Quiet gaming PC

Elmer

Elmer

Elmer

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Joined
26 Jul 2005
Posts
327
Hi
I'm looking to build a quiet PC, but one that will also be used for gaming. I'll probably do a mild overclock. I haven't gone for a gtx980 as I don't currently have a high enough res monitor to justify it.

I think I'll reuse the Corsair 850W AX850 Modular PSU that I already have


Fractal Design Define R5 Pearl Computer Case – Black £80.45

Samsung 1.0TB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E1T0B/EU) Samsung 1.0TB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E1T0B/EU) £369.98

Asus GeForce GTX 970 DirectCU II OC Strix 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card Asus GeForce GTX 970 DirectCU II OC Strix 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £299.99

Intel Core i7-4790K 4.00GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM Intel Core i7-4790K 4.00GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £275.99

Kingston HyperX Savage Red 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (HX324C11SRK2/16) Kingston HyperX Savage Red 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (HX324C11SRK2/16) £95.99

Gigabyte Z97P-D3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard Gigabyte Z97P-D3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £63.95

Noctua NH-U14S Ultra-Quiet Slim CPU Cooler with NF-A15 Fan Noctua NH-U14S Ultra-Quiet Slim CPU Cooler with NF-A15 Fan £62.99


Any thoughts?

Thanks
 
I'd put your OS on smaller SSD, 120gb will do.
So if anything is wrong with your OS, you won't loose any other data.
Yeah, I know you can make partitions but they can go wrong as well.

Do you need SSD for gaming btw?
I was using a Seagate SSHD for past 6 years and it still works.
And it works great (I played MMO and FPS games, like WoW, Mechwarrior Online, Battlefield series, Final Fantasy etc, no problems on load times).

If you are planning any overclocking, make sure that you have proper cooling.
Prolimatech Megahalems Black + 2 good fans will do the job very well, unless you wan to go for water cooling (Akasa Apache or Noiseblocker Noiseblocker NB-eLoop Fan B12-3).

Nothing wrong with Asus really, but when it comes to warranty I prefer to deal with Gigabyte or EVGA (Especially if you want to go for watercooling in the future - EVGA is the way to go).

So, 2 cards you may want to look at are:

EVGA GeForce GTX 970 FTW "Plus Edition" ACX 2.0 4096MB GDDR5
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming 4096MB GDDR5

One word about motherboard, I don't think it will be any good for what you need it for.
You need one with bigger heatsinks and you chose the most basic one.
You will need one of X series (i.e. Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 5 Intel Z97).

Case choice is up to you, but remember that any overclocking also requires much better cooling, not only in terms of CPU and GPU cooling, but airflow inside the case.
If your case doesn't have good airflow, you will have an oven inside the case and everything will overheat, then eventually fail.
There are a lot of good gaming cases at good price, so it's up to you to choose.
Personally, I would go either for Corsair Carbide 540/450D or one of NZXT gaming cases i.e Phantom Enthusiast or Phantom 530.
Just remove the stock fans and get some good ones instead (Noiseblocker, Akasa etc).

Pretty much all I could tell you.
 
The Noctua is an awesome cooler and will be more than fine for overclocking - remember he's after a quiet pc.

I'd second the view on Asus gear. Warranty support is awful and with UK RMA Gigabyte is the card of choice here.

I'd also echo the sentiments regarding the motherboard. Don't scrimp here, future upgrades are rendered much easier when working with a decent board.

I get why you've decided on the large SSD and that one is an excellent choice. It'll be quiet and faaaassst :D
 
Yeah, I didn't really check the cooler specs.
But I used Megahalems for years and it is the best I ever had.
I also used 2 850 rpm fans (Enermax, they don't make them anymore) and my temps were great.
It's a matter of choice, there is quite a few good coolers with similar specs(Megahalems, K2, Noctua), so there are other factors for choosing the right one, like a color (I liked the Black Megahalems :D ).
 
The Fractal and Noctua combo is a good match. Would personally recommend the Noctua NF-S12A fans for front and rear if you want to go the extra mile, some might say 140mm instead. The Noctua NH-D15 (or D-14 for less) can be had for just a bit more if you look around. Actually a great deal when you factor in the cost of the second fan. Noctua can seem expensive but when you think of the build quality, performance, 6 year warranty and high quality accessories there really is no competition. The peace of mind is worth it to me.

If you don't want to spend too much on the motherboard I would atleast recommend this one instead. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-504-GI&tool=3
 
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The Fractal R5 is a fine case for air and water cooling, it may not cool as well as some open designs, but you can add quieter fans in there, 9 in total. I would probably run it's stock fans both at front, or one front, one below GPU, for positive air pressure.

I can also recommend the Noctua, great brand. Though my own hit my GPU on my MicroATX build. Memory clearance is great, as is the build and fitting.

I currently still regret going for an NZXT S360 with the Cooler Master Nepton 240M, wish I had stuck with my own initial thought of a Fratal R5 with my old unused NH-U14S cooler.

Any reason why you chose a £300 970 over the £240 290X? Although the 290X draws more power, it still has a decent cooler, and in a case such as the Fractal should not be much noisier.

The Samsung does not offer anything over Crucial's SSD range. I was thinking of a 250gb for my OS and 500gb for games myself. As I like to keep some stuff seperate. That said, I find 250gb can get a bit cramped, and if you generally hoard music, games, movies n such on a drive, your 1TB fills quickly.
Some HDD's do not introduce that much noise into a system. Running an SSD with a 4tb drive here myself. Case fans make more noise.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7 - Devils Canyon Core i7 4790K CPU & Motherboard Bundle **£25 Saving** £387.98
1 x MSI Radeon R9 290X LE Gaming Edition 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £239.99
1 x Crucial MX200 500GB 2.5" SSD SATA 6Gbps 7mm Solid State Drive (CT500MX200SSD1) £184.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Savage Red 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (HX324C11SRK2/16) £95.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Red 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD20EFRX - OEM HDD £79.99
1 x Noctua NH-U14S Ultra-Quiet Slim CPU Cooler with NF-A15 Fan £62.99
Total : £1,061.53 (includes shipping : £8.00).

 
The cooler he has chosen is one of the biggest Noctua's, better memory clearance than the only other contenders, the NH-D14 (160 x 140 x 158mm) and NH-D15 (165 x 150 x 161mm). OC only rate the NH-D14's minimum fan noise too which is a little misleading. It temps are also only a few degree's within the NH-U14S (165 x 150 x 78), which can also be improved with a second fan.

The noise between the free, well I would ponder the stats, as more fans usually mean more noise, and the fan noise seems based on individual fan spec, not the noise of the cooler itself. Something that could be cleared up with a review search.
 
I always bought heatsink and fans separately.
Never regretted that too.
Prolimatech Megahalems Black + 2 x Akasa Apache Black looks great.
Also, I read somewhere that black heatsinks remove heat more efficiently.
I don't know if that is true or not, but over past 3 years of using Megahalems Black, I can tell you that it could be true :)
As for ram clearance, I had Megahalems with Avexir Blitz 1.1 and it's really tall ram (120mm fans). And this heatsink works awesome with low RPM fans (I had 2 x Enermax 850 rpm, temps were amazing).
 
Wow thanks for all the feedback. I'd picked the Asus card mainly because the fans don't come on until the temps hit 67 degrees, unlike some of the others where the fans are on all the time, plus it was slightly lower priced and came with a slight overclock. I won't be water cooling in the future, I've done that before and can't be bothered with the faf nowadays tbh.

I think I'd like to stick with the 1tb ssd, I'm not planning to change out any of the components for quite a while apart from graphics card and like the quietness and speed of a SSD only setup, I can always stick a normal HDD at a later date if need be. Any reason for the Crucial over the Samsung? the Crucial MX200 1TB is only £5 cheaper than the Samsung.
 
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