advice on a new build

[trogerarc]

Hello

I'd like to build a new system for office work. It will be used in relatively quite office, therefore I want to minimize its noise level. There is some permanent traffic noise from outside and the air conditioning is running in summer months, so the PC doen't need to work completely silent.

What do you think of this shopping cart?

Gigabyte GA-B85M-D3H-A
Intel Core i5-4460
Kingston 8GB DDR3 1600MHz HyperX Fury (KIT)
Samsung 850 EVO Basic 2.5" 250GB SATA3
Super Flower 350W
Cooler Master Silencio 550
Scythe Mugen 4 SCMG-4000

Thanks in advance!

[Tzeb]

Do you want this 350W psu?
http://www.silentpcreview.com/Super_Flo ... n_350W_PSU

As you will not have a GPU and no spinning hard drive, keeping this pc dead silent will be a joke.

Remove or don't connect the front fan. Keep the rear fan on silent or some custom bios % (300-400-500 RPM).

The fan on the Mugen should spin at ~ the same speed as the rear fan - 300-400-500 RPM.

Get a modern PSU that keeeps the fan off when the load is under 150-200W, or something better than that Super Flower Golden Green 350W PSU with 14.5 dBA@1m at all loads.

With the right psu and 3 minutes of fans tuning, this build should mke the same noise if turned on or off!

[CA_Steve]

What kind of office work? Just email, web, MS Office suite kind of stuff? If so, go with a Skylake i3. Newer platform, lower power use at idle and load, easy to cool, better graphics. The system with just an SSD will idle in the 20-25W range and maybe pull 75W with heavy load.

i3-6100 (3.7GHz) 51W $117
Scythe Kotetsu $40
2x4GB DDR4-2133 $40-50
Asus/Asrock/MSI B150 chipset uATX or mITX mobo for decent BIOS level fan control $60-100


Do you want/need an ATX midtower sized case?

You could drop down to mITX or NUC type form factor.

[trogerarc]

Above the normal office work you described I use translation memory software, scroll through big PDF files with graphics, quite often I have to deal with construction drawings and calculation sheets. Because of permanent multitasking I wanted to choose i5 with bigger cache. At home I have this build:

Asrock H97M PRO4 * Fractal Design Define R4 * Seasonic 650W SS-X650 * Intel Core i5-4590 * Scythe Mugen 4 PCGH * Kingston 2x8GB DDR3 1600MHz HyperX Fury Black * Samsung 250GB EVO MZ-7TE250BW SSD * Western Digital 3TB 64MB SATA3 WD30EFRX * Eizo Foris FS2333

I am fully satisfied with, the only problem is I have to share it with my wife who does even more photo editing that's why I'm currently trying to get a new system. Do you think the i3 Skylake would could handle the job as fast I wouldn't recognize any speed differences?

Regarding the case, what about a Fractal Design Core 500? And which mobo then (~$70)?

[CA_Steve]

Heck, I was about to suggest you could use a Pentium With the additional tasks, yeah, I think the i3 would do fine. If you did 3D modeling/rendering as part of the construction drawing, then an i5 might be the better way to go.

For grins, you might load up the existing Haswell system with your typical tasks (especially the drawings and pdfs) and take a look in the Task Manager at the physical RAM used to make sure you are below 8GB before you fill the only two mITX slots with 2x4GB RAM.

Sure, the Core 500 would work.

Oddly enough, mITX boards are pricier than the uATX ones...I guess it's more appropriate to say the mfgrs didn't make many less featured/lower priced mITX boards. What are you using for monitor(s)/ what connectors? That'll limit the mobo selection.

[ggumdol]

Above the normal office work you described I use translation memory software, scroll through big PDF files with graphics, quite often I have to deal with construction drawings and calculation sheets. Because of permanent multitasking I wanted to choose i5 with bigger cache.

I was once convinced enough to go for an i3 Haswell for one of my family members but I belatedly realized that there are noticeable, if not substantial, performance differences between i3 and i5 CPUs, partly due to plenty of background threads in Windows 10 such as update, indexing, windows defender, and etcetra. Unless you plan to use it purely for MS office programs, I think it might be more wise to go with a decent i5. Performance aspect aside, you can usually sell i5 at a relatively higher price in second-hand markets (?) because there are much higher demands for i5 CPUs. Also, I think it is quite worth considering future-proof aspects of your new rig. Unlike graphics cards which you do not intend to buy at the present time, you are well expected to be able to use your CPU for quite a long time, e.g., 5 years or even more.

As for motherboards (and the choice between Haswell and Skylake), I recently realized that outdated motherboards are sold at astronomical prices (well, with some exaggeration). The more outdated a motherboard is, the higher price you have to pay for it. This fact could matter if your motherboard happens to be out of order and I think motherboards are one of the most (perhaps THE most) unreliable parts of modern rigs. Thus, I recommend you to opt for Skylake CPU and motherboards if the price difference is not unreasonable.

For your mentioned types of work, I concur with CA_Steve regarding the memory size. I think 8GB DDR3/4 should suffice. However, I think it is worth buying 16GB DDR3/4 for AAA game titles with huge open-worlds which tend to take up more than 8GB or for some well-known memory intensive programs. Unless you plan to play those demanding games or use those programs, I think 8GB is a sensible amount for your needs. The performance gain between 8GB and 16GB does exist but it is literally a tiny amount and can be felt on very rare occassions as far as my experience goes.