New Audio Computer

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New Audio Computer

2003-06-29 23:09:07

I recently had to depart with my old computer. Now, I have to buy a brand new computer. I will need everything from motherboard to headphones. I will only be using the computer to surf the Internet, listen the music (on headphones), and the odd movie here and there. Can anyone recommend me a list of hardware I should consider (please include as much components as possible).

New Audio Computer

Reply #1 – 2003-06-29 23:36:15

I got some time so I'll try to give ya some hits

first of - you'll definitely need a quiet PC.. I mean really quiet! you should by some well-build spacy case - I'm from Czech Rep. so I really don't know what are you able to bye in Canada, but generally said - look at some CoolerMaster pieces, or my own AMS gMONO or some Chieftec or AOpen cases.. I've got nice and quiet PSU from Fortron - FSP300-60PN with only one 120mm low rpm fan.. really nice and in my case, this PSU has no ripple affecting sound quality..

than choose a platform. I'm fan of AMD due to the price and also the ability to set processor multiplier and therefore FSB speed freely.. and trust me, modern chipsets even VIA ones are of really high quality and virtually without any problems.. Consider some VIA KT400A chipset based mainboard from good manufacturer like Gigabyte, AOpen, Abit, Epox or Asus.. insert the cheapest Athlon you can and add decent quiet cooler like ones from Arctic Cooling - Copper Silent 2 or Slim Silent with temperature-controled fan and be happy

hard disk - this is perhaps the most important factor in order to keep your PC quiet - go for Seagate Barracuda ATA IV or V if you can, but hurry up! those new 7200.7 aren't that quiet no more (I've got one I know what I'm speaking of).. or you should try new Hitachi/IBM GXP180 series drives.. buy 60GB models if you want the quietest operation, becouse those drives has exactly 60GB on one platter, so values above requieres more platters and therefore more noise is being generated.. enable 'quiet' AAM preference than

and we are finishing with sound card lying before us
how much could you sacrifice to get the best sound?
if money is not your problem than go for RME Digi 96/8 PAD - ca. 400 USD but really hi-end
or by something like I did - M-Audio Revolution with nice sound (beats Audigy2 easily! tested! ) for about 100 USD

oh we also need some cans
there I can't tell you anything else than Sennheiser go listen some, try HD580 and HD590 or try another brands..

edit:
omg I forget about graphic card - If you're not a gamer (just like me), go for ATi R9000 or R9200 64M - nothing else

well I've finished, let anothers talk

(and sorry for my eng.. ehm, pinglish)

New Audio Computer

Reply #2 – 2003-06-29 23:39:54

For websurfing and a few movies, any new setup will suffice. From your post I assume you're not really into geeky hardware. My advice is to get a complete system then. Dell for example sells very quiet machines at reasonable prices. A self built system cannot beat it in terms of cost, only in tweakability will it be better; and that doesn't seem important for your application (why overclock your memory for websurfing?).

Since you're asking for an audio pc, it seems recommendable to buy a soundcard upgrade. For listening to headphones, I recently bought myself a Terratec DMX 6Fire, and I can confirm it has a fantastic headphone output (in a front cd-bay). It might be overkill though...

[edit]links added:
http://productsen.terratec.net/modules.php...order=0&thold=0
http://productsen.terratec.net/index.php?m...&orderby=titleA
[/edit]

One more tip: get more RAM than most standard configs are equipped with. For multiple webpages (and lots of images in those), under Win2k/XP, 512Mb turns out very comfortable.

[edit]The MAudio Revo is a good recommendation indeed, lacking a front headphone out though...
Personally, I dislike Sennheiser though. My personal favorite is the Philips SBC HP890, which I preferred over the Sennheiser HD600s when I listened at the shop.[/edit]

New Audio Computer

Reply #3 – 2003-06-29 23:44:11

Thanks. I am still looking around, but I'll let you all know. Any more recommendations? BTW, I am looking for something that is not very expensive.

New Audio Computer

Reply #4 – 2003-06-30 10:05:40

Quote

The MAudio Revo is a good recommendation indeed, lacking a front headphone out though...

Well, according to M-Audio specs, the Revo does have a headphone output. Not in a front bay, as is obvious...

New Audio Computer

Reply #5 – 2003-06-30 15:39:09

In my computer, the noisiest element is the AMD Athlon1800+ fan. The saleman told me "AMD and silence don't mix together, if you want a silent computer, buy Intel".
Next is the Videocard fan, it's an ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon. Next are the two hard drives.

New Audio Computer

Reply #6 – 2003-06-30 16:02:05

The magic word of the day for quiet computing is Zalman.

They are a company that goes out of its way to make a quieter computer, specifically in terms of heat dissapation.

You'll have to go to their website to see what fits your needs specifically, but I'd recommend the Aluminum-Copper hybrid CPU heatsinks. They're quite effective, and they usually come in under the maximum heatsink weight specs, (which already beats out MANY heatsink manufacturers).

According to Tom's Hardware, they also make a pretty impressive powersupply too.

New Audio Computer

Reply #7 – 2003-06-30 16:34:39

Quote

In my computer, the noisiest element is the AMD Athlon1800+ fan. The saleman told me "AMD and silence don't mix together, if you want a silent computer, buy Intel".

Pio, I have exactly the same problem... (but my shopkeeper wasn't nearly that dumb)

Athlon XP 1700+ overclocked to 1800+ (with 140MHZ FSB)
Anyone can point me to efective, quiet coolers?
(everything else is okay, checked it)

New Audio Computer

Reply #8 – 2003-06-30 17:46:10

Quote

Pio, I have exactly the same problem... (but my shopkeeper wasn't nearly that dumb)

Athlon XP 1700+ overclocked to 1800+ (with 140MHZ FSB)
Anyone can point me to efective, quiet coolers?
(everything else is okay, checked it)

Zalman-CNPS6000-AlCu

I've got two of them on a dual processor 1Ghz Athlon system. It seem to run alright in silent mode (I haven't tried it with a heavy load).

It's pretty bad, because everytime I sit down to my computer, I keep thinking that the processor's gone up in smoke because I don't hear anything running.

New Audio Computer

Reply #9 – 2003-06-30 18:39:13

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It's pretty bad, because everytime I sit down to my computer, I keep thinking that the processor's gone up in smoke because I don't hear anything running.

That's all right for me... I'm not so paranoid

But anyway, how does one install that kit?
I have limited space over CPU.

New Audio Computer

Reply #10 – 2003-06-30 18:59:14

Do INSIST that they use extra silent fans everywhere (on the grafics board also) and maybe also cork noise reduction plates. It's around 100$ more but you will love it every day.
As harddrive I would get a heavy-duty one (maybe Maxtor DiamondMax+ 120 GB), and decent soundcard (dont know much about those, sorry).
CPU, RAM and grafics board do not matter so much for your needs as long as they are halfway up to date. Some AMD 2xxx+ CPU with 512 MB RAM wouldl do, and a cheap GForce FX 5200 128MB.

New Audio Computer

Reply #11 – 2003-06-30 19:12:58

I think this site Ultra-Quiet Cooling for Pentium 4 Processors could be of some use to you, making a quiet PC. Or check here, Ultra-Quiet Cooling for Athlon XP and other CPUs. It's worked for some other people that've tried it.

Here's the fans they recommend there, just a pic; image

Also, I'd recommend underclocking a bit.

For a soundcard, I recommend an M-AUDIO. They sound great for the price.

edit: please post links to images.

New Audio Computer

Reply #12 – 2003-06-30 19:18:43

Flower Cooler isn't the right solution for me...
I have CPU directly under power supply

New Audio Computer

Reply #13 – 2003-06-30 19:30:06

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Flower Cooler isn't the right solution for me...
I have CPU directly under power supply

With that in mind, maybe you should think about getting a new case. Decent ones can be had for around $50. It's definitely not good for either your power supply or your CPU if they're that close to each other.

What kind of setup do you have? Rather what kind of motherboard and case do you use? The flower design is flat on two sides, so that it shouldn't be much wider than the socket, (but it will be longer). C'mon, I can fit two of them on an Asus A7M266-D, so I'd be quite surprised if you can't fit one inside yours. Usually the biggest problem that people have had is that it's too close to their memory.

New Audio Computer

Reply #14 – 2003-06-30 19:37:13

This is Gigabyte 7/DX+... and the CPU isn't ALL under power supply,
just 2 cm, but it might be enough to stop me from installing that.
Current CPU temperature (100% usage, read my sig) is 67C.
No problems with temperature or stability right now - 5500 rpm fan.

On the other side, I might try water cooling - it's inexpensive,
quiet and I won't have any problems installing it.

Case - noname, big tower.

New Audio Computer

Reply #15 – 2003-06-30 20:29:04

Quote

This is Gigabyte 7/DX+... and the CPU isn't ALL under power supply,
just 2 cm, but it might be enough to stop me from installing that.
Current CPU temperature (100% usage, read my sig) is 67C.
No problems with temperature or stability right now - 5500 rpm fan.

On the other side, I might try water cooling - it's inexpensive,
quiet and I won't have any problems installing it.

Case - noname, big tower.

You get the :x

I looked really carefully at a picture of your motherboard as well as many others, and I noticed a disturbing trend. More motherboards are coming out with the heatsink tabs running parallel to the memory (and perpendicular to the powersupply) rather than the other way around. The problem with doing that is that is that it leaves very little room for heatsinks LIKE Zalman, which take up a bit more space in order to make things quiet.

Many more Asus boards are like this as well.

Maybe Zalman should redesign their heatsinks with this in mind.....

New Audio Computer

Reply #16 – 2003-06-30 21:21:48

Zalman's aren't very different when compared to other expensive heatsinks. The real difference is that they market their heatsinks as 'silent coolers', whereas e.g. Alpha sells 'overclocking coolers'.

In many roundups, you'll see that when the same fans are used on both, they perform alike.

But, still, I haven't changed my mind since this thread. Like I basically stated there, silent cooling does not require expensive fans: any fan running as slow as a Papst fan, or as slow as a Zalman fan at 7volt, will be quite silent.

What I'm trying to say: the real secret of quiet air-cooling imho, is a big chunk of metal with enough surface area and a slow fan, and it doesn't need to sport the expensive Zalman branding. [edit]And that's exactly what Dell do, by the way. They take a huge alu chunk, put a fan duct on it, and have a big, slow casefan suck air from the duct out of the case.[/edit]

@Pio2001: did you ask the salesman how he would explain that when both chips have to dissipate roughly the same heat (somewhere between 60 and 80 Watts) still the Pentiums could run cooler? That would have been funny

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