Quiet & cool audio PC, what should I buy?

[AcidJazz]

To who it may concern,

I am attempting to build my own ultimate audio system. I would like your advice on which motherboard you would recommend me purchasing.

According to an April 5, 2001 article written by Mark Klatte (techtv) he recommends the Asus A7M266 for building an audio system. I’m sure new boards and technology has progressed since then.

I am looking for a board that supports a processor speed between 800MHz and 900MHZ for a PIII. (cooler is more important than faster for me)

I have no plans to do any overclocking.

I plan to install at least 256MB of RAM, preferably DDR.

I want a board that takes advantage of a high-end sound card (Digital Audio Labs- Card Deluxe).

I plan to install Windows 2000 professional for reliability, might have to use 98SE for compatibility:(

I own an IBM 40GB EIDE Ultra ATA/100 Deskstar 7200RPM 60 GXP.


Also which fans should I buy to maintain a quiet computer?

Can you help me make a wise choose?

Thank you,
Steven Andrade

[egcc]

There are many options which would be good. Many motherboard/processor combinations, etc...

As far as keeping things quiet and cool, don't overdo the fans, no need for a jet engine wind tunnel inside the case. For the CPU, get a large heatsink, and consider a fan adapter to put a larger fan on it. The small 60 or 70 mm fans at high rpm are extremely noisy. The adapter would allow you to use an 80 mm fan at lower rpm but still moving enough air to do the job. The key is how much air does it move at lower rpm. For the case, a fan to pull air in from the front and another to exhaust at the back. The power supply may also have two fans, one to pull air in from the case and another to exhaust out the back. Use quiet fans, low rpm but steady airflow (20 cfm or so per case fan is probably ok). Another option for the CPU is a water cooling system but this would be more $$ and probably not necessary.

To quieten the case, there are materials to damp vibrations in the case, such as films often used in car audio applications which add weight (density) to whatever surface they are attached. Consider adding acoustic foam inside, be careful not to block airflow.

Another option is to build/buy an isolation cabinet to put the computer in. There are some products made which have baffles for the cabinet fans and are advertised to completely isolate pc noise. They are expensive...

Check the web for heatsink/fan roundups, and quiet/cool cases...

[BigALW1414]

Do you already have a PIII? If so, I'd go with either an ASUS TUSL-2 mobo (motherboard) or an Intel 815. If you haven't already bought a processor, I'd check out the Giga-byte GA7DX mobo with an Athlon XP processor. This combo gets very high track counts. Checkout the digidesign user conference forum at

http://duc.digidesign.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum&f=32

read the PT Performance thread.

Happy Hunting!