Quiet PC for Gaming + Work use!

[ArbitraryUsername]

Will try to keep this short

• 
  Would prefer a system that's rather quiet
  Will be used for both personal and work use:
  Personal use - gaming/watching streams, etc
  Work use - I need to be able to open ~100 tabs in short succession without too much difficulty
  Something that would last for a long time is a big plus
  Would be good to be able to pay with bitcoins
  Price isn't too important (thinking around £1-2K but can be more/less if necessary)
  Shipping to Sweden
  Also would need multiple monitors, high quality screen is important to me.

Any help is very highly appreciated and any other info that's wanted I'll try to supply.

Thanks for reading!

 

[ArbitraryUsername]

I'm hoping this isn't counting as a bump, just thought to add some extra information. Firstly, I've been using a laptop for 3 years now and it is slowly dying which is why I wish to upgrade to a desktop and I have no clue where to go to find information about it as I'm usually rather indecisive when it comes to these things, so any help at all would be very highly appreciated! I also much prefer the forum method of communication as I find there to be less bias in general. So anyone with any sort of recommendation or that knows a good article that can give advice on what one should spend on each component, etc, I'd appreciate it immensely! I know that the typical answer is 'just google it' but when I do such a thing, I open around 10 pages and read them, where 5 are irrelevant, 3 are way out-dated and the other 2 are relating to something more specific than what I'm searching for.

Any answers at all would be extremely helpful and I would really appreciate it!

Thanks a ton

 

[ArbitraryUsername]

So after a few hours of reading I'm going to keep essentially talking to myself in this thread and determined that I quite like the idea of:

• 
  CPU -[strike] Intel Core i7-5820K[/strike] Intel Core i7-6700K (seems to fit my needs more)
  GPU - GeForce GTX 1080

So my process is rather slow going. Trying to read about motherboards although I can be honest when I say that I'm completely clueless, so any input upon anything would be greatly appreciated. For CPU coolers I can't determine which would be quietest yet most efficient and whether I should go for air or liquid cooling.
As a note I have 4 WD external hard-drives which would be great to be able to add to a case (if such a case would exist) and I'd like to of course add an SSD too. Also, I have a Lyr 2 headphone amp, but would need some mic input, so a comment upon that would help a lot. Have yet to start reading about memory although I'm slowly making progress. Also no where near learning about monitors yet

If anyone's reading this, thank you and any comment would be appreciated

 

[ohenryy]

It would make our life much easier if you would tell us how much are you looking to spend

If your going to i7 K CPU, then you might as well go and overclock it!
For that I would recommend something on the Z170 150-200$ range, Extreme 4 being quite good motherboard, both overclocking and features.
SSD, again not knowing your budget, if you want something good, good with Samsung and don't buy anything lower than 250GB, remember games are only getting bigger and heavier.

 

[dimagolf9]

So in budget of £1-2k you want both good PC and 2-3 monitors? Or monitors have their own budget?

 

[dimagolf9]

So here is what I've came up with for you:
CPU: i7-6700k = £292
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 = £66
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VIII HERO = £175
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) = £83
GPU: Asus GeForce GTX 1080 8GB STRIX = £660
PSU: Corsair HX750i = £127
Case: be quiet! Silent Base 800 =~£120
Total =~£1520

As for the monitor look at this: Asus ROG Swift PG278Q
It will be good for both gaming and working. It costs ~£560

You chose good CPU and GPU.
You said you want a quiet PC, and "be quiet" actually makes good components in terms of sound.
But you will probably have to change fans that are pre-installed in case for quiter ones: 120mm for front, 140mm for back

 

[jmsellars1]

I'd avoid hard drives if you want something quiet, each one of them makes noise on its own and adds vibrations too. I'd also avoid overclocking as it would make the system hotter and less stable, not really what I'd recommend for a quiet work build.

Using UK PCPartPicker as an example, Scan is from the UK and ships to Sweden as far as I'm aware.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£260.95 @ More Computers)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Shadow Rock 2 51.4 CFM Rifle Bearing CPU Cooler (£31.91 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus H170M-PLUS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£85.82 @ More Computers)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (£53.99 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£118.33 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Video Card (£433.48 @ BT Shop)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1300 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£36.95 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£70.97 @ Amazon UK)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-F12 PWM 55.0 CFM 120mm Fan (£13.98 @ Ebuyer)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-F12 PWM 55.0 CFM 120mm Fan (£13.98 @ Ebuyer)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-S12A PWM 120mm Fan (£14.99 @ Ebuyer)
Monitor: Dell U2515H 25.0" 60Hz Monitor (£259.98 @ Ebuyer)
Monitor: Dell U2515H 25.0" 60Hz Monitor (£259.98 @ Ebuyer)
Total: £1655.31
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-05 21:35 BST+0100

I'd look at something like that, obviously will be great performance wise with i7/16GB/GTX 1070 but sacrifices overclocking to run cooler and more stable. That means you can have a much quieter system too. With this one, the only things that could make noise are the PSU, GPU, CPU cooler and case fans. The PSU/GPU fans stop under low load and are very quiet anyway. The CPU cooler is huge and overkill for that CPU meaning the fan won't have to work very hard and it is quiet anyway. Then I'd go for 2 x Noctua F12's on the front blowing in and an S12 blowing out the back. They all support PWM and go all the way down to 300RPM based on temperature, 300RPM is virtually impossible to hear for a good quality 120mm fan.

Then with the monitors, I'd personally get a couple of good IPS or VA panels, ideally 1440P or 4k.

 

[ArbitraryUsername]

Ohenryy, thank you for the response, I'm not sure how comfortable I would feel with overclocking as I really don't know that much about it and think for the vast majority of my usage it would be superfluous to overclock. Apologies for not writing more about the pricing, I think that the £1.5K for desktop and then probably 1 really good monitor and then one or two that won't need to be that good quality, but if cost goes over £2000 it's not the end of the world. The Z170 range of motherboards seem to be highly rated. I think I'd want both a SSD and a HDD and then keep my 4 WD My Books just connected through USB 3.0 as it's mainly used for storing films, etc, so don't need it running the quickest of speeds.

Dimagolf9 thanks for the build suggestion, although a question about the Asus motherboard, I've been reading a bit and there seems to be a generally negative perception on Asus motherboards, do you believe there's any merit in that and/or that one of the Z170 boards would be better? Woudl it be easy to change the pre-installed fans for the quieter ones? Will look more into that monitor, thanks!

I really highly appreciate the help, thanks a lot!!!

 

[ArbitraryUsername]

Jmsellars1 I'm really liking that build, I think I could spend a bit more on the GPU and upgrade to 1080 and potentially a better Motherboard if that would have an affect, basically a build that has that price when you exclude monitor would be good for me (sorry for not adding this before hand, have spent some time thinking of how much I wish to pay), and for the monitor I was thinking of 1 really good main one and then two 'less' good which will be used just for multi-tasking type things. Really want to thank you for the help, I think you've really got a great understanding of what I'm looking for!
Edit: The power supply, would the Corsair RM550x maybe be a better PSU to use? I understand it's a bit more expensive but it mentioned it doesn't have a low hold-up time and it's quieter.
Edit 2: The CPU Cooler, is there any significant difference between the Shadow Rock 2 and Shadow Rock LP, read up on LP and it seems to be rather highly rated, would that switch be worth it?
Also, this build seems to be rather small sized focused, is there any particular reason for this? Sorry for so many questions and any answer is extremely appreciated!

 

[dimagolf9]

Dimagolf9 thanks for the build suggestion, although a question about the Asus motherboard, I've been reading a bit and there seems to be a generally negative perception on Asus motherboards, do you believe there's any merit in that and/or that one of the Z170 boards would be better? Woudl it be easy to change the pre-installed fans for the quieter ones? Will look more into that monitor, thanks!

I really highly appreciate the help, thanks a lot!!!

ASUS motherboards might not be the best for overcloking, but they will definetely do their job with stock parts. Maximus series is also knows for high quality parts. And integrated sound is also very good. Asus Maximus VIII Formula would be the ultimate choice, but it is £100 more expensive.
Talking about the fans: you will just need to unscrew them and screw back new ones.
You can also check "be quiet"s new case and decide which one you like more (with new one there will be no need in better fans)

 

[ArbitraryUsername]

So I've read all the comments and tried making the build, does this seem alright?
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor (£283.94 @ More Computers)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Shadow Rock 2 51.4 CFM Rifle Bearing CPU Cooler (£34.67 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VIII HERO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£184.34 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£56.99 @ Novatech)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£118.33 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1080 8GB GAMING X 8G Video Card (£639.99 @ BT Shop)
Case: be quiet! Silent Base 800 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£104.09 @ BT Shop)
Power Supply: Corsair RM 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£84.95 @ Amazon UK)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-S12A PWM 120mm Fan (£14.99 @ Ebuyer)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-A14 PWM 82.5 CFM 140mm Fan (£16.98 @ Ebuyer)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-A14 PWM 82.5 CFM 140mm Fan (£16.98 @ Ebuyer)
Total: £1556.25
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-07 04:45 BST+0100

I decided on the Noctua fans as they seem to be best and the case should have 2 140mm front and 1 120mm back fans. There's also options for extra fans on the side/top/bot (unless if I mis-understood) but I'm assuming these are superfluous. Also need to decide what monitor/s I should be getting. But if there's anything that seems wrong with this build please point that out. Really appreciate all the help thanks a ton!

 

[jmsellars1]

The Shadow Rock 2 is much better than the Shadow Rock LP but much bigger, the shadow rock LP is rated highly because it is good for its size.

Just went for the smaller case because you don't really need any more room than that. A bigger case is fine, it is just personal preference.

For the price, the Corsair RM's aren't great quality. They are tier 3 here meaning they're good enough but you can get far better for that kind of money:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html

The EVGA G2's are tier 1 which is among the best money can buy. The P2's are similar quality and even quieter if you're willing to spend a bit more.

I recommended the Noctuas with that Fractal Design case because it didn't come with many fans and the Fractal Design ones aren't that great but the Be Quiet! fans that come with that case are pretty decent. They are not PWM so you would be relying more on some quality fan control from your motherboard but the high end ASUS boards are usually very good for that anyway.

Hope that helps.

 

[dimagolf9]

Indeed EVGA G2s are better. Check this one: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 650W.
Shadow Rock 2 will easily fir in your case.

Now about monitors.
The first thing you need to decide is to what kind of monitor you wants to choose. Check this video, it will briefly explain the main difference between IPS and TN.
For a triple monitor setup IPS panels are better, but TN panels are much cheaper.
If you are really hardcore FPS gamer you will need both 144hz refresh rate and 1ms response time. If you just enjoy playing games and don't really care about better monitor gaming perfomance you can go for 4-6ms response time monitor. As for the refresh rate in my opinion every modern monitor should be 144hz.
Btw you can always go for like 2k primary monitor and other two with 1080 resolution (of course if you wont be playing in triple monitor settings). 1920x1080 is enough for browser with a lot of tabs opened or such things as MS Excel.

 

[ArbitraryUsername]

So the updated version is this one. I removed the fans, although if you think the changed fans would have some impact then I can add them again. Also then the PSU was changed.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor (£283.94 @ More Computers)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Shadow Rock 2 51.4 CFM Rifle Bearing CPU Cooler (£34.67 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VIII HERO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£174.99 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£62.58 @ Novatech)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£118.33 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1080 8GB GAMING X 8G Video Card (£639.99 @ BT Shop)
Case: be quiet! Silent Base 800 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£104.09 @ BT Shop)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA P2 650W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£98.52)
Total: £1517.11
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-07 15:32 BST+0100

I think for the monitor I'd prefer the IPS monitors as I prefer the good quality. Think a 2K primary monitor and then two 1080 side monitors would be the best option for me. Don't really care that much about getting the 100% gaming performance, thinking more of playing things like Dark Souls 3 than a hardcore FPS game so 1ms response time will probably be unnecessary for me. So any suggestion for a setup like that would be great, not really sure where I'd go to find that.

Also, the build as is now seems solid now, right?

 

[jmsellars1]

Looks very good, make sure to connect all your fans to the motherboard rather than PSU and set all fan profiles in BIOS to silent and this should be extremely quiet.

 

[dimagolf9]

Build is perfect, but if you are going to add another GPU for SLI you should take 750w. But with this build you should be good for next ~3 years.

As a primary monitor those two might be good:
Asus MG279Q - IPS, 144hz, 4ms, 27", ~£470
Acer XF270HU - IPS, 144hz, 1ms, 27", ~£460
Secondary monitors:
Asus VC239H - IPS, 60hz, 4ms, 23", ~£120
AOC E2476VWM6 - TN, 60hz, 1ms, 23.6", ~£100

 

[ArbitraryUsername]

Jmsellars1 so if I connect the fans to the motherboard and put it on silent, when I play something taxing on the computer, will that taxing part over-ride the silent fan setting (sorry if this is a complete noob question).

Dimagolf9, I very highly doubt I'd be adding another GPU but if I ever did I'd definitely get a 750w PSU in that case. I've been reading about the Asus MG279Q and there seems to be a ton of issues with a lot of lack of quality control like dead pixels and backlight bleed. Although I think I'll be going for the Asus VC239H as it seems really good.

How does it work to pick as the solution/giving feedback type stuff as I'd like to do it for both jmsellars1 and dimagolf9 as you've helped me so much with all this!

 

[jmsellars1]

All the fan profiles will still speed up as much as they need to under load if connected to the board. Here's an example:

- Lets say on the standard profile, they run at 50% speed at anything below 50c, 75% speed from 50-60c and 100% at 60c+

- The silent profile would just change the curve so that for example they run at 30% speed at anything up to 50c, 50% speed at 50-70c and 100% at 70c+.

- It will also have a turbo profile which will do something like run at 50% speed below 40c, 75% from 40-50c and 100% at 50+

These are just examples and the actual numbers are going to vary based on the board and fans. If you connect to the PSU they will all run at 100% all the time.


So either way, if you're getting into the 70-80c territory it is going to run at 100%. The silent profile will just be quieter before that point and if you choose parts which don't create that much heat in the first place and have big heatsinks, it should never get to that point and just stay quiet.

In your case the loudest thing under load is going to be the graphics card and that will still be quiet I think. If not, you can set it to silent mode which lowers the speed slightly to make it quieter.

 

[ArbitraryUsername]

Jmsellars1 that explanation is absolutely perfect, thanks a ton!

 

[blahsaysblah]

With that kind of budget, you really should get the G.SKill Aegis 2x16GB DDR4 2133Mhz kit for $100. While heavy web browsing can be a huge memory hog, i do think you are safe with 2x8GB.

I really suggest searching youtube for some build ideas: SilverStone Sugo SG13B mini-ITX build time lapse instead of going blind. Just search for a case you like.

 

[ArbitraryUsername]

So with the memory then, should I maybe choose a 32GB one? They all seem a lot more expensive than 16GB. Also the one I chose, what's the difference (read, best) of the 2133, 2400, 2666, 3000, etc as from what I understand it's about the speed, but the price difference seems negligible. Which would be best for my build if anyone could weigh in with an opinion. Also, anyone have information about purchasing this build with bitcoins? Thanks a ton!

 

[blahsaysblah]

So with the memory then, should I maybe choose a 32GB one? They all seem a lot more expensive than 16GB. Also the one I chose, what's the difference (read, best) of the 2133, 2400, 2666, 3000, etc as from what I understand it's about the speed, but the price difference seems negligible. Which would be best for my build if anyone could weigh in with an opinion. Also, anyone have information about purchasing this build with bitcoins? Thanks a ton!

If you mean 32GB per stick. No, that's not officially supported. You would need to find out if your motherboard and CPU unofficially support it. Likely that's for the X99/C236 boards. Not Z170.
G.SKILL Aegis 32GB (2 x 16GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2400 (PC4 19200) Intel Z170 Platform / Intel X99 Platform Desktop Memory Model F4-2400C15D-32GIS

As for speed, it's generally never worth it. You will get a small increase in performance, but if its at cost of getting better CPU or GPU,.. not worth it at all. Only thing to watch out for is that your board actually supports the rated speed AND number of sticks at that speed. Some only support higher speeds with only two sticks or one used.

If you have i7k and GTX 1080, than it is the only way to get a bit more performance. Also possibly worth it for your specific case of needing to open 100s of web pages at a time frequently.

edit: In general I'd say check your motherboard's limit for what it can support with 4 sticks. That way you have room to grow and know what the more stable limits for the board are.
edit: And realize you are OC-ing your memory controller. There is nothing stopping you from getting a CPU who's memory controller does not support the higher rates. There is possibility that you wont be able to get full rate validated by MB manufacturer. Likely fine with non-insanely high rates(only supported with 2 or 1 sticks).

 

[madmatt30]

If you want a quiet build then you should go with a fractal design r5 which has quiet preinstalled fans & is internally sound damped.

One of the best made & quietest cases around & not overly expensive at all.

 

[ArbitraryUsername]

Blahsaysblah thanks for that, I think I understand it a bit better now and will probably stick to what I already have, the price here in the UK seems a lot higher than the $100 US as well.

madmatt30 I've changed the case to the fractal design r5 now, thanks!

 

[jmsellars1]

I'd expect the R5 and the Be Quiet case to be similarly quiet, I'd go for whichever you prefer the look of. Personally I really don't like the looks of the Be Quiet one at all but only aethetically, it is just personal preference. The Corsair 400Q is another to consider.