£500 SILENT, Multi Purpose Build

tiger_hall

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Aug 19, 2009
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APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Am going to be buying a new PC in the next couple of weeks.

BUDGET RANGE: Have £500 approximately, willing to go £50 over if necessary.

SYSTEM USAGE: I will be using for day to day use, some gaming, mostly browsing the web where I always have around 7 tabs open at once whilst watching videos, listening to music.

I cannot stress the importance for this build on SILENCE, I mean complete silence!

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Monitor, Mouse, Keyboard, Speakers, OS.

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: scan.co.uk, do not have any priority to a website. Am UK based though.

OVERCLOCKING: Maybe

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1680 x 1050

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: COMPLETE SILENCE, and able to keep the system cool for long periods of time. I always have multiple things happening at once, such as videos and browsing.

SILENT
Thanks in advance for responses.
tiger_hall
 
I'm not an expert in silence. However I do plan on my next build to make it as quiet as possible, so I do pay some attention to what is quiet when reading about hardware. £500 is usually enough to make a serviceable rig, but silence puts alot more pressure on it.

CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 250 £50
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/166519

Mobo: MSI 770-G45 £56
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/185913

RAM: Crucial 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz/PC3-10600 Ballistix Memory Kit CL7 (7-7-7-24) 1.65V £92
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/179278

GPU: Sapphire HD 5770 Vapor-X 1GB £133
http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/vga-cards/sap-hd5770-vaporx
Chosen for it's quietness. According to one review I read it was around 30dBA for both idle and load.

HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 500GB £37
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/146252
You can get HDD Silencers from quietpc, around £20-50.

PSU: XFX XXX Edition 650W 80Plus Bronze £78
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/191826
Will be quiet as it will not be stressed by even two 5770s.

Case: Zalman Z7 £45
http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/pc-cases/z7-cases
I would stick with the included fans, hook them up to the fan controller and if they are too noisy for you then I would buy some quiet fans: http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/casefans

A fan speed controller from here: http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/casefanaccessories
~£30

CPU Cooler: Scythe Mugen 2 Rev B £34
http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/cpucoolers/mugen2
I usually see this come up as being a very good cooler at being both quiet and keeping CPU temperature down, even during an OC. If you think 26dBA is too loud then check the others on this page: http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/cpucoolers
You will need some of this: http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/heatsinkacc/as5
You could also buy a heatsink and just replace the included fan with some that is really quiet.

Optical Drive: Samsung SH-S223C 22x DVD±RW DL & RAM SATA - OEM Black £16
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/194093

Total: £576

The quickest and easiest way to get under £550 would be to get a slower card, like a 5750. I think it depends what sort of games you want to play and at what detail settings, the 5770 would be much better at your resolution, altho the 5750 would be fine, just not quite as good. It depends how important it is to you. You could also just get the one stick of 2GB RAM for now and when you have £50 you could stick another in.
 

tiger_hall

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Aug 19, 2009
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18,510
Thanks Silvune for the response. I'm glad to hear from another member who is looking to build a quiet PC.
If I was to downgrade the graphics card to say around £90 which would leave me approximately £40 to £50. Which part/s would you upgrade?
Again it is essential to keep silent as the main priority.
Thanks again.
 
Well I would spend ~£15 getting this CPU: AMD Athlon II X3 440 £66
You could then either put the rest towards quiet components like fans/HDD silencers.
I'd also probably upgrade the motherboard to either of these: Asus M4A785TD-V Evo £75 Or Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3 £70

I think I must have chosen the PSU in my original suggestion before I got to the CPU and GPU. You could definitely save some money there, especially if you're going to be using something as frugal as a 5750. This one is the one that I usually recommend for lower budgets, and I have seen a review that said it's name was apt: Be Quiet 530W Pure Power £45. According to the review I saw it has stable voltages and is reasonably efficient. Be Quiet have made quite a few good PSUs over the years, so you should be perfectly safe with one.
This one will be easier to find good reviews for: Antec Earthwatts 650 £63, altho the saving is more modest.
The fan is larger on the XFX so maybe it's absolutely stellar performance and it only being £7 more expensive than the Antec EA650 atm will persuade you to stick with it, which I probably would do as a good PSU is one of the things that would push me over my budget if I was buying/building.
 

tiger_hall

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Aug 19, 2009
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18,510
computerbuild.jpg


This is my final choice of parts. Just need the OK to go ahead and order this now. If you could let me know if this is good.
Thanks for all your help Silvune.
tiger_hall