Quiet, Small, High Spec

iNemesis

iNemesis

iNemesis

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Joined
14 May 2012
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8
Hi,

I've had my current PC a few years now and I'm looking to upgrade to something more up-to-date that is also smaller and quieter. For this reason, I'd like to go MicroATX or smaller. I'd like it to be able to play games such as BF3 at reasonable quality on my 27" monitor.

I don't need:
  • Operating System
  • Monitor
  • Keyboard / Mouse / Speakers
  • Additional Hard Drives

Based on reading the forum, I've spec'd this out:

Motherboard: Asus Z77 Maximus V Gene Intel Z77 - £150.98
CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail - £173.99
RAM: Samsung Green (MV-3V4G3D/US) 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual Channel Kit - £55.99
HDD: Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - £89.99
Graphics: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 Windforce 3X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - £365.99
Case: Fractal Design Define Mini Computer Case - £74.99
PSU: ???
CPU Cooler: ???

Without the PSU, this comes in at £926.03 with today's pricing.

Could someone kindly check to see if I've missed anything else out, or if there's a better alternative for something? Two things I'm not majorly sure on are the motherboard (it's quite pricey but I read that it's a good board) and graphics card (the one I picked is meant to have a better heat sink so better cooling).

I'd also like to overclock a little, so I'd be looking for additional cooling for the case, remembering that I would like it to be as quiet as possible, so slow fans with good air flow would be good.

Thanks

--

Edit:

Just as I post this, I realise I've not thought about a CPU heatsink/fan, so looking for suggestions on that front, too! (Unless the stock is fine for a little overclocking)
 
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Mini ITX build if you want to go really small.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gainward GeForce GTX 570 Phantom 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £219.95
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £161.99
1 x Asrock Z77E-ITX Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £119.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT128M4SSD2) £89.99
1 x Lian Li PC-Q08B USB3.0 Mini-ITX Case - Black £79.99
1 x Corsair Enthusiast Series TX650M High Performance 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020002-UK) £74.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H60 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket LGA2011/1366/1155/1156/775/AM2/AM3) (CWCH60) £59.99
1 x Samsung SH-B123L/BSBP 12x BluRay ROM / 16x DVD±RW Lightscribe SATA-II Optical Drive - Black (OEM) £54.98
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £43.99
Total : £926.38 (includes shipping : £17.10).



The PSU could probably do with looking at in regards to it having the necessary cables to power the GPU. The hyrdo cooler should fit all right in that mini itx case as you can see from this video (from 1:15) which has an H50 in it. I think the difference between the H50 and H60 is the tubing and heatsink piece.

The only major problem I can foresee is expansion. There's only 4 SATA connectors on the board and no expansion capability for a PCI(e) card to add more SATA ports if you want to add more drives.
 
iNemesis said:
Motherboard: Asus Z77 Maximus V Gene Intel Z77 - £150.98
CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail - £173.99
RAM: Samsung Green (MV-3V4G3D/US) 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual Channel Kit - £55.99
HDD: Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - £89.99
Graphics: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 Windforce 3X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - £365.99
Case: Fractal Design Define Mini Computer Case - £74.99
PSU: ???
CPU Cooler: ???
Click to expand...

All very solid choices. PSU wise, the quietest you will get is a Corsair AX, as the fan doesn't spin when not under load: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-051-CS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1084

The 650W will be enough for the one card, but if you wanted to SLI in the future, go for the 750W or even the 850W.

CPU cooler wise, the quietest will be one of the large tower coolers. I only have experience with the Noctua NH-D14 which with the ULNA on the fans keeps them very quite whilst retaining the excellent cooling of the heatsink.

Hope this helps.
 
Hi,

OhEsEcks said:
Mini ITX build if you want to go really small.
Click to expand...

I did look at MiniITX but the thing that held me back was expansion. It's pretty limited whereas MicroATX still gives me some room to play with :)

Many thanks for the spec though, definitely something for me to look at if I change my mind and go Mini!

MORE SPEED said:
All very solid choices. PSU wise, the quietest you will get is a Corsair AX, as the fan doesn't spin when not under load: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-051-CS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1084

The 650W will be enough for the one card, but if you wanted to SLI in the future, go for the 750W or even the 850W.

CPU cooler wise, the quietest will be one of the large tower coolers. I only have experience with the Noctua NH-D14 which with the ULNA on the fans keeps them very quite whilst retaining the excellent cooling of the heatsink.

Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

I won't be going SLI but I may add more hard drives. This current PC has 4 but I only plan on moving across 1 of them. Theoretically, if I did move across all 4 hard drives, would the Corsair Professional Series AX650 handle it all fine?

I'll take a look at that cooler as well as spanielgitas suggestion and have a nose around and see if there's any others that are suggested.

Many thanks for the replies.
 
Hi,

I think I've decided on the following:

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 Dual Radiator CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/LGA1156/LGA1155/LGA775/AM2/AM2)
Motherboard: Asus Z77 Maximus V Gene Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
Graphics: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 Windforce 3X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
RAM: Samsung Green (MV-3V4G3D/US) 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual Channel Kit
PSU: Corsair Professional Series AX650 High Performance 650W Modular '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply (CP-9020006-UK)
HDD: Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT128M4SSD2)
Case: Fractal Design Define Mini Computer Case - Black
Optical: Samsung SH-B123L/RSBP 12x BluRay ROM / DVDRW DL & RAM Lightscribe SATA-II Optical Drive - Black (Retail)

Can anyone spot any glaringly obvious problems (or last minute changes) with the above or am I set to order?

I've checked the specs of the case and the CPU cooler and PSU should fit fine, and the graphics card should fit fine once the removable HDD tray is out.

Hopefully I can get the order in and pick up most of this tomorrow!

Thanks

----

Edit:

This might be a silly question, but do I need some thermal paste to install the Noctua NH-D14? I remember Arctic Silver 5 being the best a few years ago - is this still the case?
 
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Get a retail Blu-Ray drive so it includes some playback software.

This might be a silly question, but do I need some thermal paste to install the Noctua NH-D14? I remember Arctic Silver 5 being the best a few years ago - is this still the case?
Click to expand...

It comes with some paste, use that.
 
Hi,

A little review I guess! I picked up all the parts yesterday and put it all together last night. I did a rookie mistake of forgetting to put the motherboard backplate on first. I only realised this after I had installed the motherboard, CPU heatsink/fan, graphics card and wired it all up. I had to take it all apart then start over!

I did make a change to the spec. I went for the Sandisk Extreme SSD 120GB 2.5" SATA-3 Solid State Hard Drive over the Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB. Works perfect and is blistering fast.

Did a little overclock on my 3570k. I'm at 4.5GHz and it seems stable. Also overclocked the RAM a little and also seems stable but I could do with running more tests. I've never really overclocked before and just used information I found on the forum so I could probably do better with some more guidance. I'm not sure if it's worth overclocking the graphics card as it comes pre-overclocked slightly.

The CPU is idleing right now at 24c. I gets to about 60-61c under Prime95 which seems pretty good. Graphics card is at 29c idle also.

The case is lovely. It's extremely quiet compared to my old one (Antec 300) and if it wasn't for the power LED I probably wouldn't even know it's on. The noisest part seems to come from the Noctua NH-D14 fans. I'd change them if I could find equally good ones which were just as quiet (perhaps Fractal Design ones as the fans that came with the case can't be heard at all).

One downside to the case is the harddrive bays. They have holes for a 2.5" SSD/HDD which work fine, but you can't connect a right-angled SATA cable to it. This is annoying because the motherboard comes with a SATA cable that has a right-angled connector at one end and a straight-connector at the other. Right now, my SSD is just sitting in the middle of the case next to the case fan.

Installed Windows 7 in about 10 minutes and it boots up extremely fast. Very happy!

Thanks for all the help!
 
Hi,

Decided to finish the last cable tidying up today so it's not looking too bad inside now. I managed to get over the SSD problem, had to fiddle the right-angle SATA connector into the motherboard slot which took a while as the graphics card goes over those particular ports. All good now!

The only picture I took is the inside of the case a while ago: http://imgur.com/cGgKQ

Very pleased with it all :)

Thanks
 
Hi,

The Noc's came with 3 cables, the Y-splitter and 2 others. The instructions described the 2 other cables are being able to increase/decrease the speed (and voltage?) of the fans where necessary and I'm using these (there were 2 CPU fan headers on the motherboard so they're plugged into these). It's definitely working right as I can hear the fans speed up a little when the load / temps increase.

Is there any software out there I can use to see what voltage/speed the two fans are running at? HW Monitor doesn't seem to show them.

The graphics card is really really close to the heatsink. There must be less than 1mm between them! I was going to keep an eye on the temps and if they start getting high then move it down a slot and see if that helps. I might have a play with that tonight in fact and try moving it down one. Thanks for the tip!
 
I'm more worried about shorts with the heatsink.

The Noctuas are 3-pin voltage controlled (VC) fans. Motherboards usually take 4 pin Pulse Modulation fans (PWM), and therefore show the fan speed rather than the voltage, since the voltage would always remain at 12V. PWM Is basically turning the 12V power on and off on the fan more or less rapidly to change the average power delivered to the fan motor.

Some motherboards BIOS do allow VC control on the CPU fans, but I think these are mostly gigabytes, and they are pretty rare.

Putting good PWM fans, that would be another £20-£30 for a couple of fans to be worthwhile (Noctua fans are pretty good as is).
 
Hi,

Good call on the shorting. I've just changed the graphics card to the lower slot so hopefully it's fine now! In heindsight, I'm not sure why I didn't put it below originally as I knew it'd be tight.

I'll connect up the Y-Splitter for the Noc's also! Many thanks for the tips :)
 
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