New PC Specs

[Loony BoB]

I might have some money coming back to me thanks to me getting insurance for my ticket before cancelling it, so I was thinking about finally getting that new custom PC I always wanted. So, without further blabber, I'm looking for the ideal parts for the following:

- Quiet PC. Make it close to silent.
- 160GB HDD will do me fine.
- 2GB RAM
- 64bit/Athlon/3GHz
- Forget about software, I'll drag it over from my existing PC.
- Forget about monitor, keyboard and mouse - I know what monitor I want and I have spare mice / keyboards already.
- Quality graphics card (this is the part I'm most unsure about when it comes to what I should get)
- DVD Rom, DVD RW AND 1.44" Floppy drive so I can get stuff off my 286 in NZ if I ever need to.
- 5.1 Surround sound speakers (not as important). Nothing flashy-looking, though - just speakers.
- I'm hoping to use the Antec Sonata case found on this page.

If you have more than enough time, then going to overclockers.co.uk and pointing out the parts would also be nice. I have a budget of around £850 maximum to work with.

Basically I want a PC that will last me a decent length of time... 2-3 years at least.

[RSL]

Buy me a graphics card while you're at it!

[Yamaneko]

A close to silent PC with a 64-bit CPU and a "quality" graphics card doesn't exist. You're going to have to deal with a bit of noise pollution (might want to consider getting a fan control as well, so that when you aren't doing anything CPU or GPU intensive, the fans speed down).

For now, I'd probably go with the Radeon 9800 Pro (it'll set you back about $200-$230).

What exactly would you be doing on your new computer. Playing games, animation, encoding?

[Loony BoB]

A close to silent PC with a 64-bit CPU and a "quality" graphics card doesn't exist. You're going to have to deal with a bit of noise pollution (might want to consider getting a fan control as well, so that when you aren't doing anything CPU or GPU intensive, the fans speed down).

For now, I'd probably go with the Radeon 9800 Pro (it'll set you back about $200-$230).

What exactly would you be doing on your new computer. Playing games, animation, encoding?

Games would be the most 'intense' thing I could think of. I'm not sure what else I'll be using it for over the next couple of years, though. I'm considering giving myself lessons in 3D art, as I'd like to start designing a 3D model of Aiyon.

As for the cooling thing, would it not be better to just get a really nice heatsink or something? Also, when you say "A close to silent PC with a 64-bit CPU and a "quality" graphics card doesn't exist" - which of the two causes more noise? Just out of curiosity. For the most part, I just want it to be quiet when I'm not doing much with it, because I leave my PC online 24/7. I don't mind all too much about the odd noise when I'm playing a game, but what annoys me is the noise it makes when I'm not doing anything, ie the constant fan noise and the occasional hard drive noise when I'm downloading a crapload of stuff at the same time.

[NM]

Any PC with a high end CPU and graphics card is going to be noisey. To help lower the noise level get fan's with adjustable speed setting's and nose reduction. Or if you want to you could get a water cooling kit.

Rought spec for you.

Prices will depend on what you go for. For example if you get a motherboard which run's DDR2 memory or PCI-Express which are both faily new it's gonna put the price up.

AMD Athlon 64 3500 Socket 939 - £182.54
NForce 3/4 motherboard - £ 60 to £100+ depends what you want it to do.
GeForce 6800 GT 256MB - £260 to £ £300
2GB 3200 DDR RAM - £200+
DVD Writer - £41+
5.1 Speakers - £51+

Total roughly £800.

Prices are from Scan.co.uk. Overclockers are abit dodgy from what i've heard of them.

[Samuraid]

For noise, the antec sonata or the antec SLK 3700BQE (I think that is the model number) are the best ways to go. For extra cooling, pick up an extra fan, preferably an antec smartcool.

[Loony BoB]

Antec Sonata Piano Black Quiet Case - 380W TruePower Silent PSU
Asus K8N-E Deluxe nForce3 (Socket 754) Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 2800 Newcastle 130nm (Socket 754) - OEM
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC)
Samsung SpinPoint P SP1614C 160GB SATA 8MB Cache - OEM
Zalman CNPS7000B-ALCU Ultra-Quiet CPU Cooler - Retail
Sony DDU1612 DVD-ROM (Black) - OEM
Sony DWU-22A 16x DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM
OcUK Value Floppy Drive - Black
Creative Inspire 5.1 P5800 Speakers - OEM

That's £644.90 total (inc. VAT)

What are the thoughts on that? It's basically what the guy who is going to build the PC threw together a couple of months ago, with a few minor changes since some of the old stuff is no longer listed - just missing that graphics card... but yeah, is the above stuff okay?

EDIT: And would it all fit into the case, and if so, is it possible (and is it better?) to get 2x 80GB HDD's instead of 1x 160GB HDD?

[Yamaneko]

Sound card?

I like dual HDD. Just in case something happens to the other one. Plus you can RAID them if you're worried about transfer rates.

[Dr Unne]

Why do you need 2 GB of RAM? That first computer looks to be insanely overpowered for mostly anything any normal person would want to use a computer for. My 3-year-old 2600 GHz is quite overpowered for me, and I do things with my computer most people probably would not. Unless you have money you're willing to throw around for not much reason or unless you're doing something massively CPU-intensive or RAM-intensive, I'd say get something less than state-of-the-art and save some money.

Get a really nice monitor, a really nice mouse, and really nice speakers instead would be my advice. Those are the things you USE, things you look at and listen to on a daily basis, and they're things you can take along with you if you ever DO need to replace your computer itself for some reason. 5 nanoseconds vs. 2 nanoseconds to open a Word document isn't something I think anyone should be worried about for example.

[Doomgaze]

I hear that the next version of Windows will need a processor capable of communicating with God on a quantum level. That's the minimum, mind you - they really recommend the onboard Vishnu avatar as well. Tech support wholeheartedly recommends that, at least.

[Loony BoB]

The main reason I had 2GB is because I was taking a guess at what kind of stuff would be needed to play games in 1-2 years time. Right now I'm sitting on 256MB with a 32MB graphics card. I can't play many games, and when I got the PC a few years ago it was considered to be a pretty nice PC.

Hmm. How necessary is a sound card these days? I thought they were all built in or something. Oh well, £24.30 for a sound card isn't much, I guess. Now, how about the following, after a bit of adjustment...

Antec Sonata Piano Black Quiet Case - 380W TruePower Silent PSU
Asus K8N-E Deluxe nForce3 (Socket 754) Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 2800 Newcastle 130nm (Socket 754)
Samsung SpinPoint P SP0812C 80GB SATA 8MB Cache
Samsung SpinPoint P SP0812C 80GB SATA 8MB Cache
GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS2.5 (GE1GB3200BHDC)
Sapphire ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB DDR TV-Out/DVI
Sony DWU-22A 16x DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black)
Sony DDU1612 DVD-ROM (Black)
OcUK Value Floppy Drive - Black
Zalman CNPS7700-CU Ultra-Quiet CPU Cooler
Creative Inspire 5.1 P5800 Speakers
Creative Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit 7.1 PCI Sound Card

Totalling £721.69 and then I'll probably get an HP S7500/S9500 monitor and a normal old Microsoft optical mouse (probably from eBay.co.uk for those two), because I'm so used to them and quite like them too.

overclockers.co.uk seem to have better prices than scan.co.uk, and the guy who will be putting this together for me always uses parts from there, so I'll trust him on that part.

Now. I'm assuming a 7.1 sound card would work on 5.1 speakers.

So, are all those makes/models generally reliable?

[Peegee]

1 gig is fine right now. I have one gig and it's not even 400 Mhz ram (266)

If you seriously want a silent computer, go water cooling.

I think you might find what you are looking for if you go to one of the non-major-name-brand stores. I can get a decent computer for about 700$ (cdn), and all you need to do (I suppose) is buy the parts for the upgrades (+300-500$) .

If a UK dollar is still 2x Cdn (which it is), you should be able to easily afford it. In fact since you already have a lot of the hardware, let's try again but using parts last I checked:

Case: 100$ if not less (£50)
Mobo: 200$ (£100)
Processor: 500-600$? (£250-300)
Video card (decent): 300$ (£150)
Ram: ??? (no idea what you want)
fans: cheap cheap cheap. Maybe £10 max each. I'm thinking £7.5

And the rest you aren't upgrading. Still, that's plenty of money available leftover. I think anyway, assuming prices are the same.

[Loony BoB]

I considered doing things that way but the costs never worked out in my favour. Anyway, the prices are attached...

[Yamaneko]

You might want to go with a more powerful case fan (500 watts) since that video card is going to need all the air it can get.

[Loony BoB]

What if I was to throw a "Vantec SF12025L Stealth 120mm fan" at the front and the rear of the PC? Or would I need a fan specifically for the graphics card, like the... *checks* "Zalman VF700-CU Quiet Copper VGA Cooler"...?