Build report: home office with GIGABYTE GA-H170M-D3H
Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2016 4:48 pm
Thanks to quest_for_silence for help here: viewtopic.php?f=23&t=69453
The result has been up and running for a few weeks now.
Parts:
- GIGABYTE GA-H170M-D3H
- Intel Core i5-6500 6MB Skylake Quad-Core 3.2 GHz LGA 1151 65W
- Thermalright HR-01 with TRUE universal BTK adapter
- SAMSUNG 950 PRO M.2 256GB SSD (boot drive)
- CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB)
- Corsair SF600 600W 80Plus Gold
- Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64-bit - OEM
- HITACHI Travelstar 5K500.B 500GB (legacy supplemental drive)
- ASUS DVD-RW
- bequiet 140mm Pure Wings fan
- 2 x scythe slip stream 120mm fan
- ANTEC NSK3480 case
Learned:
- The Thermalright adapter worked well. You need their online installation guide, but everything fit and seems machined precisely.
- I screwed the PSU into a corner of the existing backplate and will eventually get an ATX adapter plate. It does indeed have short and rather stiff cables. I had to widen the slot in the NSK3480 case that's meant for threading SATA cables between upper and lower chambers and use that to route motherboard power cables. Then they fit fine, though if you're one of those people who likes every inch of cable neatly tied, you might not be happy.
- An advantage of using an SFX-size PSU in the NSK3480 case is that you avoid putting the PSU and DVD disk drive butt-to-butt in the upper chamber. The old PC had worked for years, but when I dismantled it I found that the DVD drive's power connector had begun to melt.
- The new system had zero trouble recognizing the SSD and installing Windows to it. In terms of what you have to do after switching the system on, this was by far the easiest build I have ever done. Minimal bios fiddling, no UEFI, no hunting obscure drivers.
- Gigabyte's fan control software is a little clunky, but it works! So I ended up putting three fans in there, which I would never have done in the old days, because most of the time two of them are off. This just gives me backup protection in case I do something CPU-intensive on a hot day. I never hear fans except at startup.
You could argue that silentpcreview's work is largely done, no? When I stumbled across this site back in 2005, making a quiet PC was an elaborate craft project, and you traded away performance. The above build is pretty mainstream, and it's dead quiet from 3' away and drawing 24 watts. (I did suspend the HDD on elastic just for old times' sake.)
The result has been up and running for a few weeks now.
Parts:
- GIGABYTE GA-H170M-D3H
- Intel Core i5-6500 6MB Skylake Quad-Core 3.2 GHz LGA 1151 65W
- Thermalright HR-01 with TRUE universal BTK adapter
- SAMSUNG 950 PRO M.2 256GB SSD (boot drive)
- CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB)
- Corsair SF600 600W 80Plus Gold
- Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64-bit - OEM
- HITACHI Travelstar 5K500.B 500GB (legacy supplemental drive)
- ASUS DVD-RW
- bequiet 140mm Pure Wings fan
- 2 x scythe slip stream 120mm fan
- ANTEC NSK3480 case
Learned:
- The Thermalright adapter worked well. You need their online installation guide, but everything fit and seems machined precisely.
- I screwed the PSU into a corner of the existing backplate and will eventually get an ATX adapter plate. It does indeed have short and rather stiff cables. I had to widen the slot in the NSK3480 case that's meant for threading SATA cables between upper and lower chambers and use that to route motherboard power cables. Then they fit fine, though if you're one of those people who likes every inch of cable neatly tied, you might not be happy.
- An advantage of using an SFX-size PSU in the NSK3480 case is that you avoid putting the PSU and DVD disk drive butt-to-butt in the upper chamber. The old PC had worked for years, but when I dismantled it I found that the DVD drive's power connector had begun to melt.
- The new system had zero trouble recognizing the SSD and installing Windows to it. In terms of what you have to do after switching the system on, this was by far the easiest build I have ever done. Minimal bios fiddling, no UEFI, no hunting obscure drivers.
- Gigabyte's fan control software is a little clunky, but it works! So I ended up putting three fans in there, which I would never have done in the old days, because most of the time two of them are off. This just gives me backup protection in case I do something CPU-intensive on a hot day. I never hear fans except at startup.
You could argue that silentpcreview's work is largely done, no? When I stumbled across this site back in 2005, making a quiet PC was an elaborate craft project, and you traded away performance. The above build is pretty mainstream, and it's dead quiet from 3' away and drawing 24 watts. (I did suspend the HDD on elastic just for old times' sake.)