Only have $1k but here's what I'm looking at:

A-Top X-blade Case (350w) with extra fans $65
ABIT KV8 Pro Motherboard $75
AMD Athlon 64 3400+ $216
Thermal take Silent boost fan $23
1024mb ddr400 RAM $126
West Digital 160gb 7200rpm HD $88
Sony DWD-22a/b2 16x RW Dual drive $65
XP Pro -sp2 $134
Already have a 128mb 9600pro video card $0
Audigy2 zs-pci Sound $40
Total $832 + $50 shipping and $90 for someone else to assemble and test. http://69.50.212.152/images/smilies/smile.gif

Any suggestions? AMD vs Intel? Other motherboards you like better? I know the video card isn't quite up to snuff...but I think it will do for the time being. Besides...I wont't have enough cash left to buy anything significantly better.

Thanks in advance.

I'm currently rebuilding my main machine, and it's *similar* in goal.

Get a faster drive. Get yourself a 72 gig raptor for your "active" drive, and put a Maxtor MaxLine III (or newer) for storage.

Do some reading at: http://www.storagereview.com/php/tiki/tiki-index.php?page=LeaderBoard

They'll tell you the same thing. Pony up the dough for a raptor if you can, or buy a fast Maxtor if you can't. Buy both if you want speed AND space. This is going to make a WORLD of difference in your machine.

Also, if you're getting an A64, do yourself a favor and look into a 939 chipset and .90nm process chip. Reason? It's slower. Seriously :) Ok, it CLOCKS slower, but it runs about 2-3% faster. What good is this? Easier power draw and cooling; meaning you can keep it quiet.

Pony up the dough for memory you trust too if it's a $10 difference.

As cooling goes, and with my hardon for silence, I got myself one of these for Christmas, and it's the cornerstone of my new machine..

ThermalRight XP-120 CPU Cooler
http://www.thermalright.com/a_page/main_product_xp120.htm

With a nice Panflo (or similar) fan, it's nearly silent.

I also invested in a nice Zalman dual-heatpipe VGA cooler:
http://www.zalman.co.kr/upload/product/ZM80D-HP.swf

I'll keep you posted on the build, since I'm shopping the CPU market this week, watching for fluctuations and making sure I can get a 939 board that has room for my XP-120.

only reason to suggest 939 right now over 754 is the .90nm cpus and the FX55, if you wanted to go the rout of the .90nm process it'd be a good one


only other thing i could suggest is this

Audigy2 zs-pci Sound $40
unless you got a badass set of speakers to go with any audigy i'd suggest just using onboard sound

only reason to suggest 939 right now over 754 is the .90nm cpus and the FX55The .90nm process Winchester chips (which are, mostly, if not all 939) run at slower clock speeds, and as a result are cooler and quieter. [A 3200+ runs at 2.0Ghz on a Winchester and 2.2 on a Newcastle.]

Also, there's a number of 939 boards with 4 memory slots. Most of them suffer from the "second set runs at 333" if you have four double density sticks problem that 3-slot 754 chips do, but going 939 puts you in a different class of motherboard too.

The alternative to both, of course, is a ClawHammer process chip, designed for desktop replacement notebooks, that goes in the 745 socket. A 3200+ ClawHammer also runs at 2.0Ghz, but includes a 1M cache on the chip (as opposed to 512). Of course, the ClawHammer lacks the extra copper heat-spreader on the rest of the chips (causing heat-sink/cooling issues), it has compatibility issues with the clock multiplier on some motherboards, and, frankly, isn't the sort of thing you suggest to someone out of the blue.

Research your motherboard and cooling COMPLETELY and then get a ClawHammer 3200 for $192. ...but only if you want faster and cooler (and eventually quieter). In my setup, the XP120 and mounting equipment needs minor surgery before mounting, so I'm going 939 Winchester.

well I'd recomend a faster HDD look at the 74 Gig 10k RPM Western digital Raptors with all the CPU behind it the bottle neck will be the seek times on the 7200 RPM drive.

I have a 3.0 gig Prescott pent4 for a few days I had it on my 100gig WD 7200 even with small ammount of VM it was still digging alot.

also SATA = nummy goodness if your able to get an Abit board with it on it.

ABIT KV8 Pro Motherboard $75IMHO an nVidia chipset is better than VIA, 754 vs. 939 is all about your budget.

1024mb ddr400 RAM $126The price seems pretty low for 1GB RAM, do not underestimate the importance of good, quality RAM. Check the motherboard manufacturers website to ensure the RAM you are purchasing is compatible. Matched pairs (512MB x2) are your best bet with dual channel memory boards.

Audigy2 zs-pci Sound $40 On board sound is fine as far as quality, however the Audigy 2 will reduce your CPU load slightly. You could spend $40 elsewhere, such as higher quality memory.

West Digital 160gb 7200rpm HD $88Make sure its a SATA II hard drive. WD are noisy, I use Seagate, they are quiet. Ixnay on Maxtors, I have sent 3 back..

SATAEvery SATA drive right now, including the Raptor [which I already suggested getting] is a PATA drive with a SATA interface smacked on the end.

You mean one doesn't use a data x-fer rate of 133 (PATA) and the other 150 (SATA)?

If not, at least SATA's smaller wires are worth switching for. Even rounded cables are irritating, at least to me. Price difference isn't much either.

Palimax,

That Zalman dual pipe you linked to, what kind of video card are you using that on, have you decided yet? I'm curious to see if the card flakes out if you remove its built in fan assembly. It looks like you have to strip down the card pretty far, I was just curious as to how fun that was or if its more trouble than what its worth.

You mean one doesn't use a data x-fer rate of 133 (PATA) and the other 150 (SATA)?

If not, at least SATA's smaller wires are worth switching for. Even rounded cables are irritating, at least to me. Price difference isn't much either.Your drives aren't reaching the theoretical 133 limit, so, moving the pipe to 150 isn't exactly helpful :)

Even the mighty WD740 SATA Raptor I hold here in my hand has a maximum transfer rate of 71 megs, and a sustained transfer rate in the 50's. So, even your lowly PATA-100 works *just fine* for it. A Maxtor Atlas 15,000 RPM Ultra SCSI isn't much better -- and still WELL below 100, let alone 133, or 150.

http://www.storagereview.com/articles/200401/20040126WD740GD_2.html

SATA cables make for nice clean cases. That I don't deny. Feel free to put a SATA-PATA converter on the cable/drive of your choice.

Palimax,

That Zalman dual pipe you linked to, what kind of video card are you using that on, have you decided yet? I'm curious to see if the card flakes out if you remove its built in fan assembly. It looks like you have to strip down the card pretty far, I was just curious as to how fun that was or if its more trouble than what its worth.I'm *going* to be putting it on a Radeon 9800 Pro. My current motherboard has a larger-than-normal Northbridge heatsink, and it gets in the way. I can easily replace the Northbridge heatsink, but I decided to simply wait on the move until it goes in my new machine.

Of course, the 9800 Pro is going to be the weak link in the new box, but with the changes here at home, I'm taking this one slowly.

The only change you need to make to the card is to remove the fan. It's connected on nearly every card I've ever had by a pair of push-through plastic pegs.

I'll post PLENTY of pics of the new machine build.

Anyone ever use Corsair memory? I'm looking at picking up their 2Gig kit, the price is right, something like $358. I've pretty much stuck to Kingston memory, thought I'd try something new.

corsair and kingston are pretty much neck and neck as far as memory goes, all the way from affordable memory to the enthusiast level, i recommend them both

corsair and kingston are pretty much neck and neck as far as memory goes, all the way from affordable memory to the enthusiast level, i recommend them bothI've never seen anything to back this up. Outside of latency, and day-one-deep-testing, I've never seen $200 memory perform any better than $100 memory.

My team-mate here at work is trying out a nice Patriot stick from NewEgg, and it's exactly as good as any corsair stick he's ever gotten.

Matched pairs my hairy ass...

how long has he had the stick for? what timings does he have it at? how high can he bump the speed on the ram before it starts going flakey?

i've seen a ton of shit that seperates high quality ram from the cheap shit you can grab at the bargin bin

how long has he had the stick for? what timings does he have it at? how high can he bump the speed on the ram before it starts going flakey?

i've seen a ton of shit that seperates high quality ram from the cheap shit you can grab at the bargin binI'm not exactly sure what "ton of shit" you could have possilbly seen, but... Here's what you get for running $381 worth of Corsair XMS Extreme Memory Speed Platinum Series Low Latency (2-3-2-6 CAS) DDR PC-3200: About 2% memory performance over running $137 worth of Mushkin Dual Pack (2.5-3-3 CAS) DDR PC-3200. Maybe, if you're lucky and you clock the living crap out of your bus, 3%. For sake of argument, lets call it 5% (which is probably double what you'd actually get). That 5% is not total system performance. It's MEMORY performance.

Pop quiz: Do you get more system performance for $381 by buying one gig of Corsair XMS EMSPSLL2326 Memory; or do you get more system performance by buying two one gig sticks of WinTEC AMPO (2.5 CAS) for $309 (because you can't run four double-density sticks in anything at more than 333) and using the left over $72 to upgrade yourself from an Athlon 64 3200+ to a 3400+. (Two one-gig Crucial "Registered" will only cost you $800 - stock up!)

I don't know about you, but I'll take double the memory at nearly the same latency on a faster processor platform for LESS money... ...but that's just me.

Yes, when buying memory, do yourself a favor, especially on an Athlon 64, and get yourself as low of latency memory as you can while STAYING IN LOW PRICE RANGE. That Mushkin, and the Patriot, and the PQI, even the "WinTEC AMPO" -- they all have lifetime warranties, and they all have good choices at under $160 for a gig of memory.

Nobody, not even me, denies it's better memory. I just think there's better places to spend one's limited PC budget.

Toms has the same conclusion:
http://www.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20040119/index.html

Conclusion - Consider Carefully


In most of the disciplines, you can see that it no longer matters as much what memory timings (http://www.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20040119/index-12.html#) you have as it did only a few years ago, when SDRAM or the first DDR generation were still hot. Or, to put it another way, having faster or slower RAM will not tip the balance in favor of or against the latest AMD and Intel processors (http://www.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20040119/index-12.html#).

We observed one interesting result in many of the gaming benchmarks: while the Pentium 4 3.2 GHz is normally just a touch faster than the Athlon 64 (http://www.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20040119/index-12.html#) 3200+, it quickly falls behind the Athlon if you only use slow memory modules (http://www.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20040119/index-12.html#).

[Blocked Ads]

Things start getting untidy when you combine compute-intensive tasks with large quantities of data such as file compression. In such categories, the memory timings make or break performance - the Pentium 4 processors either take the lead or bring up the rear, depending on whether the memory timings are fast or slow. We were duly impressed by the Athlon 64 FX-51's scores, which maintained its ranking no matter what kind of memory it was given. This steadfastness is largely due to the integrated memory controller. The moral of the story is clear: while we still recommend buying brand-name products to ensure compatibility (especially for dual-channel (http://www.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20040119/index-12.html#) systems), but you don't necessarily need the fastest timings. In today's market, you only need fast modules if your computer will be computing a lot or encoding video. For any other application, slower RAM will definitely cut the mustard.

what timings does he have it at? how high can he bump the speed on the ram before it starts going flakey?
I wanted to address this seperately. Here's a tip for anyone who has to post on the internet and ask others to critique their system buying choice.

Insert memory into motherboard.
Allow motherboard to read the EEPROM on the memory and identify the correct timings.
Cease fucking with memory.

Someday, my time will be worth less than any sort of headache for having my machine crash because I wanted to run at 2-2-3-2 at 407 instead of 2-3-3-2 at 400.

I've never had the urge to overclock any memory I've installed. The benefit of getting that 2% performance increase just hasnt outweighed the risk of turning that spendy new memory into carbon dust just hasnt seem worth it.

Of course, since I'm not really in to OCing stuff anyway, I'm probably missing the point of the cool factor of ocing the memory.

Well, you can get 2% memory performance just buy BUYING good low latency memory, not dorking with it. But it comes at a lot more than a 2% cost improvement.

Ok, so I ordered a few things last night, and I've got a few things already waiting for the rest of the parts. Here's *most* of my new rig (expect pictures this weekend). I didn't buy it all from NewEgg, but they make for easy linking.

Athlon 64 3200+ 939 .90nm processor (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-500&depa=1)
MSI K8T "Neo2-F" Via Chipset Motherboard (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-130-469&depa=1)
Thermalright XP120 Heatsink (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=35-109-118&depa=1) and a Panflo 120mm Fan (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=35-180-081&depa=1)
Western Digital 74g SATA Raptor (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-144-160&depa=1)
PDP Systems 1G DDR400 (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-220-030&depa=1)

I've already got a mostly-nameless aluminum case and a nice fan with a single 120mm fan on it.

I'll be putting on the Zalman Heatpipe Video Cooler (http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=35-118-211&depa=0) on my old 9800 Pro until I decide that an afordable quantum leap in video cards is out there. This thing should be quiet enough to hear mice fart.

Thanks for taking the time for making a post on your new machine. Let me know if it all pops together nicely.

In regards to micron should one look for a large number or small number? I want to upgrade my CPU to the 3.2Gig+ range and I'm a tad confused on the different cores.

I currently have a P4 2.6 my mother board supports up to 3.4 and 800FSB, I have been slowly upgrading as I could afford things now my last peice is the CPU. Anyone have any thoughts? And no I can't go AMD I can't afford both a MB and CPU now.....christmas killed me and no way will the GF allow that kind of purchase =(

For the micron sizes, smaller is better but = more heat. Personally, I dont think the micron sizing should influence your decision since you are staying Intel. I've only seen it really apply to folks who are going AMD. Thats just my opinion and it may be WAY off base.

Are you running at 800MHz FSB currently? If not, kicking up to a 3.4GHz CPU running at the 800MHz FSB is going to scream. If you are currently running at the full 800MHz, then bumping up your CPU will still be a decent performance bump. I've seen a couple of boards running 1066MHz FSB but they are ungodly expensive and I dont believe there are enough consumer level products out yet that would take advantage of that.

Since you tight on cash, just do the CPU upgrade and enjoy life with it. :)

Thanks.

I was wondering b/c I see a moderate price differences in the micron sizes and I was wondering how much that really would help or hurt me. I'm hoping to snag a deal and get one in the $200-250ish range.

Currently I am running 800FSB with 1.2GB of RAM and a 256MB vid card but my CPU is only 2.6Gig. I have not been in a zone yet in WoW(even the big cities) where I lag and I have all of my settings completely maxed...that is nice. But in EQ2 there are some zones I do lag in if my settings aren't tweaked "just so". My GF on the other hand has the same setup and a slightly faster CPU she doesn't experience any lag.

Perhaps next year I will look towards an AMD platform :D

Well I ended up deciding that I didn't have the time (or energy) to build a computer...especially having to worry about cooling, and just putting it together and getting it all to work, so I'm letting HP/Compaq worry about it.

Went with an AMD Athlon 64 3400+, 1 gig RAM, 250GB HD (looked at that 74gb raptor drive, but couldn't afford it and a good storage drive...thanks for the suggestion Palimax, may add it in the future), dual format 16X DVD-writer (was free :') cost $1100 with delivery, WinXP Pro and a 1 year warranty. Still going to put the 9600 Pro in for now until I can afford a better card.

Thanks.

Uh, unless Compaq has changed their tune, I hope you bought that 9600 from Compaq. They used to be heavy users of proprietary parts crap. Meaning, unless you bought the hard ware from them, good luck getting it to work in a Compaq box.

Unless, of course, they have changed their tune, then everything I just said is a moot point.

Compaq hasn't been that way for some time now.

Noooo! The 90nm is actually COOLER than the 130nm at the same speed. As a bonus, the 939 chips run slower (clock) for similar speed rating due to the increased memory bandwidth (dual channel memory).

http://www.hothardware.com/printarticle.cfm?articleid=613

READ THIS ARTICLE --Or, summary for the lazy!

It would be unwise to make a blanket statement and declare AMD's transition to a .09 micron manufacturing process an unequivocal success, but they seem to be in a good position based on our initial findings. The Winchester core seems to be a good first step for AMD towards shifting their entire processor line to their .09 micron SOI manufacturing process. Our Winchester based Athlon 64 3500+ had a decent amount of clock speed headroom, and it ran cooler and consumed less power than its .13 micron counterpart. And recent news that AMD has begun to transition the Opteron to .09 micron is also encouraging. AMD's server class CPUs go through an extensive amount of certification testing. So to call some of their .09 micron processors Opterons, those CPUs have passed the certification tests and AMD has confidence in their long-term usability.So, if you want a MUCH cooler machine (and cooler = quieter), the 939, 90nm is for you.

If you want more overclockability, the 939, 90nm is for you.

hey pali, find any good deals for that hard drive? and how much you pay for your cpu?

Ok, see, I was wrong :). Perhaps I should have said "In most cases smaller = more heat." :D

I thought the whole point of using smaller gates was that they generate less heat, which allows them to run the same basic design faster. The net result is sometimes hotter, due to them pushing more from the chip, but the smaller manufacturing process should be cooler at the same clock speed.

hey pali, find any good deals for that hard drive? and how much you pay for your cpu?No, there was (is?) a $25 rebate associated with the Raptor, but I haven't checked recently.

I got the CPU from Monarch when it was still $179. It's up to $195 now there and $187 at "GameVE.com"

ok so now I'm confused again.... :confused:

which is better...smaller or larger?

The smaller process chips are the same performance, run cooler, and are more stable when stressed (overclocked). The 939 form factor chips run at a slower clock speed (cooler still), same performance and, because of the speed difference, are even cooler, and even more overclockable.

A small process 939 form factor chip is your best bet.

the only bad thing that comes out of a smaller process is a smaller core, less area surface means less of the heatsink is touching it which can can increase heat quite a bit when pushing the same voltages


this isn't a problem with the 3200+ and hte 3400+

did some ordering myself

athlon 64 3500 939 90mm
MSI K8N Diamond Sli - this thing cost way to much
WD 74gig sata drive - the same one as palis
1gig Corsair TWINX XL PC3200 - Sexy 2-2-2-5 timing
xfx nvidia 6600 gt - dual dvi baby!

thinking of getting another raptor drive and pair em up in raid 0, any opinions on reliablity of raid 0?

some things i got already boxed up and ready to be opened

(2) yes two, nec 19" LCD 1935nxm
nec 3500 dvd dl writer

and i need to find a cheap place to get my case, i fell in love with this lian li this is just way to much money to pay retail. and a few of the small stuff, psu, cables, fans, etc. also thinking about getting the cooling items that pali listed.

anyone know of any quiet psu? that can support two 6600 gt's if needed?

too lazy to link and plus i just finished washing the dishes without my glasses/contacts and couldnt see that i was leaning on a counter full of ants. GOD DAMNIT THEY ARE ALL OVER ME.

MSI K8N Diamond Sli - this thing cost way to much
http://xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=47627

and you would of gotten more performance out of one 6800GT then dual 6600GT's and seeing as the 6600gt's don't come with extra molex's i would think a reliable 350watt would be just fine

hmmmm....from the benchmarks ive seen this statemeant doesnt look right. but hey what do i know, im sure these guys know what they are talking about

"When looking at the big picture, we can’t keep from going back and focusing on our GeForce 6600 GT SLI gaming experience. It took our gaming to levels that we had not even hoped for. The average framerate numbers that we had been exposed to previously that were supplied by NVIDIA simply undervalued the real gaming experience the cards would deliver. Almost across the board, the 6600 GT SLI delivered a better quality gaming experience than did a Radeon X800Pro or a GeForce 6800 GT. There is more bang for the buck value in a GeForce 6600 GT SLI configuration than anything comparable. We surely want to see what an extra $100 will get you with a set of two 256MB 6600 GTs in SLI. It is hard to think of the combination being any sweeter than what we saw with the 128MB cards, but we will surely be testing them to find out."

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=Njk2LDg=

i thought that 6600 GT only came in the 128 flavor? and then theres the normal 6600 non-gt that comes in the 256 version. im confused.

What's the SLI version? Is there a non-PCI Express version of the 6600 GT? I've heard there is, but I haven't found it.

it allows two sli able pci express video cards of the same type/vendor/make to be linked together basicly.

thinking of getting another raptor drive and pair em up in raid 0, any opinions on reliablity of raid 0?How much do you like your data? Raid-0 doubles your MTBF.

Quiet power supply, Shad0whands?

Visit www.silentpcreview.com. They have all sorts of information on making your PC quiet, including reviews of power supplies.

SilentPCReview turned me on to my XP-120, but their actual PS review didn't give me a lot of hope.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-159-031&depa=1

A nice 14mm fan. Or get a coolmax with a 12mm fan that you can replace if you want an even quieter one (Panflow or something).

i thought that 6600 GT only came in the 128 flavor? and then theres the normal 6600 non-gt that comes in the 256 version. im confusedi can't find anywhere on OCP where they reviewed dual 6600GT's, could you post a link to the review?

haven't seen one instance where the SLI'd 6600GT setup beat a single 6800GT, i can agree on the price since it does come close to the performance of one and they are only sold for $175

6600GT - 128 GDDR3 (huge clock advantage to ddr), SLI capable

6600 - 256 DDR, no SLI option, this thing trades blows with 9600XT's but its also priced close to one

i did link the artricle. go back on my other post and it should be there. i linked it to the last page of the article so you need to go down and go to the "jump to" option to get to the first page of the article. maybe im looking at the numbers wrong but i also thought the 6800 would be faster then the 6600 sli setup.

What's the SLI version? Is there a non-PCI Express version of the 6600 GT? I've heard there is, but I haven't found it.http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=property&catalog=48&propertycodevalue=10552,%200,%200,%205979,%200,%20 0,%200,%200,%200,%200&minprice=&maxprice=&mfrcode=0&DEPA=0&Order=price

here is a few, probably been hiding behind the cheaper more popular pci-express version

few dollars cheaper:

http://www.gameve.com/gve/Store/ProductDetails.aspx?sku=VC-MSI-0067

dual dvi version if you need it

http://www.gameve.com/gve/Store/ProductDetails.aspx?sku=VC-XFX-035

hey pali, quick question, are you using a fan with that vga cooler? I was looking around for one and saw this

"Note 1 : If you are using a nVIDIA GeForce FX5800, an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro, a Matrox Parhelia, or a more advanced model, an Optional Fan (ZM-OP1, sold separately) must be installed"

curious if you really need one, im getting a 6600gt not sure if it falls in that category, dont really want another fan.

Stock coolers do a good enough job of cooling the card, unless you overclock heavily.

the 6600 core pulls so much less voltage it doesn't even get hot when people push the cores to 600mhz

hey pali, quick question, are you using a fan with that vga cooler? I was looking around for one and saw this

"Note 1 : If you are using a nVIDIA GeForce FX5800, an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro, a Matrox Parhelia, or a more advanced model, an Optional Fan (ZM-OP1, sold separately) must be installed"

curious if you really need one, im getting a 6600gt not sure if it falls in that category, dont really want another fan.I hope not to need the fan. I hope clever positioning of a 120mm case fan will do the trick.

My motherboard/CPU were delayed (long story, but it involved splitting a larger order with a freind who didn't manage his shipping well), so I'll have them tomorrow night.

Unfortunately, the vendor for my "thing" at work is in town, and I'm up to my ass in change management tickets, product upgrades and free vendor lunches.

So, my new PC is built (and I have pictures). I'll put those up today. The thing was so quiet that (a) I had to turn of my printer(!) because of the noise it made was now a virtual jackhammer in my living room, and (b) the mighty Raptor is perhaps 5x louder than anything else in the PC.

I included a sound-laiden video clip, but I might as well have recorded silence. Details to come with the pictures.

I idle at 37-38 degrees, and I've stress tested the machine and managed to produce 55 degrees under prolonged heavy load in the case under my desk.

Ok, I promised pictures...

Here's the main CPU cooler and the Zalman cooled 9800 Pro in my traditional on-box setup and testing.

http://www.i-hack.com/content/silentpc/PCDV0059.JPG

Here's a fairly good look at the Zalman (blurry, sorry). (Removed to stay within the image limit!)

<REMOVED>

Please note the Herman Miller chairs in the background :) God bless the dot-com days.

Here's the giant XP-120 Thermalright cooler and 120mm Panflo fan.

http://www.i-hack.com/content/silentpc/PCDV0062.JPG

And here's the case-cooling. A 140mm fan on the power supply and a 120mm fan on the case.

http://www.i-hack.com/content/silentpc/PCDV0066.JPG

And, in case you realy care, here's a video with audio of the machine running.

http://www.i-hack.com/content/silentpc/PCDV0065.AVI

There's a TON of ambient noise on the thing that recorded this, but you can't hear the fan over it. So, even when I'm not talking to Scott, you pretty much hear nothing but background noise even with the recorder an inch from the fans.

i have that same exact PSU in my main rig, its so powerfull it pulls all of the air from the bottom of the case enough to help keep a 6800GT cooled (stock HSF) to 69C on full load and its quiet


the loudest thing in my case is the video card fan, and its a slight hum

Please note the Herman Miller chairs in the background :) God bless the dot-com days.


wahhhh! i want some Herman Miller chairs.