[SOLVED] Help me spec a PC build (haven't built one in 10 years!)

[jeremy.woolf1]

Hi everyone

Long time since I've done any of this.. So much so that I don't think I'll be building this myself, but instead I'll spec the parts (with your help) and order it from PC specialist (UK website).

Items I already have:

-Monitor
-Keyboard and mouse
-2 x storage HDDs
-PCI sound card for my amp and speakers - this needs to go back into my new PC - https://www.rme-audio.de/hdsp-9632.html

I work from home, so my computer is for:

-Work - emails/spreadsheets/internet
-Watching movies/streaming
-Occasional gaming on basic games like Portal

What I'd like:

-As fast as possible for work, internet, etc.
-Smooth playback on movies/streaming
-Very low noise case and fans - I've currently got some extra resistors on my case fans, I could potentially move them across.

So I need to decide:

-Motherboard
-CPU
-RAM
-GPU
-SSD for windows
-PSU
-Network adapter
-Quiet case/quiet case fans/CPU cooler

So the first question I think is...AMD or Intel? When I last built my PC, I went for Intel. Happy to move over to AMD if there's justification for doing so?

Sorry to post such a vague first post. I'm reading up where I can, but it's difficult to know where to start if you haven't done any of this in so long.

Budget...I'd say around £800, or around $1000.

Thanks

Jeremy

 

[jeremy.woolf1]

Hi Phaaze, thanks for the reply.

Tbh my current case is a bit of a monster and for my next build I'd just like the case as small as possible

New components are as per below...so far.

I haven't completely decided on that CPU, motherboard or RAM yet..might go for intel instead.

I don't really game but am building this for the long term, multitasking, streaming, movies, etc.

I'm not looking for a cube shaped case...just one smaller than normal ATX cases. For example: https://www.quietpc.com/na-ds4

It's just hard to find one like that, which also has a vertical PCI slot.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor (£169.98 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition 42 CFM CPU Cooler (£32.99 @ Amazon UK)
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5 g Thermal Paste (£6.11 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£65.95 @ Box Limited)
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£124.98 @ Ebuyer)
Video Card: Palit GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4 GB KalmX Video Card (£155.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair RMx (2018) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£88.98 @ AWD-IT)
Wireless Network Adapter: Gigabyte GC-WB1733D-I PCIe x1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Adapter (£21.59 @ Amazon UK)
Custom: StarTech.com PCI Express to PCI Adapter Card - PCIe to PCI Converter Adapter with Low Profile / Half-Height Bracket (£34.79 @ Amazon UK)
Custom: Pxyelec Flexible PCI Express 1x Riser Card Extender Cable for PC
Total: £701.36
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-12-27 01:23 GMT+0000

 

[Phaaze88]

I'm not looking for a cube shaped case...just one smaller than normal ATX cases. For example: https://www.quietpc.com/na-ds4

I see... compact, but that one has no vertical PCI support.

Well, a cubed case like the one I linked would allow you to vertically mount your card w/o having to bother with a vertical mounting kit or PCI riser cable.


I spent some time checking Pcpartpicker's Micro-ATX lists, and I'm not seeing any cases that allow for PCI vertical mounts, so I'd imagine it's a feature that's sacrificed in SFF cases...

 

[Vic 40]

Alot of questions. 😊

With that "Z" motherboard ,if old stock, might you also need a bios update to make that i5 9600K work on it.

If there are pc shops in town could you manage that there for a small fee,just as with AMD. There are of course the older cpu versions which with what you do maybe will do about as well.
See for instance here already i7 8700's being sold used for €250,- (€280,- new=private seller) so maybe look at something like that with a "Z370" motherboard.But the Ryzen 3600 is as good a choice and cheaper,but will need that bios update on a B450 (most likely unless MSI "MAX" series for instance) or on that X370 motherboard.

I know cases like the Cooler Master exist,just go through pcpartpicker on a search. Can change country in the pcpartpicker at the right hand top.
Chose this one looking at the space under the right up pcie bracket where there (imo) is enough space for that adapter and the pcie x1 cable attached and with that could the soundcard stay in the bracket and the adapter underneath it. Think you do need to take that piece of iron of to make it fit.

Don't what new soundcard would enable you to take advantage of your existing music set up. That you should ask i another thread or just have to find out.Do say in such a thread what your current set up is and there are probably uadio forums out there that will have better answers than people here.
Here you have this forum,

Home Audio & Theater

forums.tomshardware.com

don't go there myself so you know how i am with home audio.

The Intel chips are still faster per core but the new Ryzen chips per cpu. Is kinda how it is when comparing them. Depends on what you want to use them for and of course price/performance is also a thing when picking a new cpu. Lately is AMD the king at price performance. The 3600 isn't as fast per core comparing to the i5 9600K,but is faster with more heavily threaded applications. And for use like yours is imo the 3600 more than enough.

 

[jeremy.woolf1]

Thanks Phaaze

So...the issue with the normal mounting PCI slots (on that cubed case as well I think), is that the adapter card is designed to work with half size PCI cards. My sound card is a full size card, which means it won't be properly secured in the PCI slot, and some of the connections won't be accessible from the back of the case.

You're probably right though...vertical mounting PCI slots are most likely a feature sacrificed in small cases.

I'll have a look through all of my options and then either choose a quiet case with vertical slot or smaller case without and just deal with it (by making it fit or replace my sound card)

 

[jeremy.woolf1]

@Vic 40 Thanks Vic.

I'll post in the audio forum for ideas. I'm starting to think there's no point in buying older components just to get my old sound card to fit.

Please can you answer the following?

1. If I just go with a newer board and cpu (as opposed to something like the X370a) am I likely to encounter less issues with the setup?

2. Why there are two memory QVL lists for that Asus board? https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/PRIME-X370-PRO/HelpDesk_QVL/

3. The 3600 and 9600k are around the same price - are you suggesting I go with AMD for multitasking/daily use (ie. not gaming). As I'm going for a very quiet setup, I'll be replacing the stock cooler if I do go for a 3600, therefore the slightly cheaper price and included cooler does not really factor into my decision.

 

[jeremy.woolf1]

Chosen the Fractal Mini C I'll either make my card fit or replace it.

 

[Phaaze88]

Good luck with the build!

 

[jeremy.woolf1]

Thanks mate. Excited

 

[jeremy.woolf1]

Hi everyone

A couple days of research and I'm getting close now. This is what I'm looking for in my new PC:

-Small form factor case
-As quiet as possible
-It's my work PC so needs to be very quick for day to day tasks
-Movies and streaming on my 23 inch monitor and 55 inch TV
-Occasional gaming
-Future proofed for upgrades
-Straightforward to build/setup

So...here are my potential builds:

AMD
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor (£169.98 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition 42 CFM CPU Cooler (£32.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI B450M MORTAR MAX Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£88.80 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£65.20 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£124.98 @ Ebuyer)
Additional Storage: 1TB WD 7200rpm that I already have
Video Card: Palit GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4 GB KalmX Video Card (£155.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Fractal Design Define Mini C MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£71.14 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair RMx (2018) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£100.98 @ AWD-IT)
Wireless Network Adapter: Gigabyte GC-WB1733D-I PCIe x1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Adapter (£21.59 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £825.76

Intel
CPU: Intel Core i5-9600K 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor (£187.98 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition 42 CFM CPU Cooler (£32.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock B365M Pro4 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£83.00 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-2666 Memory (£55.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£124.98 @ Ebuyer)
Additional Storage: 1TB WD 7200rpm that I already have
Video Card: Palit GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4 GB KalmX Video Card (£155.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Fractal Design Define Mini C MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£71.14 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair RMx (2018) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£100.98 @ AWD-IT)
Wireless Network Adapter: Gigabyte GC-WB1733D-I PCIe x1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Adapter (£21.59 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £828.75

Reasons for some of my choices:

-The AMD motherboard is already setup for the Ryzen 3600, has a flash bios button, extra PCI slots and extra M2 slot - nice and future proof.
-The 3600 comes with a cooler, but in a small case with less airflow, I'd rather just fit a better and quieter cooler and not have to think about it in the future.
-The GPU is a bit expensive for the performance but I won't be gaming very often and silence is more important to me. Open to other options though.
-I haven't put too much thought into the Intel motherboard just yet, but the one I chose looked reasonable.
-The max RAM speed for the Intel board is 2666Mhz, but the AMD board goes up to 4133Mhz!?
-The RAM I chose for both options is on the QVLs for each of the boards - I found it very strange that:

This isn't on the QVL for the AMD board - https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/p6RFf7/corsair-memory-cmk16gx4m2b3200c16
But this is - https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product...b-2-x-8gb-ddr4-3200-memory-cmk16gx4m2z3200c16

The same is true for quite a lot of RAM listed on parts picker...it would be great if someone could explain this for my knowledge?

So..opinions on the above two options and any of the components?

Thank you

Jeremy

 

[Phaaze88]

-The GPU is a bit expensive for the performance but I won't be gaming very often and silence is more important to me. Open to other options though.

Check out the 1650 Super?
While it and the 1050Ti are inferior to the popular RX 570 and 580, they are far more power efficient.

-The max RAM speed for the Intel board is 2666Mhz, but the AMD board goes up to 4133Mhz!?

Intel Tax. Performance tuning is only available on Z-series motherboards.

This isn't on the QVL for the AMD board - https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/p6RFf7/corsair-memory-cmk16gx4m2b3200c16
But this is - https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product...b-2-x-8gb-ddr4-3200-memory-cmk16gx4m2z3200c16

The same is true for quite a lot of RAM listed on parts picker...it would be great if someone could explain this for my knowledge?

Manufacturers can only be bothered to test ~SO many memory modules with their motherboards...
If you were in their shoes as a beta tester of sorts and saw all the different varieties of memory kits...
The safest bet is to stick with the popular brands, like G. Skill, Corsair, Crucial, and use the QVLs as a reference.

 

[jeremy.woolf1]

Thanks Phaaze

1650 is superior but not passively cooled

Thanks for clarifying the info about the QVLs

Thoughts on the AMD vs the intel builds above?

 

[Phaaze88]

1650 is superior but not passively cooled

Good point.

Thoughts on the AMD vs the intel builds above?

The Intel build can't really compete with the Ryzen one. They don't have anything competitive below the 9700K.
9600K is slower and has fewer cpu resources than that of the Ryzen 3600: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/AMD-Ryzen-5-3600-vs-Intel-i5-9600K/3481vs3337

 

[jeremy.woolf1]

Good answer

I think for the price the AMD board also has more features than the Intel board, and can also take higher speed memory as standard.

On that note, should I just go for 3600Mhz or 4000Mhz memory as the board can take it? There's very little price difference but I'm not sure where the benefits would be? I've also seen that some 3600Mhz memory has different timings compared to other 3600Mhz memory - for example one is 17-19-19-39 and the other is 18-22-22-42. What effects does this actually have?

Final question...Why does cpu benchmark show the Ryzen 3600 performing much better than the 9600k, but in user benchmarks it's slightly in the other direction?

https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i5-9600K-vs-AMD-Ryzen-5-3600/4031vs4040

Thanks for your help!

 

[Phaaze88]

On that note, should I just go for 3600Mhz or 4000Mhz memory as the board can take it?

3600mhz is fine. 4000 won't yield any meaningful benefits for what it costs.

There's very little price difference but I'm not sure where the benefits would be? I've also seen that some 3600Mhz memory has different timings compared to other 3600Mhz memory - for example one is 17-19-19-39 and the other is 18-22-22-42. What effects does this actually have?

This would explain it better than I could:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH3qq_mSxTM


This one gets a little more technical with it:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IY_KlkQK1Q

Final question...Why does cpu benchmark show the Ryzen 3600 performing much better than the 9600k, but in user benchmarks it's slightly in the other direction?

Userbenchmark is biased to Intel cpus(Google it or something) as well as running an outdated algorithm.
That aside, it does have it's uses, such as helping to pinpoint issues with users' systems.

 

[RodroX]

Hi, crap Im jumping at this post really late but, having read your first post and all the rest, I have to admit that no matter what you do (amd, intel, 2600, 2600X, 3600,9600K), if you want a quiet PC please choose a better cooler than Cooler Master Hyper 212 XXXXX. Don't get me wrong the Hyper 212 line is a great budget cooler, but its also one of the loudest out there. There are other budget options, more quiet, as the Arctic Freezer 34 esports duo, or more expensive ones like be Quiet Dark Rock or Noctua NH-U12S chromax.black.

And as of your question about if its worth it to expend more money on the R5 3600 or if the i5 9600K will give you better FPS and all that, the answer is simple: If you want the more smooth gameplay (meaning the 1% low FPS is closer to the AVG FPS) then go with the R5 3600, it will give you a little less AVG FPS (the highest number on all reviews and benchmark) but its going to be the smoother on the 1% Lows.
Having said that, for the working tasks you named, and the game you wrote (Portal) bascially any of the CPU named soo far (and above) will be more than enough to give you a smooth experience.

Lastly, If I was on your shoes, and picking an AMD CPU (I wouldnt not choose to buy a Core i5 today, feel free to do it if you like) I would really go best platform I could get, namly X570 (I would skip the X470 all over, since for the money you need to get a good X470, you can get a good X570, yeah I know it sound stupid, but thats the way it is).

Sorry for the long wall of text, I would end with my sugestion:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor (£169.98 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: ARCTIC Freezer 34 eSports DUO CPU Cooler (£34.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus PRIME X570-P ATX AM4 Motherboard (£149.98 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£65.95 @ Box Limited)
Storage: Crucial P1 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£96.81 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4 GB Video Card (£122.98 @ CCL Computers)
Case: Fractal Design Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case (£79.98 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair RMx (2018) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£88.98 @ AWD-IT)
Wireless Network Adapter: Gigabyte GC-WB1733D-I PCIe x1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Adapter (£21.59 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £831.24
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-12-28 00:41 GMT+0000

Cheers

PD, theres no need to go with Samsung for SSD, yeah it may be faster on some limited tasks or if you run some benchmarks. For daily use, work , gaming and stuff, no mortal will be able to tell the diference, not even if you pick a slower, yet good SATA drive like the MX-500.

PD2: I pick a mid tower case since it should still be smaller than your current case, and it wont limit your motherboard options to only micro-atx or mini-itx.

 

[Vic 40]

only difference in QVL i see is that one is specifically for Ryzen 2xxx and is smaller which leads to believe that compatibility is a tad smaller.

Yes going with newer components will likely mean less issues.


@RodroX,
The Hyper 212 Black is pretty silent,have it in one of my systems which is a pretty open one and hardly hear it when doing light stuff (i do have good ears ) . Might be louder under full stress,but in a closed case will it probably not be the loudest part,the gpu would probably be that.
I also use the Arctic 33 Sports Edition and this is not more quiet.

 

[jeremy.woolf1]

@Phaaze88 thanks for those links.

From watching the first video, I should go with 3200 memory, or possibly 3600. Whichever I choose..with the fanless GPU, that's what will be the limit when playing any games. The second video was a bit over my head haha. Thanks for the info on user benchmark.

@RodroX thanks for all that info...it's never too late. Nothing ordered yet

-I'll stick with the AMD 3600
-I'll look into another cooler
-I'll look into the other SSD

With regards to the motherboard..I don't see the point in spending another £60 on a gamer/overclocking oriented board when it would be wasted in my build? The MSI boards look to have nice features and do everything that I need, and it's also micro ATX meaning I can go for a smaller and quieter case like the mini C

I saw you changed the RAM from the one I put?

This is the one you linked: CMK16GX4M2B3200C16
This is the one I had before: CMK16GX4M2Z3200C16

I had a look and the one you linked is on the QVL for the Asus board you selected...I'm guessing that's why?

 

[jeremy.woolf1]

RAM -
Looked into RAM further now. Cheapest two (3200 and 3600) on the QVL are:

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product...b-2-x-8gb-ddr4-3200-memory-cmk16gx4m2z3200c16 - £65
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product...b-2-x-8gb-ddr4-3600-memory-cmk16gx4m2z3600c18 - £83

So a difference of £18 for slightly faster RAM. Not a big increase but from the video that @Phaaze88 linked, it looks like it would be money wasted. I'll stick with the 3200 RAM.

GPU - I think I'd like to stick with the silent one. I've usually found a GPU to be the loudest component in a computer - maybe there are quieter ones than others though?

PSU - The Corsair RMX series are passively cooled until the load is >40% of the rated wattage. The estimated wattage from parts picker for my build is 234w. Therefore if I go for the 750w, it should be silent virtually all of the time. It's only £9 more on amazon (the parts picker price is incorrect).

CPU cooler - What are your thoughts on a fanless cooler? https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nofan-NOFA...00HW2O2L2/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

The manfacturers website seems to say that the first VGA slot will be out of action, but there are 4 on the micro atx board...so that leaves 1 for GPU, 1 for wireless card and one for my soundcard..

Might be a tight squeeze though!

In the past, I've added in-line resistors for noisy fans but I don't think that can be done anymore?

About to go out for a couple hours but will look into other CPU coolers and that SSD when I'm back.

Thanks again for your help everyone

 

[RodroX]

@Phaaze88 thanks for those links.

From watching the first video, I should go with 3200 memory, or possibly 3600. Whichever I choose..with the fanless GPU, that's what will be the limit when playing any games. The second video was a bit over my head haha. Thanks for the info on user benchmark.

@RodroX thanks for all that info...it's never too late. Nothing ordered yet

-I'll stick with the AMD 3600
-I'll look into another cooler
-I'll look into the other SSD

With regards to the motherboard..I don't see the point in spending another £60 on a gamer/overclocking oriented board when it would be wasted in my build? The MSI boards look to have nice features and do everything that I need, and it's also micro ATX meaning I can go for a smaller and quieter case like the mini C

I saw you changed the RAM from the one I put?

This is the one you linked: CMK16GX4M2B3200C16
This is the one I had before: CMK16GX4M2Z3200C16

I had a look and the one you linked is on the QVL for the Asus board you selected...I'm guessing that's why?

The RAM was chosen cause of the reason you wrote, and I pick the X570 board to keep the build with the newest patform (X570) available today. That mobo has a strong VRM and its pretty simple. The idea behind my build was to give you the best/newest budget starting platform that it has the biggest chances to be update it for the next gen Ryzen 4xxx (zen3). But if youre on a tight budget the MSI B450 "MAX" boards are pretty decent.

As for going with a Micro-ATX case, I guess ia a matter of taste. As long as you keep in mind that, if you need to change your motherboard, for whatever reason, you will be limited to that form factor. In any case, unless Im reading the website wrong, those 2 cases are almost identical size, Im guessing the main diference are inside:

Meshify C

www.fractal-design.com

https://www.fractal-design.com/products/cases/define/define-mini-c/black/

Have fun with your new PC.

 

[jeremy.woolf1]

Thanks Rodrox

Strong VRM meaning I can overclock the CPU easily?

I just thought that the b450m was more than enough for my needs and the MSI Mortar board looks like a higher quality board (albeit older chipset) than the Asus one. I'm also not sure about a small fan on the mobo! Won't help me get my PC silent

You're right about the size of the meshify vs the mini C case, they're very similar. Meshify is just 7mm wider and 41mm taller. What I like about the mini C is the sound deadening materials in the case and the clean look at the font. It gets great reviews as well. I suppose you're right in that I'll be limited to Micro ATX. However I've just had another look through all the "quiet cases" I had found, and they're pretty much all micro atx...or ATX and huge! I'll be happy with micro ATX in the future.

Any thoughts on that CPU cooler?

I'll do some more research now as well.

Thanks for your help

 

[Phaaze88]

Any thoughts on that CPU cooler?

At face point, it's a strong option for a silent build. But you will quickly run into problems:
-heatsink size is relative to cooling efficiency, and the one in the amazon link is fine for up to 80w of waste heat.
-the Intel Turbo Boost and Ryzen Boost features would quickly overwhelm that cooler, forcing you to disable them, fixing the cpu to base clocks in order to stay within the TDP limits.
-I'm not dismissing passive cooling - it's certainly doable, but the heatsink definitely needs to be bigger.
-Dismiss the idea of overclocking. You're going to want SOME kind of active cooling - at least over the motherboard's VRMs. The cpu isn't the only thing that warms up when OC'ing.

 

[jeremy.woolf1]

@RodroX You were right about the case

The Fractal Define C is the same width and depth as the mini case, but 4cm taller. I'm not bothered about extra height so will go for that one. I've also changed the motherboard to the ATX version of the 450 MSI board. It'll just make it easier to work with and hopefully run a bit cooler in the case. There are minor differences between the Mortar and Tomahawk board, but none that I'm bothered about.

SSDs - The Crucial P1 looks like it could be a good alternative to the Samsung drive...what I'm not so keen on is the number of iffy reviews and reports of failures/issues. I'd rather spend a little more (only £26) and buy a more proven/better reviewed drive.

Here's where I am now:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor (£169.98 @ Aria PC)
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5 g Thermal Paste (£6.11 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard (£89.99 @ Box Limited)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£65.20 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£124.98 @ Ebuyer)
Video Card: Palit GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4 GB KalmX Video Card (£155.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Fractal Design Define C ATX Mid Tower Case (£74.98 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair RMx (2018) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£100.98 @ AWD-IT)
Wireless Network Adapter: Gigabyte GC-WB1733D-I PCIe x1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Adapter (£21.59 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £809.80
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-12-28 19:46 GMT+0000

So it's just the CPU cooler left (and do I even need that thermal compound?)

@Phaaze88 I came to the same conclusion about the passive cooler. It doesn't have great reviews and a CPU cooler doesn't need to be passive for me not to hear it.

A few cooler options are:

Be Quiet Dark Rock - £54
Noctua NH-U12S chromax.black - £65
Noctua NH-U9S - £47
Low profile Noctua coolers?
Noctua NH-L9x65 - £42
Noctua NH-L9x65 - £35

I was hoping to spend around £40 but if I need to spend slightly more for a quieter cooler than I can do.

Will I be able to control the CPU fan speed? And the case fan speeds? Or will they be controlled automatically? If so, the cooler I choose probably doesn't matter so much as I can just have the fan speeds set to low most of the time.

The Define C case doesn't have a fan controller - not sure if this makes a difference to the above.

 

[Phaaze88]

do I even need that thermal compound?

Nope. The retail box coolers come with a small tube of thermal compound, good for about 3, maybe 5, uses.

A few cooler options are:

Be Quiet Dark Rock - £54
Noctua NH-U12S chromax.black - £65
Noctua NH-U9S - £47
Low profile Noctua coolers?
Noctua NH-L9x65 - £42
Noctua NH-L9x65 - £35

I was hoping to spend around £40 but if I need to spend slightly more for a quieter cooler than I can do.

I would go for the largest air cooler possible within your comfort zone(spending). Remember what I posted earlier; the heatsink makes up the bulk of the cooling ability.
The Dark Rock 4 and NH-U12S are easily the best options on your list.

Will I be able to control the CPU fan speed? And the case fan speeds? Or will they be controlled automatically? If so, the cooler I choose probably doesn't matter so much as I can just have the fan speeds set to low most of the time.

You should be able to do all that within bios as long as the fans are connected to the motherboard. You can purchase splitter cables if the motherboard is lacking in fan headers.

 

[jeremy.woolf1]

Tbh I just thought that the OEM compound is not supposed to be the best. I see from your signature you used Noctua compound Thanks for the info about the fan headers.

Dark Rock 4 is on the list now...however I just checked the website and for my mobo it says "usability of RAM slots limited".

I'm never going to use all 4 RAM slots, so does that matter? It's only an issue if my two RAM sticks need to go into one of the slots that's blocked (although I guess that's unlikely?).

Alternatively I could go for the Dark Rock slim, which has a TDP of 180w vs 200w for the Dark Rock 4. There's also the Noctua NH-U14S, which is in the same price bracket.

 

[Phaaze88]

I'm never going to use all 4 RAM slots, so does that matter? It's only an issue if my two RAM sticks need to go into one of the slots that's blocked (although I guess that's unlikely?).

Should be a non-issue anyway:
-the Define C supports cooler heights up to 172mm
-Dark Rock 4 is 159mm
-the memory standard height is 31mm. If the ram kit in question has tall heatspreaders, for every mm above the standard you add to the cpu cooler's total height - if it has a front fan.
-the fan can be 'slid' upwards if needed. You've got headroom for 12mm if you choose to use 'tall' ram kits.