Anandtech Review #11 - AVADirect Silent Gaming PC: An Exercise in Balance

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Anandtech Review #11 - AVADirect Silent Gaming PC: 
An Exercise in Balance
This is our eleventh review with Anandtech and it's 
truly always a pleasure. This time around, we shipped our Custom Z68 
chipset-based silent, low-noise gaming computer. This computer not only packs a 
punch, but is also noticeably quieter than any of our gaming systems of it's 
class. To make the deal even sweeter, the 2700K CPU has been overclocked for 
those who still want to squeeze as much speed out of this low-noise 
configuration. The folks over at Anandtech gave us compliments on the ability to 
combine specific components that will, ultimately, lead to a quiet computer. All 
while noticing the little anti-noise screws, washers, and brackets we included 
in the build to help enforce the silence behind the beast. Anandtech also went 
on to remark that our overclock was not the best per the hardware and could have 
been better. Although this may be true, we also evaluate every 
configuration during the production period and determine what the best way to 
approach the overclock is, in more regards to stability. Yes, the configuration 
holds a high prioirty to noise levels, but those noise levels don't mean much if 
the system is crashing from a terrible overclock. Either way, we view every 
system in a case-by-case scenario and do not generalize any comptuers by their 
configuraiton, parts selection, overclock option, etc...every computer is 
custom, and we take that same custom approach while building our systems. 

"In their Silent Gaming PC, 
AVADirect has produced a reasonably balanced, powerful build that goes a large 
way towards proving a powerful system can still run quietly" - Dustin Sklavos

		AVADirect Z68 Low-Noise Custom Computer System 

		Price 

		$2430.61  

		Motherboard 
		ASUS, 
		P8Z68-V PRO, LGA1155, Intel® Z68, DDR3-2200 (O.C.) 32GB 

		CPU 
		INTEL, 
		Core™ i7-2700K Quad-Core 3.5 - 3.9GHz TB, HD Graphics 3000, LGA1155, 8MB 
		L3 Cache

		Memory 
		.SKILL, 
		8GB (2 x 4GB) Ripjaws PC3-12800 DDR3 1600MHz CL9 (9-9-9-24) 1.5V

		Graphics 
		ASUS, 
		ENGTX580 DCII/2DIS/1536MD5, GeForce® GTX 580 782MHz, 1536MB GDDR5 
		4008MHz

		Hard drives 
		-OCZ, 
		120GB Vertex 3 SSD, MLC SandForce SF-2281, 550/500 MB/s

		-WESTERN DIGITAL, 2TB WD Caviar® Green™ (WD20EARX), SATA 6 Gb/s

		Optical drive 
		LG 
		ELECTRONICS, WH12LS30 Black 12x/16x/48x BD/DVD/CD Blu-ray Disc™ Burner

		Operating system 

		Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Edition w/ SP1

		Low-Noise Accessories 
		-Smart 
		Drive NEO Standard Silent Hard Disk Drive Enclosure, 5.25"

		-Lamptron 
		Deluxe Black Shakeproof PSU Gasket Silencer

Click to view the full review

To configure this system click
AVADirect Z68 Low-Noise Custom 
Computer System at AVADirect

Edited by AVADirect - 04 Feb 2012 at 1:00pm