Quiet, budget PC

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simonserenity
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Joined: Mon Dec 07, 2015 1:12 pm

Quiet, budget PC

Post by simonserenity » Thu Dec 10, 2015 12:39 pm

Hello SPCR! It's my first post here (there's a first time for everything, I suppose!) and I was wondering if anyone would be interested in critiquing the PC I'm hoping to build. I got halfway through buying things and then started to worry that I hadn't actually posted here to ask anybody about it!

I'm aiming to spend under £500 (~$600) for everything, and I'm not a gamer so the most intensive thing this will be doing is some CAD. I'm particularly stuck on the case: I was thinking of the NoFan CS-60 (a.k.a. InWin Dragon Slayer) because it's on the SPCR recommended list, but I'm not sure it's the best because this system does have fans in (the CPU cooler and PSU) and I cannot find the motherboard clearance anywhere so I'm not convinced that the bulky Kotetsu heatsink will fit! Any thoughts on whether that is the best case, or if there are better ones for that sort of price?

While we're at it, any other recommendations on the parts that I haven't bought yet?

Thanks in advance to anyone who has a look :)

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor (Purchased For £93.50)
CPU Cooler: Scythe Kotetsu 79.0 CFM CPU Cooler (£22.80 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus B150M-A D3 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (Purchased For £59.85)
Memory: Patriot Signature 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£49.84 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Sandisk Ultra II 480GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Purchased For £79.99)
Case: Inwin Dragon Slayer MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£51.00 @ Quietpc.com)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 360W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply (Purchased For £54.89)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (Purchased For £8.98)
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WN722N 802.11b/g/n USB 2.0 Wi-Fi Adapter (£9.95 @ Amazon UK)
Keyboard: Microsoft Wired Desktop 400 UK Wired Standard Keyboard w/Optical Mouse (£10.29 @ Amazon UK)
Other: Monitor: BenQ VW2245z (Purchased For £59.99)
Total: £501.08

CA_Steve
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Re: Quiet, budget PC

Post by CA_Steve » Thu Dec 10, 2015 1:25 pm

Welcome to SPCR.

Yeah, In-Win and No Fan are vague on the clearances. Looking at the CR-95C in the case, my concern would be cooler height. The CR-95C is 148mm tall, the Kotetsu is 160mm. Hard to tell if there's 12mm+ room to spare in the picture :). You could ask In-Win or No Fan for the clearance details. Or, go with a different case. A nice budget case is the Fractal Design Core 1500.

Or, you could go with a shorter cooler.

I wouldn't have gone with the Asus B150M-A D3 mobo. DDR3 is on legacy status - this is the last generation of CPU that'll use it. So, no moving this RAM over to the next board you want to fill. If you had the RAM on hand, sure use it. Otherwise, I would have opted for the http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-mo ... us B150M C for a budget board.

RAM: regardless of DDR3 or DDR4, don't go with a single stick. You lose the benefit of the dual channel memory controller. Go with 2 x 4GB. Also, look into your CAD software's memory requirements. It may benefit or need 16GB.

simonserenity
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Dec 07, 2015 1:12 pm

Re: Quiet, budget PC

Post by simonserenity » Fri Dec 11, 2015 10:39 am

Hi CA_Steve! Thanks for the reply and the welcome!

You're right, it is a bit difficult to tell but doesn't look likely to fit an extra 12mm, especially given that the CR-95c only fits because of some beveling on the case side..! The Fractal Design Core 1500 looks great though.

Regarding the RAM & motherboard, I'd seen about DDR4 becoming available (this is the first time I've built a PC, I'm still getting up to speed on everything) but hadn't realised that DDR3 would be phased out so soon. Ah well, c'est la vie. Thanks for the heads-up on getting two sticks though, I'll do that.

Perhaps the NoFan CS-60 case really is just designed for using a fanless heatsink (I know it's only SPCR recommended for fanless operation). So my next question is, apart fro the obvious difference in cost, what do you think between a near-fanless operation with a NoFan case and heatsink (the SeaSonic PSU has a fan but allegedly is quiet) and a fan-using setup with a Kotetsu and Design Core 1500 (the motherboard is compatible with the latest beta of speedfan, so could control fan speeds)? Both of them seem feasible, but I've read many things, including here on SPCR, about how it's a bad idea to forego using fans.

Do you (or anyone else) have any thoughts/advice on fanless case & heatsink vs. ventilated case & heatsink in this kind of setup?

CA_Steve
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Re: Quiet, budget PC

Post by CA_Steve » Fri Dec 11, 2015 2:50 pm

I think you are better off with the Core 1500 and Kotetsu. Really, the Kotetsu's fan will be idling/inaudible as your CPU only has a 51W TDP. The PSU will also be running at it's min speed and the fans you can dial down with either Asus' utility or speedfan.

simonserenity
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Re: Quiet, budget PC

Post by simonserenity » Mon Dec 14, 2015 2:09 am

I probably should have guessed that that would be the answer - but thanks! I'll get hold of a Core 1500 and Kotetsu, perhaps in the boxing day sales, and I'll let you know if I manage it!

Thanks for all your help, CA_Steve. :D

CA_Steve
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Re: Quiet, budget PC

Post by CA_Steve » Mon Dec 14, 2015 8:07 am

Have fun :)

SebRad
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Re: Quiet, budget PC

Post by SebRad » Mon Dec 14, 2015 1:50 pm

Hi, not quite the same as your aim but I just built a (very) budget PC for a friend.
Basic motherboard, Pentium G3260, 2x4GB RAM, 240GB SSD and more relevantly Arctic Cooling Alpine 11 pro (£9) and Antec VSK-3000E (£21)

The cooler can be spun down to 500rpm and is very quiet and on the low power CPU even when pushed didn't need to become loud.
The case is fairly nice, thin metal and obviously cheap but nicely made and nicely understated. There is large vent in the side so plenty air gets in for CPU cooling, but noise gets out too. There is front fan mount, given the side vent I think would only benefit a video card.
It has 2x 5.25" bays where a HDD could be suspended but the reused Samsung 500GB was screwed in one of the 2 3.5" bay and surprisingly didn't add much to the sonic signature of the machine. The included 92mm fan is on 3 pin header and was motherboard controlled and could be spun down plenty and seemed smooth enough or up far enough to be a little noise (IIRC) 1600rpm.
There was even a 2.5" bay for the SSD.

I reused a Seasonic S12-II 330w PSU and while it's not the quietest it's not a loud PSU either but it was very much the dominant noise source of the machine. (apart from the DVD Drive...)
On the whole I was very pleased with the machine, it is pleasingly snappy (on simple tasks at least) and pleasantly quiet while being a very budget build.

If anyone is interested I have a few photos and can talk about it a little more.
Regards, Seb

simonserenity
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Dec 07, 2015 1:12 pm

Re: Quiet, budget PC

Post by simonserenity » Tue Dec 15, 2015 8:22 am

Hi SebRad! That's interesting. I was in fact considering a G3260, decided to spend the extra money and call it future-proofing (my budget seems to be slowly creeping up..!). And I can't believe I didn't check SPCR before I bought a Kotetsu CPU cooler just now, the Arctic Cooling Alpine 11 pro looks great, and does very well in this review, too. Darn.

I don't quite understand what you mean by a fan 3-pin header. At a guess, I'd say that 3 pins are needed for speed control (0V, 12V, and control voltage), but I've never done this before so I don't know. Is that what you mean?

The Fractal Core 1500 and Fractal Define R5 are currently battling it out in my head, I might justify the huge extra expense (it would be almost the most expensive component of my machine!) as an investment, both for future builds and for my eardrums, which could probably do with a break as fan noise seems to set off tinnitus.

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