Quietest CPU cooler for S939 Athlon 3x00

[Shmee150]

Ok, thinking about getting a media server, as in simple computer in a Micro ATX case, with something along the lines of 3 250GB Samsung Spinpoints, will be getting a processor from Athlon64 between 3000 and 3800, not going to go into deciding exactly which yet, but if what I want is the quietest cooler for it then what should I be looking for? It will certainly not be overclocked and wants to sit as quietly as possible.

Thanks!

ShMeE

[arthurleung]

Just buy a 3000+ and undervolt it. Your case fan will be noisier than the stock cpu fan. If you really want to throw away cash, buy yourself a CNPS9500.

[JimmyBoy]

yer, if u get a retail cpu, use the heatsink that comes with it, im still using the stock cooler, its nice n quiet

[Shmee150]

I was originally looking at an Antec Aria Cube Case, with an MSI MicroATX Mobo and an AMD CPU, but am now tempted towards the Shuttle Zen ST62K, not only is it smaller (going down to just 2 3.5" bays, instead of the 3 in the Aria) but it is almost certainly eas to get set up and ready and less complicated. Sp does anybody have either of these and want to give pointers towards their loudness?

Any opinions?

I would then be looking for two larger drives, in excess of 600GB total, so should I take a smaller OS drive + MP3s, say 200GB, and a 500GB drive for larger files, or two 320gig drives?

And which P4 would then go in it? Doesn't need to be spectacularly powerful, but nothing too shabby either! Considering that the Zen's PSU is only 180W (16A), it's probably worn out after two hard drives, so what CPU should I choose in this situation?

I'm presuming a Dual Channel 2x512MB Corsair Value or something is what I should be getting, and I need to decide if there is any need for a better graphics card than the Radeon 9100 that's inside!

Does anybody know of the benefits of running Windows Server 2003, rather than XP, I mean immediately there's the bonus of being able to use Exchange Server, but I've never been anywhere near it and wondered if any of you have! (with all the appropriate licences of course!!)

Decisions decision! AMD and Antec, or Intel and Shuttle.... hummm!

Thanks for taking the time to read this!

ShMeE

[Shmee150]

Ok, I think I'm sorted;

Shuttle Zen ST62K
Intel Pentium 4 3.0GHz Prescott (The only slower one I've found is a 2.4GHz for £20=5 less, makes the 3GHz seem worth it - how much more heat would it generate vs the 2.4?)
Corsair 1GB Value Select 2x512MB
Sony DWQ28A10 White 16x DVD-RW
250GB Samsung SpinPoint
400GB Hitachi Deskstar
Netgear 10/100/1000 PCI Card

Total cost, £600. Seems non-too shabby, will never every play a game, but may be being accessed by say 5+ computers at once for file transfers so is there something I should change?

EDIT - ARGH I just reaised it doesn't support SATA That's a problemo!

ShMeE

[plesuvius]

Be aware that the mean power usage (and therefore heat, and noise... kinda) on a P4 is much higher then that of an athlon 64 (at least the current generation!). An A64 3000+ venice can do stock clocks at around 1.2v (well mine can!) and its really not in need of a lot of cooling at that point......

[arthurleung]

Be aware that the mean power usage (and therefore heat, and noise... kinda) on a P4 is much higher then that of an athlon 64 (at least the current generation!). An A64 3000+ venice can do stock clocks at around 1.2v (well mine can!) and its really not in need of a lot of cooling at that point......

My 3000+ can go pretty low The crappy one I got can go down to 1.04V (Still available for sale though) and the one I'm using now is at 0.97V.

16A shouldn't be a big problem. The PSU I used only have 18A and I hooked 2x300G on it, it ran very stable .

You should buy 2x300G (NO MAXTOR), since the 7K400 has 5 platters which makes it produce more heat/drain more power. One single maxtor 300G draws more current than my TWO Seagates:


Hitachi 7K250 = 500mA, 700mA
Maxtor DM10 = 740mA, 1520mA
Maxtor DM9 = 670mA, 960mA
Seagate 7200.8 = 480mA, 560mA
WD2000JB = 750mA, 900mA
The first value is 5V and second value is 12V peak drain.
I have the pictures of my harddrives in my system looked it up in the pic just now.

[Shmee150]

I was suspecting, that without a particularly top-end cpu and without a graphics card other than that internally on the motherboard that the PSU should not have a problem.

The SpinPoint is 650mA, 1900mA. That sounds significantly less good than those you have already suggested. I thought that these were good and significantly quieter than normal, hence the excessive prices.

I agree though that from a price point of view, it probably is best to get a pair of 300GB drives. But which ones! From benchmarks I'm thinking WD3200JB, and have a 640GB hard drive in total. It has both relatively high read and write speeds, low temps and general good performance.

ShMeE

[arthurleung]

I was suspecting, that without a particularly top-end cpu and without a graphics card other than that internally on the motherboard that the PSU should not have a problem.

The SpinPoint is 650mA, 1900mA. That sounds significantly less good than those you have already suggested. I thought that these were good and significantly quieter than normal, hence the excessive prices.

I agree though that from a price point of view, it probably is best to get a pair of 300GB drives. But which ones! From benchmarks I'm thinking WD3200JB, and have a 640GB hard drive in total. It has both relatively high read and write speeds, low temps and general good performance.

ShMeE

It depends on which type of transfer you do most.
If you do a lot of random write/read, Hitachi and Western Digital
If you do a lot of large file single-threaded transrer, Maxtor.
But most of the time you won't notice a difference between different harddrives. The 16M cache and extra STR on my Maxtor 300G does not make my system feel smoother. Neither do using my old school WD2000JB.
The difference between newest gen 7200rpm drives are not big enough to feel IMO.

[Dark Horse]

Silent thermaltake cooler :

http://www.thermaltake.com/coolers/4...r/cl-p0071.htm

Seems to get good reviews:
http://www.techniz.co.uk/modules.php...&id=199&page=8
http://www.parkoz.com/zboard/view.ph...t_news&no=3795

[Shmee150]

It depends on which type of transfer you do most.
If you do a lot of random write/read, Hitachi and Western Digital
If you do a lot of large file single-threaded transrer, Maxtor.
But most of the time you won't notice a difference between different harddrives. The 16M cache and extra STR on my Maxtor 300G does not make my system feel smoother. Neither do using my old school WD2000JB.
The difference between newest gen 7200rpm drives are not big enough to feel IMO.

It will mostly be being used to stream music to a number of computers at one time. MP3s mostly and different tracks from say 5 computers at once. Occasionaly might be being accessed for 2/3 mpg/divx (& possibly DVD) at the same time.

I suppose I'll get the WD ones, because I wanted 650GB from a 400+250 but it's cheaper to go 320+320.

I remembered that I have a P4 Northwood 3.2 lying around, so that's going in, and the rest of the system is around £400 on top of that, so nice and easy

Cheers,

ShMeE

[arthurleung]

It will mostly be being used to stream music to a number of computers at one time. MP3s mostly and different tracks from say 5 computers at once. Occasionaly might be being accessed for 2/3 mpg/divx (& possibly DVD) at the same time.

I suppose I'll get the WD ones, because I wanted 650GB from a 400+250 but it's cheaper to go 320+320.

I remembered that I have a P4 Northwood 3.2 lying around, so that's going in, and the rest of the system is around £400 on top of that, so nice and easy

Cheers,

ShMeE

That is not really considered heavy load . Even an old school 40gb drive could do that.
Since MP3 = 320kbps, x5 users = 1600kbps = 200kb/s = about the speed of 2M ADSL download. Likewise, for DVD it would need 1.5MB/s per user, and 5 users should use around 7.5MB/s. Since DVD is not particularly random to start with, a 80G harddrive can easily put out 15MB/s partial-linear access.

Since you have decided there is nothing I need to say

[Shmee150]

Thanks for the input anyways!

Hopefully this will be a very very very easy build

ShMeE

[999tigger]

If you want truly silent then hsf with 120m fans are the way to go. The sixe of your case will be a problem.
I'd probably save the money and just buy an arctic cooling freezer for les than £15.

[beca5olo]

Have a look at www.quietpc.com. They have a great system where you simply select your socket and they produce a list of possible and recommended solutions.