Well it's just really not a fair situation. Nvidia is a dead end for onboard graphics. Intel is working hard supporting the linux effort but they just aren't that good at it, but because they are involved, the linux community can take up their slack and they should have great working products. The problem is they are even worse at the hardware. It's not fair at all but ATI is the only route for onboard graphics in my mind. I'd take a 4200 onboard ATI and cheap athalon x2 over an I3 or I5 any day. Because that intel weakness that will likely be glossed over by the linux community won't work under windows. Their on chip gpu's will not only be inadequate in terms of power but it will have trouble even trying with crashes and video tearing and horrible code optimization. Nobody is doing support chip developement of any significance outside of AMD as well. When the 8 series chipset motherboards come out this summer forget about it. SATAIII, USB 3.0, onboard DX11 hardware.

Once OpenCL gets working you'll be able to transcode a HD video in like 10 minutes with an ATI onboard rig while it will still take 20 or 30 minutes on an intel with their cpu doing much of the work and if your not willing to buy a discrete graphics card from nvidia you won't even be able to play.

I don't know everything or understand everything or claim to be able to say with absolute certainty how it will all play out but just by judging what people are doing and what they are saying and NOT saying this is how I see it working out. It's going to be stupid. Intel and Nvidia are psychotic monopolists and they driving AMD into becoming a monopoly just because they are sick of it and are trying to be totally self reliant without having to deal with those jokers.

The driver team may get onboard nvidia working, but nvidia is too hung up on being the best and dominating and even if they do get things working they'll make too many mistakes and turn your frame buffer into a giant pissing pool of code execution that can be root kitted and turned into a freaking kiosk sign by every psychotic corporation on the planet that wants to profile you and pump ads at you based on your psychological weaknesses for purchasing.

Yes, the PSU fan always (?) exhausts and where there is only one case fan that typically exhausts too. Case inlet openings are arranged more-or-less well to direct air flow over the parts that need cooling, sometimes including one big inlet directing air onto the CPU.

This arrangement means that the case is at a slight vacuum. Air is drawn into all openings in the case, bringing dirt with it resulting in reduced cooling and corrosion.

As you might guess, I favour fans blowing air into the case (fitted with intake filters); this means that the case is at a slight pressure; air passes out of all the openings apart from the fan inlets and the computer internals stay cleaner -- good for long-term cooling, reliability and longevity.

Quakeboy02's suggestion of getting a PSU with a 120mm temperature controlled fan is good because PSU fans are the most challenging regards quietening but such PSUs are not cheap.

I have removed the PSU fan and fitted a remote 120 mm fan, controlled from the PSU which originally had a noisy 80 mm temperature controlled fan. This is made possible by the dual air chamber design of the Antec P182 case. It might not provide enough airflow in a conventional case fitted with powerful components.

Good news is the next generation of cases are likely to have dual air chambers allowing for a more rational approach to controlling air flow with more potential for quietening.

I heard that having the case under a slight vacuum results in better cooling than having the case under pressure.

But anyway, I agree that those big vents in front of the CPU coller are probably not a good idea because the dust gets sucked right in.

My computer case came with a plastic mesh filter on the intake fan (a single 14cm fan) and it does a great job of keeping the dust out. Once in a while I just pop off the filter and run it under the faucet, and it filters out so much of the dust that I haven't cleaned the computer since I put it together a few months ago, and there hardly is any visible dust inside!

Of course get the biggest fan you can find if you want it to be quiet.

I've never come across corrosion in a computer - I think you'd need a very damp environment for that to be a problem. But they sure do get dusty.

I'm prepared to pay a bit of a premium on that though. I'm thinking of getting an energy-efficient PSU, and they tend to come with such fans. Would be talking around £40 or 50, depending on whether I go for 400 or 500 watts. (400's adequate for now, but 500 gives me a little more room for the future). Spending more on the PSU than the motherboard or the memory may seem a bit unusual, but I think it will produce benefits.

I actually came across a twenty-two cm case fan on a website. I think the idea is it goes on the side to blow air onto all parts of the mobo. Would require a case mod.

Though for those fans that have noise specs, 12cm actually seems the best - most 14cm fans are a bit noisier.

I did this...

I bought an Antec cabinet with a 12cm exhaust fan and, for me, an over sized Corsair HX620W PSU. Consequently, the PSU runs at a low load with low heat and low fan speed.

I mounted an Arctic Cooler passive GPU cooler and an AC PWM controlled CPU cooler suitable for overclocking. The good air flow in the cabinet, even with the fan set at a low speed, holds the GPU to a steady 41C and the large CPU cooler, since I don't overclock, runs at 1000RPM while still chilling very well.

The CPU I have is an AMD X2 7750 that can run at 2700MHz, but steps down to 1350MHz, where it runs most of the time according to the At Demand setting under cpufrequtils.

None of the hardware I purchased to build my system was the latest, but rather the next latest, having had a chance to fall in price and a chance to be well tested with linux.

Everything lopes, and is very quiet.

Hi,

Too general a statement. Not all AM3 will work in a AM2+, most will but the MB will dictate the use. Some MB will not because of power limitations for the controller circuitry.

Hi,

I will inject about the case cooling. The flow within the case is very important. So dressing of cables or other obstructions is very important. I've opened to many cases and found cables loosely placed thus causing flow obstruction. Sure a ideal flow should be even across all components to remove the heat but that is not always possible. I prefer to use a heat pipe system for the CPU to remove the heat via the case whenever possible. Sometimes the heat pipe will elevate to exchange via the bong/vent if the fan direction is correct thus exhausting via that point if a extension casement around the CPU HSF is utilized.

The case pressure should be balanced with good flow. I will seal the case and provide filtration whenever possible. Case deadening material will decrease the sound but some forget to isolate the case from the base to prevent transfer.

If you can use a PSU exhaust instead of into the case then that subsystem would not introduce heat into the case. You would then be able to control the case temperature with fans and proper HSF assemblies. Exhaust the heat from the point instead of distributing within the case to another exhaust vent.

So ideally a vent for each heat source would be ideal but not practical.

This company outsource or contracts with another company. Again I recommend Seasonic, Enermax, or FSP because they specialize in power supplies. Xilence does not specializes in anything.

If you are going with on-board graphics, I strongly recommend go with DDR3 or AM3 socket based motherboards. The extra cost in DDR3 is small since it gives better bandwidth. At this time both DDR2 and DDR3 cost about the same.

Buying nVidia or AMD chip sets does not matter what works better in Linux. You can always use a dedicated graphics card to get better support.

The following will eventually be my next computer upgrade, but you can use it as an example.

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/Pu...Number=8984714



I disagree catkin suggests. Computer cases should not corrode because they are not near water. Even in high humidity, computer cases does not corrode. Putting air filters on the intake fans will reduce air flow. It is best to buy an air purifier to clean the air to reduce dust build up. Probably it is best to invest in better AC filters as well and clean the ducts for your place. What catkin saids that it is hard to find power supplies that changes the speed of its fan is wrong. In my area these power supplies are everywhere and basically standard. Also they are cheap. Multi-chamber cases are OK, but causes more problems than they help. Multi-chamber cases only helps with organizing hardware and it does not reduce heat build up. It is best to have one big open case and cool that area with positive pressure by using high pressure intake fans. Using high CFM fans for intake fans does not work. The fan for the power supply should never be counted as an exhaust. It is a fan to cool the power supply and not the computer. If you are using positive pressure to cool, you do not need an exhaust fan, but you do need holes to make sure the air flows to high pressure to low pressure to become balance.

A well constructed case does not need to be deaden with noise canceling materials. I suggest invest into cases like Lian-li. The fans and hard drives will be a problem for noise. I suggest mount fans on a silicon rubber or cork material using rubber mounting hardware. For hard drives, construct a suspension bay out of rubber or similar material.

No air con in my house, or in the vast majority of British houses. It very rarely gets hot enough to want one.
My current system doesn't seem to get THAT dusty, though I've little to compare it against. I don't think the dust levels in my room are anything out of the ordinary.

Why not?

The case in your wishlist is seriously expensive. Buying something like that would either send me way over budget or force me to cut back on other hardware to an unacceptable extent.
In my current machine, the fan noise at times far outdoes the HDD noise. And the HDD is just bolted straight to the metal. I'll do the same initially on my new system - if the noise bothers me, which I doubt it will, I can easily change it later.

I have a Lian-Li case and it has special hard drive trays that snap into the case with rubber grommets. Not sure if it really reduces the noise, though, because HDD noise is IMHO negligible compared to fan noise. The case also has the fans attached with rubber grommets too, that might reduce the noise some.

Sure, significant iron-based rust is rare but "corrosion" includes a thin build of oxidised metal which is troublesome for contacts and less well soldered joints.

Dust entering a computer typically includes organic material, mostly human skin ex-foliation which is a little greasy -- food for micro-organisms.

Both corrosion and micro-organisms are less of a problem in low humidity which is normal in heated and air-conditioned spaces. In spaces without heating or air conditioning, especially with high ambient humidity and temperature, corrosion and micro-organisms are common causes of failure.

High CFM fans can not handle pressure because the fins are design to move air at high displacement. If the pressure is too much, the high CFM does not work efficiently or they do not work at all. Selecting fans that have a high pressure rating instead of high CFM will be better for as intake fans. The same holds true with heat sinks.


I do not think the case is expensive because I care more about quality. Also my budget for a complete computer build excluding the monitor is $1000. I do not do a complete computer build every year, so I have high budget since I build a computer just about every 10 years. Linux makes it easier for me to extend it this long.

My most recent case has 2 140mm fans (intake and exhaust) and a 500W powersupply. It's made by coolermaster and cost $70. It's quiet and everything stays cool. You don't have to break the bank to get a well performing case. I steer clear of anything fancy however, I prefer a plain black box that's functional.

Coolermaster makes nice cases.

Mine is an el-cheapo that I got on a Fry's sale for $30, and aside from some sharp bits here and there it has done well for over a year.

It left enough room in my budget for more RAM

For me it was an NVIDIA video card