Quiet mATX Linux/Win build

[Saoi]

Hi all, after many years on laptops, I'm back in the hunt for a 'workstation'. I'm using linux; arch/mint on a thinkpad, I cannot decide which I prefer. Going forwards I'm open to windows for some gaming, but linux will be the main use.

Last time I built systems, my office hummed along to the sound of AMD Athlon Thunderbirds ( 2000> ish ). So you could say I'm a little out of touch The dark years since I swapped to a mac pro in 2006, which is now long in the tooth.

All that aside, I'm looking for quiet air to be used for virtualisation, docker, web development during the day and for evening light hearted gaming. I'm not after 4k or SLi, but I am driving a 34" 1440p 21:9. Titles I own but cannot play, Star Citizen, EliteDangerous and I really need to finish halflife2

Storage is not listed below, I have a few SSD and other sata 1.0Tb drives from various nas/thinkpad upgrades. Most of my storage is on freenas hp mini servers with WD reds.

So far I've gotten the following combinations from reading reviews and builds on here.

My basic shopping list so far:
Short list:
CPU: i7 6700
Ram: 2x(2x8Gb) DDR4-2133*
Cooler: Scythe Kotetsu

Very open to suggestions
GPU: 960 | 980 ~ wait**
PSU: Seasonic x series 460w 80+ platinum modular fanless
Case: Rajjintex Styx | TJ08-E | Silverstone PS07W
Mobo:

• ASRock Z170 Extreme4
• ASRock Z170M Pro4s
• MSI B150 Bazooka | Mortar | NightElf

I was toying with a M2 boot device on my thinkpad, which I think edges the ASRock boards. I sued to only buy Asus, but that was also when I used to only use windows.

*Mobo drives ram, msi capped at 2133, asrock boards claiming ,longer life span. In reality, as I recall, upgrade cycles on ram normally came along with new motherboard socket anyway.
**I own a evga GTX660 from a rescue job connected to a i3 which works on a basic level.

Points to query, under linux, fan control. I was looking at the asrock or msi boards with either bios control or a pwm splitter as suggested on here a few times. Is this preferred over a 'bay' fan controller with temp sensors?


That's as far as I got before getting a little tab blind on the options.

Any insight or STOP thoughts, please do shout up. I've also considered going back a generation or 2 for safer linux support, but reading here and there, mostly it seems
to 'work'.

Thank you for reading and helping an old one back into thermal paste hell. Reckon I'll be needing a new tube of that too

[CA_Steve]

Welcome to SPCR.

I had a T-bird - it was my first SPCR-driven build.

Gfx card:

1440p 21:9. Titles I own but cannot play, Star Citizen

That's the resource beast. Need a GTX 980 or better at 1080p unless you set graphics quality to Low. Elite Dangerous could be playable with the existing GTX 660 @ 1080p. Next gen cards are due to announce and possibly release in early June. Should be much higher fps/watt and fps/$. Need to wait for that if you want a pretty and playable game at 1440p.

mobo: You might want to wander the Phoronix forums/reviews for Linux compatibility. Other than that, both MSI and Asrock have decent BIOS level fan controls as does Asus now for many of their boards. You don't need an external fan controller.

Figure out your case preference and then pick the PSU...or vice versa..just to make sure the ventilation is compatible.

[Saoi]

Thanks for the welcome. I've been a long time lurker, reader of articles, but you know don't need a desktop

I don't mind windowed mode, I know immersion is the point of 21:9. There always used to be something just around the corner I wasn't adverse to a 980, it was the silent 4k gamer article and my thinkpad screaming that got me here

I was thinking of smaller cases, space isn't an issue. Was working down from an R5 to others mentioned. PSU wise, modular does seem like a wise choice.

I'd not found Phoronix, more reading Thank you.

[Fire-Flare]

My basic shopping list so far:
Short list:
CPU: i7 6700
Ram: 2x(2x8Gb) DDR4-2133*
Cooler: Scythe Kotetsu

Sounds good to me, I've had great luck with G.Skill brand memory over the last few years.

Very open to suggestions
GPU: 960 | 980 ~ wait**
PSU: Seasonic x series 460w 80+ platinum modular fanless
Case: Rajjintex Styx | TJ08-E | Silverstone PS07W
Mobo:

• ASRock Z170 Extreme4
• ASRock Z170M Pro4s
• MSI B150 Bazooka | Mortar | NightElf

I was toying with a M2 boot device on my thinkpad, which I think edges the ASRock boards. I sued to only buy Asus, but that was also when I used to only use windows.

*Mobo drives ram, msi capped at 2133, asrock boards claiming ,longer life span. In reality, as I recall, upgrade cycles on ram normally came along with new motherboard socket anyway.
**I own a evga GTX660 from a rescue job connected to a i3 which works on a basic level.

I'm using a GTX 980 and it runs nearly every game I have at maximum settings.

I wouldn't use a fanless PSU unless the system was using integrated graphics. Most add-in graphics cards are too power-hungry for a sub 500w PSU.

I believe Samsung's 950 Pro is the best M2 SSD on the market a this time. Its reviews outperform my 4x SATA III SSD RAID array.

According to Nvidia, That GTX 660 will draw 160 watts at full load, you should look for a power supply with at least 500 watts.

Points to query, under linux, fan control. I was looking at the asrock or msi boards with either bios control or a pwm splitter as suggested on here a few times. Is this preferred over a 'bay' fan controller with temp sensors?

A lot of UEFI motherboards have advanced fan control options in the BIOS now. (My last two ASUS boards did anyway)

Some of Asus' Republic of Gamers boards also have temperature probe connectors which can be tied to the BIOS's fan controls. I prefer this method over a bay controller because I'm lazy.

Thank you for reading and helping an old one back into thermal paste hell. Reckon I'll be needing a new tube of that too

I'm in the Arctic Silver 5 camp, despite the fact that some companies have managed to beat it by a degree or two over the last few years.

[Abula]

What case are you planning?

[CA_Steve]

Case: Rajjintex Styx | TJ08-E | Silverstone PS07W

[Saoi]

Thanks for the great input.

Case wise, I was going to recycle a Coolermaster 201 for a retro bonus, plus it's almost old enough to contemplate using my dremel on it. The space it's going in is where the old mac pro sits, so it can be full tower if needs to be. I've read the small sealed case v open airflow article, definitely agree with that and function over form, I look at my monitor not my case. But some are ulgy enough to even scare the dust bunnies.

My case nominees are:

• Styx ~ prefer
• TJ08-E ~ easier [king]
• C600Q ~ bigger
• Air 240 ~ noise
• HAF XB ~ wildcard
• PS07 ~ value for money

Some might pose a tight fit for the long cards from readings on here. 280mm seems a good requirement going forwards.

Tj08-e probably edging ahead of Styx. Because Styx cooling headache, rear in, top exhaust?

Overnight I've been thinking on it, more so the 'graphics' requirement a 980 in *nix is overkill of the greatest magnitude, shame I can't just turn it off. I could, being reasonable , build an older generation quiet workstation using just the onboard intel gphx. Or I could just forget the i7 and do my vm work in the cloud Which just leaves code, photo locally. I like this...

Good point on power! More so as I was thinking on the gaming challenges ahead

On GPU, as a holding card, if vram is the limit, a 960 seems cost effective, mad?

For the M2, I was looking at the NVMe stuff, so Samsung SM95[0|1] 512Gb. That and a local 1Tb is more than enough in the box.

So I'll get myself out of component pickle then get back to quiet!

Ok, revised shopping lists over a brew or two.

[Abula]

Ill give you my own comments, thinking on pure Linux, as it changes to me a lot the choices that i would go for,

TJ08-E ~ easier [king]

To me the best cooling of all, the AP181 is a very capable fan, even at low rpms, the problem to me is undervolting the AP181 to where you want it to be, having the switch to low only drops it to 900rpms, still very loud at this speed, you still need to undervolt it close to 5V. Asus FanXpert is ideal for this, but this is only viable for windows PC, and im unsure if any of the new mobos can undervolt via bios to where i would want it (around 450rpms), MSI on the newer H170 has some issues on the SYS_FANs, at least the MSI H170 gaming that i played around, the options are there like on my MSI Z87GD65, but they dont work the same, in mine i can undervolt the SYS_FAN to 50% on bios and having it dynamically increase as the load goes up, when i try to do this on H170 Gaming, it goes to 12V, that said it can still undervolt on a steady % (meaning it wont increase on load) from what i saw it can be drop off to 40%. Here is a run of an old AP181 that i had on my TJ08-E, where you can see the % and what rpms you get,



In theory should be able to run 60% to achieve close to 400rpms, but do remember not all fans are equal, so in essence there are variations between samples, some might go lower or higher, also in some cases the fans can go lower but do need a higher starting voltage, this is something that i have never tested on the AP181, as i moved toward AP182s that allow a much higher control as its not a switch but a knob, and it really changes the behavior of the fan, you can read more on my Taming the beast, Silverstone AP182, check the second post where you can see MSI bios into what the AP182 can reach.

For the TJ08-E i would pick MSI over AsRock, from what i remember on 3pin voltage control on pure bios, they only had presets, like silent/normal/turbo, where you dont have any control, its just presets, while with MSI you might not be able to do dynamic, but certainly can do steady and still can do the 60%, and hope you get a fan that can reach that low, else 70% or exchange it with AP182 that the MSI mobo will go lower.

PS07 ~ value for money

This is a safer bet for linux, as you can plan on going full PWM, MSI PWM bios fan control remains as good as it was on Z87, meaning you have 12.5% as the minimum and 12.5% increments, giving you the following options 12.5%, 25%, 37.5%, 50%, 67.5%, 75%, 87.5% and 100%, so you practically only need to chose fans that can have a good range of PWM control, and because the MSI B150 (and Z170 Mortar) only have one true PWM fan header (CPU_FAN1), i would pick a CPU fan that has similar PWM control curve, thus allowing you to control all fans with a single header, i recommend using Circotech PWM splitter.

Now for options for the fans on PWM,

CPU
Thermalright TY147A and Noctua NF-P14R - to me are the best PWM fans for CPU coolers. Great range on control and to me good preformance/price and sound.



Case
Here is a tough choice, going full PWM with a good range, Noctua NF-S12A PWM to me have the best PWM range of control and are very quiet at low rpms, Noctua NF-S12B PWM Redux1200 are also a good choice but they do have a PWM design change that makes it different from the A version, sadly im not home for another week and i dont have the curve of them.



If you can wait a week, ill be home on next Saturday and i can upload the NF-S12B 1200PWM Redux and NF-P14R 1500PWM Redux.

On the PS07 with linux in mind, i would probably go with Asrock Z170M Pro4S, in the past (Z87/H87), they had very good Bios fan control, specially on PWM control their 1% increments was the best (on 3pin voltage control headres wasn't that great, its more presets, at least imo), on ATX asrock mobos, they usually had 2 real PWM fan headers, the CPU_FAN1 and CHA_FAN1, weather this is true on newer skylake idk, i would assume but as i said i dont own one to say for sure. But you should research if CHA_FAN1 is true PWM or voltage control, if its like on the ATX mobos, then you will be able to control the case fans with one header (CHA_FAN1) and the CPU fan with another (CPU_FAN1), thus allowing a much easier and flexible setup, you still need the PWM splitter, but this will allow you set up both to whatever you prefer.

[quest_for_silence]

• Air 240 ~ noise

You mean it will be more noisy on average, right?

• PS07 ~ value for money

KL06 should offer a better value.

Because Styx cooling headache, rear in, top exhaust?

With a 970/980, I'd say top intake, no exhaust.
But wait for Pascal, if you're planning to spend a substantial amount of money for a GPU.

Good point on power! More so as I was thinking on the gaming challenges ahead

What? Perhaps are you referring to sub 500W remark by Fire-Flare? In case, take note that a Seasonic 460FL2 is enough for two GTX980.

[Saoi]

Fantastic replies thank you for the graphs and detailed analysis. I can get in the UK at least, the S12A albeit at a 50% premium over the S12B.

If I was going with the i7 K processor, it makes sense to grab a z170 board, sense to me at least. On this, from what I've read so far, the MSI 'mortar' series, whilst having a m2 socket, are not supporting drives. Cannot fault the price point though. Thus triggered the M2 slower to boot due to pci lane init. discovery. They giveth with one hand, taketh with the other.

The cost difference between an i5 6500 and i7 6700k is roughly a year of cloud VM's left on 24/7. So actually running VM's in the cloud is quieter and more cost effective over 24 months. Plus then the removal of the #need to take the Z170 board, win win.

These new bios'es look like I might need the manual
The Asus Z170M has CPU and 2x CHA PWM, looks like a stepped settings though.
The ASRock Pro4s is crossfire, only an issue if I want it to be.

re. the Air 240, I did label it #noise, as I figured it would be more open and prone to more noise escaping. Granted it's open and thus probably means a net lower fan speed requirement. The fans are the only thing I plan on having spinning. UK, top floor office, ambient rarely over 20 and if it is, I'm not working, I'm climbing.

re GPU, The Pascal release is around the corner. I sense one hell of a price tag. I was reading up on DX12 and it's stacking video Ram, but alas, then the balloon bursting moment of it not being backward supported... I was thinking SLi two older cards that have lost most of their new purchase bounty. I'll likely roll with onboard [linux] and if I want to game, plugin the 660 and run on low & windowed till pascal pricing stabilizes. Then wait for the premiums to fall a bit or ebay for some strix cast offs & avoid crossfire motherboards

Is the PS07 still a good call if I was to go crazy and use two gpu cards? Looks quite snug for quiet running

The sub 500w was around Fire-Flare's comment. One of the builds came to 330w on one card. There isn't much of a hike in prices, but granted I don't need 800 or other crazy numbers, unless I opted for a pair of 390's but then I won't be quiet either

This is where I'm up to now.

• I don't intend to run both SSD options presented below. The M2 is a desire, not a need. I'm not fussed about boot time, it's usage that counts, so reading/searching files, photos, code builds etc.. Either is still faster than I can think!
• The radeon card is simply a watt's sink. I'm assuming nvidia pascal won't be more than this Otherwise it's a price drop 980 strix I think. Below runs to 482W which is a bit to close.
• Could shave more $$ and W. off by sticking to i5 non k series and 8 for 16, but ram is cheap.

Now to run all this through the spcr lab posts and forum posts here

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor (£289.96 @ More Computers)
CPU Cooler: Scythe Kotetsu 79.0 CFM CPU Cooler (£28.18 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus Z170M-PLUS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£106.17 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£63.59 @ More Computers)
Storage: Samsung 950 PRO 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (£245.99 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£233.13 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 390X 8GB Video Card (£348.30 @ More Computers)
Case: Silverstone PS07B MicroATX Mini Tower Case
Power Supply: Silverstone 500W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular SFX Power Supply (£84.59 @ More Computers)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-S12A PWM 120mm Fan (£14.99 @ Ebuyer)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-S12A PWM 120mm Fan (£14.99 @ Ebuyer)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-S12A PWM 120mm Fan (£14.99 @ Ebuyer)

Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-14 19:33 GMT+0000 ~ http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/jwhgD3

p.s.
is SPCR set with a uk affiliate on amazon?

[CA_Steve]

p.s.
is SPCR set with a uk affiliate on amazon?

Probably not. But, just in case, here's a link to Amazon.co.uk with the SPCR affiliate tag attached.

[Saoi]

Thanks. As I can't get my own affiliate commissions, figure someone better benefit from it

[Abula]

I can get in the UK at least, the S12A albeit at a 50% premium over the S12B.

If you can wait for sataruday, ill upload the S12B 1200PWM graph, the fans are different, specially the PWM design, the A goes lower than the B, weather thats important to you idk, but wait for the weekend ill upload the second graph for you to decide which fan will work better for you. In the mean time i leave you the NF-S12B 700rpm (this is 3pin voltage controlled, very differnt graph over the NF-S12B REDUX 1200PWM, this would be my choice for PS07 with Asus motherboard under windows.... on linux i don't know yet, read below),

If I was going with the i7 K processor, it makes sense to grab a z170 board, sense to me at least. On this, from what I've read so far, the MSI 'mortar' series, whilst having a m2 socket, are not supporting drives. Cannot fault the price point though. Thus triggered the M2 slower to boot due to pci lane init. discovery. They giveth with one hand, take the with the other.

Personally for me Sata III is good enough, i prefer size over sequential speeds, but to each to its own, whatever works for you.

he cost difference between an i5 6500 and i7 6700k is roughly a year of cloud VM's left on 24/7. So actually running VM's in the cloud is quieter and more cost effective over 24 months. Plus then the removal of the #need to take the Z170 board, win win.

I just got a 6500, but i didnt needed the hyperthreading nor i wanted a CPU so hot that i couldn't control the load without going into 90C+, i5 is much cooler but also does less.... but to me was a good trade off cosidering the price and what i plan on doing with it on my test bench. You should decide upon what you will be doing with it.

The Asus Z170M has CPU and 2x CHA PWM, looks like a stepped settings though.

I have an Asus H170 Gaming coming on the weekend, ill be checking
1) Fake PWM headers, is it true they really offering true PWM on all headers or they keep lying to us.
2) Bios fan control, what minimum restrictions does it have
3) Bios fan control tuning, i want to see if it overrides the restrictions, like asus fanxpert.
4) Bios fan control settings, i want to see how much i can tweak the fan curves, this is a big thing for me to return to asus in my next build.
Without knowing the above i don't recommend asus for a LINUX build, give me till Monday ill get you back on all subjects, that's if the things arrive on Friday.

The ASRock Pro4s is crossfire, only an issue if I want it to be.

AsRock and MSI would be my picks for a Linux build with bios fan control, i might buy one of the asrocks depending on how it goes on ASUS, i really want to know what directions are the Bios fan control going in all 3 manufactures (i dislike gigabyte).

Is the PS07 still a good call if I was to go crazy and use two gpu cards? Looks quite snug for quiet running

I wouldnt recommend any micro ATX setup aiming at SLI, it wont be quiet, even at ATX on FT05 with good cooling its hard to get it under control. If you aim at SLI go for FT05, you wont find better for air, if you still want micro atx and sli, watercool it, its going to be tough but now a days there are tons of options, even 180mm rads for TJ08-E, check OCN Silverstone TJ08-E Owners Club for tons of ideas.

[quest_for_silence]

the fans are different, specially the PWM design, the A goes lower than the B

Really? Iirc the Redux PWM goes really low here.

now a days there are tons of options, even 180mm rads for TJ08-E

For a 980ti cooled by sub-800rpm fans a 360mm is the bare minimum IMHO: you have to go with external radiators, prolly with stands (like the MO-RA3, or the passive Cape Cora ones).

[Saoi]

Thank you again for the comprehensive replies.

I'll probably avoid water and dual setups, just lost sight of my true goals, a quiet workstation

I'm not in a rush, duly noted points raised.

M2 is total overkill for my needs! Before SSD was d'rigour I used to use a ram disk. rsync the application code onto it at the start of the day, then off it every couple of minutes. Transformed 'work' laptops where I could get ram ok, but a fast disk... no chance.

So wipe M2 from the slate, I need to eat this month anyway Also puts MSI back on the table, never used one before. Always in the past supermicro, asus or gigabyte with oddities, like fan stopping under load, just what you want.

[quest_for_silence]

Probably due to language barriers, I don't fully get what you already own/ordered and what you need/are looking for.

[Saoi]

Luca,

I've got odds and ends from years ago, if you need IDE cables, I might be your man. SO everything for this is to be newly acquired as I've been using either laptops or my old 06 macpro.

What I was looking for is a quiet workstation running linux to replace a decade of fan screaming laptops, I've had enough of them demanding I back off.

I complicated it by contemplating that I could dual boot to win to play games, rather than buying a console. Thats how I got to sli which is miles off my initial quiet workstation. #ScopeCreep

[quest_for_silence]

I complicated it by contemplating that I could dual boot to win to play games, rather than buying a console. Thats how I got to sli which is miles off my initial quiet workstation. #ScopeCreep

So, don't be dumb, pardon , don't be that indecisive: what do you want to do? You can't go smaller, faster and quieter, all at the same time.

[Saoi]

Hoping to avoid being dumb by not blindly buying component 'deals'. So you're dead right I am being indecisive, juggling desire and budget. Temptation and wants have led me to far from my goal.
I've been out of the components/building game for a long time... so it's a bit like having a drink for the first time in a long time, gosh it's nice... component shopping and catching up is interesting... I'm upgrading from 2x2.66 '06 mac pro & a laptop dual core i5. So I believe a i5 quad 6### will be fine, but for a bit more a i7 67## would definitely be fine... I can't afford both.

I've learnt so much since signing up and reading posts, I knew all fans were not created equal, I've discovered the Scythe cooler, ordered that today regardless via the above affily link.

Goal: What I was looking for is a quiet workstation running linux to replace a decade of fan screaming laptops, I've had enough of them demanding I back off.

I need to maintain a mobile component, so thats my x230, and something quiet for when I'm not out on the road. That's easily solved by an iMac or dell thing...but I knew that wasn't the right path, held off and thus here

So I am hoping to get quieter, smaller and faster, I'll settle for quieter as primary goal! My measures are coming down/up from my dualcore i5 x230 or the ufei32 mac pro's xeon foot warmer.

The advice above on MSI, AsRock and Asus has saved me a huge headache. I would of otherwise bumbled into an asus board, cursed and wished I'd just kept of the components and brought that bog std desktop.

I think I'm nearly there on components, enough to be confident on purchasing major expense items this month at least.

HTH.

[quest_for_silence]

Goal: What I was looking for is a quiet workstation running linux to replace a decade of fan screaming laptops
...snipped...
I think I'm nearly there on components, enough to be confident on purchasing major expense items this month at least.

So, if I didn't get you wrong, you're settled for http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/jwhgD3 ?

With reference to that list and your main goal, those things I personally wouldn't recommend are:

1) pairing the Kotetsu with a Core i7 6700K, particularly if you will overclock
2) picking a Core i7 over a Core i5 if you already don't heavily/profitably exploit more than 4 computing threads
3) pairing such a hot GPU( whether it will come) with a small & closed enclosure like the PS07 (you need intake airflow to feed it)
4) picking that specific SFF Silverstone PSU: it's an average unit, not that quiet if paired with a hot gaming GPU and an oc'ed i7
5) pairing Silverstone SFF PSUs with enclosures having PSU top mounting, as they'd rather more fresh air, particularly when stressed

Hope these notes may help a bit.

[Saoi]

The pcpartpicker list was a starting list to consider and now updated. Excellent feedback like you raised on the psu, for which I had no idea about. It's not mentioned in their marketing

With reference to that list and your main goal, those things I personally wouldn't recommend are:

1) pairing the Kotetsu with a Core i7 6700K, particularly if you will overclock
2) picking a Core i7 over a Core i5 if you already don't heavily/profitably exploit more than 4 computing threads
3) pairing such a hot GPU( whether it will come) with a small & closed enclosure like the PS07 (you need intake airflow to feed it)
4) picking that specific SFF Silverstone PSU: it's an average unit, not that quiet if paired with a hot gaming GPU and an oc'ed i7
5) pairing Silverstone SFF PSUs with enclosures having PSU top mounting, as they'd rather more fresh air, particularly when stressed

I wasn't planning on overclocking/volting anything. Cost wise a non K and therefore no need for a Z170 board saves quite a bit of cash. I do think I'll be fine with an i5 though. The laptop load is normally around 2.5 (hence fans), by time I've booted all docker and supporting apps ( chrome ). Really though i5 or 7 isn't the troublesome item, it's motherboard and psu

re GPU, in that list, it is purely to ring fence a big % of watts. I've not found anything on what pascal cards might draw. I'll end up with the GTX660 initially, then migrate as pascal unfolds. I didn't want to come up too short on psu just in case temptation gets me in the summer . I'm not after silent, but quiet and if I'm gaming, headphones are on... I doubt kde5 will stress any gphx card when the onboard x230 handles it fine

re PSU I was avoiding the totally fanless ones based on past comments. That knocked a few of this list: http://www.silentpcreview.com/Recommended_PSUs A seasonic x-650 is looking good, idle & low draw seems quiet enough on the recordings. Is that ok in a top mounting scenario? Perhaps OTT provided Watts though...

I'm not committed to any one case, the ps07 seemed to be an ok compromise on cost vs reviews and cmts above re the TJ08e. Although I have excluded the air240 because #scythe.

[quest_for_silence]

Really though i5 or 7 isn't the troublesome item

IMO it has to be considered: an i7 may run 10°C hotter than an i5, so faster spinning fan, so more intake flow needed, so more heat dumped into the case/GPU/PSU. Nothing decisive, probably, but nothing negligible too.

it's motherboard and psu

An ASUS/ASRock/MSI with H170/C232/C236 chipset and a 400-500w unit are your next best friends.
About the board, I think you already named some of them: ASRock H170 Pro4s, ASUS H170M Plus are pretty good options; I'd check the online manual and the local pricing of the various ASUS E3M, ASUS H170M-E, MSI C236M-WORKSTATION, ASRock H170M Pro.

re PSU I was avoiding the totally fanless ones based on past comments. That knocked a few of this list: http://www.silentpcreview.com/Recommended_PSUs A seasonic x-650 is looking good, idle & low draw seems quiet enough on the recordings. Is that ok in a top mounting scenario? Perhaps OTT provided Watts though...

I didn't get OTT... A Seasonic is a very nice unit, though it's not what I'd look at first.

Depending of the local pricing and actual GPU I'd look at a be quiet Straight Power E10 400W/Super Flower Golden Silent 430 (for lower powered GPUs, like a GTX 950; the latter is fanless), at a Corsair RM550x/Super Lower Leadex Platinum 550W/be quiet Dark Power Pro P11 550W/Enermax Platimax 500W (for higher powered GPUs, like a 390). All the quoted units are rather ambient temperature resilient.

I'm not committed to any one case, the ps07 seemed to be an ok compromise on cost vs reviews and cmts above re the TJ08e.

The KL06 is more versed to feed an hot card: a 660-like one (per power draw) is borderline for a Styx; where are you going to place the case?

[Saoi]

Thank you for those suggestions. KS06 works with 5mm clearance on the Kotetsu

OTT, apologies, this mean Over The Top, excessive.

[Saoi]

After quite few more cups of tea

Concluded I'm not after overclocking, I am after stable, dependable, quiet, platform for more. 4.0Ghz was tempting to reach for, but not crucial, so no need for the K and Z class kit. I'm opting for the i7 as working on code, watchers, docker, chrome, lightroom and other stuff, whilst I'll not swamp 4 cores, I'll get a little more breathing room for a negligible cost bump and similar thermals if I've made my notes correctly.

So I'd rather put the budget into other things, today or in the autumn So after a lot of add/remove combo's I believe what lies below is a stepping stone back into a pc(linux) workstation. It gets me on the road to quiet, if not "quiet" on day one, and perhaps never silent... The fan charts from above are going to be very helpful.

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Scythe Kotetsu 79.0 CFM CPU Cooler
Motherboard: ASRock H170M Pro4 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 960 4GB Video Card
Case: Silverstone KL06B MicroATX Mini Tower Case
Power Supply: Corsair RMx 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply

I'm planning on running under win10 ( have a 8.1 lic here) to get stable and understand temps/air. Then I'll get linux up on her and do something productive to pay for it .

The 960 is a stop gap, 4gb to cover better look. I'm accepting I'll play, if at all, using a windowed view on an equiv 1080p. Otherwise it's onboard only and minesweeper

Thanks again for your input, advice and pointers. Still open, will not order till next week. The Kotetsu arrived today, lovely.

[quest_for_silence]

Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 960 4GB Video Card

Is it the Strix, isn't it?

Case: Silverstone KL06B MicroATX Mini Tower Case

You might also need 2/3 replacement fans, probably PWM ones along with a splitter, depending on how good the mobo's headers will actually drive the stock ones.

Thanks again for your input, advice and pointers. Still open, will not order till next week. The Kotetsu arrived today, lovely.

You're welcome: enjoy your build and, please, report us!

[Abula]

I'm home for a week or so, here are the graphs between the NF-S12A and NF-S12B, i did two samples because i didn't believe at first the design was different, i thought was a fan that couldn't reach that low, but i order a second one from a different supplier and very similar results, so its the way the fan is, or at least how Asus FanXpert2 reads it,



You can see the lowest and thus the idles are different, the A version can reach close to 200rpms while the B are around 400rpms, this is something to take in account depending on the motherboard and the cooling you will need, most of my builds even though i can drop them to 200rpms, i end up bumping them around 400-500 because there are idle jumps or light load jumps on the current intel cpus, thus increasing the cpu temps for seconds and if you plan the curve from the bottom then you get the fans going up and down practically doing anything, this really doesnt matter, its just my preference into how i tweak my bios fan control, but this is something you have to play with and setup to your liking, weather the 200rpm drop are needed only you can decide, to me they are not, but its nice to have once you balance the setup, you can decide how low you want your fans to run.

Another difference is that the NF-S12B cant be stopped, at least with FanXPert2, you can see the bottom of the table numbers go green, while the NF-S12A can be stopped. Overall this is another thing that might not matter to most, but something to think about, some people like to keep their setups with one or two fans running, like the CPU fan, and have the case fans start above certain temperature, this are all things that you have to decide into how you like your build to run like, and if the components allow what you plan, as i said this is to be done by testing once you build, but its best to plan the fans and the motherboard correctly to do what you want.

I dont own a Kotetsu so im going to use the SPCR Kotetsu review, grabbing the FanXpert graph for the Glidestream on PWM control,



Now, talking specifically into the PS07 (KL06) which uses 120mm fans, and thinking you are going to go with Linux build, and looking into the graph, these are my thoughts,

MSI motherboard
On Micro ATX you will get only one CPU_FAN header, thus only one header to control all PWM fans, so you do need a Circotech PWM Splitter (Molex Powered) or Swiftech 8W-PWM-SPL-ST (Sata Powered). If you check the graph the glidestream is controllable around 28%, but again goes green so it shoudlnt stop, so you can use 25% PWM minimum on the MSI bios, this should net you 565rpms on the CPU header, and on the NF-S12A 1200PWM should be around 400rpms (give or take its an interpolation) and on the NF-S12B Redux 1200PWM should give you around 430rpms (will depend on the sample). Now if you go into the next allowed iteration on the MSI Bios, should be 37.5% PWM, you should get the Scythe Glidestream around 750rpms and the Noctua NF-S12A around 580rpms and the NF-S12B 1200PWM Redux around 540rpms.

AsRock Motherboard
I dont own an AsRock so im not 100% sure, im going by what i seen on the past generations, so take my comments with a grain of salt. On AsRock bios you should be able to go in 1% increments on the CPU_FAN1 header, you still need the Circotech PWM Splitter (Molex Powered) or Swiftech 8W-PWM-SPL-ST (Sata Powered), but you have more flexibility into where you want to go. Now in the past the CHA_FAN1 also was a real PWM header, if this is continue to be true and available on their micro atx motherboards (again take my comments with a grain of salt), then you could control the case fans in CHA_FAN1 header and the CPU fan on the CPU_FAN1 header, this would allow you to go into 200rpms on the NF-S12A fi you wish, and still have the CPUF_AN on 560rpms, or even stop the NF-S12A when its light load, etc. This is something that i really want to test, so im buying a AsRock mobo soon, but will take like a month to get it, so i cant tell you more here, but there are lots of owners here of AsRock, maybe they can chip in to tell how it is on Skylake.

Btw the Asus H170 Gaming arrived, ill be building the test bench setup tomorrow, ill check the bios fan control some to tell you if it can work out on linux, there are lots of comments they upgraded thier bios to have a similar funcitionality to Asus FanXpert software, but until i see i wont comment. Maybe ill drop tomorrow or monday back to let you know how it is.

[quest_for_silence]

Ii did two samples because i didn't believe at first the design was different, i thought was a fan that couldn't reach that low, but i order a second one from a different supplier and very similar results, so its the way the fan is

For some reason, that sounds odd to me (if you'd ever have asked me, I'd have said I recalled the NF-S12B going lower than that): unfortunately I'm not able to verify any of my specimens until next may, so... so far, so good.

[Abula]

Ii did two samples because i didn't believe at first the design was different, i thought was a fan that couldn't reach that low, but i order a second one from a different supplier and very similar results, so its the way the fan is

For some reason, that sounds odd to me (if you'd ever have asked me, I'd have said I recalled the NF-S12B going lower than that): unfortunately I'm not able to verify any of my specimens until next may, so... so far, so good.

I agree with you lucas, and was the main reason i ordered a second fan (first was from amazon the second was from performancepc), they can still be on the same batch and i got extremely unlucky, but im not buying a third fan.

And it seems very weird, the other REDUX PWM run fine, very similar behavior like the Brown/Tan, with the ability to stop and run extremely low on PWM. But idk maybe they did something different on the NF-S12B, seems like Scythe design on the pwm with no stopping, like the glidestream/slipstream, honestly it really doesn't matter much, unless you want to run 200rpms or to run fans stopped until certain temps, as once you are close to 400rpms the fans behave really well, just find it interesting that its the only fan out of the Redux line that has this behavior, i dont have the 80/92mm PWM, but i do have the 140s, here is a run i did on FanXpert2,



Now what i want to test is db vs temperature.... but i need some time to assemble the test bench with the mic, im really interested on testing the Thermalright TY-143A 1300PWM vs Noctua NF-P14R Redux 1500PWM vs Noctua NF-A15 1200PWM, maybe ill include some others.... still considering other brands to see how they behave on the HR22 on the test bench like cryotech, fractal, prolimatech, scythe, etc.

Btw returning to the real subject of this thread, sorry for the hijack but was kinda in line, i open a thread on AsRock to see hows the Skylake bios fan control, and seems they have upped Fan Tastic Bios design, similar to MSI, but also got me intersted on seeing how is the stepping and restrictions,

[Saoi]

Luca,

Sure, the strix, I did miss that out . Seems like a good trade off and a 960 isn't that much in cost and being 4Gb, from reading, will more than cope with my gaming demands on textures in windowed.

I'm prepared for the moment I turn it on and it's not 'quiet'. Accepting that there will be some tweaks and fan/changes/modding. Still figuring out some of the comments and fan plots from Abula. THe AsROCK bios look ok, but not the first time paper and reality have not matched.

Abula,

Thank you for this data. I'm probably in the camp of keeping some airflow going. Although the S12A looks to be better for minimal and smoother increases if the asrock supports smaller % increments, winner. The splitter you suggest isn't in the UK market, not that I found, but similar ones exist, a 4way should suffice, unless CHA is true, then a 2 way for the fronts and hook the exhaust to the cpu...

No problem on the hijack, I think it is inline too It's all good data for anyone following or wondering. Is the Asus H170 a ATX board, was just having a quick google.

Thanks!

[Abula]

Im still finishing the Test bench, but i manage to play with the bios fan control for hour or so.

Asus seem on the right track, the H170 Pro Gaming at first seem like they have listened to all the whining of the users, the bios can switch all the headers from PWM to DC very easily and works really well, even the QFAN Tunning (the FanXpert bios alike) worked really well, not perfect but acceptable, i tested TY143A, Noctua NF-P14R PWM and both were taken down to 300rpms with simply running the Qfan tunning, i also tested the NF-S12B PWM and 3pin, and the PWM was fine around 400rpms idle (what my old testing with fanXpert2 displayed), on the 3pin there was an issue though, the fan can go close 250 rpms under fanXpert2 but with the bios around 400rpms is the least, around 46% was the lowest the bios allowed for it. Overall not bad, not as good as FanXPert, but honestly i would be fine as it was.... but as in my past experiences something always ruins it, i upgraded the bios from 0403 to 0703 and everything works fine, except the QFan Tunning, it does the test correctly, it stablishes the 14% minimum PWM for the NF-P14R PWM, but the values are not sticking on the settings like with 0403, it sets at 60% the minimum for the CPU_FAN, kinda what asus did on Sandy bridge... sad as they have done one of the best bios implementations, probably not as good as AsRock in terms you dont have the flexibility on giving 1% increments (it kinda did if you were above what Qfan tunning stablished as the minimums), but didn't matter much, the QFan Tuning was accurate on 5/6 fans, but this change really put me back to where i wont be considering Asus for my builds again. I'm still going to use it, as this was never meant to be a standard pc but a test bench, so in all fairness the setup is planned to run FanXpert3, even if the bios was perfect, its more to test fans and record the noise, that said, they almost hook me back.

Im going to be testing AsRock two weeks, to what i have read, seems it will be a good fit for me, but i really don't know much about them, so will see.