Any recommendations

Havelock

My current project: Codename "Monolite"

Lian Li PC-6002 Case
Q-tec 550wp PSU
AMD Athlon 64 3400+ 2.2Gb w/ 1Gb cache
Undecided on mother board
ATI radeon 9800xt 256mb
Corsair 512 RAM PC3200
DVD-RW (+/-)
CD-RW
6 In 1 card reader. (Intural and flush with case)
160 Gb SeaGate 7200 HD
40 GB Seagate 7200 HD
Undecided on Fans and Heatsinks
17" Samsung Flat Screen (SM172V) And 19" Sony Trinitron CRT

NB - I will not be overclocking or care for ability to overclock.

Now a few questions.

A) People say avoid Q-tec, why?
Suggestions on motherboards?
C) Silent and effent fans?
D) Is case soundproofing worth it, does it have any side effects?
E) Any other ideas?

Thanks folks

Col_Loki

Q-tec 550wp PSU

The q-tec's say they produce way more power than they actually do. There voltage rails are pretty bad (generally low 12v rail), they are louder than the better quality PSU's........ thats why people say to avoid them (and i stick by it).

ATI radeon 9800xt 256mb

Dont for the love of god get that card unless you have money to burn. The 9800pro is half the price and it just doesent warent the price. 256mb wont make any performance difference (especially on normal resolution like u will use on a 17" TFT).

Even get a crappy card to keep u going, the new GFX cards that are just out are set to blow the 9800xt out of the water (have a look at some of the threads - Nvidia 6800)

Corsair 512 RAM PC3200

What kind are you getting?

160 Gb SeaGate 7200 HD & 40gb

I take it you have these already ? If you dont then mabye get 2x120gb (or 160gb) SATA drives and Raid0 them for performance? Or a WD raptor & a storage drive?

Undecided on Fans and Heatsinks

Zalman7000alcu ............. one of the best & quietest coolers for socket754. Check the sticky for places to buy etc............

Havelock

Is there a problem withnTFT's with gaming, I was told they are the best for it.

Col_Loki

CRT monitors are the best for gaming. The TFT's with slow responce times tend to give games / DVD's a ghosting effect which is really annoying. Also they cant handle as high resolution.

Woden

as loki said don't get the 9800XT, i'd wait for the graphics card purchase and get either the new 6800ultra or the X800 when it comes out.

antec have a 550w psu you might be better off investing in this for the reason loki outlined above.

i think i read some where you are getting you hands on rev 1.1 corsair pc3200 chips timed at 2-2-2-5 thats great timings, just google around on the rev1.1 chips though make sure there are no problems with them. i'm not sure if i recall reading about problems with them or reading about how it was a shame they went off the market, better safe then sorry.

liteon make fantastic cdrw that will burn just about anything and can deal with pretty much any protection, best thing i ever bought for my computer.

far the best air cooling going its the thermalright jobbie for the athlon 64 should be available at www.overclockers.co.uk or www.hitide.ie its not cheap but it is recognized as the best and you can put your choice of fan up to 92mm on it.

as you are not overclocking though cooling may not be as big an issue for you though and something cheap like the coolermaster aero lite thats around 22euro on komplett would probably be sufficient.

fan wish i've heard good things about the sharkoon stealth fans, check out www.elara.ie or www.peats.ie may have them. i've got a couple of 80mm vantec stealths that do the job fairly well as well.

i've got the 160gb s-ata seagate 7200rpm 8mb cache hdd. i'm not sure if i'm completely happy with the performance of this piece. i was worried recently about hdd dead and i have a problem predicting when it will die but now it seems to be 2005 and thats ok. however i find load times on bf vietnam sometimes are slower then other times and if they are slower then usual i find the game kinda jumpy and unplayable and its solved by a reboot. i think this may be down to the hdd.

perhaps check out the samsung hdd i know loki above recommends them for both performance and silence a worthy combination

data

[edit] with respect to the ram i think i'm talking out of my arse rev1.1 where based on winbond BH-5 chips which are the doggies bollox [/edit]

Azza

Just so you know guys know he is accuiring the 9800xt card off me (its only 3 months old perfect condition boxed and warranty) and is getting €100 euro knocked off price plus 4 free games which include copoun for half life 2. He be saving over € 150 euro on the games if he was to buy them new now. Games are mostly new releases including battlefield vietman.

Overall not a bad deal would you not say

Havelock

Dunna worry Azza, I ain't thinking of backing out. Plus I have that Farcry for you, will post on Monday or Tuesday. Cool?

Btw, thanks folks for the suggestions so far, am thinking of bring back the PSU now.

I've already bought the 2-2-2-5 from Richard Dower.

Any ideas about the sound proofing? I've googled but there is not definite I can find.

Col_Loki

Just so you know guys know he is accuiring the 9800xt card off me

Yea thats not so bad . Obvious reasons why not to buy new at the min , 2nd hand for a decent price ....... now theres not much to argue with there!!

I've already bought the 2-2-2-5 from Richard Dower.

Looks like a good buy also !!

Any ideas about the sound proofing? I've googled but there is not definite I can find.

The majour things that make noise (in order).... (generally)

Case Fans ,
CPU Cooler,
PSU,
Graphics card fan,
NorthBridge Fan,
Hard Drives.

If you want a silent system then sound proofing aint going to help much unless you have reasonable quiet solutions for the above.

What exactly have you bought at the min? Have had alot of trial and error runs with silence so will be able to give some advise!!

Havelock

Of that list only the PSU,
Its Q-tec 550Pw. Getting alot of advice to bring it back. But what to get to replace it?

Woden

antec true blue 480w, or the antec true power 550w, or perhaps the thermal take butterfly which has direct s-ata connectors which would do you nicely for the seagate drives if you get s-ata ones

Azza

Groovy Havelock as soon as I get digital camera I take a few pics of those conponets you interested in.

aaf

Motherboardswise (is that a word - it is now), I have the ASUS K8V Deluxe. Damn fine motherboard. I've also heard good things about the MSI K8T Neo motherboards which comes in 2 flavours although I haven't looked into the difference between them:D Also, why are you getting a CDRW drive and a DVDRW drive? DVDRW's do cd's aswell. In this department, I'd recommend NEC ND-2500A and the Pioneer DVR-107. I have the NEC drive and it's fantastic. It's one of the best quality drives (& cheapest) out there. I bought Mushkin RAM for my ASUS motherboard and it works fine. Have tested the ram using memtest and no problems.