Help Me Build A Quiet PC

[TruthIs1]

Hi, I just wanted to say thank you in advace to anyone who reads this becuase it is long and I'm probabley being a pain asking so many questions. Well, I built a PC 3 years ago and it's time for a new one. Standards have changed so much, if you coluld point me to a website that explains the newer stuff that would be great too.
This PC will be used for burning alot of DVDs, some video editing, plus my home entertainment center (that's why it has to be quiet in my studio), as well as helping me learn new things and experiment a little (I plan on getting trainning for some PC certifications in the fall)

Feel free to offer any better sugestions, but here's what I got so far.

I've decided on and AMD Athlon 3700 bcause of the price, but I don't the difference between AMD Athlon 64 3700+ and the AMD Athlon 3700+ 512kb 90nm rev (saw it on pricewatch)

This motherboard looks OK, but I want a good one under $200 (I would like it to have firewire)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813127207

I need an All in wonder card so I chose the All In Wonder ATI 1800XL

I chose this BenQ burner because I want to have LightScribe
http://www.xpcgear.com/bqdw1655oemb.html

I need sugestions for quiet hard drive (300 or 400 GB), power supply, fans, DVD player (so I can watch a movie while burning), ram brands, and anything else you can think of

I will be getting the following after the intial build: a LCD monitor, logitech speakers, Creative sound card, and a wifi card, I have a great wireless keyboard and mouse.

Question: I live in NYC so I rather buy the case in person to save on shipping. Does brand name matter as far as noise is concerned? I've seen some great looking generic cases and it will be highly visible in my apt. The people at these stores love lying to a girl that's why I asked. And what about the noise dampening kits? Are they any good?

Hope to hear from You. ;)

[mjc]

One quick test for a case...

Rap on the side. If it sounds like a drum it will never be all that quiet, no matter how much sound dampening material you add to it.

Most damenping kits come with a trade off...they increase the heat holding capability of the case. So if heat can be a problem, stay away from them.

Doing things like adding extra washers, especially when mounting drives, using the maximum number of mounting points for the motherboard, etc will go a long way in controlling some sources of noise.

Weight is also a factor. A good, quiet case will tend to weigh a lot more than a noisy one. Many of the wild looking cases are just that...wild looking. They weigh less than a Sunday Times (on a light news day)...

Enermax (http://www.enermaxusa.com/) and Antec (http://www.antec.com/us/) both make pretty darn quiet power supplies...Antec also makes cases. (Their Sonata II (http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=15139) is supposed to be pretty darn quiet. )

Personally, I'd go with two of those BenQ burners...but that's me, I'm just a little strange. But look at the Asus E616P3 at the same place you listed for the BfenQ.

For a hard drive look at...Seagate has had some pretty quiet drives over the years (some of the noisiest too...but, oh well ;) )
http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/7200.9_hard_drive.html?id=Mkip7C7J

[paul_]

If you want a really quiet PC and have some stupidly high budget, look at the TNN 500AF from Zalman. TNN = Totally No Noise so obviously it's what you're looking for. You don't have to spend $200 on a mobo, I have an ASUS A8N-SLI Premium (http://http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131540) and it has firewire AND a fanless NB cooler (huge source of noise). If you like low noise, a general rule is to stick to Zalman and, to some extent, Asus. Also, buy fan controllers ;)

-P

EDIT: For a quiet HDD, Western Digital is very good. Try to find a HDD with a fluid dynamic bearing.

[TruthIs1]

So this is what I've got now.
AMD Athlon 3700 ($216)
Seagate Barracuda 700.9 300gb ($120)
Asus A8N-SLI Premium ($160)
ATI All in Wonder 1800xl ($325)
Coolmax Black power supply 550 AP600x ($58) The video card requires a minimum of 450 watts, so I thought I should go for something over 500 watts and this one was rated quite.
Kingston Value Ram PC 3200 1 gig getting 2 sticks of this at ($79) each
Benq dvd-rw ($46)
Logitech Z-5450 the rear speakers are WIRELESS! ($293)

I saw a great deal on an OEM Creative Sound card, but it was an OEM version. WHat does that mean it includes? Does it have a warranty. Is it a good idea?

[rond36]

I saw a great deal on an OEM Creative Sound card, but it was an OEM version. WHat does that mean it includes? Does it have a warranty. Is it a good idea?

The biggest difference between OEM and retail Creative Labs products is the packaging. The OEM will come in a plain box with the card, driver CD, and the game port. The OEM product will not include any added software that comes with the retail package.

Retail = sound card, game port, driver CD, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness

OEM = sound card, game port, driver CD

Both will have a 1 year warranty.

[hockey man]

Okay, for what you are going to be using this PC for, you have some parts that are overkill. SLI and ATI are not a good mix right now. At this point, for what you are doing, I would say a dual core system on an nForce Ultra MOBO with two gigs of RAM and a lower end video card. I'm sorry that I don't have time to link-hunt. But that should help guide you a bit.

[TruthIs1]

Thanks hocky man you gave me something to think about. And thanks to everyone else who replied, but I think I'm going to wait till processor prices drop this summer. I'll keep you updated.

[hockey man]

Sounds good. . post back when you decided what you would like to do.