Small and quiet rig

Dogway

Dogway

Dogway

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12 Jul 2013
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60
Hello, I'm looking forward building my next PC, I decided to go small factor so I can move it from desk to TV and use as a HTPC too. Also I want something rather quiet.
I know already most of the components but would like to hear your opinion, I will use it for video/audio processing/encoding, Photoshop and 3D later on. Still there are a few components I haven't fully decided, namely the PSU, the Heatsink, and specially RAM.


BitFenix Prodigy M
Asus Z87M-Plus
Intel Core i5-4670K
Samsung SSD 840 Pro 120Gb
RAM (Haswell compliant,XMP)
BeQuiet PurePower L8 630W (or Straight Power) (Haswell compliant)
Noctua NH-U12S (or NH-U9B SE2)


I specially want to hear about RAM, what should I target? 1600Mhz, 1.5V and from there low latencies, brands, etc?
 
Thanks for reply. I just saw the newly refurbished Corsair liquid coolers this morning, but I have never used one and water+electronics is not a nice combination, I will have a deeper look I promise (edit: actually started to like it...), but if you had to choose one (out of the two) that are on the list for each PSU and Heatsink which would be? are they bad choices? (Noctua and BeQuiet?)
 
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If you're not overclocking, a decent quiet air cooler will be fine. I can't hear my low profile Noctua at all.

I'm guessing you're going to add a high end graphics card later? 630W is far more than you'd need otherwise.

As for RAM, 2133MHz or 2400MHz if you have the budget for it.
 
Light OC, maybe 4.2~4.4 depending on unit.
I started to like the liquid cooler thing until I saw it also needs a fan. What's the point then, I saw a video of the H80 in youtube and the fan is very noisy.

I will add a quadro k600 later on, I don't need a card for the works I'm doing right now. I would buy a 580W PSU but they mostly are way below or above that, so I chose above. Also I read that less strain for the PSU means quieter and more efficiency.

About RAM 2133Mhz, and latency what should I target?
 
Only getting 8Gb of RAM in total (I want to invest the money for other parts). I have no idea of RAM so anything you recommend me bandwidth and latency wise, I go for it, geared towards the type of work I wil be doing, video, audio and CG.

I want to know if the Corsair H80 or H100 are noisier than the Noctuas I posted.
 
If you're going to be doing mainly video/audio work, you'd probably benefit a lot from 16gb RAM, but it is very expensive at the moment.

The Corsair H80/H100 will be quite noisy with the stock fans, you'd need to replace them with quiet ones. If you're not overclocking above 4.4GHz it's not worth it really.
 
Suggested up to this point Kingston, Adata and TeamGroup. Are all these good RAM brands?
I will stay with 8Gb, currently I'm using 4Gb on a x86 system and it's not "horrible", I will be fine with 8Gb on my future Win7x64, until I start again with CG, in which case I will buy the k600 and more RAM if needed.

Then I should buy some fans as well, one fan enough? From Noctua 120mm?
 
I wouldn't get the Corsair water cooler in your case, a good air cooler will be good enough, quieter, and you won't need to buy any extra fans.

Any RAM will be fine, just look for 2133MHz or better, and CAS 10 over CAS 11.
 
teppic said:
I wouldn't get the Corsair water cooler in your case, a good air cooler will be good enough, quieter, and you won't need to buy any extra fans.
Click to expand...

True, I just researched a bit and, it's just as noisy as air cooling, probably would need to buy extra fans, and the radiator would force me to either mod or dismiss the use of the ODD, but I will use a bluray writer, no matter what. (edit: oops, but the H80 is not as large! gotta research a bit more)
So if no body advises me anything better I stay with Noctua NH-U12S (more silent than NH-U9B SE2).

Any help over the PSU? Pure Power or Straight Power?
 
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Didn't want to edit my above post again.
One reason for not buying watercooling was due to leaks, after learning that there is such thing as "closed loops" (watercooling for dumbs if you call it) I started to like the idea, specially because I'm afraid the bulky air solutions can mess my socket pins, and well, it's bulky and heavy. The Prodigy M will display a vertical mobo orientation, that's why.

I also learnt that not all watercoolings are like the H100, with long radiators, there are some like the H80i, which can actually fit on the prodigy, it just happens that it seems this corsair H80i is a bit crap. Does anybody know any good "single size" watercooling solution, for the moment I gathered some names:

Kraken x40
Thermaltake Water 2.0 Pro
LQ320
 
I made a sketch of the case airflow, I'm still unsure about the fan sizes, whether I want more intake or exhaust.
The back is the radiator exhaust, and the PSU fan is an enigma on this Prodigy M, I guess it exhausts underneath, but that would render the low intake a bit senseless.

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I think I finally made up my mind and will go for a H80i, in the end Corsair, NZXT... they are mostly the same once I decided to change the fan, by some reason the gap of 20mm on the fan size didn't seem to make a change on performance/noise.

On another note, I was reading a bit here about the beQuiet PSUs and the question on the OP. They say the Straight Power is a bit higher ranked than the Pure Power, but that the latter is really VERY GOOD for the price given which is about 60punds vs the gold rated 100pounds Straight Power. The thing is that on idle the fan doesn't stop, and I don't know whether this is normal for PSUs or not. So all in all, my list is finished! hooray! : D (took me 3 months btw)

I'm also very curious to know how to picture the PSU inside my sketch in relation to air flow.
Here is the case, and here the PSU. If the PSU socket is at the front, how am I going to plug the cable? and more importantly, there's only one place where the PSU can exhaust air, which is the front, if I place the fan facing the front, one or the other, either the case bottom opening serves as intake (but the plug would be literally obstructed), or I sit it with the intake to one side... probably with the PSU opening where's the plug and switch, facing away the mobo, is that correct?
 
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