System Review – PC-Club Silencer

Conclusion

As a high-end but near-silent system, we really like the Silencer. Performance in some tasks is going to be hindered by the Pentium M processor, but overall, it manages to hold its own. The power savings are not particularly meaningful - think of running a single 60W light bulb for a year and you'll have a decent picture of the difference in power draw between the Pentium M and a Prescott or Newcastle - but the lower heat output is good. We had some issues with the Athenatech case, and perhaps similar complaints from customers are what prompted PC-Club to offer the Silencer with a CoolerMaster case as an option. Unless the LCD/alarm issues are fixed, we would have to recommend against using the Athenatech case. That's unfortunate, as we think it's an attractive case otherwise.

Here's the real question: would we purchase such a system? There are two parts to our answer. First, let's take a look at all the components and see what they would cost if you were to buy them and build the system yourself. (Prices are obtained from our Real Time Pricing Engine as well as our various partners and represent what we would list in a typical Buyer's Guide article.)

Home Built Silencer Alternative
Hardware	Component	Price
Processor(s):	Pentium M 755J 2.0GHz	$435
CPU HSF:	Copper socket 478/479 compatible	$25
Motherboard:	Aopen i855GMEm-LFS	$233
Memory:	2x512MB Mushkin CL2.5	$100
Video Card:	eVGA 6800GT	$370
Video Card HSF:	Arctic Cooling Silencer	$35
Hard Drive:	Western Digital Raptor 74GB	$176
Hard Drive 2:	Maxtor 200GB SATA	$108
Optical Drive:	NEC DVD+RW 3520A	$61
Floppy Drive:	NEC; Sony; TEAC; Samsung; etc.	$8
Case:	Athenatech A106	$63
Power Supply:	A+ GPB 450W	$75
Speakers:	Logitech X-530 5.1	$56
Keyboard and Mouse:	Logitech Optical Desktop Combo	$156
Operating System:	Windows XP Professional SP2	$140
Bottom Line:		$2041
PC-Club Price (as of 3/24/05) - not including tax!		$2150

Looking at that chart, you can see that PC-Club is essentially charging you $100 (give or take) to assemble and test the equipment for you. That's actually a very reasonable price, as many shops will charge a $100 fee (or more!) to assemble a PC for you, often not including the software installation. Unfortunately - according to how you view the situation - PC-Club will also charge you sales tax if you live in a state where they have retail locations. Taxes could add as much as $175, although you'd pay the same fee if you purchased locally (and technically you're supposed to pay sales tax regardless, although most people probably don't bother reporting online purchases). Still, if you don't like fiddling with computer hardware or feel your time is too valuable, we feel PC-Club offers an acceptable price.

There's more to it than just the price, of course. Pentium M desktops have an air of exclusivity that some may be willing to pay extra for. More importantly, the components in the Silencer are all industry standard designs, including the motherboard and power supply, and can you name any major OEMs that offer overclocking in their BIOS? If you're seriously thinking about getting a Dell (dude!) or other OEM system, PC-Club is definitely worth a look. For peace of mind, PC-Club also offers a 3-year extended warranty for an additional $210. Frequent upgraders probably wouldn't bother with such a long warranty, but those who only purchase a new PC when their current system is woefully outdated will appreciate such an option.

We did have some issues with the PC-Club system configurator. First, we'd just as soon ditch that and go with two 250GB drives instead, especially given the loud seek noise of the Raptors. (Update: this is now possible, so we've edited the text slightly.) Additional options for the GPU and speakers would also be good, as the X-530 are really budget speakers. The "Help Text" is also seriously outdated, mentioning such things as the difference between the GeForce 4Ti vs. 4MX, the Duron vs. Athlon XP, and SDRAM vs. RDRAM. It could certainly use an update to their 2005 product line.

The problem is the platform, really. Our Pentium M desktop articles covered this before, and the simple fact of the matter is that as attractive as Dothan is for notebooks, it really doesn't compete that well in the desktop market. The motherboards are currently far more expensive than boards with desktop chipsets, and the processors aren't cheap either. We like the overall package, but the price is simply too much.

Our suggestion to PC-Club is to offer a version of the Silencer with a few changes. Swap out the Aopen 855 motherboard for the new MSI RS480M2-IL with the ATI Xpress 200 chipset. That's a micro-ATX board even, so it will still fit nicely in the Athenatech case. (Overclocking does not appear to be an option on that motherboard, unfortunately - at least not with the current BIOS.) Add an Athlon 64 3500+ 90nm processor - or wait for a faster 90nm Athlon 64 to appear - and a PCIe graphics card, and you should have similar heat and power characteristics with better performance, all while shaving about $250 from the price.

The other area where we see some potential for the Silencer is in the HTPC market. It's a reasonably quiet case, and with the ATI Xpress 200 chipset, we can get TV-Out from the integrated graphics. Take out the Raptor hard drive and put in two larger drives and a TV tuner, and you would have a formidable HTPC setup for a very reasonable cost. We'd certainly be interested in seeing such configurations from PC-Club in the near future! (PC-Club does offer a HTPC system with different components already, but we'd like to see more options.)

Our overall verdict is that while we would be more than happy to recommend PC-Club as a system builder - somewhat similar to Alienware or Falcon NW, although with less pizzazz and a lower price - we would have a hard time recommending the current version of the Silencer. It will certainly appeal to some people, but we would really like the ability to customize the system configuration a bit more. Check out their web site if you're looking for a pre-built system, however, as this is only one of numerous system configurations that they have to offer. If you give them a call, you can probably even get a customized PC built for a moderate fee.