Pc Spec advice: most efficient, quiet 1440p gaming build

[smogsy]

A friend of mine wants a New gaming build,
Their currently using a ryzen 1800X & GTX1060

Here's what they want:

• most efficient & quiet build, their very susceptible to any noise
• support for 1440p gaming up to 240hz (but their happy with 140/160fps for most part)
• don't care for glass/RGB
• Midi/full build
• he plays all games from GTA V to BF2042, to Alan Wake 2 & other new titles
• no real budget but under £3500 would be nice

whilst I can spec a decent rig, I thought the community could help finding those minor details of Quietest components

only think i'm thinking is using noctua for quietness, he finds be quiet to loud, also thinking of air cooling so no pump noise

suggestions?

 

[smogsy]

A few thoughts:

• In my experience of building for quiet/silence, with a higher-end build the potential for coil whine is actually way more problematic and needs more research than the fan noise.
• With fan noise, you generally just want everything to be overbuilt, e.g. get a bigger, heavier case, with more airflow than you need and the same with the CPU cooler and graphics card. The closer to being "adequate" what you pick is, the nosier it will be.
• Coil whine can often be tamed by underclocking/undervolting, but that's not a guarantee. It's still likely to be worth it though, since everything comes overclocked nowadays.

Tottally agree, thats why i was thinking of looking for a locked down case, Thick side panels etc.

i know the sea sonic prime are known for <20DB usage at full load, but as you say lerss power = less heat = less noise hence thinking of this+ very slow fan
https://noctua.at/en/nh-p1 noctua suggests this would be good with a fan attached

from my exp its also motherboard chipset fan you got watch out for too my asus chipfan is noisy!

seasonic

https://seasonic.com/prime-tx

 

[smogsy]

Ryzen 7800X3D. it’s so efficient it can be passively cooled. For the GPU a Sapphire nitro plus is virtually silent. Case is a tough one because you need good front and rear air flow. Fractal do bitumen side panels that offer very good acoustics. The Seasonic syncro Q704 is also very quiet.

I was thinking 7900 would be better yes its 12C vs 8c but its also 65W vs 120W, price difference is around £15 & worse case it could be undervolted more too

but nitro heard very good things putting together a list will post later today

 

[smogsy]

As he's on AM4 wouldn't it simply be a good idea (and a damn sight cheaper) to update the motherboard bios, drop in a 5800x3D and add a new graphics card, maybe a psu if needed too?

i thought so too, but his going to hand the 1800x down the family,

The 7800X3D is generally stronger in gaming than the 7900X, but you could probably fit a 7950X3D within budget if 8 cores aren’t enough.

After upgrading a system for a buddy and playing around with a Sapphire Nitro 7900XTX I was very impressed. Bonkers performance, excellent acoustics and really well made. By far the closest I’ve come to spending this kind of money for a graphics card.

indeed it might be stronger, but 7900(non X) is 65W which is massive heat difference from 120W (tested this on my 5900X) slience comes first before perf
but sapphire is on the list

 

[smogsy]

The 7800X3D pulls less than 70watts.

default tdp is 120W max were as 7900 is 65w (amd spec sheet)

 

[smogsy]

come up with this so far case/cpu/gpu is up for debate right now, maybe somthing with lot less tdp
My basket at OcUK:

• 2 x AMD Ryzen 9 7900 Twelve Core 5.40GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DU-AM) = £399.95
• 1 x Seasonic Focus GX-1000 1000W 80+ Gold Modular Power Supply (SKU: CA-07X-SS) = £159.99
• 1 x Fractal Design Torrent Black Solid Mid Tower Case (SKU: CA-09U-FD) = £189.95
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance 64GB (2X32GB) DDR5 PC5-41600C40 5200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (CMK64GX5M2B5200C40 (SKU: MY-4DC-CS) = £169.99
• 1 x Sapphire Radeon RX 7900 XTX Nitro+ Vapor-X 24GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GX-3A4-SP) = £1,079.99
• 1 x MSI Pro B650M-A WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 Micro-ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-378-MS) = £175.00
• 1 x Crucial P3 PLUS 4TB M.2 2280 PCI-e 4.0 NVMe Solid State Drive (SKU: HD-07J-CR) = £182.99

Total: £2,769.79 (includes delivery: £11.98)​

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[smogsy]

@smogsy you have 2 X 7900 in your basket.

If main use is gaming then a 7800x3d is a must with a decent cooler like the Thermalright peerless assassin 120se should be silent.

Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE Review: Incredible, Affordable Air Cooling Performance

Shockingly cool and quiet, less than $40!

www.tomshardware.com

Didnt you know i was going to stack them that makes a 7900-3D right?
but will have to nose into 7800x3D more but i think the noctua breeze box might be better as might not need a fan. ideally the pc be fanless, but doubt that will be possible for gaming (https://noctua.at/en/nh-p1)

 

[smogsy]

Set it to ECO 65W in the BIOS, I run a 7950X at 65W. Using ECO 65, you still get max single core boost(5.77Ghz) with a drop in multi-core boost and much better temps.

sure.. but why buy a 8C CPU locked to 65W when a 12C can be 65W without lock amd tdps do seem a bit "off"

 

[smogsy]

CPU
For efficient gaming CPU nothing beats 7800X3D.

Cooling
For a quiet out of the box air cooler, a large Noctua or Scythe will do the job. I would still go with AIO and set the fan/pump speeds to a manual curve. Can't hear the pump of my Arctic 240 aio in any conditions. But fan speed needs to be capped so that they don't jump to 1700rpm on any temperature spike

GPU for that performance has to be a 4080. They are the most efficient and some models additionally benefit from overengineered 4090 grade coolers. Again, depending on model be prepared to use manual fan curve.

passive cooling is a fairy tale.
Slow large fans will easily provide silent and sufficient cooling. Aim to never exceed 600rpm for 140mm and 800rpm for 120mm fans.

PSU Seasonic 80plus platinum

Case is tricky. Mesh for airflow or solid panels for noise blocking?
I went with mesh O11 Air Mini. Occupy all fan positions and slight positive pressure

something like this
My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Lian Li O11 Air Mini, Midi-Tower, Tempered Glass - White (SKU: CA-79K-LL) = £124.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D Eight Core 5.00GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DT-AM) = £379.99
• 1 x Asus GeForce RTX 4080 TUF OC 16GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GX-48L-AS) = £1,349.99
• 1 x NVIDIA - Alan Wake 2 Game Bundle (SKU: DIG-NVI-01056) = £0.00
• 1 x Gigabyte B650M Aorus Elite AX (Socket AM5) DDR5 Micro ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-5BE-GI) = £269.99
• 1 x Samsung 990 Pro 2TB M.2 2280 PCI-e 4.0 x4 NVMe 1.3c Solid State Drive (SKU: HD-24R-SA) = £159.95
• 1 x Kingston FURY Renegade 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-51200C32 6400MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MY-29N-KS) = £149.99
• 1 x Arctic Liquid Freezer II High Performance CPU Water Cooler - 240mm (SKU: HS-07B-AR) = £99.94
• 2 x Arctic P14 PWM PST Black Fan - 140mm (SKU: FG-04K-AR) = £6.95
• 1 x Seasonic Focus PX-750 750W 80+ Platinum Modular Power Supply (SKU: CA-06Q-SS) = £169.99

Total: £2,718.73 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

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CPU - Cool
Cooling - AIO are too loud, we have tested a bunch of this project from various rigs & every time pump noise is too loud, & 3 Fans at 500RPM is always more than 1 at 500RPM. the idea is to have sub 600RPM Fans 90% of the time (excluding gpu)
GPU: were open any brand/model. 4080 sounds great, but also tempted to lean him towards AMD as he will use Linux Too
Passive cooling: idea is not fully passive, but as close to as possible. ideally 1 intake 1 exhaust (if really necessary) & Maybe 1 on CPU cooler all running around 500-600RPM would be idea goal

case: wise is tough yeh
mesh = more air = low RPM fans
locked off = more fan speed =/ but maybe quieter overall.

i did have a funny out their case idea but i think might be a bit large (https://www.silverstonetek.com/en/product/info/computer-chassis/MM01/)

to add he doesn't mind running WARM (EG gaming at 78/82C on CPU/GPU) quiet is the main focus