Ultra Quiet gaming pc build for living room

gabsta69

gabsta69

gabsta69

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14 Apr 2009
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hi everyone, I'm in the market for a mid range pc that will allow for some decent gaming and watching xbmc. I would ideally not like to spend anything more than £800 but the wife has insisted it has to be super quiet when using xbmc.

When gaming occurs, it can be a bit louder, but not stupidly loud so ideally if it can be quiet during gaming it would be a nice feature.

I am more interested in a bundle config than building it my own, so any suggestions would be ideal. Only preference is that I had bad experience with AMD once, so intel spec would be preferred, but happy to be convinced if it gets me a better spec.

Thanks in advanced!
 
Passive PSU and GPU at low use. Not sure how the stock case fans are on sound, I use a couple of Parvum's and they are fabulous on both low noise and airflow.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Z97I Gaming ACK - Devil's Canyon i5 4690K CPU & Mini ITX Motherboard Bundle **£12 Saving** £297.98
1 x Asus GeForce GTX 960 DirectCU2 OC Strix 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £191.99
1 x SuperFlower Leadex GOLD 650W Fully Modular "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - White £74.99
1 x Crucial BX100 250GB SSD SATA 6Gbps 7mm Solid State Drive (CT250BX100SSD1) £72.98
1 x Kingston HyperX Savage Red 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (HX324C11SRK2/8) £46.99
1 x Cooler Master Elite 130 Mini ITX Case - Black £45.95
1 x Noctua NH-L9i CPU Cooler Low Profile - 92mm £34.99
Total : £780.88 (includes shipping : £12.50).




OCUK can build for you at a charge if you don't fancy it yourself. I have seen £60 mentioned for that.

Do you need a copy of Windows?
 
thanks for the fast response, i like everything on the list but not keen on the case...would rather have taller than wider, didn't think about going down the mini ITX route, as i thought it would create more noise through less airflow?

i have a copy of windows already, and could build it myself - had a problem with a previous build - bad mobo but after months of trying to sort out with MSI - am keen for OC to build it for me - unless I have to purchase a copy of windows as well then i'll just give it a go!
 
I don't personally like that case... but it is cheap. ITX doesn't have to be noisy at all... The system in sig is inaudible (Significantly less than a mechanical harddrive) at idle.

OCUK can build for you if you don't buy windows. Normally they wipe the OS after testing, but maybe they can use your existing keys. Ask in the customer support forums ;)

If you choose a larger case, you might be able to run a larger, quieter cooler as well... so post what you like ;)
 
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If you have another gaming PC in the house then I'd look at steam in home streaming, means you can have a much quieter low powered pc in the lounge.
 
CoolerMaster's Silencio case range and fans are very quiet, Fractal have a good reputation too with their R5 model.

Crucial's SSD's seem to be the current flavour of choice, storage wise, 250gb is better for the OS with a storage hdd, I only mention the WD Green because my own is silent in my old HTPC, others perform better but add noise and cost.

For a single card you will not need more than 550w, but the Superflowers fans I have read can be noisy when they start spinning, if noise in that department is an issue, then your looking at a lot more for a fanless model.
That said, I have a Seasonix X series that is silent and rarely does the fan spin when under load, and my old Corsair HX-450 was pretty quiet when the HTPC was idle.
I doubt you will have an issue with PSU noise though. Especially with a CM case designed for quiet operation.

Noctua coolers should need no explaining, one of the best if not the best customer service CPU cooler producers, they are a joy to fit and really are quality, and quiet too.

Now gaming wise, well currently the 290X is one of the best cards going for the money, and MSI's GPU cooling gets good reviews. But if this is a mid range system, and your using a TV, you can get away with less.

This is just an idea of a decent 1080p gaming system with quiet components though.
YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-SLI - Devils Canyon Core i5 4690K Bundle **£12 Saving** £277.98
1 x MSI Radeon R9 280 Gaming 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £149.99
1 x Crucial BX100 250GB SSD SATA 6Gbps 7mm Solid State Drive (CT250BX100SSD1) £72.98
1 x Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD20EZRX) HDD £67.99
1 x Cooler Master Silencio 452 - USB 3.0 ATX Case - SD Card Reader £64.99
1 x Noctua NH-U12S Ultra-Quiet Slim CPU Cooler with NF-F12 Fan £52.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £51.95
1 x Kingston HyperX Savage Red 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (HX324C11SRK2/8) £46.99
1 x Samsung SH-118BB/BEBE SATA 18x DVD-ROM (Black) - OEM £13.99
Total : £814.86 (includes shipping : £12.50).



But you could posibly go smaller. If you do not need a Optical drive you have a few nice case options. For anything running a passive PSU and passive GPU though, I would look for a small case with good airflow. If quiet is important, then no overclocking is worth considering, and a non overclocking CPU becomes viable.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4440 3.10GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £152.99
1 x Crucial BX100 500GB SSD SATA 6Gbps 7mm Solid State Drive (CT500BX100SSD1) £138.98
1 x Palit GeForce GTX 750 KalmX SILENT 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £99.95
1 x SuperFlower Golden Silent 430W Fanless "80 Plus Platinum" Power Supply - Black £84.95
1 x Asus H81I-Plus Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £58.99
1 x Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX Mini-ITX Chassis £49.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan GOLD 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLYED38G1600HC9DC01) £44.99
1 x Noctua NH-L9i CPU Cooler Low Profile - 92mm £34.99
Total : £679.93 (includes shipping : £11.75).



Of course, you could put a Mini ITX into a Micro ATX case, or even use a MicroATX H81 motherboard.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4440 3.10GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £152.99
1 x Crucial BX100 500GB SSD SATA 6Gbps 7mm Solid State Drive (CT500BX100SSD1) £138.98
1 x Palit GeForce GTX 750 KalmX SILENT 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £99.95
1 x SuperFlower Golden Silent 430W Fanless "80 Plus Platinum" Power Supply - Black £84.95
1 x Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD20EZRX) HDD £67.99
1 x Cooler Master Silencio 352 - USB3.0 m-ATX - SD Card Reader £44.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan GOLD 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLYED38G1600HC9DC01) £44.99
1 x Asus H81M-K Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £37.99
1 x Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler £19.99
1 x LG 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM GH24NSC0.AUAA10B £13.99
Total : £721.81 (includes shipping : £12.50).



If it is only light gaming, you could even change the processor to a G3258.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Radeon R9 280 Gaming 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £149.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Red 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD20EFRX - OEM HDD £79.99
1 x Crucial BX100 250GB SSD SATA 6Gbps 7mm Solid State Drive (CT250BX100SSD1) £72.98
1 x Silverstone TemJin TJ08B-E Midi Tower Case - Black (SST-TJ08B-E USB 3.0) £64.99
1 x Intel Pentium K Anniversary G3258 Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £59.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £51.95
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan GOLD 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLYED38G1600HC9DC01) £44.99
1 x Asus H81M-K Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £37.99
1 x Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler £19.99
1 x Samsung SH-118BB/BEBE SATA 18x DVD-ROM (Black) - OEM £13.99
Total : £611.86 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 
thanks for the suggestions, really appreciated.

I really like the white case, much more my style. the other pc in house doesnt have a decent gfx card so would rather have a proper machine in the living room.

a lot of food for thought!
 
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