Let's build a PC.

For various reasons I ended up building a PC. These were my motivations:

1. I want a faster PC. TF2 took 3 minutes to load and could only run decently at 800x600.
2. I'd never built one from scratch before so it'd be interesting to do so. I've swapped bits and pieces around before but that's about it.
3. I like quiet PCs and wondered if I were given full control over the components: How quiet could I make it?
4. I want a smaller PC that looks smart since I don't like things that take up loads of space and is also an eyesore.

Most of the time was spent deciding what components to use. This isn't too surprising since most of my motivations contradicted each other: Fast PCs are less likely to be small and quiet, and given my experience of building PCs I wondered if it I might as well not bother! As a compromise, I settled on the following:

• Case: Lian Li PC-A01 (Looks nice to me and got some good reviews)
• PSU: 625W Enermax MODU82+ (Apparently very quiet)
• CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 (Good balance between performance and heat output)
• HSF: Zalman CNPS8000 (The only low-noise HSF I could find with even a hope of fitting inside my mATX case)
• Mobo: Asus P5E-VM (Fanless)
• RAM: 4GB Crucial Ballistix
• VGA: Geforce 9500GT (Fanless)
• HDD: OCZ 60GB SSD (No noise of course since it's a SSD)

The only sources of noise are the PSU and HSF. There's not much airflow at all, but the design of the case is such that it uses the HSF as an exhaust. The case is made of aluminum which is said to itself act as a giant heat sink.