Quiet Audio Production Rig - Need Input

[morc]

This post covers motherboard issues as well as other questions regarding a new system that I am to build. I appreciate any input regarding the ideas I have here. Thanks in advance!

** Goals **

A quiet rig for digital audio production, recording, MIDI etc.. but that can also be used
for gaming sometimes.

** What I have **

Thermalright SLK-900(A) Copper Heatsink for Socket A
Panaflo L1A 80mm Fans (3)
Zalman ZM80C-HP VGA Heatpipe Cooler
Zalman FanMate 1 Fan Speed Controllers (3)
Zalman ZM-NB32J Northbridge Heatsink
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Paste
Silent Systems 3.5" HDD Cover

Echo Layla soundcard with 19" rack-mount break-out box
Plextor 48x24x48 CD-RW
Two LG Electronics 19" monitors

** What I plan to get **

Lian-Li PC-6070 Aluminum Case (has full door and acoustic foam lining) [$160]
PSU - 'silent' type, perhaps Seasonic Tornado, Nexus or Enermax (350-400 watts) [$90]
Abit AN7 Motherboard [$105]
AMD AthlonXP Mobile 2500+ CPU [$95]
Corsair XMS PC3200 TwinX 512mb or 1gb (2-3-2-6) [$150-$300]
Seagate 160mb SATA HDD [$120]
Radeon 9600 pro / 9800 pro [$110-$200]

** Ideas **

I have read that I can overclock the 2500+ mobile CPU to 2.2GHz with an increase in voltage
to only 1.525, I am hoping that the big heatsink and Panaflo L1A CPU fan (@7v) will keep temps under 60 C

I plan to have just one case fan, a Panaflo running at 7 volts on the back of the case

I plan on removing the northbridge fan and replacing with Zalman heatsink

I plan on removing VGA card fan and replacing with huge Zalman heatsink/heatpipe

I will be running both monitors from same AGP video card

Noise will only be generated by the two Panaflo L1A fans and the PSU fans.

** Questions **

Should I get PC3700 DDR rather than PC3200? Will I want to increase the FSB beyond
what the PC3200 DDR can handle?

How high a consistent CPU temp can I really be comfortable with?

The Abit AN7 will be a better choice than the NF7-S after a couple
BIOS revisions, right? I like the uGuru concept, with programmable overclocking presets
I could have a setting for gaming and a setting for music composition/recording. I know
that Nvidia makes a software app that has a similar function for the NF7-S but I have read
that it is not as good at the uGuru hardware chip.

Thanks to everyone for any ideas regarding my future rig, I am really excited about gettingit built and tweaking it to perfection.. I have found quite a bit of info regarding silent PC computing here:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/
http://home.swipnet.se/tr/silence.html

Thanks Again! -morc

 

[pat]

Just to inform you that my mobile 2500+ is running 12x200 (2.4GHz) with 1.675v cooled by a Thermaltake Silentboost and rarely goes higher than 52C... Increasing FSB is what that cause to heat up, and higher performance thou. that why I use 200fsb to keep the temp normal and noise down. If you plan to go with high FSB, then get faster memory...but watch for latency. sometime hiher spped memory has higher latency. low latency good quality 3200 can overclock good too.

As for temp..65C is good at max. It is not that cpu cannot handle more, they can. around 85C iirc. But at 64, you still have some room for spike and higher than that, the heat inside the case will become hard to manage, affecting other component.

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!

 

[blah]

Dude, words "Quiet" and "AMD" don't mix on air cooling.

..this is very useful and helpful place for information...

 

[etp777]

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?description=17-103-445&DEPA=1

420w Enermax Noisetaker is on sale for 75.99 shipped right now at Newegg(8 bucks cheaper than the refurbished ones, as they're not on sale). I ordered mine earlier today, as I've been looking at quieting down my system, and power supply and HSF were only real things left, just didn't want to spend the $80 or more to find a psu of sufficient capacity and quietness to be worth the upgrade.

 

[jammydodger]

Get a 400w zalman or globalwin power supply. They really are quiet.

P4c 2.6@3.25
512Mb PC4000
2x120Gb 7200.7 in RAID0
Waterchill KT12-L30
Abit AI7
Radeon 9800Pro

 

[o1die]

I would get a video card without a fan, such as a 9200 or 7000 ati. I haven't seen any nvidia cards without a fan, but I'm sure some are available. And I read a post from a gentlemen in another forum using a new duron 1.6 (1600) with a premium heatsink, and no fan! I don't remember which one he was using, but apparantly it's possible. His cpu temp was around 60 celcius, which is a little high, but within acceptable limits for amd cpus. Don't try this with a regular athlon, though the mobile bartons might also work without a fan. It really depends on how much load you put on your cpu, the quality of your heatsink, and your room temperature. I personally wouldn't try running without a fan, but the durons are so cheap, it might be worth a gamble. Good luck.

 

[morc]

Thanks to all for the input. Wow, a Duron 1.6 without a fan! The best heatsink for socket A now is a Thermalright sp-97 - pure copper with heatpipes.

AMD and Quiet CAN be a reality especially with the newer mobile Athlon XP - the latest XP 2400+ is running at 1.35v and 35 watts! A Panaflo L1A running at 5 volts should cool it well, I think.

Anyone want to comment about if they think this rig will run Cubase and SoundForge and other HD-based samplers well?

 

[jammydodger]

How much processing power do you need? You could possibly underclock one of the mobile bartons. Or you could get a via Eden CPU, but Idoubt it would have the processing power you would need.

P4c 2.6@3.25
512Mb PC4000
2x120Gb 7200.7 in RAID0
Waterchill KT12-L30
Abit AI7
Radeon 9800Pro

 

[TheRod]

Quiet HDD : Seagate Barracuda 7200.7+

I have the 160Gig version of this drive and I can't tell if it's running or not, CPU/GPU/Case fans are louder than this drive, it perfroms really well too!

--
Lookin' to fill that <font color=blue>GOD</font color=blue> shape hole!