PC System Build / Quiet but Powerful

[ChrisJ]

My old PC needed an upgrade... I'd been gradually upgrading components but I finally decided that my motherboard/cpu were too dated (Athlon XP 2700+). As an IT professional, I know a lot about components, but I still did a lot of research to build the right system for me.

My goal was Quiet but Powerful, some compromises were made each way.

Here's my summary:

$331, CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo E6600.
Best bang for the buck. Stock CPU cooler.

$185, Motherboard - Asus P5B Deluxe (w/o Wifi)
I don't overclock, so I chose this over the newer NVidia boards. It uses a heat pipe instead of fan for the chipset cooler. No fan = quiet.

$232, RAM - 2*1 Gig CORSAIR 240P TWIN2X2048-6400C4.
These are CAS-4 latency, some money can be saved going CAS-5.

$360, Video Card - eVGA 640MB nVidia 8800 GTS
Normal users can save some money here. I like the potential for gaming even if I can't do it much anymore. Great performance, low noise. I can't believe my video card has 640 MEG of RAM (and it cost more than CPU)!!!

$ 60, System Disk - Western Digital Caviar RE WD1600AAJS 160G
These drives are rated fast and quiet.

$130, Data Disk - Western Digital Caviar RE2 WD5000AAKS 500GB
These drives are rated fast and quiet.

$120, DVD - Plextor PX-755SA
Plextor has gotten a bad rap lately, but I've still been satisfied with their drives. I'll keep buying them until I get a dud. It is louder than I would like, but that's kind of the nature of things that spin discs fast.

$ 65, Case - Antec Sonata II
I love this case, I've had the original Sonata for many years. It's quiet and very easy to work with.

$120, Power Supply - Corsair CMPSU-520HX.
The Antec PS was probably sufficient. But this one is more powerful, quieter, and has modular connectors. Most people could save the money though.

$145, OS - Windows XP OEM
I won't install Vista until at least the first service pack is out. Thankfully, from NewEgg, I was able to get an upgrade coupon for Vista (not available anymore), so I have that option whenever I choose to install it.

$1748 - Grand Total (purchased from NewEgg and Amazon)

I couldn't come close to this price/performance on a pre-fab pc or mac. It's not the speediest system, but it's a giant leap from my old system. It's also quiet and has dual DVI out.

Not mentioned: I already have an external 500 Gig drive to backup my data disk. I also have dual monitors ViewSonic VP201b and VP171b. I also still have my entire old system with 600 Gig of space (and a third system which used to be my backup, which I'll probably part out). Mouse/Keyboard/Speakers, etc... also not listed.

For Photoshop purposes, I overspent greatly here on video card, power supply, and possibly RAM. You could easily shave another $300 of this cost and still have the same speed with PS.

Hope this information provides someone with a useful benchmark. Questions and comments are welcome!

[David_S85]

Thanks, Chris. That's a very detailed post, and should prove helpful to many. :thumb

Adding: Just re-read about the powerful video card. Geez! You're right about most users not ever needing that kind of power for photo editing. The 256MB on my vid card is overkill.

[ian408]

Nice work!

The heat pipe is a pretty cool way to get the heat out of a box. Just
like the old Dell laptops.

[ChrisJ]

Thanks, Chris. That's a very detailed post, and should prove helpful to many. :thumb

Adding: Just re-read about the powerful video card. Geez! You're right about most users not ever needing that kind of power for photo editing. The 256MB on my vid card is overkill.

I forgot to say that one of my criteria for a video card was that it be DirectX 10 compatible for a little bit of future proofing. Since there were only a couple of these out, my choice was somewhat limited: nVidia 8800 GTS or 8800 GTX (even more $$$). I believe nVidia just released the 8600 series which has less power, but is more reasonably priced and still supports DX10. Where art though ATI? :D

[ChrisJ]

Nice work!

The heat pipe is a pretty cool way to get the heat out of a box. Just
like the old Dell laptops.

Ach, chipset and video card fans have been the bane of my existance for years! Okay, maybe not quite that bad. :rofl

EDIT: Oh, and I think water cooling is just totally over the top...

[claudermilk]

I forgot to say that one of my criteria for a video card was that it be DirectX 10 compatible for a little bit of future proofing. Since there were only a couple of these out, my choice was somewhat limited: nVidia 8800 GTS or 8800 GTX (even more $$$). I believe nVidia just released the 8600 series which has less power, but is more reasonably priced and still supports DX10. Where art though ATI? :D

Yup, someone was asking about the 8800 card on another forum & I just looked at newegg. between eVGA and XFX there's about 8-9 choices for under $200 that gets you DirectX 10. That card you've got is WAY overkill.

[ChrisJ]

Yup, someone was asking about the 8800 card on another forum & I just looked at newegg. between eVGA and XFX there's about 8-9 choices for under $200 that gets you DirectX 10. That card you've got is WAY overkill.

Yep, I won't need to buy another one for at least 2-3 years!

I usually try to keep my video card around the $200 range. But the 8500/8600 series wasn't out yet, and I was still coming in well under my self-imposed $2000 system limit. And it rocks playing games...