Silent Gaming Challange!

[authoratah]

I hear you mad-dog, my old thermaltake xaser came with 6 90mm fans! Hence the hovercraft like din, even with a fan controller.

This super shiny p182se is hard to find. I've begun contemplating some mirrors and ductape.

 

[teh_boxzor]

thats a great build.

but i'd recommend adding the new thermalright HR-03 (plus) Reviewed here on THG

(http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/08/27/how_cool_are_thermalrights_graphics_card_coolers/) sorry don't know how to link. someone show me? haha.

and maybe arctic cooling freezer 7 pro instead of stock cooling and Scythe S-flex? although it is a great fan.

is ireland its own country or part of UK? i forget if its ireland or northern ireland thats its own country

and i'll stop reading your mind. jeez ruin my fun. =]

 

[authoratah]

http://www.anandtech.com/casecoolingpsus/showdoc.aspx?i=3040&p=17

Anad says the quad isn't what I need. Just as well. None of the sites here have it.

I reckon I might save on a few things bringing them over from the US. Not heavy things...

My problem is that Komplett.ie (an Irish site) have an offer on hard drives, jes.de (those crafy Germans) have the case I need, shippable for €20 (yay! not $200 from America, but even with those Germans charging me €200 the total works out the same).

And then there's Dabs.ie who can offer me a ds3r for about €115. Shipped and all.

SO now I have to pick out a different PSU and a way of buying from 3 sources or less.

You can all see now why I began planning ahead in time for November. Which will inevitably leave me swearing at Christmas

 

[teh_boxzor]

stick to the quad.


its future proof.


crysis is going to take advantage of the extra cores.


and so will most other apps in the near future.

 

[authoratah]

I see you managed to get a great rate on blank lines there boxzor I take it I am supposed to read between them somehow?

It would appear I only need 6400 style RAM, since 8500 would far outstrip my needs.


The next pressing matter is listing all the good sites.
jes.de
komplett.ie
elara.ie
scan.co.uk
ebay.ie
newegg
zipzoomfly


This list will quickly grow.

 

[mad-dog]

I hear you mad-dog, my old thermaltake xaser came with 6 90mm fans! Hence the hovercraft like din, even with a fan controller.

This super shiny p182se is hard to find. I've begun contemplating some mirrors and ductape.

I was thinking about and thought I'd throw these links at ya......

http://www.makeitsimple.com/projects/projects.htm

http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=utf-8&fr=slv8-msgr&p=silent%20pc

 

[authoratah]

*Catches both*

I came across scan.co.uk there. Has anyone a tale to tell, be it good, bad or ugly?

 

[nastymat]

I use scan and have nothing bad to say about them. They have always delivered promptly - no hassle. Price wise they seem more than competitive. Everything I have received has worked no problem so I can't comment on returning goods.

 

[authoratah]

Thanks Mat. I'm so pleased to have finally found a site that has everything I need.

LN18795 Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R, iP35 Express, S 775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 1066/1333/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX £70.49

LN19488 Intel Core 2 Quad-Core Q6600 G0 SLACR, 95W, S775, 2.40 GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 8MB Cache, Retail £176.24

LN16546 500 Gb Samsung HD501LJ Spinpoint T, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.9 ms, NCQ £124.29 (2 of these)

LN14277 2GB (2x1GB) CorsairTwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 4-4-4-12, EPP £66.96

LN19006 Samsung SH-S203/BEBN 20x DVD±R, 16x DVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, SATA, Black, OEM inc. Nero £18.79

LN18867 Antec P182 Advanced PERFORMANCE ONE SERIES Super Midi Tower Case, Black (no PSU) £78.48

LN17688 640MB BFG Technology 8800GTS OC PCI-E(x16) Mem 1600MHz GPU 550MHz 96 Streams HDTV/2 x DVI-I £246.15

LN16834 Noctua NH-U12F CPU Heatpipe Heatsink and fan LGA 775 S754, S939, S940 & AM2 £38.76

LN17319 Noctua NF-S12 800 RPM 120mm Quiet Case Fan £25.83

...and a silencer quad on the way

Thar she blows: £870.32. Load the guns of critique.

 

[KyleSTL]

What? No sound dampening material? No PSU exhaust duct? Did everything I say fall on deaf ears? (pardon the pun).

No, seriously, looks great, if I had the money, I might just do the same thing piece-for-piece. I think you're right about the Noctua fans, they look pretty sweet and it sounds like design is a big component of their business (fluid dynamics, etc). I would probably go with the Western Digital AA-series hard drives, but that's just a personal preference. Love the Corsair ram. Gotta say, I'm a little jealous, but honestly my ol' P4 is holding up fine for the time being.

I guess if this ninja-like computer is still putting out too much noise you can always dampen it in the future. Enjoy

 

[authoratah]

Hi Kyle,

I had considered it, but with the parts I'm getting I don't think I'll need dampening. If it means that much to you, I'll go down to a hardware shop and buy some sheets of thin laminated polystyrene. I'll even give you this 'I told you so' coupon:

 

[KyleSTL]

I will consider this "Challenge" completed. Good work, man

 

[authoratah]

This part anyway. The next chapter begins on Thursday when everything starts to arrive.

Then the real challenge begins...

 

[bliq]

My question is how silent is silent enough for you? The ordinary office is probably 40dB ambient noise meaning you wouldn't hear the comp even if it was relatively noisy. A home office is probably 30dB ambient.

If you're aiming for silent as in 'no noise in a hermetically sealed, sound proof chamber", it's going to cost a lot more and be less powerful than a machine specc'd to silent as in "I can't hear it over the office chatter".

Also, I don't know if they ship overseas but www.svc.com has a small section on quiet pc.

 

[teh_boxzor]

reading in between the lines is exactly what you should do.


what does it say between those lines? (actually it screams)


GO QUAD CORE!!!!!!

 

[authoratah]

Yes, subtle.

So now I'm haggling with scan over £4. My fellow countrymen, beware of the tempting shipping charge. It's to UK only, and you may double it if you live in our fine Republic.

Now does anyone know where I put the final list... (scrolls up)

 

[authoratah]

Right, that's that lot bought.

9 hours of assembly


22 hours sleep because I think I put my back out lifting it up the stairs.
Why didn't ye warn me about the size of the noctua cooler?

And now the thing sounds like a diesel engine. I think I need a GPU cooler, a DVI to HDMI adaptor, a HDMI cable (v1.2 or 1.3, help me out here), a means of connecting my speakers to the TV I have...

Hang on, I'll draw a diagram. You guys can draw the lines in.

 

[authoratah]

Right, here's the diagram.

As you can see, it's getting a bit complicated here at mission control.

Desired result:
Audio: Use the TV speaker in the 7.1 setup as the main center speaker
Means I'll have a spare speaker - so that'd be like 8.1 maybe?
How do I wire both PCs into the creative T7700 speakers I have? (got them cheap on ebay ) First PC mobo is a D865GLC (that'd be the old one) second/new PC is a P35-DS3R

Visual: Ok, so I have a 32" HDTV and a HP LP3065 (for a few days). I can't wire the old one to the 30" monitor because it needs to be driven by a dual link DVI. This means I'm using a VGA-VGA to connect the old one to the TV. It's been in use this whole time, so no change there.

The new Computer can power games at HDMI quality, since it has a Dual link DVI 8800GTS. More about that later.

What I want is dual screen madness with 8.1 surround sound. Can it be done? Are the resolutions going to be vastly different?

Useful stats:
TV max res: 1366x767 (or 1360x768 if you're a purist)
Monitor max res: 2560x1600

Star prize to the first person who figures out how to wire the whole shebang. After that, I've the task of setting up the new PC to contend with. I have an OS ready to go (and it's 32 bit because I reckon I'd rather have legacy support for the sake of the odd performance increase that comes from a 64 bit version even though I'll have a 32 bit version in the old computer which now, as I write, defeats the purpose entirely).

So yeah, post summary:
Which is a nice quiet cooler for an 8800GTS by BFG? I have 3 noctua fans in and spare 120mm fans handy. Fanless preferred.
What's the difference between HDMI versions 1.2 and 1.3, and which do I want?
Which OS should I put on the new PC? I have XP 32bit on this one I'm using to [strike]annoy[/strike] talk to you all
Should I use an earthed socket adaptor since the PSU I got came with the wrong type of plug? I need a UK style 3 pin jobby
How do I wire the TV speaker as the centre speaker for the sound system?




Can you believe I turned it on, and it was actually louder than my current one!? :lol: Don't even ask about assembly. Started at sundown, finished at dawn.

 

[authoratah]

Oops, sata cable stuck in the fan there. That'll be what was causing the racket

 

[mad-dog]

Alright.... the TV speaker should be a 8ohm unit, simply disconnect the wires from your center-channel speaker and hook em up to the TV speaker.
http://www.hdmi.org/learningcenter/faq.aspx
the part about wiring speakers up to 2 different sources......your on your own.
I'm using the Thermalright HR-03+ with my 8800GTS.
http://www.thermalright.com/default.htm

 

[F34R1355]

What is the brand on the HD-TV?
2 RCA Splitters might work to hook to the TV and the Center channel. They should look like this http://www.worldofcables.com/store/catalog/AUD-1400-01.jpg. split the one mono line into two, then on of those to the speaker, and the other to another splitter. Then a stereo RCA line from the to the tv. Just a word of caution, you may damage/cause death to your TV. The TV can maybe handle 5 or 6 Watts at most for input. You are trying to put 20 or 30 into it. Also you will destroy your sound quality.

The way that I would really recommend doing this would to be by a 2.5 Stereo Mini Jack Splitter, looks like http://image.bizrate.co.uk/resize?sq=160&uid=553812812&mid=103429. Hook that to your front out on your computer. Plug in a mini jack to RCA converter (should look something like http://www.promusicaustralia.com/guitar/leemimages/YCX.05.JPG ), and the speakers. then you are using the stereo output on your tv + your speakers both at good efficiency.

Another caution: doing the following may destroy or damage the speakers or sound cards.

Buy 4 Mini jack splitters and plug them into your input on the speakers. Buy a second set of 7.1 cables, plug them into the splitters and hook them to one computer. Do the same with the other set.

 

[authoratah]

I dropped into peats there the other day and was told something similar.

TV is a Tevion 32" LCD HDTV.


I have a more pressing problem to solve before I get going with this though:

After I'd built my PC and everything was hunky dory, I decided to swap drive letters D: and E: so they'd match my old setup more closely. I went into computer>manage and used disk management. First I swapped D: to Z:. Then things started to go a bit wrong. When I tried to turn E: into D:, it told me that since I had a disc in the drive (though t nothing of it at the time) the disc would keep responding as E:. D: is now Z:, and I'm trying to turn E: into D:. The drop down menu hasn't got D: or E: availible. Oddly enough, E: to D: swappage has already occured. So I try to swap Z: (which was D to E:. This should complete a simple E: D: swap, right? Nope. Like I said, E and D aren't in the dropdown menu.

It went horribly, horribly wrong. Now I can't get into windows, windows safe mode, last known good config, windows anything. Running Vista Business so I am. Or so I was...

Symptoms of an attempted normal startup get it past the vista load bar, with maybe a seconds look at the mouse cursor before it dies.

Safe mode is similar, only the mouse cursor is a lot bigger and I get a blinking cursor in the top right corner during death. And a very brief flash of a bsod too. the cursor blinks for a good minute before this bsod flashes by.

In both cases the machine reboots and continues looping. During reboot, the recognition of the CDROM drives takes longer than it used too.

I have plenty of tools handy ie knoppix disc, XP disc, boot discs, vista business disc etc. How do I undo a drive letter reassignment?

 

[authoratah]

That was scary. Feels like I've jumped the gorge!

Hard reset+vista disk+system reboot+repair console = Yahtzee!

Then it bluescreened when I put a disc in the first drive

...restarted...

Tested the second drive and it locked shut! Paperclipped it out :O

Should I prepare for more weirdness?

 

[mad-dog]

Serious conflict......check the bios settings (if it will let ya),
Don't rule out a bad stick of RAM, what PSU do you have...?
Tell ya what, why don't you list the system specs, how many hdd's?, raid?, didya pull the jumpers?
Windows runs best on a clean install, wipe it clean and do a fresh install "AFTER" checking connections, settings and system configuration.

 

[authoratah]

Hi Mad-dog,

I think it did the computer equivelent of falling down the stairs and landing on its arse.

Since my last post, the Raid array has failed. Intel matrix storage reports that the first drive in my 2 drive Raid 0 setup has suffered a read/write error. The help file says the fix requires a complete wipe and reinstall of the entire farm/shop/kazbah/shebeen/grocery store.

I have decided to take the comical ali approach instead. Right click, mark as normal.

Compy - "Your raid array has failed!"
Me - "(right click) Ehhh, no it hasn't..."
Compy - "Oh... my mistake"

Other errors that have been popping up include windows backup not working (what a surprise), folding at home not running at all even though it did work for about a half hour and steam crapping out completely.

Steam woulnd't download. Then Steam wouldn't install. Then Steam couldn't get as far as downloading anything.

I picked up an old laptop and played 8 hours of settlers 2 instead.

As for troubleshooting:
Ram is ok, Corsair 6400 4-4-4-12
Processor is ok, q6600 (the noctua heatsink I have on it keeps the core temps in around 30-35C although the overall system temp is 55, probably my GPU doing that)
Mobo isn't checked yet. It's a GA DS3R rev. 1.0 with all the updates and bios applied
PSU is a 620W from Corsair, the HW one. Any suggestions on a more specific test for this component?
Hard drives of which there are two now are "ok" (although Intel matrix storage wants me to think otherwise)
Fans are working wonderfully. They expel warm air which I reuse to defrost my hands (not so great circulation you see, comes from sitting down too long)
Connections were a bit floopy but I rewired all the sata devices (which is all 4 drives, 2x CDROM/DVD and 2x Hard drives, samsung spinpoint 500s)

Sata ports are not set up as 0+1 for the hard drives, 2+3 for the DVD drives.

Vista says I'm using 51% of memory and about 27% load with all my background processes running (which includes F@H). Gigiabyte tells me that dynamic overclocking is enabled so

Oh yeah, the monitor completely shat itself there too. I unplugged it to try and adjust the height (tis an LP3065 from HP here) and when I plugged it back in again, all the colours were backwards. Eventually, I swapped the ports and unplugged the HDMI. Regretably, I forgot to take a screenshot of the pretty colours.

On a much happier note, I managed to get my whole network to fileshare for the first time ever. Except the old Mac running OS 9.2, but that doesn't really count anymore.

Next question: Seeing as I've used the premise that my raid array has failed and I need to order 2 new hard drives (which are now on the way) which is better: RAID 10 or RAID 5? Bear in mind that this is a game biased machine but I would like decent saftey and peace of mind.

Longshot of the month: How do you network mac OS 9.2 to a windows workgroup?