Advice on building quiet PC

[face]

I'm a newbie to the silent PC topic, but I try to catch up quickly! :-) Now I would like to build a quiet PC to replace my noisy one. My main goal is that when I use it only for browsing or watching films (it is about 80% of time) it should be quite silent. Also when I play games it should be bearable. I'm not a heavy gamer, so I don't need anything too powerful, I mainly play with Fifa and Hearthstone :-)

My budget is 500 € at top for it and I realize that I won't be able to build a totally silent machine, but that is not necessary, it just needs to be reasonably silent.

My shop list is the following currently:

• Case: Cooler Master N300 (NSE-300-KKN1)
• Video card: SAPPHIRE R7 250 1GB GDDR5 Ultimate (11215-04-40G)
• Motherboard: ASRock FM2A55M HD+ (mATX) (AMD-FM2+)
• Memory: Kingston DDR-3 4GB /1600 ValueRAM (KVR16N11S8/4)
• CPU: AMD Athlon II X4 740 BOX (sFM2) (AD740XOKHJBOX)
• PSU: Be Quiet! 500W System Power (S7-BN144)

I have the following questions:

• What CPU cooler should I choose? I tried to find a proper one, but I'm not sure that I should choose a big one like the Noctua coolers, it seems a little overkill.
• Is it worth to invest to a passive PSU? It can be pricey compared to my other items and I guess a PSU with a good speed controlled fan can be good too (but maybe not that one above).
• What motherboard should I choose to have a decent fan control? Should I be worried about it or I just need to wire 5V for the fans to slow them down? :-)

Please feel free to criticize anything above and thanks for any advice! :-)

[CA_Steve]

Welcome to SPCR.

I'm reluctant to recommend the Athlon II x4. It's an old processor and slots somewhere between the Intel Pentium G3450 and slowest i3.

Fifa is really light on the gpu. The i3 gfx would provide 48fps at 1080p. Hearthstone also looks very lightweight. Do you game at 1080p?

If you don't think you'll ever go beyond these types of games, you could just get an AMD A8-7600 or A10-7800. Should work fine with the iGP. If you plan to go into more intensive games, then go with a Pentium or i3. It should handle your current games, and if you ever need to add a discrete gfx card, it'll have more CPU horsepower.

PSU: Seasonic G360, Corsair RM450 will be pretty quiet at your loads. The latter is semi-passive and the fan won't spin for most of your loads (depending on gpu choice).

Memory: You could probably get away with 4GB with these lightweight games. You lose a bit of performance with only 1 stick instead of 2.

Case: I'm not very familiar with this case. It looks ok...I don't like side fans. Take a look at the Fractal Core series for some other cheap cases.

cpu cooler: depends on the case, cooler and cpu.

mobo: Asus has great s/w based fan control. MSI and Asrock have good UEFI based fan control.

[Abula]

Welcome to spcr.

I agree with steve, an AMD APU or Intel i3 4330 or 4350 with intel HD4600 could a decent option.

Even though the budget is a little tight, one thing that you should consider is an SSD, specially since you browse a lot, its incredible how it makes the computers so much responsive, given that it will not be meant for strorage, something like Curcial MX100 would be my recommendation.

[quest_for_silence]

Please feel free to criticize anything above and thanks for any advice!

State your location, it will help to advice.

[eXurion]

Hello i've recently built my pc with advice from this forum and im sure you will be very happy with the result machine like i did.

I also play Hearthstone and i can asure you that the hd4600 will be plenty enough.
So i would recomend you to drop the Video Card and get an i3.
I would recomend:

Motherboard - MSI H97M-G43
CPU - Intel Core i3 4330 (3.5GHz) Socket 1150

As for silence i would recomend:
Case - Micro-ATX Cooler Master Silencio 352 - the fans are not great if they run at full speed but on my case i have them both connected to the motherboard and they run at 600-700rpm and they are quiet at those speeds.

Definitely get an SSD Crucial MX100 128GB or 256GB if it can fit your budget.

CPU Cooler - I got the Cooler Master Hyper TX3 Evo it will fit this case for sure without touching the side panel and its cheap and quiet.

As for the PSU i got the Corsair RM550 because its semi-fanless but a bit expensive idk if it will fit your budget.

This will result in very quiet PC I have this case and cpu cooler and i can only hear if when everything is quiet, if a tv is on or you're listening to music you will stop hearing the PC even while gaming the fans won't be noisy at 700 - 800rpm

[face]

Thanks for the tips! I considered what you said and come up with this build:

• Motherboard: ASRock H81M-VG4 (mATX) (Intel s1150)
• CPU: Intel Core i3-4340 3.6GHz BOX (s1150) (BX80646I34340)
• Memory: G.Skill DDR-3 8GB /1600 KIT (F3-1600C11D-8GNS)
• PSU: Corsair RM450 PSU (CP-9020066-EU)
• Case: Fractal Design Arc Midi R2

I droped the video card and get an i3 with more memory (now in kit). I choosed an ASRock mobo, because I will use multiple OS, so I prefer the UEFI fan control.
I also choosed a better case from Fractal Design that I think will be good for smooth air flow and I replaced the PSU with the recommended one.
Later I might get an SSD, currently I'm not thinking about buying disk storage, because I have already that I don't want to replace now.
As I calculate we are at 380-400€, so it fits the budget and there is place for a good CPU cooler which can be up to 180 mm tall thanks to the new case.
What do you think?

[CA_Steve]

The current cooler favorite is the Scythe Kotetsu. Also, take a look at the Asrock H97M and H97M Pro4. A few bucks more for the current chipset and improved UEFI.

[quest_for_silence]

Nothing serious, but that proposed mobo looks like a bit too much cheapish.
About the cooler, a "classic" Scythe Kotetsu would work fine, whether enough cheap there (I have no information about Hungary, from Germany/Austria the minimum price should probably be from Avides, 35,50 euros for the cooler but 15,99 euros for shipping charge).

[Telstar]

The current cooler favorite is the Scythe Kotetsu. Also, take a look at the Asrock H97M and H97M Pro4. A few bucks more for the current chipset and improved UEFI.

I second this advice -why get an old chipset? and look at Gigabyte boards too, they are pretty good in mATX format.

[face]

Sorry for the late reply and thanks for the tips! I choosed the H97M Pro4 board, i guess it will be fine.

So the current state is this:

• Motherboard: ASRock H97M Pro4 (mATX) (Intel s1150)
• CPU: Intel Core i3-4340 3.6GHz BOX (s1150) (BX80646I34340)
• CPU Cooler: Scythe Kotetsu
• Memory: G.Skill DDR-3 8GB /1600 KIT (F3-1600C11D-8GNS)
• PSU: Corsair RM450 PSU (CP-9020066-EU)
• Case: Fractal Design Arc Midi R2

I have two questions about this:

1. I have read that the main source of the noise is from the fans and if we could run them with low RPM, then it can be quiet. So I choosed the Arc Midi R2, because it seems that it allows smooth airflow without too much blocking in the path of the air, but it lacks the noise blocking technics that for example the Fractal Design Define R4 has. What is better, the case that minimize the blocking of the airflow so the fans could run at lower RPM or the one that has noise blocking foams and other noise reduction technics?
2. I would like to manage my fan speeds by the UEFI, but there is limited PWM output on my motherboard plus I read that in the most cases only the CPU PWM output is precise enough to run the fans at low RPM. What is the usual way to handle this problem if we have 3-4 fans to control? Is the Artic PWM Sharing cable is a good solution for that?

[Telstar]

Quiet fans > insulation (you can always buy panels and install them yourself).

3-4 case fans? Do you really need as many? this is a non-overclocked cpu in a modest sized case, the PSU fan, one intake and one exaust are plenty. You may not need to have them PWM or DC controlled if you use for instance the Nexus silent or a low rpm Noctua - you can use a fixed resistor and keep them all the time at 7v or 9v.

Are you using the integrated GPU of your processor? Then I dont see any other heat source within the case.

Check for 1866 ram kits they cost about the same than 1600.

[Pappnaas]

+1 for too many fans

You'll probably get away with:

1 fan on Kotetsu, set to PWM by BIOS
1 exhaust fan, set to fixed voltage, i'd try 9V first
1 PSU fan, controlled by PSU

Seal all side panel openings with black card board, check temps and adjust fan voltage + pwm settings

[CA_Steve]

You don't mention the storage device. If it's an SSD, then, yes, the only noise is the fans. If there is an HDD, then you may hear it.

In your case, the biggest benefit of the R4 over the Arc is the baffled input for the fan air. There's plenty of airflow, but no direct path from the fan to your ears. Also, the R4 has the Moduvent coverings for the unused fan openings and the Arc doesn't. So, more direct noise paths to your ears.

The 140mm fans used by Fractal are pretty quiet, but not silent. I chose to replace them with $12 Antec True Quiets.

Your power use/heat load will be very low. So, you could easily get away with just one exhaust fan. I'd suggest having a front and rear fan, though. Run the front fan at higher rpm than the rear for positive pressure. All the dust will accumulate on the front fan filter rather than inside the case.

Have you considered the Define Mini? You can close off the unused fan openings.

[LongJan]

All the dust will accumulate on the front fan filter

Wish I could find such filters. IME, if they let air in without too much obstruction they also let dust in

[CA_Steve]

Wish I could find such filters. IME, if they let air in without too much obstruction they also let dust in

It works with my R4. Just did a 9 month check.

[LongJan]

I don't have that kind of coarse dust (my computer is not on the floor). My dust is very fine, like a thin layer on everything.
Maybe I can se that sort in your pictures on top of the PSU?

[face]

Thanks, in that case I will buy a silent case (Fractal Design Define Mini looks fine) and I change the fans to a quieter one and I will not bother with multiple fans, because you are probably right about that for such little amout of heat it would be unnecessary.
I take the hint about the memory frequency and change to G.Skill DDR-3 8GB /1866 KIT (F3-14900CL8D-8GBXM).
Has anyone experience with Crucial 240GB SSD M500 (CT240M500SSD1) SSD?

[CA_Steve]

Go for the Crucial MX100, instead. It's newer/faster and may be cheaper.

[CA_Steve]

I don't have that kind of coarse dust (my computer is not on the floor). My dust is very fine, like a thin layer on everything.
Maybe I can se that sort in your pictures on top of the PSU?

I forgot to respond to this earlier....the PSU in my R4 was a 1 year old transplant from my e8400/Antec Solo build. I bet the dust was from there.

[face]

Thanks for the advices, the PC is very silent compared to my last machine!

I changed a few things in the configuration, so here is the current state:

• Motherboard:: ASRock H97M Pro4 (mATX) (Intel s1150)
  CPU: INTEL Core i5-4570 3200MHz 6MB LGA1150 Box
  CPU Cooler: Scythe Kotetsu
  Memory: G.Skill DDR-3 8GB /1600 KIT (F3-1600C11D-8GNS)
  PSU: Corsair RM450 PSU (CP-9020066-EU)
  Case: FRACTAL DESIGN Define Mini

I tried it for gaming and I think I will need a videocard too, the Intel HD Graphics 4600 not seems to be sufficient. Any advice on that? The budget for that would be 150€. The silent idle is the primary objective, I don't need maximum graphics performance, just some magnitude better than the integrated one.
Thanks!

[quest_for_silence]

The budget for that would be 150€. The silent idle is the primary objective

A passive GTX-750Ti (either the Palit KalmX or a modded reference card)

[CA_Steve]

+1 on the Palit KalmX version of the GTX 750 Ti if you plan to get some games that are more demanding than Fifa and Hearthstone in the future. The Zotac GTX 750 Zone is another passive with a less processing power, only 1GB of VRAM and goes for ~120€.