[SOLVED] New silent system for casual gaming ...

[Blueblack]

As some of you convinced me a few days ago, that upgrading my old system would be totally futile, I gathered a lot of info on this forum and from other sites to find some suitable parts for a new build ...

I will use this system only for games and surfing the net (for work/business I have my MBPro/Bootcamp) ... and as I play mostly strategy games, there is actually no need for a high end setup (although I would love to waste 7k+ for a gaming monster) ... my most hardware demanding games are maybe TW:Rome 2 and Xcom 2 ... but it would be nice, if my planned system could handle a future XCom 3 (if there will be any)

Silence is big priority for me, when selecting components ... but beside that, I tried to find parts, which will just fit my needs -- for hopefully the next three years -- while still being more on the budget side ... I'm clearly not the target group for a spaceship-design mainboard or LED-illuminated RAM, but I still like good quality and design ... so, maybe not every decision below might be reasonable for a more or less budget system ...

But please have a quick look at my choices and tell me, what you think about it ... and please shout at me, if you see any complete nonsense I made ... it's been a long time, since I build my last system ... btw, prices are from Amazon (Germany) and local dealers (newegg couldn't compete here bc of VAT in Austria) ...

CPU: Intel - CORE i3-8350K (€ 169.99 @ local dealer) *
Motherboard: ASRock Z390M Pro4 Micro ATX (€ 134.81 @ local) **
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX red 16GB (2x4 GB), DDR4-2400, CL16-16-16-39 (€ 84.63 @ local dealer) ***
Storage: Corsair Force MP510 480GB NVMe PCIe Gen3x4 M.2-SSD (€ 84.90 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 570 4GD5, 1340MHz, 4GB GDDR5 (€133.61 @ local dealer) ****
Case: Nanoxia Deep Silence 4 mATX (€ 66,78 @ local dealer)
Power Supply: be quiet Straight Power 11, 550W ATX (€ 93.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Scythe Mugen 5 PCGH-Edition (€ 49.90 @ local dealer)

Total: € 818,61

* it's a compromise; i3-8100 or an i5 would be alternatives; but actually I valued speed higher than more cores for my needs
** price difference to Z370M is just €14, so went for the 9th Generation CPU compatibility
*** does higher speed than 2400 makes sense for an i3 CPU?
**** very unsure here; it's a big step to Sapphire RX 580/8GB Nitro+ (€199.90 @ local dealer) ... is it worth?

Any suggestions and opinions are greatly appreciated

 

[EndEffeKt_24]

Guten Morgen,
I just made an account to reply on this topic. I tool a step out of the darkness.

I think it is good to see someone really concerned with not going overboard with the price and bling of the machine, but in my opinion you are too conservative on some points.
If budget allows I would suggest:

• swap the cpu for a 6 core Ryzen 5 2600(x)
• upgrade that gpu to a gtx1660 or at least rx570 8gb
• maybe upgrade to a dark power 600 psu

I am curently on a 4690k 4c/4t @ 4,6 ghz and I am startinc to feel the need for more cores. That i3 will bite you in a year. Same with a 4gb gpu. I personally would not trust a 550 straight power for silence although its in the brand name. My setup currently sits in a Nanoxia Deep Silence 1. Its ugly as hell, but it was a pleasure to build in.

Cheers mate

 

[Blueblack]

Guten Morgen,
I just made an account to reply on this topic. I tool a step out of the darkness.

I think it is good to see someone really concerned with not going overboard with the price and bling of the machine, but in my opinion you are too conservative on some points.
If budget allows I would suggest:

• swap the cpu for a 6 core Ryzen 5 2600(x)
• upgrade that gpu to a gtx1660 or at least rx570 8gb
• maybe upgrade to a dark power 600 psu

I am curently on a 4690k 4c/4t @ 4,6 ghz and I am startinc to feel the need for more cores. That i3 will bite you in a year. Same with a 4gb gpu. I personally would not trust a 550 straight power for silence although its in the brand name. My setup currently sits in a Nanoxia Deep Silence 1. Its ugly as hell, but it was a pleasure to build in.

Cheers mate

Guten Morgen bzw. Mahlzeit

first many thanks for taking your time to read and reply ... you definitely made some points in your suggestions ...

I have to admit, that choosing Intel over AMD is probably more a psychological thing for me than anything else, as all my past systems were Intel based ... taking the Ryzen 5 2600 and a fitting mainboard would even free up some money, which would come handy for a better GPU ... but switching from a Core 2 Duo 2,13 I think, even the i3-8100 would be actually enough for my gaming needs ... (my initial upgrade plan a few days ago was to slam a used Quad for €50 into my old Asus P5W64 WS Pro 😉

I play lots of old games and if it wasn't for Xcom 2 I probably wouldn't even upgrade ... and as I will run zero Applications other than Games on that system I'm not sure, that I need more cores ... the i3-8350K is still faster as the Ryzen 5 2600 in single-threaded games ... and if all fails, I might have more upgrade options with the Z390 board ...

GTX1660 are clearly out of budget range ... but I will probably go for the 8GB RX 570 as you suggested ... or even the RX 580 ... my biggest concern on GPU is noise anyway, as I have a passive card now ... and noise is not a big topic in GPU reviews, beside general comments like "card is not very noisy", which is exactly no help ... so, actually I have no idea, if the Sapphire will work for me ... or another - maybe even cheaper - brand would be more silent ...

About PSU ... I checked with https://outervision.com/power-supply-calculator and actually I should be on the save side with 550W (if that calculator is correct!) ... my spike power usage is listed there with around 437W ... but with 'Dark Power' instead of the 'Straight Power' you are right ... it sounds logical too, as it's the flagship model of bequiet ... it's strange, that the other one was listed as being more silent at 'Geizhals.at' ...

And about the case you're right, lol ... it's quite ugly ... but I didn't find many silent mATX cases ... was thinking of an ITX build first with the Define Nano S, but there is not much difference when it comes to beauty ... so I better went for more space ...

Many thanks for your input ... und noch einen schönen Tag!

 

[EndEffeKt_24]

An additional argument for the Ryzen is its cooler. You might get away without an aftermarket solution here. The 50 € saved would go a long way either upgrading to 16 gb ram or the next better gpu.
Edit: When I am home this evening I will tailor an example build together. Its way to flimsy on my smartphone.

 

[EndEffeKt_24]

Long day at the office, but here you go:


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
CPU | AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor | €156.90 @ Alternate
Motherboard | MSI - B450M GAMING PLUS Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard | €86.85 @ Amazon Deutschland
Memory | Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory | €90.89 @ Alternate
Storage | Crucial - P1 1 TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive | €151.90 @ Amazon Deutschland
Video Card | MSI - Radeon RX 580 8 GB ARMOR OC Video Card | €204.99 @ Alternate
Case | Nanoxia - Deep Silence 4 (Black) MicroATX Mini Tower Case | €64.90 @ Amazon Deutschland
Power Supply | SeaSonic - FOCUS Plus Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply | €79.99 @ Amazon Deutschland
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total | €836.42
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-03-27 20:52 CET+0100 |

There are no specific options for prices in Austria, so i stuck with Germany.
Reasoning:
CPU - 6 cores. Whats not to like. You can add an aftermarket cooler later on if the stock one is not silent enough
MB - I admit, I like msi and especially the MSI-UEFI if you plan to overclock at some point. Not the cheapest option, but a more solid one
RAM - It was so nice, I took it twice. 16 GB
SSD - Price/Performance is superb with Crucial. No NVME though, but that saves us some bucks. AND 1 TB
GPU - RX580 8 GB as it should be. Hard to beat this price. Still no silent card by all means, but the Nanoxia should take care of it.
Case - Yeah its a beauty. But hey its silent, its cheap, it comes with 3 good fans.
PSU - Sorry man, but the Be quiet options are too expensive for a budget build if you ask me. This unit is solid, has a passive mode, fully modular, gold certification, good reviews. Whats not to like?

To summarize:
By switching to Ryzen, dumping the aftermarket cooler and choosing a reasonable psu....
....I got you 2 more cores, 8 GB VRAM, 16 GB RAM and 1 TB SSD storage. While keeping the idea of the system roughly intact.

I hope the Austrian prices are not letting me down. Keep me posted.

 

[Blueblack]

Long day at the office, but here you go:


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
CPU | AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor | €156.90 @ Alternate
Motherboard | MSI - B450M GAMING PLUS Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard | €86.85 @ Amazon Deutschland
Memory | Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory | €90.89 @ Alternate
Storage | Crucial - P1 1 TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive | €151.90 @ Amazon Deutschland
Video Card | MSI - Radeon RX 580 8 GB ARMOR OC Video Card | €204.99 @ Alternate
Case | Nanoxia - Deep Silence 4 (Black) MicroATX Mini Tower Case | €64.90 @ Amazon Deutschland
Power Supply | SeaSonic - FOCUS Plus Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply | €79.99 @ Amazon Deutschland
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total | €836.42
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-03-27 20:52 CET+0100 |

There are no specific options for prices in Austria, so i stuck with Germany.
Reasoning:
CPU - 6 cores. Whats not to like. You can add an aftermarket cooler later on if the stock one is not silent enough
MB - I admit, I like msi and especially the MSI-UEFI if you plan to overclock at some point. Not the cheapest option, but a more solid one
RAM - It was so nice, I took it twice. 16 GB
SSD - Price/Performance is superb with Crucial. No NVME though, but that saves us some bucks. AND 1 TB
GPU - RX580 8 GB as it should be. Hard to beat this price. Still no silent card by all means, but the Nanoxia should take care of it.
Case - Yeah its a beauty. But hey its silent, its cheap, it comes with 3 good fans.
PSU - Sorry man, but the Be quiet options are too expensive for a budget build if you ask me. This unit is solid, has a passive mode, fully modular, gold certification, good reviews. Whats not to like?

To summarize:
By switching to Ryzen, dumping the aftermarket cooler and choosing a reasonable psu....
....I got you 2 more cores, 8 GB VRAM, 16 GB RAM and 1 TB SSD storage. While keeping the idea of the system roughly intact.

I hope the Austrian prices are not letting me down. Keep me posted.

Wow, many thanks for your big effort here! ... you really squeezed out a lot more power from my budget ... haven't checked everything in detail now, but prices should be roughly the same here ... I really think, I'll go with that ... quite a step up from my Core 2 Duo 2,13/GTX 370, lol ...

Many thanks again for your help ... und viele Grüße nach Deutschland!

 

[EndEffeKt_24]

No problem. I like to tailor some parts together.
You might go safe and get a 650W PSU. The calculator I used spit out 470W under load even with the Ryzen @1,4V 4,1 GHz. Should be ok, but I am a bit careful.

 

[cryoburner]

As much as I think the RX 570 and RX 580 are really good cards for the money, they do draw more power under load than Nvidia's similar-performing options, and in turn output more heat that the card's cooler will have to work harder to get rid of. So if "silence is big priority", it might be worth looking at a GTX 1060 or 1660, despite them typically costing more. A GTX 1060 will only draw around 120 watts under load, while an RX 580 can get up around 200 watts. An RX 570 should typically draw power somewhere in between the two. The 1660 draws only slightly more power than a 1060. Even they won't exactly be "silent", but should be "quieter" on a given cooler.

A 1060 3GB is typically similar in performance to an RX 570, while a 1060 6GB performs similar to an RX 580, or roughly around 10-15% faster than the 1060 3GB / RX 570. The 1660 should offer around 20% more performance than the 1060 6GB / RX 580.

Whatever you pick, just keep in mind that the two or three fan cards will typically be quieter under load than the single-fan models, since their fans generally don't need to spin as fast to provide the same level of cooling performance.

 

[mdd1963]

The 9600K is indeed $100 more than the 8350K, but, I would NOT start a gaming rig build with only 4c/4t today, if at all possible...(or even two years ago..)