Is it worth getting a Lian Li PC7 Plus?

[dodgybob]

I currently have a Lian Li PC6B with 4x80mm fans and a 350 Watt Enermax psu. The case fans are connected to a fan speed controller but tend to have to be run at full speed for decent cooling. It holds a 2500xp on an Asus A7N8X rev 1.04 (which despite my best efforts doesn't seem to like ocing the fsb to 400 to make it a 3200xp), 512mb corsair twinx 3200LL and a Radeon 9500pro with a zalman heatsink on it. I have a Zalman flower with the 92mm fan replaced with a 120mm vantec stealth on the over hanging bracket. In a couple of months I am upgrading the lot and going A64 and selling what I have to friends.

My major preoccupation with changing the case is noise. I'm a little obsessive about it. I saw several reviews of the PC7 Plus where it had 2x 120mm fans, one at the front and one at the rear, and one 80mm blow hole at the top. I decided i could live without a removable motherboard tray to get good quiet cooling with a couple of 120mm vantec stealths in such a case. However all the PC7s hitting the shops in the UK and in the US seem to have a 80mm fan at the rear and not the 120mm fan in the samples sent out for review. Now I am wondering whether it would be better to replace my fans with really quiet panaflos and whether that would make much of a difference sound wise. My mate is offering to buy my case and psu off me for £90 which also brings me to my next question.

I want to replace my 350w enermax psu with a good quality 400w+ psu which is very quiet. It seems that the quietest psus have a single 120mm fan so looking at the options there 2 have caught my eye. I could get a 460w Akasa or I could spend £65 on a seasonic psu. They seem to have excellent reviews but are very hard to find in the uk. The one I was able to track down comes from this store:

http://www.koolnquiet.co.uk/index.ph...=425&cat_id=52

To sum up:
1. What the hell is going on with the PC7 Plus? Why do review smaples have a rear 120mm fan and retail ones have a 80mm fan there?
2. Is it worth replacing the fans on my current PC6 rather than buying a new case?
3. Any recommendations on a good 400w+ very quiet psu?

I've been reading the forums for quite a while now but this is the 1st time i've taken the plunge to actually post anything. Thanking you in advance for any replies.

[Hans Voralberg]

The Akasa is good, i used one, it's lying around here somewhere. And it's not that hard to find, i bought it on OCUK (if you dare to buy from them). And you want to consider a Akasa Eclipse, IIRC it has 2 120mm and cheaper than a LianLi.

[Firelord]

The Akasa is good, i used one, it's lying around here somewhere. And it's not that hard to find, i bought it on OCUK (if you dare to buy from them). And you want to consider a Akasa Eclipse, IIRC it has 2 120mm and cheaper than a LianLi.

Any case with 120mm fans is a good thing

In regards to the PSU look at Tagans becuase they are dead quiet and have all the connections you need

[nvening]

The 480w Tagan is great and i would also get the AKASA Eclipse case, remember it comes without fans.

EDIT: What are you planning for your upgrade?

[Lu-tze]

i know what you mean about the pc-7 plus, i've been looking at this case as well, and it seems that the only ones with 120mm rear fans, were the ones that went out to the press. even on the lian-li site, the 7 plus only has an 80mm rear fan. whether there were issues with using a 120mm fan i dont know, but it is annoying.

as for case recommendations, the eclipse 62 as already mentioned is very nice. also have a look at the thermaltake tsunami dream and shark. the new antec p180 might be worth a look too when it comes out.

to replace the 4 80mm fans you already have would probably cost £40ish depending on what you want. personally, i would get a new case and a pair of silenx fans from www.kustompcs.co.uk

the seasonics get good reviews from www.silentpcreview.com but it looks like they are discontinuing some of their models. the akasa on the other hand is ATX2.0 compliant and has everything you need, plus it would probably be easier to sort out if you have any issues with it as it can be purchased anywhere.

if noise is an issue, think about what motherboard you want, as i have heard the nforce 4 chipest hsfs can be quite noisey, and if you want to replace it, you'll have to get a board where the hsf is not under the end of the gpu pcb.

as well as silentpcreviews, have a look at www.silent.se and www.quietpc.co.uk

[dodgybob]

Thanks for the replies

Looks like Akasa or Tagan for the psu. How quiet are they compared to an enermax psu with the fan dial turned fully down? I really like the ability of my current psu to be able to have the fan speed turned down if i'm watching a movie or working in the early hours so i'd like something akin to that noise level or if that's impossible something not too much louder but which can be at that level permamently. Looks like seasonics are out of the window. Lu-tze is right about support issues with a rare product in the uk.

Case wise I do like the Akasa Eclipse for it's space. Not the greatest looker but that doesn't matter if it cools quietly and has plenty of space. Having a Lian Li case means i'd prefer to stick with aluminium and the Akasa fits that bill. The thermaltake tsunami dream looks a bit cramped and i'm not a big fan of doors and the shark looks a bit naff. I do like the Coolermaster WaveMaster Black TAC-T01EK even with the door but I wish it had 120mm fans.

If I did get replacement fans for my case I would spend £28 and get 4 panaflos

My mate will buy both my case and psu or just the psu if I decided to keep the case. He will give me a good price as i've lent him my old suntek case for 18 months and the psu is getting knackered on that so i'd have to replace the psu on that if i was to use that again, but i digress.

One reason I liked the PC7 Plus was that it's about £65 and so I could have bought a decent psu and not spent too much above the £90 i'd get back from selling my old stuff. One thing that concerns me about the Eclipse 62 route is that i may end up spending about £150 with fans and psu and i'm trying to save for the upgrade. Hmmm, might have to bite the bullet.

[dodgybob]

The upgrade I was planning was as follows:

A64 3000+ either winchester or hopefully venice core by the time I'm buying.
1GB of Ballistix ram for a bit of ocing. It's £130 from the Crucial online store with free delivery and I couldn't find any good low latency ocing ram for that price. Everything else seemed to be £150+
The Dfi nforce4 Ultra mobo (I have to admit i'm really concerned about the fan on the chipset and it's location, I really would want to replace it and don't know whether that would be possible.) Any where it's not in the way of slots?
HIS Iceq X800XL
Think I might have to drop down to a 6600GT, not sure I can afford a X800XL now.
For the cpu cooler I'm torn between an XP120, XP90 or a Zalman 7000Cu.

I want to be able to oc the cpu with that ram but not to far as I want a quiet system.

[Hans Voralberg]

The Akasa Eclipse without window is ~88 iirc. Not really much more expensive, mind throw in 20 more quids ?? Never try the Tagan but for the Akasa, unless you stick your ear right next to it, i doubt you would hear anything.

[dodgybob]

The Akasa Eclipse without window is ~88 iirc. Not really much more expensive, mind throw in 20 more quids ?? Never try the Tagan but for the Akasa, unless you stick your ear right next to it, i doubt you would hear anything.

Looks like its worth the extra. I can get the Eclipse and 460w psu for £143 if i go direct to scan rather than delivering. If I go for the 400w psu it comes out about £130. Since I still have to buy case fans I wonder if its worth dropping down to the 400w model. Thanks for your input, particularly about the noise of the psu

[Lu-tze]

although the akasa is the better case, if you want something thats lian-li-styled, have a look here at the silverstone temjin 04. it sells for around £80 though i havent looked around for prices.

your spec sounds good, similar to the spec i am looking at for a new pc later in the summer. i would go for the HIS card over the 6600gt because of the cooler as well as the greater performance. but if cost is an issue, you can still buy the arctic-cooler for the 6600gt for around £20.

those coolers you mentioned are all good, but make sure you check with the manufacturer to ensure they are compatible with your chosen motherboard. also have a look at the arctic-cooling 64 hsf as this has recevieved very good reviews and only cost around £20.

if the board has holes around the chipset hsf, then you should be able to fit the zalman nf7 passive heat sink, but you have to make sure the board you buy has room as it would conflict with the gpu.

have you considered watercooling?

[YorkieBen]

the Abit AN8 has the Nforce4 chipset fan in a different position to other nforce4 motherboards

[dodgybob]

Thanks for the reply Lu-tze. I'm going to look into the silverstone, I keep hearing their name banded about but don't know much about their products.

I initally wanted an Xp120 but i feel it might be too big although the compatability chart if i remember correctly says its fine it just takes up the 1st pcie slot. If that was teamed up with the HIS I fear I would lose all my pcie slots straight off!

I'm concerned that the arctic hsf might not move enough air for ocing.

I'm almost tempted to get an sli motherboard to make sure I can replace the chipset hsf with the nf7 and still be able to put in a gpu but I need to think that out as to whether it would really be any advantage.

I feel at this time that watercooling is out of my league in terms of money and complexity. Might well come back to it for the next upgrade round in 2-3 years though. Hell by then it might be compulsory.

[dodgybob]

the Abit AN8 has the Nforce4 chipset fan in a different position to other nforce4 motherboards

That could be an option. It seems like I'd lose the pcie 1x slots if i replaced the cooler but that might have to be the sacrifice for quiet computing.

[Lu-tze]

notice that the an8 is a non-ultra chipset. it will cost a lot less though (£75ish). plus, would you use the 1x PCI-E slots? of course, you can always look at the VIA 890 based boards as these are all passively cooled. their performance isnt quite as high as the nforces, and they lack a few features such as the hardware firewall, but they are less expensive. i dont know how well they overclock though.

[dodgybob]

Hmm the 890 might be a viable option if it ocs well. I'll keep looking at the nforce 4s too. I could get a fatal1ty from abit but they are very expensive and look like they could take off with the number of fans on them. Probably not a good idea.

As to PCI-E 1x slots, this machine will have to last at least 2 years so during that time I might well end up using one of those slots. And there was me thinking the motherboard would be an easy choice :s

[Lu-tze]

personally, i think the mobo is the hardest choice. and the fatality is very loud because of its 40mm fans its got everywhere.