ChefDude

Is it possible to build a near silent pc - just a quiet hum from fans?

I went through overclockers.co.uk and came up with this for £740, but it strikes me as not very quiet.

Intel Core 2 DUO E6750 2.66GHz Guaranteed to run at 3.20GHZ (1600FSB) - Retail
Abit IP35 Pro (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Crucial Ballistic PC2-8500 1066MHz Memory
Arctic Cooler Freezer 7 Pro
Arctic Silver 5 compound
OcUK GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail
Western Digital Raptor X 150GB 10000RPM SATA 16MB Cache - OEM + Battlefield 2 Complete Collection (WD1500AHFD)
Lian Li PC-A05B Aluminium Midi-Tower - Black
OCZ StealthXStream 600w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Power Supply

Which bits of this would you change to make it quieter? case? psu?

Sorry, i'm a dangerous combination of *slightly* clued up and keen

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

Raptors are loud !!

Look for a sound proof case !!

ChefDude

ah, thanks

Daz34

In my experience, lightweight aluminium cases aren't quiet. They rattle & vibrate. Get a decent well damped heavy steel case like the Antec P182. The fans are very quiet on the low setting but can be replaced with something better like Noctua if required.
That psu is pretty quiet but not as quiet as something like a Corsair HX520/HX620 or Seasonic.
As stated, Raptors are noisy. Get a caddy for it to damp the noise or a 7200RPM SATA II hard drive instead by WD.

The Arctic Cooler Freezer 7 Pro can't be beaten for performance/noise at that price point but if you want silent then you need one of the bigger heatsinks with a 120mm fan by the likes of Noctua or Scythe.

No idea how noisy that graphics card is but there are plenty of passively cooled ones to choose from.

HTH

mike1210

Newer core but not overclocked

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 3.00GHz (1333FSB) - Retail

worth a look as long as the M board supports it, same socket but you never know

P1Fanatic

Yep as said raptors arent quiet although it does depend on the case. On my last case it was noticeably noisy and in my new Coolermaster with removeable drives bays you screw the drive in vertically and mount it one rubber washers, I can only just hear it on full chat now.

Ive got that same cooler and its very effective for that price (not seen my E8400 go above 27c yet) but not that quiet. If you really have to have a quiet pc why not go for a watercooling kit for around £80? Look fairly easy to install if you got enough room in your case.

I would deffo plump that bit extra and go for the newer E8400 CPU and an 8800GT gfx card. Especially if your going to play battlefield games as BF3 is hopefully out end of 2008. Overclockers are doing their 512mb 8800GT for £130 inc vat this week.

Simon

ChefDude

Okay, thanks for the advice so far. i tried to get some quiet components and swapped the cpu.

What about all this now?

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 3.00GHz (1333FSB) - Retail
Abit IP35 Pro (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
2x Crucial Ballistic PC2-8500 1066MHz Memory (4gb total)
Ninja-CU Full Copper Heatsink with Quiet Fan
Arctic Silver 5 compound
Asus ATI Radeon EAH2600 Pro HTDP Silent 256MB DDR2 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail
Western Digital Raptor X 150GB 10000RPM SATA 16MB Cache - OEM + Battlefield 2 Complete Collection (WD1500AHFD)
Antec P182 case
Nesteq Semi-Fanless ASM PSU, 520W

£848

ps, remember i won't be playing games really, so the cooler, mobo and ram are just making the best from the cpu (in case I want to clock it a little )
and a quiet pc would be lovely too

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

you still have the raptor ! Is the unnoticable speed worth the small size and loudness?

ricardo_wrx

I'm looking to buy a new PC CPU as my current one is over 5 years old and not worth updating. Looking for a highish end spec suitable for graphics, CAD and games.

Looked on the net, Dell, Mesh etc......... anyone got any suggestions of good value supplier?

ChefDude

What about this drive instead?
Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (0A35155)

150 quid and according to tomshardware, very quick - which is why i had the raptor in there.

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

I've just ordered the q6600.. nice little low powered CPU !

Daz34

You can spend considerable less and still get a quality, well specced motherboard with decent silent cooling solution that is designed to overclock but without the crossfire capability.

Do you intend playing BF2 and other games?

If so, the money saved on the mobo would be better spent on something like this;

Sparkle GeForce 9600 GT Cool Pipe 3 512MB

ChefDude

what's crossfire?

i picked the mobo to match the chip.

Daz34

Support for 2 x ATI graphics cards.

Something like the following will do the job just as well & you will have change from £75.

Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R

MSI P35 Neo2-FR Intel P35


Check out some reviews & you will see that they overclock like demons.