Sandy Bridge 2600K Quiet PC - Memory advice.

acmck

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Mar 23, 2011
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Greetings experts,

I am trying to spec a new build quiet PC for my bedroom. I would like to be in a position to overclock one day, but my primary concern is noise levels, leading to my choice of components below.

Given I would like to overclock, can someone recommend me some memory (8GB) for the system, also considering noise? Are the rest of my components ok together? Prices below are in UK Pounds.

Case: Zalman GS1200 Professional Full Tower Enclosure - £180
PSU: Fractal Design Newton R2 650W 80PLUS Modular PSU - £100
CPU: Core 7i 2600K - £240
Cooler: Zalman CNPS10X QUIET Ultra-Quiet CPU Cooler - £40
Paste: AS5 3.5g, High-Density Polysynthetic Silver Thermal Compound - £5
Motherboard: Asustek P8P67 PRO - £140
SSD: Crucial 256Gb C300 - £350
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti SC - £195

The above comes to a total of around ~£1,250, leaving me with some cash to get decent memory and some 3.5" storage. What memory should I be looking at to get this rig running at over 4 Ghz?

Thanks folks!


Approximate Purchase Date: This week
Budget Range: £2,000 / $3,500
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Low noise, Internet surfing, working from home, gaming, watching media.
Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, OS
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Anywhere UK based.
Country of Origin: Northern Ireland
Parts Preferences: Intel Sandy Bridge,
Overclocking: Yes
SLI or Crossfire: Maybe
Monitor Resolution: 1920x1200
Additional Comments: Quiet PC for bedroom, no LED!
 

maverick knight

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Apr 17, 2011
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generaly RAM doesnt make any noise compared to the rest of the components unless you connect a fan to them.
Try this, Corsair CMP8GX3M2A1600C8 8GB Dominator
 

nd_hunter

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The degree of your (Sandy Bridge) CPU overclock isn't dependent on memory like before. Just get a quality (Corsair, G.Skill, Kingston, Mushkin) 8GB set (2x4GB sticks) of DDR3 1600MHz CAS 9 (or better) 1.5v RAM.

This G.Skill set is good.

How much storage do you need? Don't buy into the SATA III (6Gb/s) hype on mechanical drives. It is just that - hype, unless you plan on putting several in a RAID stripe. The 1TB Samsung F3 is a favorite. Get however many you need.
 

acmck

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Thanks for the replies. I ended up going for Corsair Vengeance (CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9) due to a bit of a deal with the Asus borard I wanted.

I've also swapped the EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti SC for a KFA2 GTX 560 LTD OC 1GB based on some reviews.. (extra 7 dB when running 3D). I dont do a lot of rendering/encoding or overnight jobs, so I'm more interested in idle noise levels from these cards, and the LTD seems to have a nice middle ground between performance, heat and noise.

Storage isn't going to be massive for me. I have a nice NAS box, and USB 3.0 Passport (I wanted a case with front panel USB 3.0 - the Zalman was one of the few I could find).

Any comments on the noise levels of the Samsung F3? Its an afforable drive, I might stick a couple onto my order..

 

nd_hunter

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That Vengeance memory will work just fine. The MSI Twin Frozr II 560 Ti and ASUS ENGTX 560 Ti DCII are good cards with aftermarket (quieter and better than reference) cooling also.

I can hear my F3 but I wouldn't call it obtrusive or loud. But, then I don't know exactly what you definition of quiet it. My computer is also sitting on my desk about 2 feet from my head. With your SSD, you could consider 5400 RPM drives also. Like a Samsung F4 or WD Green. I would assume they are slightly quieter and just as reliable as the F3 and Black models, respectively. 2 of them in RAID 0 would give you impoved speed with the same acoustic properties. Just some things to consider. You've got back-up with your NAS and Passport, so maybe this would be your best bet for good, quiet performance.
 

nd_hunter

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I just noticed your last comment about no LEDs for your case. It seems that Zalman you have picked out has a couple LED fans in the front. Also, do you know if that USB 3.0 port is just a pass-through to the rear I/O shield or actually has a motherboard header? There are several motherboards out there that come with two USB 3.0 ports that fit into a 3.5" external drive bay. Just some more food for thought...
 
Adding an SSD as a boot drive can help keep your noise level down a great deal. Right now with an Antec Sonata Pronto RT, an Intel® Core™ I7 2600K on stock heatsink and a Intel SSD X25-M 80GB and I hear almost nothing from this system and I didn’t even design it to be quiet.

Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team
 

metal orient

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I feel at this point i should ask if you have been to SPCR yet.
If not it's a great place to find out about quiet builds.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/