OT: New PC!

[Thermodyne]

AgentZero said:
Threadium Resurectus!

Still don't have my new PC, I'm considering waiting until Feb when nVidia releases it's next generation video cards, since that'll drive down the price of the ones I want. Or at least until after Christmas when shipping becomes reliable and bargains abound.

Came up with two questions though.
1) Seeing as I'm going with an SLI configuration, I'm a bit worried about the noise the thing'll be making. Two video card fans, a processor heatsink & the power supply fan sounds noisey to me. Anyone know of any good solutions for that?

2) I've found an Irish website that actually is a bit cheaper for a few parts than I've found on US sites, so I'll definately be getting a few from there. Question is, if I buy some parts in Ireland, and some parts from the US, am I going to have to worry about any incompatabilities? ie: Power supply...?

1) The fans on the cards don’t make much noise, the 7800/256 cards run quite cool and don’t need fast loud fans. Most heat sink fans list the dbs and you can look for a quiet one. Also, larger diameter fans move the same amout of air as smaller fans, with less noise. So look for a case with 120mm fans.

2) Remember to add shipping costs and any duties to offshore orders. Often it is a lot cheaper to buy in country. The only thing to worry about is the power supply. The AC plug and voltage need to match what is locally available. Also be sure to get a PSU with dual SLI leads.

[geoschmo]

quietpc.com. They sell all sorts of things for silencing the beast. Fans, special quiet drives and more. You can spend a little, or you can spend a whole lot. Just depends on how quiet you really need it to be. I've never actually bought anything there, but I love browsing the site and dreaming.

[El_Phil]

Whisper power supplies are amazingly good, I was suitably impressed with how quiet they actually are. As Thermy mentioned get a quiet processor fan, the graphics card not too loud and a nice 120mm case fan. Throw in a quiet power supply and job's a good 'un.

Customs duty can be an unpleasent surprise when it kicks in, there are various threshold beneath which it doesn't apply. Not being an expert on Irish duty I have no idea if it's the same there, but I'd imagine it's at least similar.

The US is 110v 60Hz while Europe has allegedly standardise on 220v 50Hz. I'm pretty sure Ireland has dropped down from 240v to the European standard. Regardless a US spec power supply wouldn't be happy in Ireland.

[AgentZero]

El_Phil said:
Customs duty can be an unpleasent surprise when it kicks in, there are various threshold beneath which it doesn't apply. Not being an expert on Irish duty I have no idea if it's the same there, but I'd imagine it's at least similar.

The US is 110v 60Hz while Europe has allegedly standardise on 220v 50Hz. I'm pretty sure Ireland has dropped down from 240v to the European standard. Regardless a US spec power supply wouldn't be happy in Ireland.

Don't have a clue bout customs either. Regardless, I'll be buying the power supply in Ireland since the one I have my eye on is eur40 cheaper. The only thing I'm concerned about would be things like sound & graphics cards; if I buy them from the States, and plug them into a mobo bought in Irleand, running off an Irish power supply, would they be OK? Currently the cheapest GeForce 7800s available in Ireland are eur120 more than the cheapest in the States.

[Fyron]

Careful about cheap PSUs... a malfunctioning PSU will fry everything in your computer. Make sure to do plenty of Internet research on the brand/model you are looking at.

[El_Phil]

Renegade while I appreciate the sentiment (who doesn't like cheap deals?) a Canadian PSU will get fried on 220v. While a candle burnt at both ends will live half as long, a PSU on double the voltage will last a couple of seconds before going boom.

That aside the rest of the bits should be utterly fine, the voltages for PCI, etc are all defined (3.3v rings a bell but I'm sure someone else know or can google the real answer). The components should, by everything I know and have heard, be fine. No power system in the world runs correct for a motherboard so transforming the voltage is a must, hence the only check is if the PSU will work on your countries voltage and frequency.

[Fyron]

That's assuming that the PSU doesn't fail by starting to put out significantly more than 3.3V on that rail... The standards are defined, but when electronics start failing, anything can and will happen.

[Renegade 13]

250 Euro's!?! Is it gold plated and encrusted with diamonds?!? There's really no need that I can see to spend anywhere near that much on a Gig of RAM. Something a little lower down the price spectrum should still do you just fine. Then again I'm not horribly knowledgable, so you'll probably want some better opinions than mine.

[Renegade 13]

Since this has become a general tech thread, I've got a question about RAM.

I'm looking to upgrade from 1GB to 2GB. The question is, do I need to buy the extra Gig from the same manufacturer or is RAM compatible across manufacturers? As it is, I could end up with 2x512 from one manufacturer, and 2x512 from another...would this work fine?

Another separate yet related question; is there any way to determine the manufacturer of a particular component without physically cracking open the case and checking the labels? I have the idea there is a way and spent a while poking around the various device managers, but couldn't seem to find it. If anyone knows, please help!

[Instar]

Dunno if it was suggested or not, but get a 10,000 RPM SATA hard drive, the WD Raptors at 74 gb are great.