HDD Killers

I’ve somehow managed to acquire another computer to add to my growing collection. On Wednesday I spent several hours searching through lists of componants on three big retailer websites to find the perfect combination of parts to give the most performance with the minimum of noise. Not an easy task, and unfortunately I had to compromise on the type of case, however the computer I ended up with is nothing short of uber. It’s stylish, unbelievably quiet and gives killer performance.

Not all the parts have been put into the system yet (sound card and TV card still to go in), however this will be the final specification of the beast once complete:

• Antec Fusion Media Centre PC Case
• ASUS P5B-VM
• Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E6600
• Geil 2*1GB PC2-6400 DDR2-800 Dual Channel Kit
• Zalman CNPS8000 Ultra Quiet Low Profile CPU Cooler
• NEC AD-7170A-0S 18x DVD±RW
• Maxtor 80GB DiamondMax Plus 9
• Creative Audigy 2 ZS
• Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-3000

I have to say, the pictures on the Zalman website of the CPU cooler make it look good, but to hold it in the hand, it’s such a very impressive piece of kit. All gleaming, all business, no noise. And it keeps the CPU in check too, with all the fans on the lowest speed setting and both cores running the Prime 95 torture test, the CPU temperature got to a maximum of 55 C, yet the system was so quiet, you had to have your head right next to it in order to hear even the faintest whisper.

Here are some pictures I took at various points along the way. First off, we have the parcels stacked against the wall, and then the individual boxes once unpacked.

Next up we have the motherboard, complete with free annoying glare! I tried to get it without the glare by turning off the flash, but for some reason without the flash all the pics were blurred, so live with it.

And here we have two of the inside of the case, empty and full.

Here are a couple of snaps of the computer running, one with the DVD drive open.

Finally, the PC curls up for the night, in a TV cabinet which will remain it’s home for the time being. At least until I get my hands on a huge 720p (or 1080p) TV, which is what it’s basically for and has no real use until then.

So there you have it, the PC spec, and some snaps to boot. What more could you want? Oh OK, if you say so, here’s it’s PCMark05 score:

And my main PC’s score for comparison:

As you can see, my main PC get’s absolutely raped when it comes to CPU and memory, but takes back a lot of ground with graphics since it has a dedicated graphics card and the media centre PC is stuck with onboard graphics, then my main PC just pips the media centre to the line with a little help from RAIDed 150GB 10,000rpm Raptor drives as opposed to the media centre’s lone bog standard 80GB drive. red-wax wins by 4429 to 4077, good game, good game. However I am considering buying a GeForce 8600GT for the media centre when they hit the market, in which case the media centre will just stomp all over my main PC mercilessly.

The only issue remaining is of course, what do I call this PC? My main PC is called red-wax, my file server is called blue-wax, and there are two more PC’s called clear-wax and black-wax. But what of the media centre? Due to the silence of the machine I jokingly considered ear-wax as a possibility. I have yet to come up with a name, there are just no colour names I can think of that strike a chord with me as to how this PC functions and what it does. Perhaps a different naming scheme? One based on Greek gods or atmospheric layers? I just don’t know, so for the moment it’s called media-centre, but I think that’s rather boring. If you have any (serious) ideas for a name, or even a new naming scheme, feel free to suggest them in the comments.

As per usual, if you want to see the full size pics, I have uploaded those too and they can be found here:

• Parcels
• Parts
• Motherboard
• Case Empty
• Case Full
• Computer On
• Computer On, DVD Drive Open
• Computer Put To Bed