and do a great job of ventilating the case with a minimal amount of noise!

Clock On,
theone ;-)

 

Thanks theone!! Your input is well heeded and respected. I've gotten plenty of "favorable" votes for the Seagates. Guess they are gonna go in the next build for me.

...gm

 

Thanks Greensman,
I think the 160 is a reasonable size and the temps stay right at MB temps. Higher capacities than that tend to run a bit warmer, and the price is good!

Best Regards,
theone

 

@theonejrs

where did you get these Silverstone fans at?

 

I believe svc.com carries them...I believe they are on sale right now for $15...I don't know where theonejrs got his...

 

herrick & Lp531,

I got them from Newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811999344

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835220023

Please take note that the FM83 only has the flange for screws on one side. You will need longer screws it you want to use it as an intake. I wanted both to be exhausts as I have an air vent just below the fan for video card cooling. Averages around 50c with the overclock!

The 120mm has a flange on both sides!

Best Regards,
theone ;-)

 

maybe I'm just lucky but I've yet to have a WD hdd fail. mine is at 27 C right now and quiet as a mouse. like theone, no more maxtor hdd's for me. although the one I have now hasn't failed, it is 3 C hotter just idling than the WD and is noisy.

 

Hello Mort81!!

I agree about the WD HDD's. I have 3 of them now that work like a champ, 1 Maxtor that is a little noisy but she's a good-un and an OLD IBM deskstar that is still working. LOL. After 6+ years of service it still works like the first day I bought it. LOL.

I just wanted to get some ideas and feedback from the members that have USED the larger drives and see what they like and what works well. I think the Seagates have me for now but I'm not sold yet.

...gm

 

@ theonejrs

thanks...

 

You guys still got time for a hardware newb with a socket am2 motherboard, and amd athlon x 2 4200+ processor, and RAM and harddrive and disc drives on their way?

Cause i have no idea how to hook all this stuff up.

I have connected the processor and the fan to the motherboard, and the RAMs easy enough. But the harddrive and disc drives and things i might need a little help with...