The Official PC building thread!

Certainly in the £120 to £180 segment, ATi are the winners at the moment.
That post was a little disjointed!

Hard disks Samsung? Absolutely, them or Seagate or WD. Anyone but Maxtor really, they're not bad, but I wouldn't recommend them for long term like 5 years.
For coolers I'd disrecommend the Zalman purely due to size, go with the Arctic Freexer 64 Pro, it's compact and incredibly efficient and quiet.
Enermax Liberties are good PSUs, better than Noisetakers anyway!

 

The info keeps getting better and better!

 

Sorry if it seems im butting in, but i need a bit of advice and i'll be on my way.

I've had this pc set up for a few months now, and its going fine.

But, the noise from the fans, it gets a bit much after just using my pc for word processing.

I don't however just use it for word processing, High Details in games is a must! and i also use it to edit music and video.

I downloaded speedfan the other day, and i checked out my temperatures from inside the case. They were as follows; Temp1: 28c, Temp2: 55c, Temp3: 49c and HD0: 30c.

Now all that is when my PC is Idle. They seem a bit high really, espcially when my CPU is a Intel P4 540J 3.2ghz, and its only supposed to work under the max of about 75c.

I suppose, what i would really like, is your knowledge and help on what i should buy to get that temperature right down, and to keep the noise level down. I do know that i could get rubber mounts for the case fans, and that if needed i will get a different heatsink other than the stock one, althought i thought that one would be fine!

Anyway, thanks in advance!

 

"A bit of advice and I'm on my way" should be this thread's motto, that's what it's all about!
BootMe, basically those temperatures are high but not over the top. The 540, even though it's *only* 3.2Ghz is a Prescott chip, which means it runs very hot by nature. However, it's prolly running the stock heatsink so hence why the temperatures are a bit high. I'd recommend something of the order of an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 and Arctic Silver V paste to fit it. That should see your idle temperatures in the thirties, dependent on the case ventilation - if the case is enclosed, small or both, then low forties.
The noise, can you identify where its coming from? I could tell you to replace all your case fans with quiet ones, but if they're all fine and its youre graphics card making all the racket then obviously we're aiming at the wrong target. What you can do is (when the PC is off) unplug all the case fans, the power to the CPU, and the power to the CPU fan, just leaving the graphics card. If that's quite quiet, then it's slightly less of a problem. If it isn't then we need to go about a graphics silencer. With me so far? Then shut down (don't worry if you got beeped at, you shouldn't but if you do it's not a major problem, we're disconnecting the CPU to avoid issues relating to there not being a fan plugged in...) plug the CPU and its fan back in and then test for noise again (bear in mind you should leave optical and hard drives in during this procedure). If it's now loud, then replacing the CPU fan will solve at least some of the noise issues and that's what we're going to do about the temperature.
If it isn't, let's carry on, if it is, then you may want to repeat the CPU and Fan unplug to test the others in case they're not audible over the CPUfan. Test each case fan individually in the scenario most appropriate and you should have a fair idea which fans are loud and which aren't. Oh and also, if your motherboard's chipset has a fan too, stick your ear near that when its running and see how loud it is. If that's loud that can also easily be replaced.
We've no need to worry about PSU fan noise because you're using a Hiper Type R. Right off the bat that's in the "Quiet" section.

Now, here are the solutions for which fans are noisy:
CPU: irrelevant, we're replacing that with a quiet one anyway
M/B Chipset: We can find a replacement, add a little thermal paste and make the PC run even that little bit better!
GPU: The problem one. This means stripping off the GPU's existing heatsink, and going about applying some Silver to it, then putting on one of Arctic's Silencer attachments.
Case fans: Buy new ones, forget about vibration mounts. Most noise from case fans comes from bearings not from vibration, so it's easier to buy fans for probably less than rubber mounts. When buying fans, keep the noise level below 25dB if possible, then you're in the quiet zone, above 30 and stay well away.
Short of saying exactly where to get them, that's basically cooling & noise covered. Don't forget you'll need some Thermal compound Removal fluid to get good results, such as Akasa TIM, and if you're doing everything with Arctic Silver, don't go too mad with it, it's expensive for what little you get.

Happy PC cooling!

 

Its amazing, i understood all of that! hehe.

I will check out the fans later.

Thank you for your input and help on the matter.

Better check my bank balance...

 

To be honest, none of this really costs that much.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835186134 - Arctic Cooling Silencer 7 - $24.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811999343 - 80mm Quiet case fan - $7.78
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835186128 - Arctic Cooling silencer suitable for X700 Pro - $25.24
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835100007 - Arctic Silver 5 - $10.98
http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/akticpuhecl.html - Akasa TIM removal - around $14 (Lol trying to search for this in newegg brought up a DeLongHi Coffee Maker!)

And that's about it really, bearing in mind that needing all of those is an extreme case. You may just need to replace the CPU cooler, which means cooler, paste and cleaner - about $50.
If your case fans are both noisy (that's not very common) - then add $16 or so. GPU is a bit more likely to be noisy, so if that bothers you too, then add $25 to the bill.
If everything must go, then it's just over $90. If you're not too fussed about the case fans then about $75. You'll never believe how quiet and cool your PC will be with this done!

 

Wow, you even went and got links and prices!

I'll definalty be sorting this out soon.

Thanks!

 

Hey no worries, it's my duty as a fellow AD member. If I've knowledge, I'll share it!

 

Question: What do you guys think about this case? http://www.atxcases.com/products/productdetails.asp?main_catid=1&catid=13&prodid=462
I want a really good (ventilation and looks) case and I found this website! Also, should i go with a mid-tower or a full? Just want you guys (and gals) opinions!

Thanks.

 

ok. can u pls rec a good looking full case that isnt a lot?

 

That's pretty nice, I would have recommended you my case but they stopped making it. It looks the business and cost me £18 + delivery (about $34). However, Thermaltake Soprano, NZXT Trinity and The Super Armor cases are all good.

 

sammorris ,i have a Antec "Sonata" case do you know if the Zalman 9500 or the Arctic Cooling Freezer" 64 Pro will fit into this case ok?

 

A freezer64 Pro should fit into almost any case, it's barely larger than a standard heatsink, which is why I prefer it over the Zalman 9500, in addition to the fact it's half the cost and just as effective.

 

Does the X850XT top the X1800GTO?

 

No. X1800GTO is better, just as cheap and supports SM3.0.

 

OK, heres the (hopefully) final spec...

NEC DVD+-RW/RAM 16x IDE Black LabelFlash Dual Layer £29.43 WRITER
http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=40QZ&PageMode=1

Seagate Barracuda 7200.7+ 200GB UDMA100 8MB cache 7200rpm £46.94
http://www.dabs.com/productview.asp...lectedId=11147&PageMode=1&Quicklinx=3T1P,3T1P

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ S939 512KB £194
http://www.dabs.com/productview.asp...orySelectedId=11147&PageMode=1&Quicklinx=3T1P

Abit S939 Radeon Xpress 200 Crossfire ATX Audio Lan £79.18
http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=3Z2D&CategorySelectedId=11003

Corsair (VS1GBKIT400) 1024MB (2 x 512MB Matched Pair), DDR400 / PC3200, non-ECC,
Unbuffered, CL2.5, Lifetime Warranty - £56.35
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/52057

Connect 3d X1800 GTO 256mb GDDR3 DVI-I VIVO PCI-E - £139.59
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/109760

Plus a case from Xcase TBC...

 

Do you want Crossfire in the future? I doubt it, and hence you'll probably be better off with a board like an Asus A8N-E or A8N-SLi SE (Yes that does SLi and its nvidia but that doesn't matter, trust me, it's a great value board anyway).
A UDMA-100 hard disk?
Why?
Go S-ATA, better, faster and all that. IDE drives use old technology which although this isn't directly a fault of the bus they use, means they're slower and noisier.
RAM and CPU are good though.

 

forgot too look for a SATA drive. It's lot to take in at first, duly noted!

 

No don't worry, but it's just the norm these days. Generally UDMA-100 drives are marketed for the mininal cost savings (so why system builders use them) or for very old systems that don't have S-ATA ports. You're neither so use S-ATA.