# compatible hardware: silent multifunction PC

## freifunk_connewitz

hi,

I intend to set up a new PC for office/home use that is fast enough for running office programs, compiling packages, playing videos&music, cutting sound w/ audacity from time to time, rendering google earth as well as 3d desktop effects (need 3d-accel for this) and maybe playing a 3d-game once in a while.

because I do not want the PC to roar about, I chose some components because of their noise avoidance and energy efficiency. because I dont want to run into memory issues again the next 5 years (e.g. compiling KDE or Qt!), I plan to install 4GB of RAM. because I like their general linux compatibility I chose an Intel board. and because I use harddisk encryption I chose the new Intel i5-CPU - it has new instruction sets for faster aes-cryptography (aes-ni).

this is my planned set-up - is there anything I missed that's not linux-compatible or does not fit together? can I expect this compilation to be able to suspend to RAM?:

CPU: Intel Core i5-661, 2x 3.33GHz, boxed

CPU fan:Scythe Ninja 2 Rev. B

Mainboard: Intel DH55HC, H55-chipset

RAM: 2xKingston ValueRAM DIMM 2GB PC3-10667U CL9 (DDR3-1333)

chassis fan: Scythe Slip Stream 120x120x25mm, 500rpm, 41.6m³/h, 7.5dB(A)

Power supply:Enermax ECO80+ 350W ATX 2.3

HDD: Samsung EcoGreen F3 500GB, SATA II

Case: Cooler Master Elite 310 black/blue OR Xigmatek Asgard II black

Thanks for your opinion!

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## NeddySeagoon

freifunk_connewitz,

You don't mention a graphics card.

Larger fans spin more slowly for the same amount of airflow ans 120mm isn't big.

The 7.5 dB(A) looks ok

A 350w PSU is a bit on the mean side. Your CPU will want about 100w before you add 12w per disk and a 3D game can push a graphics card over 100w.

Thats without anything for the motherboard and RAM.

Look at PSUs 500w and upwards. I don't know Enermax but PSUs are commodity items. You get what you pay for.

Look at the price range of 500w PSUs and choose something in the top half of the price range. 

Low cost PSUs are made with poor quality parts - when they fail, they can do so in a spectacular fashion - you can reuse the case but thats all or with very hard to trace issues.

PSUs normally get cooling air that already been warmed by the CPU too, so they are more highly thermally stressed that the rest of the system. Get a decent PSU

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## asturm

NeddySeagoon, the GPU here resides next to the CPU.  :Wink:  I also don't see a dedicated graphics card in that list, so the 350W PSU is more than alright. Also, would still be quite comfortable with a 150W GPU - 100 W headroom for as little as 5W for the chipset and another few Watts for the RAM seems plenty enough to me.

Enermax is one of the well established PSU manufacturers when it comes to quality. and personally I prefer their Pro82+ line, having built several systems with the 385W unit. You can't hear that damn thing even 10cm within its range because of its fine cooling system (mostly running at 500rpm).

Yes, hardware wise, seems like a fine system to me. One thing only: Samsung's build quality seems to vary quite a lot. Much depends (dunno if that's still the case though) on the exact unit that will be shipped to you, lots of F1 and even their supposedly-quiet S250 series back then suffered from bad motors that led to strong vibrations of the HDDs. I'd recommend a 2,5" 7200rpm HDD if this ought to be a no-compromise silent system.

Concerning Linux compatibility... the all-new integrated i5-661 GPU might be a bit too bleeding edge for a trouble free experience right now. You'll might be bound to use at least the latest kernel (starting with 2.6.34 right now) and driver to get the best out of it. Back in the days I struggled for several kernel releases until GMA4500 finally ran solid enough (and that's totally leaving out OpenGL and xrandr right now).

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## freifunk_connewitz

thanks, neddyseagoon and genstorm, for your suggestions. and yes, the forum and wiki entries I found about the i5-661-GPU do tell the same thing you said: the intel drivers for it seem way behind for the moment. but since I still like this AES-ni-thing and the overall energy efficiency of this CPU/GPU I think I'm gonna take the risk. if all fails and the intel GPU refuses to present me a descent desktop with KDE's eyecandy stuff, I'll probably add a small 2nd hand nvidia card to the board until the intel driver is stable enough for the chip.

we'll see if I'll have to come back with the topic in the desktop environment forum after the installation...

thanks again,

ffc

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## energyman76b

 *genstorm wrote:*   

> NeddySeagoon, the GPU here resides next to the CPU.  I also don't see a dedicated graphics card in that list, so the 350W PSU is more than alright. Also, would still be quite comfortable with a 150W GPU - 100 W headroom for as little as 5W for the chipset and another few Watts for the RAM seems plenty enough to me.
> 
> Enermax is one of the well established PSU manufacturers when it comes to quality. 

 

I once thought that as well. Until the liberty series, two dead mainboard, six weeks waiting and the replacement shoved into the old box...

and then finding that killing mainboards was a known weakness with the liberty series.

Since then: Fuck you enermax.

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## DaggyStyle

 *freifunk_connewitz wrote:*   

> hi,
> 
> I intend to set up a new PC for office/home use that is fast enough for running office programs, compiling packages, playing videos&music, cutting sound w/ audacity from time to time, rendering google earth as well as 3d desktop effects (need 3d-accel for this) and maybe playing a 3d-game once in a while.
> 
> because I do not want the PC to roar about, I chose some components because of their noise avoidance and energy efficiency. because I dont want to run into memory issues again the next 5 years (e.g. compiling KDE or Qt!), I plan to install 4GB of RAM. because I like their general linux compatibility I chose an Intel board. and because I use harddisk encryption I chose the new Intel i5-CPU - it has new instruction sets for faster aes-cryptography (aes-ni).
> ...

 

my only recommendation is to either go with the i5-750 or the phenom II ones, imho, the i5/i3 are a bad investment. also intel mb are crap, take one from a known vendor (asus, msi, gb), I recommend the latter.

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## freifunk_connewitz

just in case somebody plans to set up a similar box: so far the mentioned hardware functions and performs great with Gentoo Linux. even the graphics chip within the proc works good with the current intel i915-driver of kernel 2.6.32-gentoo-r7 (only issue which quite certainly the bleeding edge GPU support's to blame for: X crashed randomly -but only twice until now- because of a drm error). mobo features, hyper threading, turbo boost, sound, net, suspend work as expected.

so, until now: recommendation if you want to have a performant, silent, energy saving machine for office and multimedia purposes. (to make it totally quiet you have to swap the 1000rpm-fan shipped with the scythe ninja by its PWM-colleague / or just leave the PWM-capable intel cooling solution in its place, it's also almost not hearable under normal usage conditions.)

EDIT may 30: 

-had to add the drm error issue

-but could at the same time remove the supposedly missing turbo boost topic: TB is working but most userspace cpufreq monitor progs relying on /proc/cpufreq dont read TB frequencies correctly. Intel's turbostat tool does (see: http://saveandrewgarib.com/201004/articles/767-dellie_iii_linux_and_turbo_boost).

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