High-spec quiet PC build

[JosephDuffy]

Hi,
I'm looking at upgrading my PC for a few reasons. One of the big things I want from the new PC is that it's as quiet as possible, and obviously still powerful.
My current PC is:

• i3 540 3.06GHz OC @ 4.2GHz (Noctua NH-D14 CPU cooler)
• 4GB DDR3 RAM
• Radeon HD 5850
• Samsung F3 1TB HDD

My new PC spec (a work in progress) is:

• i5 3570K 3.4GHz (overclocked somewhat)
• Corsair H60 liquid cooling CPU cooler (Can I replace the default fan with a quieter one? I'm a little confused by radiator fans)
• MSI Z77A-GD65 MoBo
• 2x4GB DDR3-1600 RAM (currently Ripjaws X Series, but open to change)
• Sandisk Extreme 120GB SSD
• 1TB Samsung F3 HDD
• EVGA GTX 670 2GB GPU
• Coolmaster Enforcer ATX mid tower case (open to change)
• OCZ 650W PSU
• I also have a soundcard I will be installing

I have some ideas for the case fans, but I'd still like to know a little more about the noise of the liquid cooling system. I've read about the pressure produced, but I'm finding it hard to know whether or not the fans I'm looking at will do the job.
Also, how noisy is the GPU fan? I'm contemplating overclocking it, and I've read that you can use the H60 for GPUs too, is that true?
I'm open to any suggested changes, as I say, this is a work in progress.
I'm also hoping to do a little bit of live streaming of games, so I'm hoping that CPU will be enough?
I'm hoping the new system would be worth it. It comes to ~£1000 which pretty much my upper limit. I will be able to 100% confirm my budget in a couple of days, so I would be willing to buy parts are they go on sale etc, such as the SDD deal that's coming tomorrow!

 

[stulid]

Hi,

You will have to remove the link im afraid, no competitors.

Had a little play with parts,

YOUR BASKET
1 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 670 EX OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £319.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Seasonic X-Series 760w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £124.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
1 x Fractal Design Define R4 Midi Tower Case - Titanium Grey £89.99
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Desktop Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC128D/EU) £89.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £69.98
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 612S CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/1156/1155/775/AM3/AM2+/AM2) £32.99
1 x GeIL Black Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £31.19
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98
Total : £1,084.58 (includes shipping : £11.25).




• The R4 case has sound deadening foam on most inside panels.
• The PSU has a Hybrid fan mode, so doesnt start to spin at around 25%, then ramps a bit faster at around 50% (or something like that)

 

[JosephDuffy]

Hi,

You will have to remove the link im afraid, no competitors.

Had a little play with parts,

YOUR BASKET
1 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 670 EX OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £319.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Seasonic X-Series 760w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £124.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
1 x Fractal Design Define R4 Midi Tower Case - Titanium Grey £89.99
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Desktop Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC128D/EU) £89.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £69.98
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 612S CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/1156/1155/775/AM3/AM2+/AM2) £32.99
1 x GeIL Black Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £31.19
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98
Total : £1,084.58 (includes shipping : £11.25).




• The R4 case has sound deadening foam on most inside panels.
• The PSU has a Hybrid fan mode, so doesnt start to spin at around 25%, then ramps a bit faster at around 50% (or something like that)

Thanks for the reply, the case and PSU are great changes, but I've got a couple of questions.
Why change the RAM? I'm not too knowledgable on RAM, but the values for the CAS seemed to be higher, which to my knowledge is basically latency, and the lower the better.
Is that SSD not slower and more expensive? 520/320 Read/Write vs 550/510 and £30 cheaper. I've heard people request specific brands for SSD, but the numbers make me think the Sandisk is better.
What should I look for in a motherboard? I see you changed it to a slightly cheaper and a different brand, but why exactly?
One final thing: why no water cooling on the CPU? I thought that would be the best route for a quiet high-performance CPU.
Again, thanks for the post, I can't wait to build this thing!

 

[stulid]

The RAM was changed as its low-profile and fits under the heatsink fan without issue, lower latency is better, but the difference is minimal unless you are trying to break records and want the last little bit.

The Samsung SSD seems to be the one to get currently, offering decent speeds/reliability.

The motherboard I suggested is still Crossfire/SLi ready, 3 year UK based RMA center with a fast turn around time, Ultra durable 4 so has great construction and components.

A mid range air cooler such as that Coolermaster 612s will be better than a cheaper closed loop water cooler while saving money.

http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/cooler_master_hyper_612s_cpu_cooler_review,1.html

 

[Bacon?]

Thanks for the reply, the case and PSU are great changes, but I've got a couple of questions.
Why change the RAM? I'm not too knowledgable on RAM, but the values for the CAS seemed to be higher, which to my knowledge is basically latency, and the lower the better.
Is that SSD not slower and more expensive? 520/320 Read/Write vs 550/510 and £30 cheaper. I've heard people request specific brands for SSD, but the numbers make me think the Sandisk is better.
What should I look for in a motherboard? I see you changed it to a slightly cheaper and a different brand, but why exactly?
One final thing: why no water cooling on the CPU? I thought that would be the best route for a quiet high-performance CPU.
Again, thanks for the post, I can't wait to build this thing!

The CAS timings in RAM generally have no real word performance difference so its just get the cheapest really.

Write and Read speeds arent everything. The drives never run in real word usage at those speeds anyway I believe, its more based upon sequential times I believe (could be wrong) and the drivers. Currently the Sammy is the best for home usage.

The motherboard Stulid specc'd is brilliant at pretty much everything. We tend to spec Gigabyte board here since they have longer warranty, are nice boards in general and have a UK RMA so if anything goes wrong you dont pay for overseas shipping.

On the water cooling. For me personally its either custom loop or air. The all in one solutions aren't any better performance wise than air coolers and the fans are noisy at load!

Hope I helped

 

[JosephDuffy]

The RAM was changed as its low-profile and fits under the heatsink fan without issue, lower latency is better, but the difference is minimal unless you are trying to break records and want the last little bit.

The Samsung SSD seems to be the one to get currently, offering decent speeds/reliability.

The motherboard I suggested is still Crossfire/SLi ready, 3 year UK based RMA center with a fast turn around time, Ultra durable 4 so has great construction and components.

A mid range air cooler such as that Coolermaster 612s will be better than a cheaper closed loop water cooler while saving money.

http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/cooler_master_hyper_612s_cpu_cooler_review,1.html

Those changes make sense, thank you for the explanation!

The CAS timings in RAM generally have no real word performance difference so its just get the cheapest really.

Write and Read speeds arent everything. The drives never run in real word usage at those speeds anyway I believe, its more based upon sequential times I believe (could be wrong) and the drivers. Currently the Sammy is the best for home usage.

The motherboard Stulid specc'd is brilliant at pretty much everything. We tend to spec Gigabyte board here since they have longer warranty, are nice boards in general and have a UK RMA so if anything goes wrong you dont pay for overseas shipping.

On the water cooling. For me personally its either custom loop or air. The all in one solutions aren't any better performance wise than air coolers and the fans are noisy at load!

Hope I helped

Thanks for the summary, it really helped and now I can say I know a little more about RAM

One more question I have though is about the motherboard (and I guess motherboards in general). I've read of issues with RAM height before, but and issue I've had with my current CPU cooler (NH-D14) is that it is so large that it pretty much rests on the GPU. My current choice of GPU (EVGA GeForce GTX 670 FTW) is a dual-slot GPU, which means it would cover one of the PCI Express slots, leaving 1 above and one below. However, I have an Asus Xonar Essence STX, which connects via PCI Express. Is there a way to see if I could fit a CPU cooler in that doesn't cover the top PCI Express slot, so I don't have to have my GPU's fan right on top of my sound card?
Other than that I think I'm happy to get ordering, so thank you all very much!

 

[JosephDuffy]

Extra question:
Wouldn't the 660W version also work?

 

[stulid]

Extra question:
Wouldn't the 660W version also work?

It will do, not quite as much headroom free.

SLI GTX670's are recommended on a 700w PSU - http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-670-2-and-3way-sli-review/4

But the test system used is an older more power hungry i7 1366 system.


Update due to latest pricing,


YOUR BASKET
1 x Palit GeForce GTX 670 Jetstream 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £309.95
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £184.99
1 x Seasonic X-Series 660w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £110.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £108.98
1 x Fractal Design Define R4 Midi Tower Case - Black Pearl £99.98
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Desktop Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC128D/EU) £89.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £69.98
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 612S CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/1156/1155/775/AM3/AM2+/AM2) £32.99
1 x GeIL EVO Leggera 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GEL38GB1600C9DC) £31.19
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98
Total : £1,071.53 (includes shipping : £11.25).

 

[JosephDuffy]

It will do, not quite as much headroom free.

SLI GTX670's are recommended on a 700w PSU - http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-670-2-and-3way-sli-review/4

But the test system used is an older more power hungry i7 1366 system.

There's not much of a price difference, so it might be worth it.
Also, it should mean that the fan won't get as loud since the % load will be lower?
Finally, is there any word on when these will be in stock?
Thanks for all your help!

 

[stulid]

Says they are in stock now.