The Official PC building thread -3rd Edition

Oman7,
They have been around for a long time. They first saw use in the Heating and AC industry to detect air leaks in Ventilation systems in Hotels and other large buildings. The first one I ever saw was an attachment to a Simpson VOM. The real expansive ones, even show the distance, useful for creating a map of places needing repairs, using the duct work blueprints from the building.

Russ

 

Well. I slapped my $22 dollar Board & Cpu combo together last night in it's pretty new case from micro center for $20 buck also nothing special just something for my niece she just wanted some real cheap.I had the board & cpu just laying around anyway it beats a blank.I used a few old parts just laying around as well a hard drive WD160 & a dvdrom and burner everything is new did some testing and some bumping.lol





impressed about the little celeron



come to find you cant get at the present something came up so it's on the block first come first serve for $200 the Os alone is worth 200 Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit



this board will and can take 800 ram also but will only handle the max cpu of the E7600 it's 1066fsb board but you see. i got it running at 1095 with just a low end Celeron chip singel core at that. I do like the case for something simple to slap together and the lighting that's mixed in with the power lighting and Hdd lighting is nice.A bunch of people was getting this case for a simple build yesterday and. I find nothing wrong with that for $20 bucks and it cools well as you can see a Gigabyte case housing at Biostar board...liking it

 

I'm gonna be modifying my brothers HTPC this week, and am wondering if the following is the best 80mm fan that can be had, for low noise, and high CFM. noise seems to be the main factor for him. But I don't want to simply sacrifice air flow, to go easier on the ears LOL!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835220024
The following HTPC is what I'm working with:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811121027
I'm strongly considering SOMEHOW modifying the top area, to support a 120mm 1200rpm Scythe to intake air, and go with a super quiet 80mm exhaust. But I would prefer not have to modify, if there is an 80mm exhaust fan that can do the job, without making the ears suffer LOL!
I guess the main question is, What would you do?

 

Oman7,
No offense to your brother, but that's a poorly designed case, in terms of airflow. The Silverstone will not work in that case either, as it's a 92mm fan on an 80mm frame. It doesn't fit in the space provided by the case, because the fan needs to be flat in order to fit the case. There's no room for the round part to fit. Unfortunately the front fan is an exhaust, so the noise will be right out the front of the case. Needing a true 80mm fan limits the airflow to about 32 CFM or so, at about 2500 rpm. The stones move the air they do, only because of the 92mm blade. Don't even believe Evercool or Silenx specs for their dBA ratings, because they flat lie!. He would be far better off with a case that can handle at least a 92mm fan, then you could install one of these.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835220023

I've used both it and the one you posted, and this one is quieter moving the same amount of air at a lower rpm. Noise wise, they are reasonably quiet up to about 1500-1600 rpm. The case severely limits what you can use for a CPU cooler as well, being just under 4" tall. You should be able to use the 4 pipe cooler that came with your 965, as it should be able to fit in that case. I hope he's not looking to overclock it either, because there won't be enough airflow to adequately handle the heat.

Best Regards,
Russ

 

The amount of airflow you think you need, and the amount of airflow you actually need are quite different. A single 80mm 1500rpm fan would be plenty sufficient for an HTPC.
These are pretty quiet, in good vibration-free cases at least:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835610004

 

Sam,
The problem is the inlet area vs the outlet area. As you look at the case head on there are two vents, one on the top right near the right rear, and one on the right side, near the rear of the case. The strongest 1500 rpm fan I could find was a Scythe S-Flex, at 21.5 cfm.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185100

I also built a stock AMD Brisbane 5200+ using a Gigabyte MA78LM-S2H in this exact case. It was supplied by the customer, as I never would have recommended it to anyone. In fact, Kevin gave me the cooler from his Phenom II 940BE for this build. The stock cooler ran too hot, idling in the 49-50C range. The 4 pipe cooler knocked that down to the low to mid 40s, but I wasn't entirely happy with the temps, at all. I picked the Scythe over the Nexus because it had a quieter blade design, moved a little more air, and could be controlled by the motherboard with a long enough wire on it to reach the fan header. While there were some 80mm fans in the 32 cfm range, all were far too loud to even consider. The Silverstone would have been great, and I would have bought it, until Shaff pointed out to me that it wouldn't fit in the space provided.

Best Regards,
Russ

 

No stock of the S-Flex right now though, and 20.2CFM isn't a lot different from 21.5CFM. Having personally tested the 80mm Nexus, when it's not attached to anything that picks up vibrations it's very quiet. In something very sensitive to vibrations though, probably not the best choice. Generally the highest fan speeds that are in the 'very quiet' range are up to about 1600rpm at 80mm, 1100rpm at 120mm and 900rpm at 140mm. Beyond that it's just quiet. Any 80mm fan capable of pushing as much as 32CFM is going to be too noisy. You don't need that much airflow for a basic HTPC, nowhere near it.
My server runs as an HTPC, and in addition to having no fan at all on the CPU cooler, it also has 13 hard drives to cool, as well as [albeit at idle] quite a large graphics card. The exhaust fans are one 120mm and two 80mm fans, the 120 runs typically around 350-400rpm and the 80s about 500rpm. There's a front 120mm at 1100, but it, along with the pair of 80s, are solely responsible for the PSU and 9 of the 13 hard drives. The main CPU area has the front bay fan from the silverstone bay [which I want to reduce in speed] and the 400rpm 120 at the back. CPU idles below 40C, doesn't load much into the 50s if I remember rightly.

 

When I bought the HTPC case, airflow was not the most important factor. Looks and price were. I figured I could deal with the little things, e.g. airflow. And since it resides beneath a stereo receiver, and only has maybe a ½" between them, I'm concerned about enough airflow getting in. It's location is non negotiable...
My brother loves the HTPC. I gave him either 2 or 3 choices, he chose the HEC HTPC. The price was right, the looks were sharp. Unfortunate about the airflow, but I think most HTPC's in its price range suffer from SOMETHING LOL!
Sam, thanks for the recommendation. That Nexus fan looks very quiet! I think I'll go with that one, and see how temps look before and after.
Russ, the 965 cooler fan, is insane to say the least! I've seen it hit well over 5,000Rpms! While I think the 965 cooler could cool the Athlon 5200, the fan would probably get too loud at times. And no. He doesn't do overclocking. That board can't even do overclocking. Smoothest board I own though (MSI K9N6SGM-V) Virtually flawless, unlike the gigabyte boards

 

Oman7,
Is this the computer that's getting your old 940? Given the small amount of room, what do you plan to use as a cooler?

I don't understand why you say that about the Gigabyte boards. For all but the lowest price computers, I use either of these Gigabyte motherboards. Smooth as glass and virtually trouble free. The MA-785GM-US2H, is the one Fred did his build with. I'm using one for my current build, for a friend up in Massachusetts. HD 4200 Graphics, and the same Realtek ALC889A audio as my 790x. I did 23 (I think) builds with this board in the past year, and a number of others with the Gigabyte MA78LM-S2H. No problems or failures. In fact the only problems I've had with Gigabyte motherboards in the last 15 months, have been with my own computer, some of which was my own fault! LOL!!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128408

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128394

For inexpensive stock builds, the Foxconn M61PNV I have in Oxi can't be beat for the $44 price, but it looks like there's a big rush to DDR3, so it's days are numbered.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813186155&Tpk=m61pmv

It can handle CPUs up to 95w, so it's pretty ideal for a low cost Athlon IIx4 630 Quad build.

Best Regards,
Russ

 

I should have explained further. The MSI board currently housed in that case, is an AM2 board. It can NOT support the 940. In fact, it would probably be pointless to put an original phenom in there. If it even supports it. At the time of release, MSI's homepage would say supported one day, and not the next. They couldn't make up their mind whether to support it or not! Which is fine. The 5200 is a solid performer for that board.
Gigabyte boards are wonderful boards. Every one that I have bought, performs without hitch. The Cooler Master haf932 is another story. The front usb ports are irritating to say the least. One day, I'll open it up and correct the problem. I compare the gigabyte boards to the MSI, because the MSI does several things faster than the gigabyte boards. Still not sure why yet. But windows 7 installs in half the time, flash drives are acknowledged 10X faster. It's a shame that board is severely outdated

 

Oman7,
The Foxconn M61PMV is the same way as far as installing the OS, booting up, flash drives, etc! The basic nVidia 430 chipset motherboard with 6100 or 6150 graphics is probably one of the best low priced motherboards to have ever graced the Planet. I'm pretty sure that the current Foxconn I have will be the last of it's kind though. The push is on to obsolete DDR2. DDR3 is becoming cheaper than DDR2, and most DDR2 memory costs more than twice what the same memory cost only 15 months ago.

This last revision motherboard I have has 4 Sata 3.0GB/s ports, rather than the two of the originals. These boards found their way into computers from Dell, HP, Compaq, eMachine, Gateway and Asus, under all sorts of brand names, with most of the generics being made by foxconn and MSI. They were fast because of their simplicity, with no HD graphics, or HD Sound. They are good for about 3 years of hard use, before the Caps give up, and the latest ones can handle any 95w or less AMD Chip. While the original AGP models only addressed 2GB of 333/400 DDR memory, the newest ones can address 4GB of 667/800/1066 DDR2 memory. That they have survived from AGP to PCIE with very few changes, is a testament to it's simple, basic design. As they say, speed comes in many flavors! It's impressive to watch how fast one boots up!

Russ

 

That MSI of mine is running 4Gb of memory

 

Came across this HD 4670 video card and I couldn't turn it down for the price. $59.99 with a $10 MIR and free shipping. $49.99 seems like a good deal to me! I'm going to put it in my computer to replace the 9500GT in it. The 9500GT will go in Oxi to replace the 8400GS in it after I get the new one from MSI. I just bought Age of Empires II, Age of Kings, and the Conquerors sequel for $20. Got tired of fooling around with downloads that don't work!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...x-_-DesktopGraphicsVideoCards-_-14150450-L08A

This is a 24 hour deal for preferred customers at Newegg, so it might show a higher price.

Russ

 

good to see you got it in the end russ. One of my fave games. Try and get red alert 2 and the expansion yuris revenge. My favourite RTS games ever.


now if only that mobo was an asus

 

Shaff,
Yup! And if only the CPU was an Intel! Not! LOL!! I love my AMD and my Motherboard.

Rapidcrap links were dead, BTW! NP though, as the price was right. Russell really digs this game, and he is brilliant at it. His Dad was 60 when he was born, and he left School at 16 to take care of the Family Farm, after his father got sick. He loves to stack the deck against himself, and fight his way back. He usually wins too! Not bad for a Farm Boy from Maryland! LOL!!

What do you think about the new Video card? $49.99 a good deal for it?

Best Regards,
Russ

 

hehe, if it was an intel asus combo im sure it'd stop working randomly lol.

not sure how much more the 5670 is but if this is about $20 less than that its a bargin, and a massive upgrade to your 9500GT. I thought amd GPUs didn't work well for you though?

 

HD4670 vs 9500GT: 80-85% improvement
HD5670 vs HD4670: 25-30% improvement
9500GT vs 8400GS: 330-350% improvement

 

Shaff,
I haven't had one since the 850GT (Former 800GTS) AGP 8x. I figured it was time ti give one another try. That and XFX makes good stuff. The price difference is $39 to $45, and that's for a 512MB one. The 1MB ones are over $55 higher. I guess that does make it a bargain.

BTW, I asked Sam, when I installed the 630 Quad in Oxi, the graphics improved greatly over what the 8400GS had. Much more fine detail and texture in AOE II, plus the little market booths had detailed items in them. I was just curious as to why. I didn't think that the CPU had very much to do with Graphics detail???

Russ

 

Thanks Sam. Looks like a very good deal to me.

Russ

 

I just tested two of my scrap 60mm fans. One is bordering on complete silence, and doesn't move as much air as I would like. It'd probably be lucky to bring my Northbridge temps down 2-5C. While the other moves quite a bit of air, is 8 times as noisy. Partially due to a plastic against plastic sound. My guess is the design is collapsing, and I'm getting a plastic grinding sound. Suffice to say, I probably won't use either. But I will probably see what the near silent fan can accomplish