i7 920 System for audio + gaming

[flintyb]

Hi so I like the look of the Scan 3xs systems but could do with some advice with tweaking the specs a little from those specified. Basically the core of the 3XS SA-i7 PowerDAW+ Updated Jan 2010 looks good - 3xs.scan.co.uk/ConfigureSystem.asp?SystemID=935

Here are the specs -

Silverstone KL03B "Kublai Tower Series"
3XS Audio Creation System
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5, Intel X58, Sok 1366, PCI-E 2.0, DDR3 1066/1600/2000, SATA II, ATX
Prolimatech Megahalem 12025 (120mm x 25mm) fan Wire Clips
120mm Sharkoon "Golf Ball" Silent Eagle SE fan Quiet Case Fan inc 4x Speed Cable Set
120mm Sharkoon 1000 "Golf Ball" Quiet 19 dB(A) Case Fan
Sharkoon 3pin Voltage Adaptor Cable 12V -> 9.5V (Reduces Fan RPM and Noise)
AcoustiPack BLOCKS Acoustic Foam Blocks for 5.25"/3.5" Bays
Acronis True Image Home 2010 - System Back Up Software
Scan 3XS System - 1year Onsite Warranty (Mainland UK)
Scan System Configuration
60cm AKASA SATA2 DayGlo Blue UV - Right Angled Connection
Scan System Configuration (Details confirmed at checkout stage)

Qty Selected Specifications
1 *No Custom Colour Required*
1 Intel Core i7 920, D0 (SLBEJ) - Socket 1366 (B), Nehalem, 2.66GHz, Cache 8MB, 130W, Retail
1 Prolima Megahalems Super 6 Heatpipe Tower Cooler (Fanless)
1 **No Overclocking Required**
1 6GB (3x2GB) Corsair XMS3 DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24
1 *No NVIDIA VGA Card Required* (ATI Required)
1 *No ATI VGA Card Required* (NVIDIA Required)
1 625W Enermax MODU82+ EMD625AWT Modular Quad PCI-E Rail, ATX12v 2.3 , 88% Eff, AirGuard, SafeGuard
1 250 GB Seagate ST3250310NS Barracuda ES.2, 7200 rpm, 32MB Cache
2 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3, 7200rpm, 32MB Cache
3 Scythe "Quiet Drive" Internal HDD Silencer for 3.5" HDD on 5.25" bay
1 *Hard Drive Not Required*
1 Akasa AK-ICR-07S 3.5" Internal Multi Mem. Card Reader Incl. M2, Micro SD & USB port
1 Sony AD-7240S-0B - 24x DVDRW
1 *Blu Ray Not Required*
1 *No Soundcard Required*
1 *No USB / Firewire Card Required*
1 AcoustiPack ULTIMATE Multi-Layered Material Kit
1 ***No Wireless Required***
1 Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 32/64bit - Retail

To this system I will add my existing card (RME multiface 2 - so needs a pci slot free) and 19" monitor.

I see this PC for 2 main things - writing tunes (cubase 5) - and messing about (games, films on hdtv so needs a hdmi out)

Now there are a couple of things I'm not sure on.

1) the system drive choice of a 250gb Seagate. As this is only a 7200rpm drive, is there any point in getting this when the system will have 2tb of samsung f3 storage?

2) the 3x Scythe "Quiet Drive" Internal HDD Silencers. What kind of difference will these make to the noise level, considering there are 'acoustic foam blocks' in the bays and blu-tack usually does alright with acoustic coupling to the case? Ditto with the Scythe 'Himuro' HD coolers which are a bit cheaper.

3) I haven't specced a card as I'd like one with a bit more performance (and a HDMI out). I thought the sapphire HD 5770 vapor-x might be a good balance between performance and volume, have read it's quiet when demand is low (eg running cubase). It doesn't matter if it is a bit louder when stressed (eg games). Are there any better gfx options that ideally will not be audible when not running games?

many thanks in advance

[PeteG@Scan]

Hello,

I can quickly answer those for you:

1) the system drive choice of a 250gb Seagate. As this is only a 7200rpm drive, is there any point in getting this when the system will have 2tb of samsung f3 storage?

Personally I would (I did spec the website through so you'd expect me to say that!) but here's why.

The Barracuda drive specified is an Enterprise class drive that is designed to run 24/7 and has a 5 year warranty. When the machine was first tested it was just about the fastest 7200rpm drive we carried althrough this has changed in the period since we've found them to be extremely reliable drives in the mean time. I chose them as the O.S. drive is in almost constant use whilst the machine is running and wanted the most reliable drive I could find as the machine itself was built with the professional user in mind. I've been in studios that run 24/7 and I wanted to ensure every component would meet that requirement if I could. I also personally don't like using large drives to hold O.S's as they are the most likely to suffer a mechanical fail over time. And that's always after you fill all your other drives and start placeing stuff on your C:\ drive just for a while until you clear out enough space elsewhere to store it properly.

It is probably overkill through if your only going to be working on the machine a few hours a day (or even 12 hours a day) and i've added the 1tb options to the drive section for you.

2) the 3x Scythe "Quiet Drive" Internal HDD Silencers. What kind of difference will these make to the noise level, considering there are 'acoustic foam blocks' in the bays and blu-tack usually does alright with acoustic coupling to the case? Ditto with the Scythe 'Himuro' HD coolers which are a bit cheaper.

The drive's are pretty much the noisest components in the system and you'll hear them spin up and down quiet clearly without the caddies. With the caddies the is a noticeble difference with both of the caddies. The Himuro are single layer and more coolers than silencers but do still have a positive effect on the sound level. The Scythes Q.D's remove pretty much all the motor noise but you do still a get a gentle click as they spin up and down, but that's not really noticable overall. If your fitting louder components like the gfx card you mention they might not be as noticable anyway but in a normal spec'd system with a passive card it's worth doing.

3) I haven't specced a card as I'd like one with a bit more performance (and a HDMI out). I thought the sapphire HD 5770 vapor-x might be a good balance between performance and volume, have read it's quiet when demand is low (eg running cubase). It doesn't matter if it is a bit louder when stressed (eg games). Are there any better gfx options that ideally will not be audible when not running games?

I've heard good things about that card (pretty much all that you've stated above), but i've not tested it myself i'm afraid. The larger fan would surgest it's able to keep things cool at low speed during 2d operation and as long as the fan monitoring and controller software is upto scratch then it should be a great card for the purpose. The's been a few issues recently with the latest editions of the Nvidia card drivers and Cubase (small glitchs when scrolling about Cubase 5) and rolling back the revisions may not be helpful if your gaming on the card too, so it sounds like that may well be the card to go for in this instance.

[flintyb]

Thanks for the helpful reply

Are the parts specced here usually in stock? I realise the vapor-x card doesn't seem to be. If I went with yourselves, would it be possible to return the card should it turn out to be too loud? If not I might look to get it from a 3rd party with a no-fuss returns policy. Won't be able to order the PC for a couple of months anyway so maybe some high powered passive card will come out before then!

[Perfectionist]

Thought I should tell you Vapour-X is a bit questionable, I went for watercooling as a quieter option (looking for a very similar thing as you seem to be, both work+gaming PC) personally but I was looking at Vapour-X myself also before:
http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-right2...t-world-3.html

It seems like it might be dependent on what batch you get as some are lounder than reference 5870s some quieter it seems from what reviews have said (read that thread page)

It could also be that it's only the 5870 versions that have problems though and 5770 is better, however if you want to be sure probably best to try both normal and vapourx versions for yourself since the quality testing is apparently so poor that they didn't even test the 5870 ones they sent to HEXUS for review first to make sure they lived up to what they claim.

[flintyb]

Nice info. I did see that thread but the business about batch variation is new to me. Ultimately I suppose as you would have no point of reference it would just be a matter of - is this quiet enough for me. I suspect that if the answer was no, I'd either go for a passive card or start thinking of some slightly more fancy aftermarket solutions like yourself! Is the watercooling audible at all (or are you still waiting for your new beast?)

[Perfectionist]

The pump makes a bit of noise I read but was told it was very quiet on phone, the fans also very quiet (there have to be some fans to get the heat away from the radiators which is a pity I know, there are external cooling systems like big passive towers with the hot water pumped into them, but technology seems a bit iffy at the moment) - I asked for noise dampeners on the fans to be installed too so that should hopefully help even more.

Receiving it tomorrow if all goes well (scan system says dispatched, city link say allocated for dispatch and they don't actually have it yet), will let you know!

These days it's not so fancy anymore watercooling's a lot more common, and Scan seem to make a lot of systems with it (and service them if it goes wrong) - fancy is stuff like reactor pc or liquid metal cooling hehe

[PeteG@Scan]

Hi,

Yep, all those parts should be available. We try and keep everything in the spec's in stock for quick turn around so if it's on there and it goes out of stock, it should be back withing 48 hours at the worst.

I've had a chat with the guys over at Custom P.C. today as they've been putting together a Audio system for a artical next month. They started off trying out the same idea that your pursuing and when they asked me about cards it was them guys who mentioned the Vapor X being a card that would quieten itself down when only running 2d. The update they gave me today is that the system they built was extremely quiet but when they turned off the air con it was quite obvious that the Vapor was the largest source of noise in the rig.

As such the conclusion they came to was that it be better to go with a midrange passive and keep it as a dedicated audio box. Doesn't really help you find a solution but it may sway your choice in the gfx card department. If you purchase a rig and the card isn't suitable we can arrange some sort of exchange but they may insist on a restocking charge as we can't resell it as new. I can talk to the bosses about it, but it's not ideal really through some compromise maybe reachable.

Water cooling I don't acturly recomend for audio solutions (you may notice we don't have any on the specs!). Reason being is that all your doing is moving the heat from the center of the case to the edges of the case and this will cause more noise outside of the box.

In a small case build you have 1 in + 1 out and 2 on the cpu heatsink. If you fit watercooling you then have to mount that radiator to the roof of the case and you then have to fit the 2 fans that were on the cpu to the radiator. So you've still got the same amount of fans but now they are nearer the holes in the case so will be louder to the human ear. Also they have to work harder to force air through the narrower fins on a radiator rather than the wider spaced ones on a heatsink.

Water's great for performance but lousy if your after the most silent p.c. possible. It's why we don't tend to allow our audio boxes to be overclocked more than 15- 20% and our water rigs go upto 30% and above in some cases.

[flintyb]

Very helpful once again, cheers. That has swayed me a bit towards a passive solution.

Have done a bit of research and came across 2 passive 5750 cards - PowerColor SCS3 HD5750 and Club 3D Radeon HD 5750. These are very close to my requirements but think I may wait a little bit and see if a passive 5770 becomes available.

[PeteG@Scan]

I don't know of one off hand but these things do tend to trickle down without us noticing. Keep an eye out I suppose and see what happens.

[flintyb]

PeteG - any idea if/when the PowerColor Go! Green HD5750 might become available in the UK?

would be interested in nabbing one of these but they don't seem to be on sale anywhere...

[flintyb]

Here is the manufacturer's link (had to wait for 5 posts)

http://www.powercolor.com/eng/produc...ProductID=6850

much like the other 2 passive 5750 cards but with lower power consumption.

[PeteG@Scan]

I'm trying to find out for you at the moment. I've had the buyers here chasing them for a date today but no luck so far. I'll keep trying for you this week.