[Partial]

Why would a mobo last any longer than a processor? With sockets, fsb, etc changing, I doubt in 4 years you'll still be running games at a high res on the hardware you are buying.

If you're a gamer you'd be better off buying and selling a lot, buying midrange stuff, selling it a week or two before better stuff comes out, then rebuying it.

It's all about timing.

[Mugge]

Originally Posted by washington mac user (...) (...)

Now that's a sweet looking case you got there! Especially with the fans visible though the grille like that.

[Eugene]

So many bad case suggestions in here. That Antec case is such overkill and has been universally panned in reviews.

[Kraetos]

Originally Posted by Eugene So many bad case suggestions in here. That Antec case is such overkill and has been universally panned in reviews.

Then... suggest a better case?

(Sorry. Pet peeve of mine. I hate it when people say "x is wrong" without a "y is right.")

[beardedmacuser]

Originally Posted by Kraetos Then... suggest a better case? (Sorry. Pet peeve of mine. I hate it when people say "x is wrong" without a "y is right.")

Recently I built a cheapo Windows box (mostly from free and second-hand parts). But I bought a new case which I randomly found at 40 GBP, Jeantech Nitro, and I thought was kind of simple, inoffensive and reminds me of my black DS Lite! I ripped-out the front fans (with their crappy LEDs) which really aren't necessary. Only very rarely is the rear 120 mm fan (Acoustifan DustProof) spun-up by the motherboard so most of the time the Zalman CNPS9500 is enough to keep the entire case cool. And that's running most of the time at its slowest speed! Combined with a QTechnology Ultra-Quiet power supply it's a pretty quiet machine.

[washington mac user]

Kraetos, did you ever decide on what you were going to get? just wondering

it won't be overkill when I'm running an R600... and all I've read is good reviews(V1.1)

[Kraetos]

Originally Posted by washington mac user Kraetos, did you ever decide on what you were going to get? just wondering it won't be overkill when I'm running an R600... and all I've read is good reviews(V1.1)

I am very much leaning towards the Nine Hundred, mostly because of the 200mm fan. I don't like loud computers.

[Kraetos]

It's done! I finished it today!

The final configuration:

- Core 2 Duo E6600, 2.4 GHz overclocked to 2.65 GHz
- MSI P6N SLi-ready motherboard
- 2 GB Corsair XMS DDR2 RAM
- XFX nVidia GeForce 7900GS w/ 256 MB VRAM
- Corsair 620-watt super efficient SLi-ready PSU
- Zalman CPSU9500 heatsink (the thing is the size of a small bowling ball)
- WD Caviar 250 GB 7200RPM HD
- Sony DVD-ROM drive

With an Antec Nine Hundred case and a 20" Acer LCD.

We had a bit of a scare when we realized that the Zalman heatsink needed to be braced against the back of the mobo, which we had already screwed in. So we had to take the whole damn thing out again and screw the heatsink brace on. Once we got that fixed, it was very straightforward.

The thing runs REALLY cool. Between the 200mm fan, the Zalman heatsink, and the Arctic Silver paste I used, it tops out at about 35˚C! The air coming out of all the fans but the top one is ice cold.

It's certainly louder than the Mac Pro, but its a lot quieter than my old Alienware Aurora. If the noise ends up being a problem, I'll just start swapping out fans, but I don't think that it will be.

Anyway, it runs FEAR maxed out, max resolution, 30+ FPS. I'd say that the construction of this gaming rig was a success!

Pictures to follow sometime this weekend when I get my camera back.

[adamb]

Very nice. Glad to hear you got things sorted.

I've done the same thing before with a heatsink, it's quite annoying, but in my experience Zalman coolers have been the way to go.

[Eugene]

Not fond of the Nine Hundred at all...It's 100% overkill and pretty ugly to boot. If I were to buy a case today it would be the Antec P182 based on looks, and I'd probably only use two of the 120mm fans in it.

I'd also replace the fans with the lowest RPM S-Flex fans.

[washington mac user]

lol the 900 is an awesome case. But I will agree with the P182 statement, but I wouldn't change anything about it. I'm thinking of buying a Rosewill lol I know they aren't supposed to be that good but when I upgrade my PC, I don't want to just do nothing with my parts, might as well put them into another comp. Anyways, here it is:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811147033

[Kraetos]

I do like the Nine Hundred. It's a little cramped but I like the heavy-duty industrial look (on my PC, anyway) and the LED lights are cool as well.

As for the fans, they are a little loud, and I may replace a few. The loudest is by far the Zalman fan, and I can ratchet that one down when I am not overclocking or otherwise taxing the CPU/GPU through MSI's mobo utility. I can drop it to 2000 RPM and when I do, the machine is not unnecessarily loud.

For my purposes, which are pretty much 100% gaming, the Nine Hundred works very well.

[turtle]

Bump!

Instead of starting a thread this seems to be the best place to put my question. I need to replace a case fan and I need it to be silent but effective. I don't really care about the price and I don't want it to be made to glow with LEDs.

I had an 80mm fan in it and replaced it with a thermal control 92mm fan (largest my case will support). Problem is that it emits a high pitch whine and it's driving my wife and me nuts. It's for my server that is in the living room so I just want it quiet. I'm not overclocking or anything like that. In fact I'm sure the Athlon 64 just about never hits half CPU load in the server. After losing my PSU and replacing it with a slightly more powerful one, case cooling might be part of the problem due to the case location.

Putting a larger fan in seems like it'll help airflow that much more. Thanks for any help.

[Eugene]

Most people go overboard with fans. How many do you have right now?

The most widely available quiet 80mm fans out are the Panaflo line. They're legendary, but no longer the quietest fans on the market. You should probably look at Nexus or Scythe/S-Flex if you want the quietest out there.

[PB PM]

Hmm, just helped my friend put together a beast.

3Ghz Core 2 Duo (E6850)
ASUS Maximus Formula LGA775
4GB RAM
EVGA E-GEFORCE 8800GTS KO ACS3 PCI-E 580MHZ 640MB 1.7GHZ GDDR3
320GB WD + 80GB from old PC
500W PSU
DVD+RW (Double Layer)
Antec Sonata III Black ATX 16IN Mid Tower Quiet Case
Vista 64bit Home Premium/XP Home (on old drive)

Fast and quiet, you hardly even know the thing is on, standing right next to it.

[washington mac user]

I would go with Scythe

[Eugene]

Originally Posted by PB PM Hmm, just helped my friend put together a beast. EVGA E-GEFORCE 8800GTS KO ACS3 PCI-E 580MHZ 640MB 1.7GHZ GDDR3

I sincerely hope he bought that GTS a while ago...

[beardedmacuser]

Originally Posted by Eugene I sincerely hope he bought that GTS a while ago...

Yeah, an 88GT is looking mighty tempting soon! Should be a nice upgrade to my 76GT.

[Taskiss]

Can't you crank down the fan speed using a bios setting? I'd keep the big fan and slow the sucker down.

[turtle]

Originally Posted by Eugene Most people go overboard with fans. How many do you have right now? The most widely available quiet 80mm fans out are the Panaflo line. They're legendary, but no longer the quietest fans on the market. You should probably look at Nexus or Scythe/S-Flex if you want the quietest out there.

Only one case fan. It's not a beast by any means and I'm certainly not going overboard. I do agree with your sentiment for the most part though.

Originally Posted by washington mac user I would go with Scythe

Thanks for the input.

Originally Posted by Taskiss Can't you crank down the fan speed using a bios setting? I'd keep the big fan and slow the sucker down.

It's actually when loudest when the fan is in it's lower speed mode. Since it has the thermal control I'm not sure how much changing the BIOS would help since it would vary it's speed anyway.

I have removed the fan this morning though. It was $15 at CompUSA so it isn't a great loss, just an annoying inconvenience. The case in the picture is what my case looks like. The one on the left is the same case but with my Media Center in it (P4 3GHz, Vista Ultimate).

[PB PM]

Originally Posted by Eugene I sincerely hope he bought that GTS a while ago...

No, he just got it two weeks ago, just before the new model came out. I would have said to wait if I knew an upgrade was coming like the new GT.

[Wyatt]

Originally Posted by PB PM No, he just got it two weeks ago, just before the new model came out. I would have said to wait if I knew an upgrade was coming like the new GT.

I'm building a new machine with the 8800 GT next week. I can't wait to see how great this thing is going to run.

[beardedmacuser]

Originally Posted by fcgriz I'm building a new machine with the 8800 GT next week. I can't wait to see how great this thing is going to run.

Ooh... let us know how noisy it is. My Windows box is whisper quiet with a passively-cooled 76GT. I'm very much tempted by an 88GT, but not if it's going to be too noisy.

[Wyatt]

Originally Posted by beardedmacuser Ooh... let us know how noisy it is. My Windows box is whisper quiet with a passively-cooled 76GT. I'm very much tempted by an 88GT, but not if it's going to be too noisy.

Will do. From what I've read, it's pretty quiet, but it's probably not as quiet as yours, since it is actively cooled. The fan's pretty thin, though, so maybe it won't be too extreme. I'm getting this one next week, provided it's back in stock:

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...tCode=10007134

I always told myself I'd never go back to a PC, but after losing the hard drive my work MBP this week, I decided it was time to re-separate my personal and work computing. Since my computing at home is primarily games, I decided to build a cheap gaming desktop (~$500) with the 88GT as the base.

I'm so excited to see how good Gears of War, Unreal Tournament 3 and the Crysis demo look on the new machine.

[Dave]

Originally Posted by PB PM No, he just got it two weeks ago, just before the new model came out. I would have said to wait if I knew an upgrade was coming like the new GT.

At least down here, most stores have a 30 day return policy. Maybe he could return it?

[PB PM]

Could, but he doesn't even know about the GT. He's a gamer, but not a spec whore, so he most likely wont even care

[Wyatt]

I ordered all my components except my graphics card last night. The card is still out of stock, so I'm going to build the machine without it, using onboard graphics, on Thursday. That way, when the card gets here (hopefully early next week, if they're back in stock soon), I can just install it and go.

[Koodari]

I have been set on building a gaming PC in November (for the new graphics cards - which turned out to mean "8800GT") since July, but now I feel like there's too great a backlog of "must do" things to go through with it. Money's tight too. I can afford a computer but I can't afford a computer sitting unused. Maybe I'll push the build to before holidays.

PB PM, your friend doesn't need to be a spec whore to appreciate the $100 difference in the "price" spec...

[PB PM]

Yeah, the store only takes returns on defective units, via straight up exchange so no go anyway.

[Wyatt]

My CPU is supposed to be coming today (AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+), and the rest of my components (other than my video card) are coming tomorrow. Zipzoomfly still doesn't have the card in stock, so I'm just sitting on my hands at this point.

I've signed up for e-mail alerts at several e-mail addresses for when it comes back in stock, but I'm worried I won't be able to make my order quickly enough if it pops up while I'm in a meeting or something. This card is going to be pretty tough to get for a while. The markup on eBay is huge, too, so I can't really go that route. I'm really hoping I can get it by Thanksgiving, but I'm starting to have my doubts.