Thanks guys ?
Alan Ratcliffe wrote:
I wouldn't go mini ITX for a recording PC. You have to keep it quiet and cool - a balance difficult to achieve in a small case. If you really must have the mobile "road ready" aspect, go rack (and bigger on your budget).
I suppose mobility isn't
essential, but it would make life much easier - I think rack's going to be too much $$$ for me, like I said, 8K is already pushing the budget!
I'd think with the low power CPU and HDD the heat should be ok?
Regardless of format, go with Antec for your case, Intel for mobo (or ASUS), Seagate for HDD (and no "green" drives. WD only the Blue series), Thermaltake for cooler (forgot cooler didn't you? Stock coolers are usually abysmal for noise) and PSU, Nexus for fans (pref all 120mm).
Antec don't really have a comparable small form factor case that I've seen?
Was going to go with stock cooler for starters...
Is your budget wholesale or retail?
Wholesale.
MikeM wrote:
It's often worth looking at underclocking CPUs in cases like this..
Not sure I understand you here Mike? would the 2400s be considered underclocked?
You'll be shocked at the size of the current range of Intel coolers, almost anything is an upgrade.
I
was concerned about clearance in the case for the stock cooler - difficult to find conclusive info on this... ok found out it should fit - tight, but it'll fit.
The WD green isn't so bad, but they are quite slow. I suppose it's worth getting a low-heat and low noise hard drive like the green though. How much are you paying for it? A 1tb should be only around R100 more.
Can't remember off hand - don't have prices with me now - but think the 1Tb was around R200 more. Jis man when doing stuff like this its easy to say "oh well its only Rx more for that and its better" and then next thing you've got this gigantic quote! ? ? Trying to find the best place to draw the line!
Also, beware of the dreaded psu. It's possible that some PSUs cause capacitor whine (I had an Antec 850watter that did it). And also make sure that it's quiet. No use having a silent pc otherwise and then having a noisy psu you can do nothing about. Best way is just to ask around and see if anyone has experiences with it being noisy.
The corsair cx500 is a more budget series "80plus" PS, so it definately won't match the more high end PS's for noise. IIRC the price is R550/600.
I don't know that I'm overly concerned about the noise level of the machine, the PC will mostly be away from the mics (seperate room), but it will obviously be in the "control room" area. As long as it's not
too loud - but I'm a noob with this stuff so dunno?
Heat wise, from what I've read it should be fine - only one low power HDD, low power CPU, no GPU?
I'm trying to find the sweet spot between $$$ and mobile/quiet - it's harder than I thought it would be. So many little things, like the Apple Glen motherboard doesn't take a standard ATX 2x12 power connector, but has some DC socket???? crazy. have to switch to the DH67CF (Clear Fork) rather I think... The more I look the more I confuse myself. :-[
