Quiet PC Spec Help?

[Lals]

Hi All,

I'm wanting to build a new computer soon (my first build, so I know very little about hardware), one of the main objectives is to get it quiet. I'm not expecting silence, I just want to make it as quiet as I can on my budget without compromising performance.

It'll be for programming (incl CUDA, so I need nVidia graphics), gaming and 3D work (not enough to justify a workstation card).

I was originally planning on building this last year but I didn't have enough money, so I've got a similar 'base spec' as I had then, the same components are even more expensive than last year though!

• Case: Antec P182 - (I'm reluctant to pay £120 on a case, especially since it was £70 last year, but it's supposedly one of the quietest, so...)
• Case Fans: 2x Noctua 120mm 1200rpm (but slow them to ~700rpm)
• PSU: 650W TX Corsair PSU
• CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700
• CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U12P CPU Heatpipe Heatsink with NF-P12 premium fan
• Mobo: Asus P5Q PRO
• RAM: 4GB (2x2GB) Corsair TwinX DDR2 XMS2, PC2-8500
• GPU: 896MB XFX GTX260 XT, 2000MHz GDDR3, GPU 621MHz, 216 Cores (if the stock cooler on this going to be loud?)
• HDD: 640 GB Western Digital WD6400AAKS Caviar Blue
• DVD: Pioneer DVR-216DBK 20x DVD±R

Total comes to £760 delivered, my maximum budget is £800 - I already have an OS, and extra HDDs.

If anyone could make any changes, or scrap the spec and do a better one for me it would be much appreciated,

Thanks.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

You may want to consider substituting a cooler running Q8400. It has half the L2 cache of the Q6700 but it has other architechural improvements so it should end being similar in speed hopefully!

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=1000421

The other possibility is an AMD Phenom II based build.

You could get a Phenom II X4 940 and a 790GX motherboard within your budget:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/AMD-P...Hz-125W-Retail

http://www.scan.co.uk/Search.aspx?q=790gx

The Phenom II X4 940 is between a Q9400(higher cache version of Q8400) and a Q9550 when it comes to rendering though:

http://techreport.com/articles.x/16147/9

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...px?i=3492&p=15

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpu...-920-review/12

http://www.guru3d.com/article/amd-ph...review-test/14

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/860/5/

It maybe worth looking at Be Quiet! and Enermax PSUs also.