PlanetZ forums - scopeusers.com

I think I'm comming to the very end of it, so... here you are:

CASE:
Antec - Plus1080AMG - Full-Tower Case Metallic Grey with 430 Watt Power Supply and Front Media Ports - Supports ATX Mainboards
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... =A453-1042

MOBO:
ASUS P4PE (Standard version) http://event.asus.com.tw/de/lanparty/mb/p4pe.htm

CPU:
Intel Pentium 2.4.B 533 MHz FSB, 0.13 micron Northwood.

MEMORY:
2X DDR PC3200 • CL=3 • Unbuffered • Non-parity • 5ns • 2.5V • 64Meg x 64 Part Number: CT6464Z40B http://www.crucial.com/store/listmfgr.asp?cat=RAM

HD Drives:
Western Digital Caviar Special Edition 120 GB 7200 RPM 8MB buffer drive, and a second 80GB drive same kind.

VIDEO CARD:
Matrox G550 or new P650.

CDRW:
ASUS CRW-5224A (ASUS 52X/24X/ 52X CD-ReWriter)

CD drive:
Asus 50X.

KEYBOARD:
Logitech Internet Navigator Keyboard. Manufacturer Part No: 967233-0403.

MOUSE:
Cordless MouseMan Wheel from Logitech.

so it will be
I go for the same...mostly
greetings from Norway....Are

looks good.it should work better.

Hi Nestor

Antec has a good name in the "tower bussiness". Still, if noise is a primary concern, I must warn you, that the detachable drive bays does make the hard drive produce mroe noise. I have a Chieftec tower myself, and though it is beautifull, I will not buy one of those again - because of this problem.

The thing is, that the drive bay will probably wibrate a little bit (wich is too much for my taste) and thereby make seak noise from the drive more noticeable.

Looks good Nestor ! I could do with one of those myself. How much RAM is in there and what monitor(s) are you using ?

the antec bays are well secured in my experience.

Oh yes - I am not talking about security No problem there. The only thing is, that my harddrives makes more noise in the Chieftec, than in my old AOpen (same story for a friend of mine with a Chieftec).

Arela, Garyb, thanks for your good whishes, really people!

***

Hi Immanuel
Well, of course I’m concerned about noise as you are, I think I’m like you… I’m very sensitive to strange noises particularly when mixing.

Let me explain: The reasons for choosing this apparently expensive case are: TruePower 430 Watts Power Supply Unit, which costs $85 alone, and the case is found at $100, which is a good deal. You are actually paying $15 for the case itself.

The power supply has been build with a technology which makes it almost completely silent, here you have:





They state this:
“There are two Molex connectors on the power supply marked FAN ONLY. When fans are plugged into these connectors (DO NOT PLUG ANYTHING ELSE INTO THESE CONNECTORS) the power supply controls the speed of the attached fans. If the case is already cool it will spin the fans at a lower speed. When things get hot, they speed up. This really makes the case a lot quieter on those cooler evenings, and that's something that can only be good for your nerves.

I understand that noise can ruin the best setup if you are not careful with noise… Nevertheless, there are nowadays many practical solutions to isolate your drive bays with special pads of synthetic rubber. This is what I’m going to do.

Here you have another solution for isolating cases from noises, though a bit expensive, B-Quiet:

http://www.b-quiet.com/brownbread.html

I’m going to use something similar, which is used in Chile for isolating roofs from rain and cold and it’s much cheaper, great for damping high frequencies.

***

Hey Spirit
I’m going for two sticks of 512 of 3200 DDR RAM.

***

Garyb, all screws are going to be intercepted with small pieces of synthetic rubber, this is going to help a lot. I have read quite a few reviews about it, it’s a simple job to do, just once and forget about it.

***

I’m sure you’re right Immanuel that this kind of cases are a bit louder than smaller ones, but you could do the same than me there, using some special materials, let’s cover all the walls of your case, and you’ll help a lot. My present case is covered with some sort of sink panels, and it helps much.

You can buy something like this







Or go the cheap way as myself, choosing materials into the construction area. There are literally hundreds of damping materials for all sort of situations, you can choose one that suits your work. It must be, without small, because the cases heat after a few hours of work. Without strong substances to stick or glue it, and you have to plane it before getting to stick, so you are sure all your doors will close properly.

Thank you everybody for your participation, thanks indeed!

It looks like a fine case for a DIY man like you then And 15$ is not much for a case of this over all build quality.

I use this and it realy helps very much on hard drive noise. It does not take away the high pitched whine (if your hard drives produce any such), but it doesn't heat the hard drive either. Only problem with my Chieftec tower is, that I can not fix the hard drive bay both on the front holes and the rear holes - not too good, but it is there, and that is the most important part.

I hope you have thought of the lost heat disipating area, when you isolate your tower? The sides and the top of a PC actually does pass a good deal of heat (it may not feel so, but it is over a huge area). In any case, I would recomend you to not bother too much with isolating high frequencies. The Antec has 1mm sides, and will actually not let too much high pitched noise out. Actually most PC towers do not let too much high pitched noise out. what little you gain by damping treble noise, you will probably loose by having your fans run faster = louder mid and low frequency noise - and the fans will go to a higher frequency too.

It is all very tricky - some times damping something makes other stuff more noisy. Some times damping something is a huge relief. But to add some more 2cents (I think I will soon reach my first $ ) - I think the best thing would be to not dampen the the tower, live with it for a couple of weeks and then find out wich damping is needed, and wich isn't. Maybe place your hand on top of the case once in a while, and also find out, how hot the air comming out of it is.

I agree very much with you - "real" PC-damping is very expensive. And it doesn't ahve to be any better - maybe in a year or 2 PC damping will cost 13% of today? It only depends on the user demands and the power of the free market.

You are very thorough - it will do you good

Cheers Immanuel.
This was an intelligent tip! I never thought about that, this way. Anyway, the material I’m planning to use is some chunky metallic pad, which has an adhesive side and is mostly aluminium, so it will cool almost immediately if ventilation is applied to it.

It’s a good advice, I’m going to have a go just like that, and if I find it too loud I’m going to start damping the case with this material I’m talking about.

Thanks for the good advices.

Unfortunately, due to the extremely expensive price that costs to bring this heavy server case from USA, I’m forced to give up… The cheaper price to pay for it would be about $325! Mad!

Well, cos of that, instead of choosing a case and then look for it, I have seen what’s in the Chilean market, and then I have chosen one, the closest possible to the Antec 1080.

The one I’m talking about is called:

Thermaltake Xaser II A6000A Case.
Here you have a link if you want to know more about it:
http://www.mypcmax.com/a6xascassila1.html

It’s quite expensive as you can see, but not at all if I think how much would I pay for the 1080!

Is there anybody with one of those and which is your experience? Cheers.

170$ without PSU - you might as well go for a rack mount then.

Right, but what's the difference between one of those and a Xaser II? I've never used a rackmount you are talking about... Tell me something, or just pass me a link If you can. Thanks you Immanuel for all this helpful answers

There are a number of different PC cases for rack mounting. You should probably search in Chile and see, what you can find there. If you go to http://www.infinitevortex.com and look at their reference PC, you will se how a rack mount PC can look.

The only reason to buy a rack mount PC case is, if you want to go on the road with it - or just to some other location to play/mix music with other people. If this is not worth the high cost of a rack mount PC case, then I think you should realy go for something cheaper. Shure the Thermaltake is a nice tower. People in the hardware forum like it ... but it cost a lot. Another option is to go for a good PSU and a cheaper PC tower.

Don't fix yourself on the idea, that the tower must me Antec like - just because the Antec came with a nice PSU. Other brands will come with other PSUs. And 170$ is realy a lot of money in your budget just for having a bit more convenience while putting the PC together. Antec, Chieftec and Thermaltake are nice towers to work with. there is plenty of room inside, and that is very nice, if you often change hardware ... or for some other strange reason fiddle with the hardware. But you are probably not going to do so. It will very likely be 1 installation, and then a month later you may or you may not choose to dampen the tower.

Realy Nestor - with your budget I do think 170$ for a tower without PSU is too much.

Another tower-maker, who is known for good quality is AOpen. You may want to check out, if they are in your price range.

Here is another tower http://divxstation.com/comm/thread.asp?i=16&t=25160&r=0

Right, so the Rack Mount case it's not for me... I'm not moving from my little studio in fact.

Wow! I think my wife would be very jalouse if this kind of case... she is even sexy, isn't she?

I'll let you know what I'll be using...

Yes, the second version is nicer though. I found the first one a bit profane with all the hardware hanging out from the buttom.

Hi again Nestor

The 2.4GHz 800MHz FSB P4 is out now, and it is not priced too far above the 533MHz model. Also it does support hyper threading, and considdering that you will have this PC for some years, it may by worth going for. Who knows, if the next version of your music software takes advantage og HT - or the version, that will be released in 2 or maybe even 3 years?

If you want to take advantage of the 800MHz FSB, you will have to pick another mother board though. You have desided to buy a new PC at a moment with a lot of new things comming in. I know, this is the worst answer to a longing soul, but if you wait 2 or 3 weeks the market may be much clearer, and prices may have dropped a bit too - both on the new stuff, and on the stuff on your list (because it will be then be "old" stuff).

The "I think you should wait a little" answer is extremely rare from my mouth/fingers. New stuff is always comming in, but at this very moment a lot is happening. Waiting 3 more weeks may give you as much as ½ a year before you will again want to buy a new PC. You will get:


Hyper threading <-> no Hyper threading
800MHz FSB <-> 533FSB


Read this -> http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030521/index.html

The benchmarks may not reveal a very huge advantage, but you track bouncing my guess is, that you will feel the difference. Also, and this should not be underestimated - if you are just a little bit like the rest of us (most psycologiacal "functions" are not as unique, as most people like to believe), in 3 years time, when your PC is not that new anymore, you will feel different quite different with having 800MHz + HT, than you will feel with having 533MHz - HT. Psycology is part of my study, and I have moderated a hardware forum for 1½years. And I highly believe in this psycological factor.

I don't remember the last time, I told somebody to wait - if it has happened, it probably was in the late summer 2001 when the ECS k7s5a got extremely good tests paired with a very low price (it is not fast by todays standards, but back then it was pretty amazing). I usualy tell people not to wait, because waiting for hardware can take forever - there is always something new comming next month.

You can get a 2.4GHz 800MHz FSB system today, but everything is in a very early stage, and the situation will probably be much clearer within 3 weeks. Also prices are very new right now, and will by good chance drop within that time. Not least important - there may be new BIOS-versions comming out, wich may turn a loosing motherboard into the leader of the pack.


Did I say, that I think it would be realy good, if you could sample all your patience, be strong and wait just 3 more weeks? I wich you the best Nestor, and I will by any time try and support you in making your own disition, I just have this feeling, that you will be very happy waiting 3 more weeks

Ok, I stop it now, I think I have used my bucket of .... what was it the bucket is empty .... did I use them all already? .... something with time .... ?

I read a bit further in the THG review. Considdering, that Intel chipsets usually are good, you may even want to go for a 865 based solution, if you do not want to wait for .... those 2 words

I'm wondering if which one of the latest Asus motherboards would be good for use with PulsarI/SRB/PowerSampler setup.

I guess I'm still constrained by 33Mhz PCI bus speed, correct?

Does anyone know of a good m/b that will handle the newer 3+ GHz CPU's?