Hello All,
I'm looking for recommendations as i would like to build a powerful
(e.g. Athlon X2, ATI X1800 or nvidia 6800 GTO) but silent and small
home PC.
It needs to be as silencious as possible and should be as small as
possible (e.g. kind of a cube case).
Any recommendation what case, power supply, motherboard, CPU, Video
card... i should buy?
Thanks
You won't get a completely silent system with these components, but you
can do pretty well if you can control the noise from the video card.
There are a few models with passive cooling using heat pipes. See if
you can find one at your performance level, or maybe retrofit one of
the Zalman fanless coolers onto the card of your choice.
I would recommend an Asus motherboard for the Q-fan feature, which
slows the CPU fan according to need. Also, you want to get one that
does not have a chipset fan. The A8N-SLI Premium would be a good choice
in nForce4 models. The A8R-MVP is a good one with an ATI chipset. The
"32" versions of these are of no advantage with a single video card,
but generate more heat which will make quiet cooling inside the case
harder. The A8V or A8V Deluxe are good models with AGP video.
For case and power supply, you need to avoid ones that have blowholes
or too many cutouts for fans since they let too much noise escape. You
won't have a problem with cooling. Antec P150 is a good choice and
includes a good power supply. Only $115 at Newegg,a real bargain. There
were some compatibility problems last year with this power supply and
Asus boards but that has been fixed long since.
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