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| Shhh! Constructing A Truly Quiet Gaming PC |
Posted by
Hemos
on Wednesday October 31, @11:30AM
from the vewy-vewy-quiet dept. Over the last few months, I've had a number of AskSlashdot questions about quiet computers, what hardware to get, and other items for assembling a
mega-machine that won't knock the roof off. I've put the finishing touches on my own mega machine -- if you're looking at doing the
same thing, or are just curious about the hardware involved, you can find out about what I built.
My first priority was the speed and scale of the machine. I knew that I wanted to build a machine that would be able to play
games very well, and look nice, but since I didn't want to totally break the bank on doing it, I decided to go with some lower-cost
components in part. So, without further ado:
- The Case: This was the easiest decision to make. Thinkgeek has by far the the cooler and easiest case around to get. I went with the precut
window, and put in the window, as well as ordered the blue neon light to put inside of the machine. This case frickin' rocks.
Thumbscrews for everything, the drive bays, motherboard array and everything else slides out intelligently - this is the
first case I've ever had where I'm *happy* to be working on the internals of the machine. However, I did replace the fans.
- The Fans: Rather then use the stock fans, I ordered the Silencer Fan from PC Power and Cooling.
Three of them to be exact -- and they are as quiet as the Stereophile comment implies. Very very quiet (20 Db), and does a great job
of keeping the internals cool. The fans are the standard size for an ATX case, so swapping was a breeze.
- Power Supply: In
keeping with the keep-it-quiet theme, I went with the Ultraquiet 400
ATX. It's got ample power, and is incredibly quiet. Very, very nicely done.
- The Processor: Being that I was trying to be at least somewhat budget conscious, I went with the AMD Athlon. I got the 1.2 Ghz variety, as the cost difference, at the time, between that and the 1.4
were considerable, for what I saw to be very little extra additional speed. It was also at this point that I made the choice to go
with a single processor machine, rather then a dual. Since I was going to be a lot of gaming on here this machine, in addition to
work, and the gaming would be in a Windows 98 environment (Diablo 2, Baldur's Gate II:Throne of Bhaal, The Sims)
there was very little reason to go with a dual processor machine. So, with that in mind, I ordered my single Athlon 1.2 Ghz.
- Processor Heatsink/Fan: I replaced the stock processor heatsink, and went with the ultraquiet one from PC Power and Cooling -- replacing it was no problem, and while when the case is closed,
the noise difference is inaudible; when the case is open, you can definitely hear the difference between the two fans. Plus, on
average, the new fan keeps the processor an average of 4 degrees Celsius cooler - from 69 C to 65 C, when running full tilt - e.g. Baldur's Gate II:Throne of Bhaal, and my little contribution to Team Slashdot, that's the temp.
Running with just the OS is about 58 C. I just used the heat-sink compound that came along with the new fan to wipe down the CPU.
- The Motherboard: Originally, I was planning on going with the MSI-6380 motherboard. Tom's Hardware recommend it -- but what I quickly found out was that there was a nationwide
shortage on those boards -- or at least that's what multiple vendors told me. Luckily, the folks at Teacco, who I had ended up ordering through recommend the Asus A7A266. This uses the ALi Magik 1 chipset,
versus the Via KT266 Pro chipset, which the MSI board used. My assumption is that the Via chipset was in short supply. I still
think the MSI was a better board, but sometimes you have to deal with shortfalls - and frankly, the Asus supported the 266 FSB, and
the RAM that I wanted to use. Availability won -- and I've veen happy with the A7A266.
- The DDR RAM: Obviously, if speed is the goal, you want to get good, and a goodly amount, of RAM. Having talked the various
RAM manufacturers over with ChrisD, I finally settled on the Corsair Micro CM73SD256R-2100. It had a 266 Mhz bus, and Corsair makes a good
RAM chip.
- Hard Drive: My last machine had two hard drives, one SCSI and one IDE. Since the motherboard I had purchased had two
ATA-100 boards onboard, I decided that rather then go through and purchase a SCSI controller, and get a SCSI drive, I would just get
a ATA-100 IDE hard drive. Also based on past experiences, and knowing other people who had the same problem, I decided to go with a
5400 RPM drive, rather then 7200. Most of the 7200 RPM drives I've had, or others have had, regardless of manufacturer, or type of
drive, have died after nine month or so. I also wanted to get a drive that was quiet, and reliable -- and I had been very happy with
my last IBM drive, so I got the Deskstar 40GV. Heh -- good thing I
didn't get the 75 GXP. With ATA 100, I'm getting around
the same practical throughput as SCSI, without having an additional controller. Also, with the Deskstar, I can use my SilentDrive
sleeves. More on that in a moment. But, with 40 gigs, I was making a choice not to have this be a MP3 box or anything. That's
alright, because the other machine has a crapload of space, and can handle that role, easily.
- The Silent Drive: In sticking with my goal of trying to be as fast and quiet as possible, I picked up some Silent Drives from New England Digital Computer. The SilentDrive is made by Molex; it's pretty cheap, and really cuts
down on hard drive noise -- and since I've used them in my other machine, I don't have much concern about them cutting the
drive's life. Besides, the aim of this machine is not to be a server, but more of a gamebox, so I'm willing to live with a slight risk anyhow.
- CD-RW: Obviously, a machine is going to need some sort of CD/DVD format input device. I had already decided to forgo a
floppy drive, because the motherboard will support booting from CD-ROM, and I wanted to see if it can be done. Yes, it can be done,
easily. Moving files around is much easier with scp than with floppies anyway. *grin* I debated between the DVD or CD-RW, but decided
to go with the latter, because I'm going to hold out for a while, and then purchase a DVD-RW for the machine. No sense in getting a
DVD Drive and decoder board now, when the DVD-RW is only a few months away. I also wanted to be able to burn and rip CDs fairly fast,
so I went with the Yamaha CRW2100EZ. It's a very nice, very
fast drive, but has a major problem for the quiet machine: it's loud. When it's got a drive it's working on, this thing makes a
huge ton of noise. So, my solution is that I don't have disks in there, and when I'm doing something with it, I just put up with the
noise. Nonetheless, in the long run, this will be replaced with the DVD-RW, and thus, I'm not too concerned about it.
- Cabling: With all of these parts coming in, I had to start wiring it all up, right? The rounded EIDE cables were great. I've got two, and am happy as a
clam.
- Video Card: Since this rig was being designed for gaming, my choice was pretty simple on this one -- the The GeForce 3. For all the hype out there about this card, this
thing is totally worth it. I got the AGP version, of course, but one nice thing about the change in motherboards was that the Asus
can handle AGP Pro, so when a good AGP Pro videocard comes out, I'll switch over, and eBay my old video card.
- Sound card: As above, with gaming in mind, as well ultimately hoping to do some home movie editing for burning to the
yet-unpurchased DVD-RW drive, I went with the consumer top of the line sound card, the Creative Labs Soundblaster Platinum. This thing was a SOB to get
installed, because you have to not only insert the normal sound card into the PCI slot, but also fit into the 5 & .25" drive slot the
external control slot. It's pretty cool, because it comes along with a remote so that you can use the computer as a movie watching
system, if you want. The front slot is also where you can a lot more inputs and outputs, versus the normal 4 inputs on the
soundcard. It even has an optical in and optical out, so that you can do some PS2 gaming on the computer if you want. Very very
impressive -- but getting the cable running from the external control slot to the sound card wasn't very fine, because: 1. I had a
hard time getting the cables fitting together and 2. The flat grey ribbon cable ruined my esthetic of the black EDIE rounded cable.
I know, an artistic argument, but dammit, this is my mega system.
- The Network Card: Nothing really exciting here --
I reused a Intel EEpro 100. Good network card; I
don't use any of the remote management stuff, but it sends and receives packets. That's enough for me.
- The Mouse: CowboyNeal had been singing the praises of the Logitech Mouseman Wireless. system for a while, and I
decided to take the leap. It's a remote system, but probably the first remote system that I've used that truly works. The latency
between mouse and display is remarkably low, and that latency has been my major complaint of other remote keyboards/mice. I'm not
sure that the mouse is appropriate for a FPS or other instant-reaction game which might expose problems at the finest levels, but it
does just fine for games like BG2/The Sims. Slightly sluggish for Diablo II, but not lethally so. I recommend it, with the above
reservation about FPS/faster paced games.
- Keyboard: This was one of two instances that I simply reused components from before. The keyboard that I'm using is the Microsoft Internet Keyboard. Yeah, yeah -- it's a M$ product. Whatever. The
reality is that the keyboard has a good tactile feedback, comes with two built-in USB ports on the keyboard itself, supports PS/2 and
USB for output, and is a full keyboard. Oh, I got it free through some promotion at CDW.
- Monitor: This is the second instance of reusing old components.
In this case, I had purchased the Sony Trinitron G400
about eighteen months ago, for use on my first gaming machine. It's a great monitor -- 19", so it fits into almost any desk space,
has a flat screen, and great color depth. It's been a very dependable monitor, and while other monitors have come out, I saw no
reason to spend the several hundred dollars on getting a new monitor. So, I've decided to just stick with this. Maybe if flat
screens or something get really cheap over the next year, I'll upgrade, but for right now, I see no compelling reason to do so.
- UPS System: We wouldn't want to be crashing in the midst of our gaming or working, now would we? I actually set up two UPS systems -- the system is on a APC BackOffice
UPS, and the monitor is on a USB. I've used the BackOffice UPS's
output to plug into COM2 on the system. Powerchute is APC's software hook-in. I've got the Windows version that came along with the
software, and am also playing with getting the Linux version working, although it seems to be compiled against RH -- at least the version I have is.
The machine came together fairly well -- by reusing a couple components, I was able to keep the price under $2000 -- and the same system should be even cheaper now, since RAM is so cheap that we should throw away hard drives and just have RAM *grin*. Of course, then you'd better hope your UPS system works.
The point of this machine was really to create a platform for gaming and it serves that "need" admirably -- it's been a pleasure
to play games on. With the prices on CPUs continuing to drop, I'll probably upgrade this to a 1.4 Athlon in the next six months, and
throw in another half gig of RAM, but for the time being, I've happily created a nice, fast -- and quiet machine. Really, this
thing is incredibly quiet: I don't have my decibel measuring device anymore, but my old Vaio laptop's fan is louder then this
machine. Louder, and with 1/4 the computing power, and 1/4 the RAM. I consider this an improvement.
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Shhh! Constructing A Truly Quiet Gaming PC
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Who cares about quiet (Score:2, Interesting)
by CDWert (wetman@hotmail.com) on Wednesday October 31, @11:35AM (#2502906)
(User #450988 Info)
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Is my hearing bad, or what ???
My pc's humm fairly quitly, they dont soun like chainsaw or anything, what a few hard drive clicks screws up you concentration on your game ?
I dont get it , alot of problems with commodity pc's but noise was never one in my book....
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[ Parent
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| - Re:Who cares about quiet by xTK-421x (Score:1) Wednesday October 31, @11:51AM
- Re:Who cares about quiet by Kvasir (Score:3) Wednesday October 31, @11:55AM
Re:Who cares about quiet (Score:5, Insightful)
by Tiroth (Tiroth@NOSPAM.iname.com) on Wednesday October 31, @11:55AM (#2503037)
(User #95112 Info | http://www.anidian.com/)
|
It can be more of a concern if you have your PC in your bedroom or living room, and especially if you are into higher quality audio.
A 40dB computer humming along means your noise floor is at 40dB; if your stereo can produce 110dB your usable dynamic range is only 70dB. Any improvement on that figure is helpful. (40dB is probably quite quiet for a computer; I'm fairly sure my old machine with all the extra (cheap) fans is approaching 55)
Since a PC is generally on 24/7, every decibal less noise is less fatigue on your ears for hours each day.
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[ Parent
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Re:Who cares about quiet (Score:4, Informative)
by Anonymous Freak (edNO@SPAMhurtley.org) on Wednesday October 31, @12:03PM (#2503077)
(User #16973 Info | http://www.hurtley.org/)
|
Well, I do, for one. I run a Pentium 3/1G, with a couple SCSI drives, on a 400W PSU. Even in an enclosed computer cabinet, it's so loud that you can hear it in another room. I will be immediatly researching all this hardware, because I've been looking for a good quiet solution for use in my home office. (It's kind of annoying to have to speak louder on the phone because my PC is loud...)
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[ Parent
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| - Re:Who cares about quiet by ergo98 (Score:2) Wednesday October 31, @12:14PM
- Re:Who cares about quiet by Haeleth (Score:2) Wednesday October 31, @12:46PM
- Re:Who cares about quiet by Reductionist (Score:1) Wednesday October 31, @02:32PM
- Re:Who cares about quiet by raresilk (Score:2) Wednesday October 31, @03:09PM
- Re:Who cares about quiet by Doomdark (Score:2) Wednesday October 31, @03:48PM
- Re:Who cares about quiet by DavidRavenMoon (Score:1) Wednesday October 31, @07:12PM
- Re:Who cares about quiet by jpostel (Score:2) Thursday November 01, @09:11AM
- Re:Who cares about quiet by batosai (Score:1) Thursday November 01, @04:05PM
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Free (and better imo) powerchute replacement (Score:5, Informative)
by phaze3000 on Wednesday October 31, @11:38AM (#2502922)
(User #204500 Info | http://slashdot.org/)
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Instead of using powerchute with the APC UPS, you could try apcupsd [apcupsd.org] - it's Free [fsf.org] and works perfectly for me. I must have installed it on close to 50 boxen, and it's never given me any troubles yet.. unlike the closed-source stuff you get with it..
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[ Parent
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65 degrees C?? (Score:2, Offtopic)
by bluephone (jesuCOMMAsx@who.net minus punct) on Wednesday October 31, @11:38AM (#2502924)
(User #200451 Info | http://slashdot.org/)
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That's WAY too hot. Granted my Athlon's much slower, but it's the old Slot-A Athlon at 700, which can run pretty darn hot. With 1 intake and 1 exhaust case fan, and 3 processor fans blowing over the wide Aavid heat sink, I keep mine at around 30-35 C, in summer maybe it peaks at 38 without the AC on. Right now it's 29.5 C. Maybe going ultra quiet isn't the greatest thing to do for a heat sink fan, eh?
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[ Parent
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65 degrees is just fine. (Score:5, Interesting)
by Manic Miner on Wednesday October 31, @11:49AM (#2502983)
(User #81246 Info | http://slashdot.org/)
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Nothing wrong with 65 degrees, I have a new 1.2Ghz DDR Athlon and mine runs at 55-65 degree depending on room temp, and my machine makes so much fan noise it is insane I know lots of people that run new athlons and they all run at about 55-65 degrees, I also know several people that build PC's for a living and they always set there motherboard kill temp to 70 degrees. There has been a lot of talk about thermal death and an article I read talked about AMD tech guys shutting down an athlon when it hit 80 degress (I think it was 80, might have been 70, I can't find the article again) so whats wrong with 65 max? I think you are way too paranoid about CPU temp.
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[ Parent
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| - Re:65 degrees C?? by Xugumad (Score:2) Wednesday October 31, @11:53AM
- Re:65 degrees C?? by connorbd (Score:2) Wednesday October 31, @11:55AM
- Re:65 degrees C?? by bill.sheehan (Score:3) Wednesday October 31, @11:58AM
- Re:65 degrees C?? by sedawkgrep (Score:1) Wednesday October 31, @12:16PM
- That's what I was thinking. by bleckywelcky (Score:1) Wednesday October 31, @07:15PM
- 1 reply
beneath your current threshold.
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20Db is dimensionless number (Score:1, Informative)
by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 31, @11:39AM (#2502929)
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decibells are a relative scale, it doesnt mean naything unless you say what its relative to.
Its like saying a piece of sting is long.
Maybe DBm ?
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[ Parent
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ALI Magik Chipset... (Score:5, Insightful)
by AtariDatacenter (zaxxon10@home.com) on Wednesday October 31, @11:40AM (#2502935)
(User #31657 Info | mailto:zaxxon10@home.com)
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I recently went with the Iwill KA-266Plus motherboard. (An version with an early BIOS got a bit of a poo-poo from Tom's Hardware, but the latest versions rock.) Purchased a 1.3mhz Athlon with it, and 2x256mb of DDR memory.
I have to say, I'm extremely pleased with what I have. I've managed to bump the FSB up to 147mhz, and have the system run stable. That means I'm getting 1.47ghz on the Athlon, and 294mhz on the memory. Very nice.
I'm really surprised the Ali Magik chipset didn't get more attention that it did. It was the first to enable DDR memory with the Athlon Socket A chips.
My configuration allows me to get the very highest 3DMark 2001 benchmark for my system, although I'm not running a Gamer's video card.
I went with the Radeon VE. It has built in hardware optimizations for viewing DVDs, MPEGs. It also has dual-video output, so I've got a normal monitor, and my home television connected as two different screens.
Anyhow, just wanted to say, nice choice on the ALI Magik motherboard.
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[ Parent
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Superpower for your 3 games (Score:4, Interesting)
by FortKnox on Wednesday October 31, @11:43AM (#2502942)
(User #169099 Info | http://slashdot.org/~FortKnox/journal/ | Last Journal: Monday March 04, @12:52PM)
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(Diablo 2, Baldur's Gate II:Throne of Bhaal, The Sims)
That is one HELL of a machine for those three games. Seeing as a 600MHz, TNT2 machine will handle them just as well. Usually, high end machines like what you have are for serious FPS afficianatos (sp?). Another note, is that serious gamers could give a rats ass about their box noise. Usually, the games produce enough sound outta their huge soundcard/soundsystem to muffle anything the box can produce.
Sorry to gripe, but this article is either:
(A) A gloatfest on your new box (which I do myself)
(B) A thinkgeek plug
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[ Parent
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68 C? Ouch! (Score:5, Informative)
by VargrX on Wednesday October 31, @11:43AM (#2502943)
(User #104404 Info)
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Plus, on average, the new fan keeps the processor an average of 4 degrees Celsius cooler - from 69 C to 65 C, when running full tilt - e.g. Baldur's Gate II:Throne of Bhaal, and my little contribution to Team Slashdot, that's the temp. Running with just the OS is about 58 C
Try replacing that PC&C pos with an Alpha PAL8045 and a quiet Sunon 80mm fan. I'm running an equivalant machine, and my MAX temp under full load is 34 degree's C. The only potential problem with the 8045 is will it fit on your board.
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[ Parent
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| - Re:68 C? Ouch! by autocracy (Score:2) Wednesday October 31, @12:18PM
- Re:68 C? Ouch! by virtros (Score:1) Wednesday October 31, @01:24PM
- Be a PAL... by Merk (Score:2) Wednesday October 31, @01:33PM
- Re:68 C? Ouch! by Draxinusom (Score:1) Wednesday October 31, @01:52PM
- Underclock! by Jordy (Score:2) Wednesday October 31, @11:23PM
- 1 reply
beneath your current threshold.
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Who needs a quiet PC (Score:5, Funny)
by NastyGnat on Wednesday October 31, @11:44AM (#2502946)
(User #515785 Info)
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When you've got a couple hundred watts of surround sound. I hardly notice anything other than the rockets exploding around me. That's especially handy when the wife's naggin ya...
"What did you say, I can't hear you!?"
:)
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[ Parent
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From Fortune (Score:1, Funny)
by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 31, @11:45AM (#2502958)
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hardware, n:
The parts of a computer system that can be kicked.
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[ Parent
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5200 rpm drive and Video Editing (Score:2, Informative)
by ahoehn (ahoehn@subi[ ]sion.com ['dmen' in gap]) on Wednesday October 31, @11:46AM (#2502963)
(User #301327 Info | http://slashdot.org/)
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Since it was mentioned that the author wanted to eventually do some Video Editing: When editing on computers with 5200 rpm drives I've had huge playback problems in Adobe Premiere and other programs, lots of skipping and so fourth.
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[ Parent
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beneath your current threshold.
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Great crap! (Score:1)
by circuskid on Wednesday October 31, @11:48AM (#2502977)
(User #174337 Info | http://lu71.net/)
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Turn off the computer and back away! You processor is WAY to hot, better rethink your cooling.
My Athlon 1.33Ghz only gets up to 48C when maxed out playing games or calculating prime numbers!
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[ Parent
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Didn't want to break the bank? (Score:1)
by steveo777 on Wednesday October 31, @11:49AM (#2502987)
(User #183629 Info | http://slashdot.org/)
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Yet the case costs 200+ bucks? That seems like a contradition. Condidering that for many of us, not breaking the bank means going with the 32MB DDR video card instead of the 64MB Geforce 3 for 300 bucks.
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[ Parent
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What's the cost premium? (Score:2, Interesting)
by mckwant (bschurleATyahooDOTcom) on Wednesday October 31, @11:50AM (#2502994)
(User #65143 Info)
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I'm guessing it's somewhere in the $1000 range, since I just recently put together louder, but similarly outfitted boxes for my home.
Seems like a lot of cash to get rid of fan hum...
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[ Parent
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Two suggestions (Score:3, Informative)
by Amokscience on Wednesday October 31, @11:51AM (#2503004)
(User #86909 Info | http://slashdot.org/)
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One: Unless you plan on putting nutty amounts of drives and video cards into a machine 400W is WAY overkill. I've got a 1.2Ghz Athlon with a CDrom drive and using a ATI Radeon and the MicroATX power supply drives everything just fine. Wattage? 120W. More wattage usually requires more fan to cool. More fan = more noise.
On the subject of quiet CDR drives. Plextor has a kickass utility (windows) that allows you to speed limit the drives X rating. SO you can cap at 4x, 8x, 10-24x 14-32x, etc. At around 10x it's pretty much silent.
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[ Parent
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Re:Two suggestions (Score:4, Informative)
by stienman on Wednesday October 31, @12:05PM (#2503091)
(User #51024 Info | http://www.ubasics.com/adam | Last Journal: Thursday February 28, @02:59PM)
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Actually, the opposite is true. If you take a 400W power supply, and only use 200W it puts out significantly less heat than a 200W supply putting out 200W, due to design differences. Thus you could put a temp sensor in there and change the fan speed, and thus the sound output, based on the heat of the supply, and it would even be quieter.
-Adam
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[ Parent
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| - Re:Two suggestions by darrylo (Score:1) Wednesday October 31, @05:12PM
- 4 replies
beneath your current threshold.
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GamePC has an article on the very subject... (Score:1)
by dopplex on Wednesday October 31, @11:52AM (#2503007)
(User #242543 Info)
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GamePC Story on the subject [gamepc.com]
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[ Parent
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Slot A cooling? (Score:2)
by abischof (alex&spamcop,net) on Wednesday October 31, @11:52AM (#2503010)
(User #255 Info | http://www.handcoding.com/)
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My box has an Athlon 600 MHz with an Asus K7M mobo. At this point, I'm trying for a quiet PC (at least as quiet as I can get it). I've already installed an Ultra Quiet power supply [nwccomputers.com] and a SilentDrive [nwccomputers.com] enclosure, and those are working well so far.
As far as I can tell, the primary remaining source of the noise is the chipset fan (an RDJD K701 [anandtech.com]). Looking through 2Cooltek [2cooltek.com] (a good source for cooling products), I came across the "Alpha P7125 Athlon/SECC Cooler (no fans) [safeshopper.com]". However, does the "no fans" designation mean that the cooler comes without fans but needs them, or that it comes without fans and can operate without them? I'm thinking that if indeed it can operate without fans, then that could mean a significant sound reduction for me.
Then again, if that one does require the fans, then I'm guessing that it's about the same loudness as my current setup :-/. In that case, are there other quiet-coolers I should try? Or, should I just go straight to the
acoustical [safeshopper.com] foam [safeshopper.com]?
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uh... case? (Score:1)
by Inataysia on Wednesday October 31, @11:52AM (#2503011)
(User #15654 Info)
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>The Case: This was the easiest decision to make. >Thinkgeek has by far the the cooler and easiest >case around to get. I went with the precut >window, and put in the window, as well as >ordered the blue neon light to put inside of the >machine. This case frickin' rocks.
.... but... it's $200... for an ostensibly pretty case... i dunno, i put 'em under my desk, no need for 'em to be pretty. my considerations in buying cases are (1) good airflow, (2) number of bays, and (3) lack of fruitiness (those damn purple or hot pink knobblies on these iFruit-looking cases these days).
it never ceases to amaze me how people have such varied experience with hard drives, and it molds them into either brand A fanatics, or anti-brand B crusaders... take me, for example: i've never, ever had a problem with a 7200 rpm hard drive, but i attribute this to the fact that i've never bought a maxtor 7200 hard drive.
eh, cheers, have fun with the rig.
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beneath your current threshold.
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Quiet Fans - Papst (Score:3, Insightful)
by jamieo on Wednesday October 31, @11:53AM (#2503017)
(User #22197 Info | http://popdog.dyndns.org/)
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I too have recently spent some time investigating how to make my machine quieter. Eventually I plan to build a *silent* mini server for home, but this is another project...
I was running a GlobalWin 802 case, with 2x Sunon 80mm case fans and a GlobalWin FOP32 heatsink and fan. This was quite noisy.
After some research, I found out that Papst (a German company) makes just about the quietest fans you can get. You can get them as low as 12dBA. Getting hold of them is another matter - they're often expensive, reorder times when out of stock is long (many months) and most suppliers only stock a very small part of the Papst range.
Eventually I found a local (UK) supplier and purchased 2x 80mm fans (rated about 19dBA). I put one of these as the exhaust fan for my case and the other I put on my FOP32 heat sink. I needed to get a 60mm->80mm fan adapter (most CPU heatsinks come with 60mm fans, you can get an adapter from most overclocking stores). I did away with the extra case fan.
Overall the transformation was remarkable. The machine is now very quiet - not silent, you can still hear the fans, but very very quiet. As far as cooling goes, it's just as good as it was before. Both my board and cpu are running at the same temperature (I'm running an overclocked AMD TBird).
One of the fans I got, the one I use for my case, has a temperature sensor built into it. This detects the airtemp and alters the spin speed of the fan accordingly. From 25oC is starts to spin faster upto a max temp of 35oC when it's running full speed. At it's lowest speed (say 25oC) it runs at 10dBA going upto 19dBA at full speed. This was more expensive than the standard Papst fan (US$30ish!!!) but seems to work.
I'd certainly recommend looking to get Papst fans for anyone.
An alternative (not quite as good) is Panasonic's Panaflo fans.
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quiet fans (Score:3, Informative)
by zerocool^ on Wednesday October 31, @11:53AM (#2503019)
(User #112121 Info | http://slashdot.org/)
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tom's hardware [tomshardware.com] has a great Piece on cpu fans [tomshardware.com]. They rate 'em on temperature versus noise... Not surprisingly, the biggest heatsink with the largest fan caused the greatest drop in temperature and the most noise. But if you're looking for some brand ideas, its a great read. Also, there is the following:
Silencer 80mm Fan [power-on.com] (sold by someone else but made by PC Power&Cooling)
24dba SECCII fan [yahoo.com]
I got these last few from here [slashdot.org], i thought slashdot had run an article linking to the tom's hardware review, but i can't seem to find it.
~zr
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| - Re:quiet fans by Icculus (Score:1) Wednesday October 31, @02:59PM
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Light And Sound (Score:5, Funny)
by peel on Wednesday October 31, @11:53AM (#2503022)
(User #242881 Info | http://thepeel.org/)
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So you've eliminated all of that extrea noise that keeps you up at night only to be kept awake by the brilliance of the neon light shining from your outrageously overpriced case. I hope at least it matches the neon lights under your car.
--
The Ol' Gray Mare, Ain't whut she usta be...
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beneath your current threshold.
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another silent pc article link (Score:1)
by alkaline on Wednesday October 31, @11:53AM (#2503025)
(User #533129 Info)
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Link to GamePC article [gamepc.com]
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My own ultra-quiet rig (Score:1)
by Hollinger on Wednesday October 31, @11:55AM (#2503031)
(User #16202 Info | http://hollinger.darktech.org | Last Journal: Friday January 04, @02:31AM)
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Here's my own ultra-quiet rig that I've just built:
$189 Seagate Barracuda IV SoftSonic 80 Gig (30 dB)
$757 Monarch 2x1.2Ghz AthlonMP
2x256 ECC DDR RAM
Tyan Tiger MP mobo (29 dB)
2xThermalTake VolcanoII Cooler (31 dB, 31 dB)
$070 SD-M1502 Toshiba 16X DVD Drive
$335 Asus GeForce3 Pure 64Meg AGP
$85 SB Audigy Platinum (mysimon)
??? Speakers?
$014 floppy
$170? Lian-Li PC-60 Case
$089 Enermax Whisper 431W EG465P-VE(FC) Power Supply (directron.com) (33 dB)
$214 24X10X40 Plextor CD-RW
$80 Wireless Keyboard / Optical Wireless Mouse from Logitech
-
$1918 Subtotal sans Shipping
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Quiet PC (Score:1)
by Mad-Mage1 (Michael.S.Black@B ... n.net minus berry) on Wednesday October 31, @11:55AM (#2503032)
(User #235582 Info | http://slashdot.org/)
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If you want truly quiet, go the watercooling route. You can watercool everyone component in your case, exhaust the heat out the back using two fans, and the noise is normally below ambient. I currently WC both processor's, my ram, my Vid card, my PSU, my HD's, and both MoBo bridges. I only have 3 fans in the case, two exhausting past the radiator in the back, and one that pulls air into the case. Put a filter on your intake and your set.
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Adds on slashdot (Score:1, Offtopic)
by GreenCrackBaby on Wednesday October 31, @11:55AM (#2503034)
(User #203293 Info | http://slashdot.org/)
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Apparantly the banner adds were losing effectiveness, so ThinkGeek asked Slashdot guys to do up a story disguised as an add. OSDN may be losing lots of money . . . but, damn! Talk about un-subtle.
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beneath your current threshold.
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Side note on fans: Dragon Orb (Score:1)
by HarPaX (maxime_beland@hotmail.com) on Wednesday October 31, @11:55AM (#2503038)
(User #318423 Info | http://slashdot.org/)
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I just got an Athlon XP 1700 and got the Dragon Orb [thermaltake.com] fan for it. It works really well, but it makes the sound of a really loud hair dryer. Sometimes, you need to choose between performance and noise... With the Dragon Orb, you definitely do not go the silent way.
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Budget? What budget?! (Score:5, Funny)
by sid_vicious on Wednesday October 31, @11:58AM (#2503048)
(User #157798 Info | http://slashdot.org/ | Last Journal: Sunday January 27, @01:15AM)
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The Case: I went with the precut window, and put in the window, as well as ordered the blue neon light to put inside of the machine.
.. then later on ..
The Processor: Being that I was trying to be at least somewhat budget conscious ..
Buddy, if you're trying to stay on a budget, buying a $230 case and a $40 light fixture is not the way to do it.
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Thats great, but what's the point? (Score:1)
by peteshaw (peteshaw_AT_yahoo_DOT_com) on Wednesday October 31, @12:00PM (#2503060)
(User #99766 Info)
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Dude, I am most excited with your purchasing experience, but perhaps it would be helpful to explain why you wished this whispery machine.
Are you frequently coding in a zen like state of consciousness? Do you trade high quality sho files and play them on your wharfdale? Are you seeking the ultimate immersive gaming experience?
Also, why not just put the pc in the other room and run cables? Wouldn't that be much quieter? I am sorry, but this just seems to me to be episode 12,037 of how I built a very chi-chi pc to bring to lan parties. Thats okay, but its a different horse than "how I found silence in computing"
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CRW2100EZ (Score:1)
by ddekok on Wednesday October 31, @12:02PM (#2503067)
(User #141583 Info)
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I have the same burner, and it is loud. It shakes my desk pretty good when it gets going. I find it to be a nuscience and wish Yamaha would come up with some firmware that you could adjust the read speed to something a little lower.
As a burner though, it is nice.
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some of those decisions suck (Score:5, Informative)
by n3r0.m4dski11z on Wednesday October 31, @12:02PM (#2503068)
(User #447312 Info | http://slashdot.org/)
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ok i know your pc your choices right? but as i build pcs for a living, i woudl just like to interject a few things.
"Plus, on average, the new fan keeps the processor an average of 4 degrees Celsius cooler - from 69 C to 65 C, when running full tilt "
allthough im sure ill get flamed for this, that is absurd. a cpu cant run at 65c all the time. well it can but your asking for trouble. that is far to hot. my p4 1.4 runs at a cool 38 with just a few extra fans in the case. i mean i know amds are faster but they dont last as long by far.
"based on past experiences, and knowing other people who had the same problem, I decided to go with a 5400 RPM drive, rather then 7200. Most of the 7200 RPM drives I've had, or others have had, regardless of manufacturer, or type of drive, have died after nine month or so."
are you insane? you went from a scsi system to a ulta ata100 5400!!!! hdd system!!! you WILL notice a decrease between 7200 and 5400. it is VERY significant and frankly i am shocked that you would go with a 5400 based on a totally flawed judgement that 7200 fail more. your amd processor will fail before that hdd i guarantee it. i have never had a 7200 in my systems fail. other peoples yes, but the rate of 7200's failing to 5400's is exactly 1:1. the speed does not make a difference. if it did, my compaq 9.1gig 10krpm would fail way before my 7200's. the way i think it works is that some hdds fail, some dont and theirs nothign you can do about it.
"I also wanted to be able to burn and rip CDs fairly fast, so I went with the Yamaha CRW2100EZ. It's a very nice, very fast drive, but has a major problem for the quiet machine: it's loud."
yes well you have realized somethign very commonly known in the industry. yamaha's make a TON of noise. the other thing to note about that particular drive is if you try burning those mini credit card sized cds in them, they always buffer underrun so their not the best drives to get. i would have gone with a plexwriter or a scsi yamaha (which i actually own btw).
"I went with the consumer top of the line sound card, the Creative Labs Soundblaster Platinum. This thing was a SOB to get installed, because you have to not only insert the normal sound card into the PCI slot, but also fit into the 5 & .25" drive slot the external control slot. It's pretty cool, because it comes along with a remote so that you can use the computer as a movie watching system, if you want"
ahhh you baught into the hype! creative cards are awful! they suck tonnes of cpu power, install all sorts of buggy programs (ie creative disc detector) and have huge drivers. a better card by far, albiet hard to find in my part of the world are turtle beach cards. also they are cheaper and dont come with all that useless software. and they dont make your system load 1/2 as fast!
"Nothing really exciting here -- I reused a Intel EEpro 100"
just a small note. i read somewhere (i believe toms) that those intel cards eat tonnes of cpu and us eless bandwitdh than they should. personally i would go with a 3com 3c905c. thoes people know what they are doing.
"UPS System: We wouldn't want to be crashing in the midst of our gaming or working, now would we? I actually set up two UPS systems "
rofl! if you have money sure! but ups's on a gaming machine.... it doesnt really serve any point except being able to play quake when the power fails, but on that hand if your routers/switches are not on the ups you will loose your connection anyways so it doesnt really matter.
i dont mean to cut up your system because it sounds sweet (i wish i could afford a windowed case w neon tubes) but some of your dicisions strike me as odd and i figured you posted here to see what we thought of it so thats what i think!
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Sound absorbing sheets? (Score:2)
by Tiroth (Tiroth@NOSPAM.iname.com) on Wednesday October 31, @12:02PM (#2503069)
(User #95112 Info | http://www.anidian.com/)
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Anyone have any experience using sound absorbant sheeting? I'm interested in lining computer case panels with it, or possibly building a fully-enclosed rack that is lined to house noisy equipment.
I'd like to give an example but I can't get to the site [partsexpress.com] that has them. The most basic form is an asphalt-based flexible sheet with adhesive that can be applied to just about any surface. They are often used in automotive stereo setups to deaden road noise (and reverberations?).
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tips (Score:3, Informative)
by debrain on Wednesday October 31, @12:03PM (#2503071)
(User #29228 Info)
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To help minimize heat and noise, consider these tips:
Enermax has a good rep for p/s.
Get a 4500-5k RPM CPU fan.
Cut out those grills where the computer case fans go; they cut airflow down by up to 50%.
Use a silver thermal transfer compound on your heat sink (wash the heat sink with acetone, then isopropyl solution, then a silk/lens cloth (no lint) before applying the compound). Use plastic to rub the compound around clockwise and counter-clockwise, then clean off excess compound with the cloth.
Get a video card without a fan, like a Geforce2 MX. Video card fans are small and wear down faster, so you get ball bearing failures more often and faster, so they end up being the noisiest part of the machine.
If you've got the money, get an aluminum case.
Tie back your cabling
Direct airflow towards the CPU.
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| - Re:tips by MindStalker (Score:1) Wednesday October 31, @12:41PM
- Re:tips by repvik (Score:1) Wednesday October 31, @01:38PM
- 1 reply
beneath your current threshold.
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Quiet *gaming* machine? Crank the subwoofer! (Score:3, Insightful)
by Phrogz (gavin@refinery.com) on Wednesday October 31, @12:04PM (#2503080)
(User #43803 Info | http://phrogz.net/)
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Seriously, I absolutely understand the desire/need for a quiet work machine. But gaming? What game is quiet? Unless you've got a turbo-jet fan in your machine, the sound of the game should easily drown and overpower any sound the machine is making, at even the lowest reasonable gaming volumes.
Why is a quiet *gaming* machine even an issue?
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For you cheapo's out there (Score:2)
by cavemanf16 (<cavemanf16> <at> <yahoo.com>) on Wednesday October 31, @12:04PM (#2503081)
(User #303184 Info | http://www.marotti.com/ | Last Journal: Wednesday March 06, @01:57AM)
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I rebuilt my old Gateway case/Dell mobo/proc setup just recently. I didn't have much money to go on, but the PIII 500MHz, non-overclockable Dell mobo/proc was showing its processing power age, along with the fact that my HDD just farted out a month ago.
1. First and foremost - get an AMD Duron (and cheapest proc you can find in the Duron series), and an easy-to-overclock motherboard. I cranked my Duron750 to 995MHz (very stable) using an Abit KT7A (non-RAID) motherboard. And it only took about $300 to do this since I had my old case, monitor, various PCI cards, etc. My computer isn't the top notch machine out there, but it definitely does the job. Especially when it comes to ripping mp3's for cheap, as that is a pretty CPU intensive operation.
2. Prepare to have a noisy PC. For those of you who don't "get" what all the fuss is about fan noise, try using a powerful heatsink on a high-temp running AMD chip. It's loud! My roommate says it sounds like a small vacuum cleaner or miniature jet plane when I turn the computer on. :)
Obviously, we're all going to debate what the 'best' computer is, but what it really comes down to at this point, is individual tastes, gaming preferences, work needs, price, etc, etc, etc. I read a lot of those computer review and mod sites on a daily basis, so I have a pretty good idea of how to build a PC for just about anyone's personal taste and budget. I'm trying to get a little shop off the ground that makes customizations/recommendations for people, so if you'd like to test my knowledge and drop me an email for some free advice, and give me feedback on how you like (or hate) what I have to say, and how it works out for you, please feel free. ;) [/shameless plug]
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Some Bad Choices (Score:2, Interesting)
by eAndroid on Wednesday October 31, @12:04PM (#2503084)
(User #71215 Info | http://cowcomics.com/)
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This a setup that will play games decent but it falls short of being anything great. It isn't a silent as it could be.
- Hard drive. Obviously he didn't do much research into quiet hard drives. First, a quick scan of hard drive reviews at Tom's Hardware suggests that Fujitsu drives are usually the most silent. However that is not the glaring mistake: missing the Seagate Barracuda IV [seagate.com] is.Besides being faster than any 5,400 rpm drive it is also the quietest drive ever. You literally have to press your ear against it to hear it.
- Holy Case. Sure some people might think it looks cool (I think it looks about as cool as cutting a big hole in the hood of a car). But it can't be quiet. If this really was a "quiet" machine then wouldn't he have chosen a quiet case? Perhaps something with extra thick sides and few rattling parts (thumbscrews?).
And of course he if he really did care about silence then he could have gotten a mac. But arguably that would have hindered the, "gaming" part.
This is just a kid who wants to brag about his new half-assed machine. And, to no one's surprise, slashdot it up for that.
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Under 2000 bucks? Yeeessh. (Score:2, Interesting)
by Xouba on Wednesday October 31, @12:05PM (#2503085)
(User #456926 Info | http://slashdot.org/)
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Man, salaries in USA have to be totally amazing, because spending 2000 US$ in a computer, only for gaming, seems to me like quite overkill. Damn Big Overkill (tm).
I don't know around there, but here in Spain 2000 US$ is, more or less, 3.5-4 times what I earn each month, and almost twice of a "good but not all that special" salary.
Some examples: a friend of a friend, which is teacher in a public school, earns 1300 US$ (translated from pesetas, of course :-)). And he's got a "minor degree" (3 years of study) only. He's got an Audi A4, to say it that way, while "chief executives" in private firms that earn about 2200 US$ drive in big badass BMWs.
More examples: my MSI-6330 mobo (Pro2, I think: it has ATA100, while the "Pro" only had ATA66) and Duron 800 costed, 4-5 months ago, about 200 US$ (36000 pesetas, to be exact). The thinkgeek case that Hemos tells is a fine one, but ... well, it just costs a lot. A normal case here costs about 50 US$. The one picked by Hemos costs 230 US$.
So, if Hemos spends 2000 bucks in a computer *for playing games* ... Hemos, man, did you buy the Ferrari yet? :-)
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Link (Score:1)
by nexex on Wednesday October 31, @12:07PM (#2503101)
(User #256614 Info | Last Journal: Sunday October 21, @12:50PM)
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Why does the link to CDW point slashdot.org?
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Arrgh (Score:3, Informative)
by OdinHuntr (ebourg&po-box,mcgill,ca) on Wednesday October 31, @12:07PM (#2503102)
(User #109972 Info | http://gtkmonop.sourceforge.net)
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It pains me so to see people flush money down the drain.
In my experience (and this has been verified by hardOCP, anandtech, etc benchmarks), the only uniprocessor DDR motherboards worth buying over the VIA KT133A chipset are those with the VIA KT266A or AMD 76[01]. The ALi has been
shown [hardocp.com] to perform _worse_ than a PC133-ram solution. Bad move.
65 degrees C? Anything over 50C is considered 'borderline'. AMD CPUs can take 90C iirc, but that's internal core temperature - the temperature that you see in the BIOS setup is an external temperature taken via a probe below the CPU socket.
Most of us tend to research major purchasing decisions before we make the plunge.
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| - Re:Arrgh by MentalPunisher2001 (Score:1) Wednesday October 31, @02:13PM
- Re:Arrgh by Reductionist (Score:1) Wednesday October 31, @04:11PM
- Re:Arrgh by Grelli (Score:1) Wednesday October 31, @03:16PM
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new Soundblaster Audigy - better than the old Live (Score:1)
by romkey (romkey@NOSPAMHEREapocalypse.org) on Wednesday October 31, @12:08PM (#2503109)
(User #145460 Info | http://www.apocalypse.org/pub/u/romkey/)
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if you're not too conferned about cost, you might want to check out Creative's new Soundblaster Audigy [soundblaster.com] - the Ex version has a box similar to the "LiveDrive" of the SB Live but it's external with a thick cable to connect it to the SB Audigy card. The card does 24 bit 5.1 channel audio and also provides a firewire port and all the digital I/O that the high end SB Live cards had. I found the drive bay box on the SB Live Platinum to be a pain in the butt too, I never managed to get it mounted securely in a Dell box, but this external box is great.
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A7A226 Warning (Score:1)
by cjkarr on Wednesday October 31, @12:08PM (#2503111)
(User #23970 Info | http://aetherial.nu)
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Don't use this motherboard with Crucial / Micron memory - it's terribly unstable. Other stuff works well tho.
-Chris
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Iphi Says (Score:1)
by TheDarkRogue (agrajag@planethal ... m ['ife.' in gap]) on Wednesday October 31, @12:09PM (#2503119)
(User #245521 Info | http://slashdot.org/)
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http://www.iphi.com/pooter/silent.html
She has already begun to embark on this endevor and made a page for it, hopefully with some useful information
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One thing i did differently (Score:1)
by MrPotatoeHead on Wednesday October 31, @12:09PM (#2503120)
(User #136285 Info)
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though i was thinking along the same lines, but really wanted a burner AND a DVD...
so i ended up getting the Toshiba SD-R1002 4X4X24X CD-RW / 4X DVD-ROM IDE drive... all in one bay!
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Why makes it quiet if it's a gaming machine ? (Score:1)
by Altern-X on Wednesday October 31, @12:09PM (#2503124)
(User #532828 Info)
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It's a nice set up, I'm looking for one like this for server/program on it. But I don't see the point to having a quiet machine to play loud noissy games with volume pretty high(enough to hide all the ambiant noises).
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Better solution to the noise problem (Score:2)
by hrieke on Wednesday October 31, @12:10PM (#2503129)
(User #126185 Info | http://www.polsci.wv...ecream/icecream.html)
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Just have louder speakers! and a more powerful stereo.
When I play Quake Arena, the whole neighborhood knows it.
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beneath your current threshold.
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Way to much money for that rig. (Score:2, Interesting)
by azephrahel on Wednesday October 31, @12:17PM (#2503144)
(User #193559 Info)
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Here's the deal-
The case was way to expensive. >$200, and it does nothing towards the goal of a fast-quiet gaming machine.
I would argue against picking up the extra special quiet power supply myself, but hey, he was going for quiet, I guess thats excuseable.
The CDRW drive is a waste unless you really don't have a cdrecorder in any of your other machines. A 52X CD-ROM is $100 cheaper, and does what you need for a gaming rig. Especially considering he's holding out for a DVDR drive.
Another $30 blown on rounded ide cables (if they matter THAT much to you, round the ide cables that came with the mobo while watching this weeks Enterprise)
Then he splurged for the SBLive Platinum instead of the basic, another 50-75 down the tubes.
Why am I whining about $320 on a "somewhat budget concience" machine because it only costs ~350$ to 375 build a box that performs almost as well as this, add $200 if you've really gotta have a gef3. The point is configuring a box like this isn't to make it quiet or a great gaming rig, at $2000 its a showy waste of money.
(the $230-just-because-its-shiny-case really set me off)
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Quiet for gaming? (Score:2)
by BWJones on Wednesday October 31, @12:18PM (#2503148)
(User #18351 Info | Last Journal: Monday February 18, @04:22PM)
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I guess I am not sure what the point is here. When playing games, it seems that one would not mind a little hard drive noise/fan noise given the sound FX are going to be cranked up a bit and will probably mask any noise inherent in the machine. However, for work I really do want a quiet machine. For this the Mac Cube sitting on my desk with a 17in Flat panel is absolutely silent. No fan noise, no CRT electron beam flyback squeal, NOTHING. Its wonderful. The cube is not the greatest game machine, I expect it would be adequate for most games but hey, this is work. The real game machine is at home.
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The Future is Queit -- Think PVR (Score:1)
by rochlin on Wednesday October 31, @12:19PM (#2503150)
(User #248444 Info)
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Game boxes will be very quiet in the future because they're going to have PVR functions and what not, and you don't what your box drowning out the T-vision.
I'd like to see some actual work put into researching a quiet box. How about using Seagate's U series drives [seagate.com] which is actually designed for home entertainment applications?
(By the way -- how exactly does aluminum dampen noise? Gotta dig out that physics book again dammit...)
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Quieter components (Score:1)
by NoShadow on Wednesday October 31, @12:19PM (#2503151)
(User #161030 Info)
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Having just built a quiet pc myself (for my bedroom), I'd recommend a couple different components.
First off, a 400W powersupply unit for a 1.2 GHz CPU, one HD and one CD-RW is simply overkill. If you are looking for a quiet PSU, I'd recommend one from http://nwccomputers.com/ATX1125B.htm . It's the same as sold by www.quietpc.com and they are the only US distributor that I was able to find. Sure, it's only 250W, but it's more than enough for what you need. And it's rated at 27 db vs 38 db of the one from PC&C. They also sell a 300W version if you feel like you need more power.
I'd also recommend the Radial Fin CPU coolers made by Molex. Very cool design, and very quiet also.
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beneath your current threshold.
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Too much hype about Corsair (Score:1)
by FIGJAM (figgy @ beer . com) on Wednesday October 31, @12:20PM (#2503153)
(User #29275 Info)
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Kingmax have some wicked RAM. There's a review [tweaktown.com] showing up to 172FSB
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you got screwed (Score:2)
by geekoid (notities@yahoo.com) on Wednesday October 31, @12:22PM (#2503168)
(User #135745 Info | http://slashdot.org/ | Last Journal: Thursday February 21, @04:37PM)
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If you bought that machin in the last 30 days, and spent anywhere near 2000.00, see the subject.
I have a Athlon1.4, 2 scsi 18G drives, LSI 160 dual controller, GeForce3 AGP, 768M 2100 ram, Soyo Dragon Mobo, Aluminum case,emerex PS. 1200.00 dollars.
My only regret is the PS, its load as hell.
He mentions cost concerns, but buys a specialty case, sheesh.
What with that CPU temp? my Athlon 1.4 under heavy load, hits 48c Just OS 38c Playing Quake 3 or Dark Ago of Camelot, its usually around 43c. This guy needs to rethink his airflow, because I've note some heat issues with my geforce if my ambient case temp starts to climb to high.
I worked in an enviroment where we tested IDE and SCSI regularly. Time and time again the latestes SCSI always beet the Latest IDE, even the 100.
Note I said Latest, I always here "my IDE is nearly as fast and cheaper", but it never fails thay there comparing the latest IDE to an older SCSI card. My personal favorite, comparing a RAID IDE 100 to a non raid SCSI 40. sheesh.
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something to keep in mind (Score:1)
by kidlinux (kidlinux@@@spacebox...net) on Wednesday October 31, @12:23PM (#2503173)
(User #2550 Info | http://spacebox.net/)
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When adding another half gig of ram, remember that Win98 can only handle up to 512mb. I had a problem with tryna run win98 on a gig of ram using my ATI radeon 64mb vivo - I couldn't set the resolution higher than 640x480@8bpp.
That temperature for the 1.2ghz athlon is crazy high. I'm running a 1.4ghz at full load and it's only at 45C. Although I am using a Swiftech mc462-a (y'know the one with all the aluminum pins) and a delta 68cfm fan which is noisy as hell. That PCPower heatsink looks pretty weak - at least get a decent heatsink with a less noisy fan. I also set the core voltage down to about 1.625V (that's what it's set at in the bios, but it actually runs at about 1.69V) And that made a difference of ~5-8 degrees C. The default bios setting was around 1.8V - you might want to check your setting.
Also, the round cables - I've been reading a lot bad reports on those things. Apparently the reason cables are flat ribbons is because the way all the wires work together. Rounding them can cause all sorts of interference and performance issues. Anyone have any experience with this? I've got round cables, but am not using them right now because of what I've read.
The mouse -- why go cordless when you've got the keyboard with USB ports? Get a nice optical with a cord, plug it into the keyboard, and stop worrying about the latency issues.
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Tcl tends to get ported to weird places like routers.
-- Larry Wall in <199710071721.KAA19014@wall.org>
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