silent gaming spec

[hank]

Hello all,

This is my first post so... hi! and let me know if I should read any faqs or anything

I'm in the market again for a new rig.

So far, after browsing many other forums, [don't know if I can mention them here] I've decided this forum is the best candidate to offer unbiased advice.

Here goes...

Decided upon:

LN14984 2GB (2x1GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2 Pro, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 4-4-4-12 £45.64 £53.63
LN16006 650W Seasonic S-12 E+ SLi ATX12V, EPS12V 80+ Eff' 12cm Quiet Fan £64.99 £76.36
LN16903 Antec Solo Quiet Mini Tower ATX Case without PSU - Piano Black/Silver £51.89 £60.97
LN19488 Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, Kentsfield Core, S775, 2.40 GHz 1066MHz 8MB Cache, 9x Multiplier, Retail £103.89 £122.07
LN22890 Asus P5Q, iP45, S 775, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), DDR2 1200/1066/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX £73.19 £86.00
LN24376 1GB Gigabyte HD4850, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), 1920MHz GDDR3, GPU 625MHz, 800 Cores, 2x DL DVI-I/ HDTV, HDCP £116.89 £137.35


Unsure if it all fits together.

Surprisingly the Gigabye Graphics HD4850 seems to be a silent one with a passive cooler.

Your expert opinions are sought and will be gratefully received.

Many thanks.

[staffsMike]

The HSF will make noise, I'd get the scythe ninja 2 which comes with a scythe slipstream fan. The solo is a nice quiet case, you might want a modular PSU in there. The Corsair 520W HX is based on the S-12 I believe.. it's seasonic built anyway

There is only basic case air flow in the Solo remember, so a passive card may struggle, especially one like the HD4850 which is a hot runner.

If you could afford the extra, I would get the Nvidia GTX260 which Silent PC Review suggest as being silent when Idle and barely noticeable when gaming with the stock cooler

[hank]

Actually, I picked the memory/ motherboard and cpu on the basis that others had them in their spec. I don't know how I should be choosing these, especially the memory.

I've overclocked before, and my last gaming rig [shuttle with an amd mobile chip was overclocked to 2200 with a ati9800pro) I'm interested in overclocking this time also, but will not sacrifice silence through noisy fans too much though.

[staffsMike]

Well the scythe ninja 2 will certainly help with overclocking. You might want one of the better verisons of that board for overclocking. The P5Q PRO perhaps. The memory is fine for the Q6600.

[hank]

The HSF will make noise, I'd get the scythe ninja 2 which comes with a scythe slipstream fan. The solo is a nice quiet case, you might want a modular PSU in there. The Corsair 520W HX is based on the S-12 I believe.. it's seasonic built anyway

There is only basic case air flow in the Solo remember, so a passive card may struggle, especially one like the HD4850 which is a hot runner.

If you could afford the extra, I would get the Nvidia GTX260 which Silent PC Review suggest as being silent when Idle and barely noticeable when gaming with the stock cooler

Fantastic advice, thanks. I'll read up on this new graphics card. Would a passive card benefit from the Antec 900 instead (with its 20cm overhead fan)?

Sorry for my ignorance, what is a "modular" psu - and was the seasonic I chose inappropriate? I didn't know that seasonic built the Corsair psus - I'll gladly choose them now.

[staffsMike]

Seasonic make most of them. The 450W VX, 520 and 620W HX (modulars), and 650W TX

Modular means it has detachable cables so you only have to use the cables you need. You don't have to mess around trying to stuff the excess cables out of the way etc..

The 900 is certainly a better case in terms of air flow yeah, but you would be sacrificing hard drive noise I think..probably fan noise too.

[hank]

[ I take it from your post that it is ok to mention other sites e.g. spcr ]

I assume then that Seasonic make Corsair just as efficient/reliable as their own lable.

The ATI 4850 seems to be the "IN" graphics card at the moment and highly recommended everywhere (where performance over noise is priority). How does the Nvidia GTX260 compare - I'll search on spcr for a review also.

[staffsMike]

The 260GTX is far better than the HD4850, it competes more with the HD4870 in performance (and price).

[crazyfool]

corsair psu's are the best imo for this type of system and i know you said "silent" pc but i wouldn't really trust a hot running card like the 4850 to be passively cooled... the gtx260 is a better card and if it is too noisy for you then an aftermarket cooler for it would sort that out... everything else seems to have been covered ... oh and if you aren't sure on a case the 900 is a good case or the 1200, also have a look at the coolermaster cm-690, i have that case and it is very nice and if you swap out the fans for some better ones you get a very cool and very quiet system...

[staffsMike]

Oh yeah missed that bit. Corsairs are great PSU's, can't fault them. I have the 450W VX and the 520W HX and they are both fantastic and perfectly silent, in realistic terms lol

[hank]

Thanks. I'll get on spcr for a bit to read up on the nvidia card.
Cheers.

[stevie lee]

Hello all,

This is my first post so... hi! and let me know if I should read any faqs or anything
...
Many thanks.

well you did ask.. see my sig - welcome to HEXUS..
__

as you are undecided on the graphics heres a couple of reviews that you might not have seen,

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=15463 - has benchmarks for 4870 1gb, 4870, 4850, GTX260, 9800 GTX+
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=15464 - the 'new' GTX 260 with extra shaders.

[Rookie1986]

Personally for a gaming rig i would possibly swap out the Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 and replace it with either the Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 which is slightly cheaper or the Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 which is slightly more expensive, they should preform better for gaming imo.

Also you could add a small amount of extra money (Possibly what you saved if you changed the Q6600 to the E8400) and go for 4GB (2x2GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2 RAM, it really is worth the extra £10 now then to have to buy a full new set later!

/Rookie

[s3ds]

I would personaly use the none pro memory if you stick with 2GB
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=585723
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=402849
but i dont overclock

[DanceswithUnix]

Personally for a gaming rig i would possibly swap out the Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 and replace it with either the Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 which is slightly cheaper or the Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 which is slightly more expensive, they should preform better for gaming imo.

Also you could add a small amount of extra money (Possibly what you saved if you changed the Q6600 to the E8400) and go for 4GB (2x2GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2 RAM, it really is worth the extra £10 now then to have to buy a full new set later!

/Rookie

I just don't get this. The quad is competitive now, and the advantage will only get bigger over time.

We had all this when single cores got replaced with dual cores. Single cores were faster, for a while. Then they weren't. Now they are so budget you can hardly get them.

Dual core: Tomorrow's budget CPU... today!

[staffsMike]

Dual core: Tomorrow's budget CPU... today!

Which is why I believe the only worthwhile dual core right now from Intel is the E5200. That is all you will ever need from a dual core and it's £55 or less.