Building Audio PC: case and power supply

[korz]

After struggling and eventually failing to make any pro audio interface work with my Athlon box (darned AMD 750 chipset!), I put aside my copy of Emagic Logic Audio Platinum and started planning on building my own PC from scratch.

The first question I have has to do with cases and power supplies. I suspect that the cases themselves don't really matter so long as they are ATX and have quiet fans available. The power supplies, however, I've heard that I should only get either an Enermax or Antec. Right now, on ebay, there is a company selling a 7-bay ATX case with a 400W power supply, new, for dirt cheap. No doubt they get you with shipping and handling and upgrades, like extra fans and glowing lights.

I've read where you need at least 350W and 400W isn't too much for a DAW PC. Is that right?

If I buy this case and it seems quiet enough, would it be good enough for my DAW PC? I stand to save $50-75 by going this route than with buying an Enermax or Antec. Is the power likely to be not as clean on these cheap cases?

I presume that a metal case would be preferred as I do still have several guitars with single-coil pups and as we all know, those are very prone to picking up hum. Do you think an all metal case would help to block some potential hum?

What other things should I consider in a case?

Thanks.

Al.

[Triple Lindys]

Some things to look for in a case:

1.) Rounded Edges--anyone who has worked on PC's know that the dreaded slice and dice is gonna happen unless you get a quality case with rounded edges.

2.) Drive Bay Space--Think about how much you are going to expand your system. Adding a couple of hard drives in the future? Make sure that you have the space in the case to do so.

3.) Removable MoBo Tray--This is a nice feature when actually building the PC, because you can mount the Mobo, CPU and Memory outside of the case, then slide the tray in to install the Cards, Hard Drives and Power.

4.) Tool-less screws--Basically, thumbscrews on the outside of the case and to secure the Cards to the case. No tools necessary to get inside the PC.

5.) Additional Fans--This can add noise, but if you are doing heavy duty stuff, this will keep things nice and cool inside, especially if you are going Athlon.

Now for Power Supplies, the two you mentioned are top quality, but here's a link to another great place called PC Power and Cooling:
www.pcpowerandcooling.com (http://www.pcpowerandcooling.com)

They make top notch power supplies (albeit NOT cheap!) in a variety of Wattages.

Hope that helps!

[Ohsoflow]

take a look at what they recommend on silentpcreview.com!
according to them Enermax PSU's are not among the most quiet PSU's anymore. their list includes Zalman PSU's, Antec Truepower and many others.
i have chosen Antec Truepower 380 myself. it wasn't the quietest PSU in the list, but it supplies a higher wattage than the others. it also got a very good review in Tom's Hardware's great PSU roundup! plus it can control the speed of the casefans according to what is needed.

[Rv-Sound]

Another thing to consider (it happened to me once). Check how your PSU operates (I mean its fan, if its one of those with dual fans, one acting as a case/CPU fan. Some PSU's have a manual control for this, others rely on the mobo to control this via a little cable, commonly identified in the mobo as PWR, I think. If the PSU is one of those, make sure to pick a mobo with such capability, or, get a PSU with a manual control (wich as a DAW could be even an advantage if you record near the pc). I just bought a mobo not long ago only to find out that It wasn't capable of controlling the fan in the PSU. My PSU is an enermax, very quiet 430W PSU wich was and still is way more expensive than the mobo. So I decided to sell the mobo.

Get at least 300W capable PSU if you're going AMD.

Other things to consider about cases: make sure you check and assure that the ATX shield matches your mobo. Some mobos (specially old ones) have lan ports, USB, firewire, and a bunch of other stuff that the case shield may not be able to have. Some cases come with swappable generic atx shields, or in some cases you can buy a generic one that in some cases might fit it in your case.

[korz]

For the record, I've sworn off AMD processors, because of the bad experience I had with the 750 chipset in my current PC. I was warned (long after I had bought the PC) by Echo Audio tech support that the AMD 750 chipset will not work and play well with virtually all Motorola DSP's, which are found in 75% of professional quality PCI audio cards. He suggested I try USB solutions, which I did: Tascam US428 and the EZBus. Neither worked with the 750 chipset.

So, I'm sticking with Pentium for my audio PCs.

As for mobo's... as soon as I decide on one (I was sure I wanted the Gigabyte GA-8IDX because it was recommended at Harmony Central), another, better one comes along. I have questions about mobo's, but I'll address those in a separate thread.

Back to cases and power supplies. Thanks for all the suggestions... I hadn't thought of most of them. Thanks for the pointer to the website. I like the idea of a manual control for fan speed. Tracking is pretty low effort work, so I think I might be able to turn down the cooling if I'm recording something with a mike, like acoustic guitar or voice.

Say... here's another tack altogether. Most of my work on this PC will be direct-in (guitar or bass through a POD or VAMP). If I do have to track acoustic or vocals, suppose I just run a mike cord and headphone extension into the next room and buy the cheapest, loudest 400watt case and PSU I can find (and put my money in a faster processor and bigger disks)?

What say ye?

Thanks again.

Al.

[Rv-Sound]

Just make sure you run the mic trough a mic pre, beign a dedicated one, trough a mixer, or built in the soundcard. You just can't run the mic trough a cable into the soundcard if it only has line level inputs.
As for the other stuff, before I moved to AZ I had my pc case hanging inside a closet and I bought extension cords for the keyboard, mouse, displays and everything else and put it in a room next to the closet. It was great because both rooms were connected trough an AC vent, but they were totally separated. I just ran the cable extensions trough the vent. That way I didn't had to worry about the PC getting hot, and the noise was far away.

[Ohsoflow]

here are some other good sites about silent PC's:

http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/white_papers_and_tech_docs/cooling_guide.pdf

http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/computercooling.html

[korz]

Originally posted by Rv-Sound:
Just make sure you run the mic trough a mic pre, beign a dedicated one, trough a mixer, or built in the soundcard. You just can't run the mic trough a cable into the soundcard if it only has line level inputs.


Very true... in fact, I use tube preamps for almost all my mikes... I feel the warmth of the tubes balances the crispness of digital recording, plus there aren't many things that don't sound better with a bit of compression that comes naturally with tube preamps driven into the "warming" range.

[TeleCarlos]

Re:PSU's (to stay on topic...)

I went with the Vantec "Stealth" in the 420watt flavor.

Why they call it Stealth, I don't know. I guess you won,t be able to tell it's there.
Just hope I find it if I need it.

1/2 cents worht of advice there buddy!