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About to bite the bullet....

Post Date: 2010-08-17
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Rutra View Drop Down
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Posts: 5 		  Quote Rutra Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Topic: About to bite the bullet....
    Posted: 17 Aug 2010 at 12:07am
Hi all, long time lurker, first time poster. Please take a look at the config below. Reading through all the posts I'm sure most of these choices are fine, however my concern lies with the PSU and noise suppression. I'd like the system to be as quiet as possible, yet reliable. Enders guide suggests against the noise insulation package, and someone mentioned that the corsair PSU's are actually more reliable/higher quality. Can someone confirm? A bit of additional info; I will be supplying an OCZ SSD and a bunch of 750/1TB Seagate drives for media and backups and a copy of windows 7. As for monitors, I'll be running two at 1920x1080.

Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Black OPS Assassin Edition
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish
Processor: Intel Core i7 930 2.8GHz (Quad Core)
Motherboard: EVGA X58 LE Edition SLI (Intel X58 Chipset)
System Memory: 6GB DDR3 1600MHz Digital Storm Certified Performance Series (Highly Recommended) (Hand Tested)
Power Supply: 1200W Digital Storm Certified (Dual/Triple/Quad SLI Compatible) (Silent Edition Highly Recommended)
Expansion Bay: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: - No Thanks
Set 1 Raid Options: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 2: Multimedia\Data: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 3: Backup\Misc.: - No Thanks
Optical Drive 1: DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 24x / CD-Writer 48x)
Optical Drive 2: - No Thanks
Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Video Card: 2x SLI Dual (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 1.5GB (Includes PhysX Technology) (EVGA Brand)
Add-on Card: - No Thanks
Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio
Extreme Cooling: AIR: Stage 2: Noctua NH-D14 Extreme Performance (Does NOT fit on the regular EVGA X58 3X SLI)
Chassis Airflow: Standard Factory Chassis Fans
Noise Reduction: Noise Suppression Package Stage 2 (Optimized Airflow & Fan Speeds with Noise Dampening Material)
Boost Processor: FREE: Stage 1: Overclock the processor between 3.3GHz to 3.9GHz (Cooling Upgrade Recommended)
Benchmarking: - No Thanks
Install/Test Game: FREE: Hot-selling game with a NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 or above graphics card
Exclusive T-Shirt: FREE: Digital Storm T-Shirt - Black (Large)
Priority Build: - No Thanks, Ship Within 5-15 Business Days After Order Is Successfully Processed
Warranty: Life-time Expert Customer Care with 4 Year Limited Warranty


I appreciate the input.
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CynicalMoogle View Drop Down
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Posts: 35 		  Quote CynicalMoogle Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 17 Aug 2010 at 12:24am
Congrats on being so close to taking the plunge. Currently waiting on my rig to pass Stage 1, so there's a lot of good company right now.

From what I can gather, if you want reliability and higher quality while having low sound, go with the HAF932, which according to a number of people runs incredibly quietly, while being one of the most efficient cooling chassis around.

Your main concern on sound is going to be if you're gaming on both monitors, you'll have fanspeeds on both of those 480s ramping up causing sound, but with any gaming rig that's to be expected.

And to complement that, I've heard a bit of a mantra around here as far as the noise suppression goes: "Trap sound, and you trap the heat." If you trap the heat in, the OC on your CPU will be lower to maintain stability, and you'll have the heat from both 480s, already very hot cards being sealed in with the noise.

If it's really that big of an issue, no one can force you to pull off the noise suppression, but if it can be sacrificed, especially with SLi 480s, you'll hear recommendations for getting rid of it.

In any case, the rig looks very solid, one of the forum admins Alex swears by the PSU, which are made by TechNPS who manufacture PSUs for top-name brands, and you'll be pulling about 800~ watts as it is, so even if the power output is slightly lower, you're sitting pretty with 1200w.

Other than that I'm sure the only thing you'll hear is that if you don't want to spend the extra money, drop the NH-D14 and get the stage 1 Noctua, since the difference is about 3 deg. Centigrade on average. I live in CA, which gets very hot, and I can't afford to run AC, so I have the same fan coming that you do to keep my rig as cool as possible. That one is up to you though.

Hope this helped, and if anyone else corrects me, chances are you should take their word for it, especially !ender and DragoonSeal. Those guys are some pretty knowledgeable kids =]

Good luck, and enjoy the rig when you pull the trigger, Rut, looks like it's gonna be a blast!
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!ender_ View Drop Down
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Posts: 4219 		  Quote !ender_ Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 17 Aug 2010 at 12:41am

i will definitely say that if the stage 2 noise package was going to work in any case, the assassin and hairstorm would be the most likely. the other cases similar to the haf are open air, i cant imagine any amount of insulation doing too much to change the noise output

the only thing that concerns me with this setup is exactly that, the assassin is a closed case, and dual 480s might get it pretty toasty in there running at full tilt. ive never had my hands on that case, so i dont know what kind of air is getting inside it, but it would need to be a lot for this setup to work properly
 
the other issue here is that the smaller the fans, the faster they need to spin to push air through a case... and faster spinning = more noise
3 x 180mm intake fan 700/1000rpm, 18/27dBA
is what silverstone lists as the rating for the stock fans
 
this, compared to the 19 and 17 dba 230mm fans that the HAF uses makes me really think that the assassin couldnt be quieter than a 932 even with the supression
 
alternatively, since youre already spending so much, if you wanted the assassin bad enough you could consider getting some higher quality (aka quieter) fans for the 3x180 intakes


Edited by !ender_ - 17 Aug 2010 at 12:43am
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Alex View Drop Down
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Posts: 16314 		  Quote Alex Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 17 Aug 2010 at 12:45am
The Assassin cools the 480's very well due to it's chassis design. The hot air is thrown out from the top. In addition, the large fans at the bottom pump cool air directly into the fan intakes of the video cards. It's like a controlled wind tunnel inside that chassis.

Edited by Alex - 17 Aug 2010 at 12:45am
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Rutra View Drop Down
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Posts: 5 		  Quote Rutra Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 17 Aug 2010 at 1:01am
Thanks for the feedback.

Regarding the HAF, is there a quick way to disable all the LED's? One of my reasons for going with the Assassin case was that it was very simple, and discrete. I don't really need/want any window panels or additional lights. If the Hailstorm is better suited than the Assassin for a build like this, i can live with the extra cost.

I'm not too concerned with the sound while I'm taxing the system, but i would like to be able to leave it on and have it idle without sounding like a jet engine. I had an old Thermaltake case a while back which was just unbearable.

As for the Noctua, I'm in NYC, so it can get rather toasty here in the summer. I was considering water cooling (for lower temps and less noise) but a DSO rep pointed me right to the Noctua instead.
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!ender_ View Drop Down
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Posts: 4219 		  Quote !ender_ Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 17 Aug 2010 at 1:21am

also noisewise, you arent really going to beat noctuas, they are really freaking quiet, id be shocked if any rad fans they were using were quieter

 
i believe alex or someone said dso can kill the LEDs in the front fan before they ship it. really the all black 932 is a pretty sleek looking case, the front plate i/o and hdd lights are brightttt blue, but those too can be disabled
 
all 3 are really good cases, its hard to go wrong, choose the one you think looks the best unless you are really going to stress over those last few degrees
 
im still suprised that the assassin only comes with 3 bottom intakes and 1 top exhaust, no other fans, id have to see this myself to believe it can cool as well as people say, i cant find any decent articles right now, ill have to look tomorrow


Edited by !ender_ - 17 Aug 2010 at 1:22am
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Runes View Drop Down
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Posts: 109 		  Quote Runes Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 17 Aug 2010 at 3:21am
Dunno about the 932, but the 922 comes with a button on top that disables the front LED.

Right now, the only lights on my tower are the ones coming from the mobo.
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Rutra View Drop Down
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Posts: 5 		  Quote Rutra Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 17 Aug 2010 at 8:43am
So once more...if i stay with the Assassin, is the noise suppression package going to provide any benefit? At all? If we're talking 1 to 2 db's less, but 4 or 5 degrees higher, then no, especially if i want the rig to last through the warranty period. Did i just answer my own question....

Also as for the motherboard, for this setup, is it worth upgrading to a board with 2 x16 pci-e lanes? I believe dragoonseal mentioned somewhere on the boards that only the 480's saturate an x16 lane. If i understood his post correctly, then on average the the second card would be underperforming by approx 2%. Now i'm not sure how SLI handles this situation, but does the first card take the same hit, to keep both cards running at the same speed?
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!ender_ View Drop Down
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Posts: 4219 		  Quote !ender_ Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 17 Aug 2010 at 9:46am
hard to know for sure on the noise suppression becuase such a small percentage of people use that material that there is not a lot of feedback or info on the temperature impact
i cant imagine it being worth the cost or even the at least 3ish degree rise in ambient temps
 
no no no, 480 can barely saturate a x8 lane
 
1 16 and 1 8 lane is plenty for 2 480s. you wouldnt notice the difference going to 2x16 based on anything that ive seen or read, even if you were overclocking these, the impact would be minimal
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Mr. View Drop Down
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Posts: 510 		  Quote Mr. Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 18 Aug 2010 at 2:31pm
Assassin is beautiful and i cant imagine it being that loud. The cases DS gives us to choose from are great and the top ones for air cooling would be the assassin, the raven's, and the haf's. You cant go wrong choosing any of these. i dont think the differnce in sound between these cases is going to be that noticable anyways. I personally love the assassin and am going to get it while also disliking the haf cases. Just saying we need more assassin fans out there, the forums got a lota haf fanboys Chilling
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Posts: 2247 		  Quote Dragoonseal Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 18 Aug 2010 at 2:38pm
Originally posted by Mr.

I personally love the assassin and am going to get it while also disliking the haf cases. Just saying we need more assassin fans out there, the forums got a lota haf fanboys Chilling

Maybe if the Assassin wasn't +$205 more than a HAF 932, we could negotiate?
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Intel Core i7 920 @4.2GHz
HAF 932 - Dual SLI Nvidia GTX 480s
3x Intel X25-M G2 (80GB) SSD RAID0
R.I.P. Sinbad the cat (November 16, 1996 - April 18, 2011)
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CynicalMoogle View Drop Down
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Posts: 35 		  Quote CynicalMoogle Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 18 Aug 2010 at 8:26pm
Originally posted by Dragoonseal


Originally posted by Mr.

I personally love the assassin and am going to get it while also disliking the haf cases. Just saying we need more assassin fans out there, the forums got a lota haf fanboys Chilling
Maybe if the Assassin wasn't +$205 more than a HAF 932, we could negotiate?


Drag has a point. I personally wanted to get the Assassin as well. I think the design is smart, and I really liked the Mobo turned 90 degrees. I think that's another smart design idea.

Unfortunately it falls way higher in price than the HAF does while cooling at much the same pace as the HAF.
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!ender_ View Drop Down
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Posts: 4219 		  Quote !ender_ Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 18 Aug 2010 at 8:58pm
i agree, and my loudness assessment is based off of the ratings that silverstone posted of their own fans vs the coolermaster ratings for thier fans on the haf
 
assassin fans are smaller, which means they have to spin faster to move air, so it should be a louder, but not nessesarily loud enough to tilt the quality vote
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Rutra View Drop Down
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Posts: 5 		  Quote Rutra Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 18 Aug 2010 at 9:32pm
Once again, thanks for all the input.

At this point i'm pretty much set on the Assassin without the noise suppression package. The computer will be sitting besides my desk, and the A/C (when on) will be blowing pretty much right at it. The bottom to top heat dissipation design should work pretty well here.

I think i just need to calm the nerves, go for it and enjoy. I've been torn with this config for the last 3 weeks.
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Mr. View Drop Down
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Posts: 510 		  Quote Mr. Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 19 Aug 2010 at 2:34am
yup its pretty price but id get it if you dont like the haf looks, better to spend 200 bux more and love your case than get another one thats just as good but hate looking at it. Go for it, enjoy it, and put up a review! and 3 weeks isnt a lot, i been on my comp's butt for 4 months because i cant buy it until the beginning of september
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Rutra View Drop Down
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Posts: 5 		  Quote Rutra Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 21 Aug 2010 at 6:41pm
I want to give a big thanks to everyone on this forum. I placed the order yesterday. Everything listed except the noise package. Now the wait begins...
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