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$700 quiet computer

A

Asulc

n00b
Joined
Sep 30, 2007
Messages
26
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
I will mainly be using this PC for school. I very seldom do any gaming, and am ok with turning down the settings. Mostly word processing, excel, email, and web browsing with firefox and multiple tabs. I always have iTunes open with music playing as well

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
I would like to keep this build under $700. Tax and shipping are not included in this price.

3) Where do you live?
I live in the united states, will probably order mainly from newegg.com

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
CPU, RAM, motherboard, case, hard drive, fans, heatsinks, graphics card, power supply

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
none

6) Will you be overclocking?
no

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
I have a 22" monitor, 1680x1050

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
around christmas

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
basic motherboard is all I need really

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?
I plan on purchasing Windows 7, not included in the price of the computer

I want to make this computer as quiet as possible, so aftermarket heatsinks and quiet fans are a must.
 
Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail $51

CORSAIR CMPSU-400CX 400W ATX12V V2.2 80 PLUS Certified Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply - Retail $50

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G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-4GBRL - Retail $79

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AMD Athlon II X4 620 Propus 2.6GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Processor Model ADX620WFGIBOX - Retail $99

GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail $80

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Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80605I5750 - Retail $200

MSI P55-CD53 LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail $120

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COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus Intel Core i5 & Intel Core i7 compatible RR-B10-212P-GP 120mm "heatpipe direct contact" Long ... - Retail $30

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3500418AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive $55

XFX HD-477A-YDFC Radeon HD 4770 512MB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail $110

Athlon2 x4 620 build $554
Core i5 750 build $695

4770 should handle your needs... but note by xmas 5750 512MB should be in stores.
 
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http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139008 Corsair 400cx. Overkill for this build, but quiet and well built. $49.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813500030 Zotac ION Itx board. Quiet as they come. Onboard IGP is decent, and can handle your light gaming/HD media needs also. $169.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112227 Lian Li PCQ-07 itx tower $59.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231122 Gskill 4gb (2gbx2) DDR2 800 $89.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148433 Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB HDD $89.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827118030 Sony Optiarc DVDrw $31.99


My total in the cart is $491.94. Slight premium paid for the small form factor and low noise/power of this build compared to it's actual performance. It's slower than lt_shiro's builds. (I'm not sure of his pricing though, his link for the HDD is 89.99 like mine but he has it listed at $55) That said it will be more or less dead silent. The only drawback I see is gaming performance. Light gaming really shouldn't be an issue in my opinion though. That said you have your HD media needs covered, amazing power efficiency and your stated goal of noise I think you will be unable to beat. Down the road you can add a PCIe card if need be(I'd hold out for a 512mb HD5750), and your PSU will more than handle it. Leaves you plenty of room in your budget for maybe some really nice speakers or headset, more storage drive space (grab a green series 1tb for quiet and power efficient use down the road), a blue ray drive if you wish instead of the DVDrw or maybe just go on a spending spree at amazon. It's certainly no speed demon of a build but should suit your stated needs, do so quietly and have some room for upgrades if you have the need. I should also note you'd need no extra heatsinks/fans with my build as everything is passively cooled or well enough ventilated save for the PSU.
 
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What games do you play? If you don't game much, or don't play very demanding games, I'd suggest using onboard video and holding off on a vidcard purchase for now, since midrange/high-end GPUs are the fastest depreciating component and they are also typically one of the loudest components in a PC. If you find yourself needing a better GPU, you can add one later, when the onboard IGP can't play the game you want at the desired settings.

Here's a balanced build to consider. Not too low end like an Atom, and not a straight up quadcore X4 620, but an X3 Tri-core, onboard HD4200 graphics, 4GB of RAM,

$100 - Asus M4A785TD-V EVO AM3 AMD 785G HDMI ATX [FS]
$120 - AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz Socket AM3 [FS]
$79 - G.Skill Ripjaws Series 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3-1333 F3-10666CL9D-4GBRL [FS]
$30 - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-GP 120mm HSF [FS]
$55 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ 500GB 7200RPM SATA300 16MB Buffer [FS]
$26 - Samsung CD/DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-S223C [FS]
$52 - Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower (Free Shipping Promo: EMCMLNV44)
$50 - Corsair CMPSU-400CX 400W ATX12V V2.2 80+ Certified ($10 MIR)
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$512 + tax and shipping, though most have free shipping. I think the Corsair 400W is the only thing without FS right now. Wait a day or two, it should come back.

BTW, with office work alone, I can bring an Atom 330 to its knees, lol. I guess I'm just too demanding when it comes to multi-tasking. If you need more than 500GB of space, then the 1TB version is only $80. If you don't need 1TB, then stick with the 500GB version instead; its single platter and known for quiet operation. The 1TB versions are 2-platter, but are still pretty quiet. These F3's perform similarly to the Seagate 7200.12 models.

$80 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200RPM SATA300 32MB Buffer
 
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Ghettobox said:
I'm not sure of his pricing though, his link for the HDD is 89.99 like mine but he has it listed at $55.
Click to expand...
Maybe the link has since been fixed? I believe It_shiro linked to a 500GB hard drive, as opposed to your 1TB.
 
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I would say the link is fixed ;)

If I were the OP I would do some pretty serious thinking about what you really need, and what level of quiet you truly want. The build I listed is pretty underpowered for sure, but it does the quiet bit exceptionally well. What it really comes down to is can you live with the reduced computing power of an Atom build to get the whisper quiet machine? Enginurd and lt_shiro's build are far more balanced and powerful. Both would serve you well if you can live with the noise factor (I personally would), and are really good buy's.
 
For those included Antec case fans, or any fans, really, you can do a simple volt mod if the stock speeds are too loud for your liking (just flip the red and yellow wires on the fan connector, assuming they have 4-pin molex connectors).
 
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