Help building a silent PC based on P6T SE/I7 930

[BasariStudios]

Hello all, it is my first post on this forum. First i'll make it clear who am i and what i know, it will be easier for people to respond on my topics.
I am a Mac guy for the last 12 years but thruought that i had a share of few PC's so i am quiet familiar with them too, mostly OS handy not that
much hardware literate about PC's. I already have a PPC G5 DUAL 2.7 on Tiger OSX but its time to go PC, MAC is just ridiculous for me now,
same specs as my planned 1300$ I7 930 Mac will cost 6000$. I am a musician, a lot of Sound engineering and Sound programming tasks. Some
of you might be familiar with softwares like Cubase, Kontakt, Reaktor, Wavelab and else...i also do quiet a few things with Photoshop or with
Video editing softwares. And once in a while i like to sit and Play COD, BF and few similar games, nothing extreme, i can deal with a less GFX
power but to be in reasonable limits. Also english is not my first language so sometimes i can be missunderstood. After searching i came to this:

ASUS P6T SE Motherboard / Intel Core i7 Processor i7-930
Corsair TX750W Power supply / X6G1600C8D DDR3-1600 (Dominator-12800C8*XMP*3CH) 6GB.

GFX:
ASUS ENGT240 Silent/DI/1GD3 GeForce GT 240 or EVGA nVidia GeForce GT 240.
I know the second one has a Fan and i was willing to sacrifice Noise for Performance (honestly, not knowing how much Noise) and then i found
out about the ASUS one...i will need something in that range of power. The question is would the ASUS be as powerfull, stable and compatible?
In other words should i go for it with no question asked? If any sugestions, please no ATI since we have problems with those in Audio world.

Cooling:
Noctua NH-U12P SE2 CPU Cooler or Corsair Hydro Series H50 CPU Cooler.
I got confused with these 2 items too after reading few controversial and contradicting reviews on the net. When it comes to hardware, cooling,
voltage and stuff i have no clue of anything...when people talk aboutthis voltage, that voltage this RPM and e tc... and i also have no clue of use
this fan, use that pump, use this use that. I am looking more for an ALL IN ONE thing where everything comes together instead of have this fan
on front, this on top, this on back this pump and e tc.

My main goal is to get as quiet as possible and if possible, nothing in the extremes but i dont wanna have a Tractor in my room either. This topic can
serve as both, as asking help for Silent PC and also as a general topic on my whole setup where people can sugest and give me some more ideas in
general. As for HDD i am planing on using a smaller 160GB SATA split in 2 for 2 different OS only and then another 1.5 TB 7200/10000 RPM
32/54 MB cache...Seagate or something...if that counts as anything in the whole Noise issue...as for an Optical drive i still have no clue but i dont
need a Blue Ray, only DVD/CD. I dont think i'll ever use a BlueRay burning or reading...at least for now but thats something i can change later.

I will apreciate anything that anyone will say, i still have few more days left before purchase, a comp store will build it for me here in NYC, i will
be ordering parts from the net and also from them, wherever cheaper. Any help would be greatly apreciated. In simple words my questions are:
1. Coolants/GFX Cards/Power...how do i get it more silent....any sugestions on what to use.
2. The whole system in general open for discussions, ideas, sugestions and else.

I can spare 100-120$ for CPU Cooling, Power and GFX Card each, the whole system should be around 1300$ -Monitor.

...and yes, i've searched a lot on this forum and others and read almost everything for few days and then...then i got more confused.

Thank you All!
Nedim

 

[BasariStudios]

Thanks Timo, for the processor i dont know yet what to do,i might still stay on the 930
for the extra few HZ, i need a lot of juice working on Audio, a lot more then any game.
I will consider and research the Cooling and Power but now i got confused even more, lol.
The GXF card i dont know, i have to stay away from ATI to not risk instability and
incompatibility...we in the Audio world have a lot of problems with ATI and even the
devellopers of software and hardware dont really recomend it.
Keep posting, thank you.

 

[ksampanna]

Cooling:
Noctua NH-U12P SE2 CPU Cooler or Corsair Hydro Series H50 CPU Cooler.
I got confused with these 2 items too after reading few controversial and contradicting reviews on the net. When it comes to hardware, cooling,
voltage and stuff i have no clue of anything...when people talk aboutthis voltage, that voltage this RPM and e tc... and i also have no clue of use
this fan, use that pump, use this use that. I am looking more for an ALL IN ONE thing where everything comes together instead of have this fan
on front, this on top, this on back this pump and e tc.

Unless you're planning to overclock, any of the above coolers are completely unnecessary. The stock Intel cooler runs quiet enough & cools sufficiently at stock processors speeds. If you do want to overclock, then I'd suggest a Noctua NH-U12DX.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608012

Finally, ditch the TX750 and get an Seasonic X-650/750, Semi-passive PSU = fanless/noiseless.

+1 for that.

[1] Your choice of RAM is not the most value for money. Get this one - G.SKILL 6GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231225
The timings are a bit slower than the Corsair, but the difference would be negligible in terms of application performance.

[3] Instead of the ASUS P6T, get the Gigabyte GA-X58A UD3R. Better board, w/ a lesser price tag:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128423

[2] Don't get the 160 GB HDDs, since they are amongst the slowest performing in the market. An SSD will be just perfect for you. Though, it would have smaller capacity & would be pricier, it consumes very less power & runs absolutely silently. Like this one : OCZ Vertex Series 60GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227394

[3] I'll add that if you get the i7-860 (instead of 930; both have similar performance); you'd be saving money on the motherboard (a good p55 motherboard is much cheaper than a good x58 board) & RAM (you could get by with 4 GB).
With this combination, you'll be saving around $100 more, allowing you to get a better SSD.

 

[BasariStudios]

Hello, thank you very much for your responses. To be completely honest with you i am not rally trying to squeze the budget.
I will probably go up to 1500$ -monitor. I want a nice and stable system. Reading few responses on few different forums i
already dropped the TX750 from the list, i will go with the Seasonic X750 at least. With the GFX Card i will probably still stay
the same since i am not an Extreme gamer and will be gaming once in a month or even more rare. I am narrowing down a
little now and thats thanks to you all. Due to Soft Manufacturer's recomendation i will stay on ASUS MoBo and the I7 930.
As for the Cooling i would like Ksampana to explaint why the Noctua NH-U12DX and not the Noctua NH-U12P SE2 and one
of them is defenetely what i would go with. Timo, i understand and i know that NVidia has its share of problems and i dont
even know my self why Soft Manufacturers prefer it but i've been reading that for a long time and i also know from my cousins
built Audio PC that he had problems with ATI and then had to change his GFX Card. I will most likely go with an SSD as a
main Disk for the OS, something like 80GB...is that enough? Manufacturers recomendation also i have to stick with the RAM
i already chosed, most of these things have been tested by Steinberg, NI, EWQL and other manufacturers in the music world.
We never mentioned cases but this one here came to my mind:
http://www.fractal-design.com/?view=product&category=2&prod=32 and i like it a lot but i have to find a way of getting one
and make sure everything is compatible with the other components. I will be probably be purchasing everything this week,
i have few more days, i've been ready for over a month but the reason for waiting is exactly this, researching. The final list to
make my life easier and also yours (which i think this annoys you and people, asking this same question over and over)
would be something like this narrowed down:

ASUS P6TSE LGA1366/ Intel X58/ DDR3/ CrossFireX/ A&GbE/ ATX Motherboard - P6T SE
CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
ASUS ENGT240 Silent/DI/1GD3 GeForce GT 240 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP
Noctua NH-U12DX or Noctua NH-U12P SE2
Seagate Barracuda 7200 1.5 TB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s 32MB Cache or a WD with same specs, whichever quieter.

With smaller adjustements of the above i think all thats left would be 3 more items i have to discuss or if anyone willing to say
something on it, if anyone has time and i apologize for all this and i feel uncomfortable but i have no other choice:
Case...which i dont know yet, the Antecs have nice specs but they look ugly, i like the Fractal Design ones.
An Optical Drive, which i dont really use and i dont need BlueRay on it and i know i never will.
And also a good PCIe FireWire controller/card TI based since i dont wanna use the internal and its not recomended.

I also have a 20 inches Apple Cinema Display LCD...should i sell it and get something else bigger or keep this one?

Thank you very much guys and enjoy your Memorial Day.

Nedim

 

[BasariStudios]

I guess this is the only place i can buy the Fractal Design from:
http://www.ncix.com/

 

[ksampanna]

With smaller adjustements of the above i think all thats left would be 3 more items i have to discuss or if anyone willing to say
something on it, if anyone has time and i apologize for all this and i feel uncomfortable but i have no other choice:

Hey no need to apologise .. We are only to happy to help; & that is the whole point of this forum, isn't it?

Noctua NH-U12DX or Noctua NH-U12P SE2 [/quote ]
Both are almost similar, really, The U12P SE 2 seems to have better reviews, so you might want to consider that.

We never mentioned cases but this one here came to my mind:
http://www.fractal-design.com/?vie [...] =2&prod=32 and i like it a lot but i have to find a way of getting one
and make sure everything is compatible with the other components

Case...which i dont know yet, the Antecs have nice specs but they look ugly, i like the Fractal Design ones.

Now bear in mind that the Noctua has a big cooling fan, so I'd say you should go for a full tower case which will accomodate it comfortably. The Fractal design cases you listed are all mid-tower ones, & there's a possibility that the noctua might not fit into them. So unfortunately, you might have to rule them out.

But there are lots of great looking full tower cases. I'l list a few:
Cooler Master Cosmos S RC http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119150
Cooler Master ATCS 840 http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119187
Cooler Master HAF 932 http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119160
My personal favourite:
Corsair Obsidian 800D http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139001

An Optical Drive, which i dont really use and i dont need BlueRay on it and i know i never will.

LITE-ON Black
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106333
Lite-On, Sony, ASUS, you could get any brand, really, doesn't matter. All are even.

And also a good PCIe FireWire controller/card TI based since i dont wanna use the internal and its not recomended.

SYBA PCI to Firewire 1394a 3+1 ports controller card
And also a good PCIe FireWire controller/card TI based since i dont wanna use the internal and its not recomended.

I also have a 20 inches Apple Cinema Display LCD...should i sell it and get something else bigger or keep this one?

Well if you don't intend to do any graphical intensive work, I don't see why you should replace your current monitor. But seeing that you've put together a good build, maybe you might want a full HD monitor just to up the eye-candy. The decision is upto you.

 

[BasariStudios]

Hello and thank you...i guess we are narrowing down. I think i like the Cooler Master Cosmos.
Optical Drive is not really important i guess, since any can work and do its job. Same thing with
the FW card, i guess any would work for me as long as it TI controllers. The monitors i dont know
yet what i am gonna do, i might get something bigger and full HD for this setup.

Thanks

 

[BasariStudios]

I guess this will be the final list -Case and RAM since NEWEGG dont have them:



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[ksampanna]

Weren't you going to get an SSD? Since low capacity HDDs like those of 80, 160, GB are among the slowest performing amongst all (except the velociraptors, but they run at 10000 rpm anyway). And using an HDD definitely bottlenecks the entire system. A fast 60-80 GB SSD does speed up things considerably.
WD SiliconEdge Blue SSC-D0064SC-2100 2.5" 64GB http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820250001
OCZ Vertex LE (Limited Edition) OCZSSD2-1VTXLE50G 2.5" 50GB http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227526