Fenix-Dark Posted December 9, 2006 Posted December 9, 2006 For the holidays I'm having a bit of a tough time deciding what I should get, so I'd like your input. So far my choices are: 1) taking the x2 4400+ out of my main rig and putting it in my server, replacing the 3500+, and buying an opty 165 for my main computer (the server's gigabyte board doesn't oc past htt 220 regardless of any other settings, and I've tried multiple psu's) and oc'ing the opty 165 obviously. 2) Buying the 500gb seagate 7200.10 & 250 gig seagate 7200.9 hdd combo on newegg for $210 (the 500gB one would go in my main rig, the 250 would go in the server, replacing the aging 60 gig hitachi drive) Regardint the hdd's, are those models quiet? the 300gb maxtor hdd thats in my main rig is pretty damn noisy (compared to everthing else in it) I could probably sell it to a friend for $60-70 3) The stock cooler on my 6600GT in my server is so noisy its driving me nuts. I don't really think I could justify spending $30+ on an aftermarket hsf when the card is only worth $60-70. If you guys know of any good nvidia gfx cards that have equivalent or better performance are passively cooled, and run for under $90 lemme know. I don't care if its used, but it has to be an nvidia card since I'm running linux and occasionally do run X and play games on it. The current state of the DAAMIT linux drivers are abysmal in comparison to the nvidia ones, in most cases a 6600GT could outperform an x1800, so atm ATI gfx cards are out of the question. Linux server: gigabyte GA-K8N-SLI-Pro mobo (got it for free , evga 6600GT (noisy as hell), creative sb live! 5.1 sound card (needed it for hardware mixing), 60 gb ide hitachi drive (running 5 years old now), 2x 512mb of corsair xms pc3200 ram, antec smartpower 500 watt modular psu, amd 64 3500+ venice, slackware 11 linux. (mainly used as a cs 1.6/quake server, and a file server, but occasionally used to play games and browse the web in KDE) 4) any other ideas? I don't really want to replace my gfx card at this point the 7800GTX is good enough for my current games, but I'll probably upgrade it when the second revision of the 8800GT(X/S) is out (like the 7900 equivalent to the 7800 line). I wouldn't want to upgrade my sound card because I use linux and atm there's no compatibility with the x-fi line of cards, and frankly, I don't think there'd be that much improvement with my current set of speakers. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
prosser13 Posted December 9, 2006 Posted December 9, 2006 Just one answer from me I've got a Seagate 7200.7 and when its loading its by far the noisiest part in my system - although my system is damn quiet Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fenix-Dark Posted December 10, 2006 Posted December 10, 2006 ok, their 7200.7 model drives could have been noisy, but does anyone know about the 7200.9 and the 7200.10 revisions? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coors Posted December 10, 2006 Posted December 10, 2006 I have two 7200.9 80gig hd's and their not noisy at all. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poisonsnak Posted December 10, 2006 Posted December 10, 2006 I have a few 7200.9 drives (1 160, 2 200s, 2 250s, 1 300) and they are all very loud when seeking and very quiet at idle. A lot of hard drives are brutally loud at idle I find so I can put up with the crunch/grind seek noise that the Seagate drives have. Seagate used to have a program you could run (in DOS) to slow down the seeks (cuts performance slightly but much quieter) but due to legal issues it hasn't been available for a few years. Personally I think I would do #1, admittedly I haven't explored the limits of my 165 but my 4400+ was limited to 2.5GHz by one of the cores so I was a little disappointed. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fenix-Dark Posted December 10, 2006 Posted December 10, 2006 thanks for the input, that maxtor drive is very loud, even at idle, so I'll most likely buy the seagate hdd combo, sell the maxtor, and possibly buy a zalman vf900 or vf700. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brother Esau Posted December 10, 2006 Posted December 10, 2006 Get the Hitachi 250gb sata II or above they are very quiet and very fast! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhoetuS Posted December 10, 2006 Posted December 10, 2006 1) The opterons that NewEgg has been turning out of the NJ warehouse lately have been great steppings, both the 165 & the 170. (My 170 that i got 2 days ago from the NJ warehouse is doing 300x10 on 1.45v) 2) If you go for this one, You need to hop on that one today, This is the last day for that deal at NewEgg. I just ordered that combo on Thursday 3) If you want to replace the stock HSF on your 6600gt, get this$10.95 VGA Cooler for 6600GT. I just replaced the stock HSF on my 6600gt with the VC-RF about 3 weeks ago. It dropped my temps alot & its SILENT Go with either 1 or 2, If you feel like OCing a new Chip go for #1, If you really need HDD space, go with #2 ($210 for 750GB is a great deal) Definately grab the VC-RF regardless of 1 & 2, for $11 you can save yourself $80 by not replacing a perfectly good GPU. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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