Windowed mITX cubic gaming build

[lalib]

hello everyone, looking to build a reasonably quiet gaming build using the new gtx 1060 playing at 1080p60pfs. Here's a list of parts I'm looking at so far.

Case: I really like the look of the thermaltake core v1 or any cubic windowed small case. According to some people the included 200mm fan is loud and others say it's quiet, but I'm more than open to replacing either the case with another windowed mITX one or replacing the 200mm fan on front and putting a couple noctua fans in the back.

mobo: wifi, usb-c, and m.2 slot for future storage are features I'd like.

gpu: I know MSI gamer X 1070 runs with fans off up to 60C so I might pick up their version of the 1060 once reviews come out.

Any advice is appreciated!



PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($179.99)
CPU Cooler: Silverstone AR02 56.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($27.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H170N-WIFI Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard ($84.99)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($64.88 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($154.84 @ Amazon)
Case: Thermaltake Core V1 Mini ITX Tower Case ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair RMx 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($83.89 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: BenQ XL2411Z 24.0" 144Hz Monitor ($269.00 @ Amazon)
Keyboard: Logitech G710 Plus Wired Gaming Keyboard ($138.99 @ Amazon)
Mouse: Logitech G700s Wireless Laser Mouse (Purchased For $0.00)
Other: MSI gtx 1060 ($310.00)
Total: $1414.55
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-11 16:40 EDT-0400

[CA_Steve]

Welcome to SPCR.

I'm sure others will comment on case selection..here's some quick comments on some other stuff:

mobo: Gigabyte is the worst of the big 4 for fan control. Consider Asus (best Windows based control also good UEFI fan control), Asrock and MSI (great UEFI fan control).

cooler: there are better coolers...even if you stick with a case with 140mm clearance.

PSU: really good price on the RMx. Grab it while you can.

gfx card: The trend has been for pretty much all the cards to have fan stopped for 2D/light loads. MSI is a good placeholder, expect reviews on the 19th and later.

[ggumdol]

I second all the points made by CA_Steve. As a digression, I would have bought one RMx PSU as a spare one at that price. Grab it instantly.

The rule of thumb nowadays is that it is rather trivial to cool whatever i5 Skylake CPU as long as you go for a not-so-terrible aftermarket cooler and a high-quality PSU rated no less than 450W (The total power consumption in your suggested build will never exceed 300W. Have a look at my HTPC build with 300W PSU in my signature). The challenging part now is to choose a quiet GPU and provide decent airflow for it. In this light, your selection of chassis looks very reasonable. As for the motherboard, I suggest you opt for one of Asus and Asrock motherboards.

My very wild speculation is that GTX 1060 price will rapidly stabilize to the MSRP of $249 due to the existence of competition RX480.

Welcome to SPCR.

I'm sure others will comment on case selection..here's some quick comments on some other stuff:

mobo: Gigabyte is the worst of the big 4 for fan control. Consider Asus (best Windows based control also good UEFI fan control), Asrock and MSI (great UEFI fan control).

cooler: there are better coolers...even if you stick with a case with 140mm clearance.

PSU: really good price on the RMx. Grab it while you can.

gfx card: The trend has been for pretty much all the cards to have fan stopped for 2D/light loads. MSI is a good placeholder, expect reviews on the 19th and later.

[Abula]

I third steve comments.

Not a big fan of thermaltake cases, but if you are into them, go for it. I would suggest Node304 for cube style case, specially since it will allow almost any CPU cooler out there, so you go with big tower and spin down the fan.

On the CPU cooler, limited to 140mm i would go with Noctua NH-U9S.

On the motherboard, i would grab the ASRock H170M-ITX/DL, control the fans with the bios, has 2, so one for the frontal fan and one for the CPU fan. Or if you are into software control, ASUS H170I-PRO/CSM.

Pick the memory after you decide on the mobo, but i would suggest to go as standard height as you can, my suggestion is Crucial 16GB Ballistix Sport DDR4, but check the QVL list for compatibility before committing.

MSI GTX1060 Gaming if its like their predecessors and big bros, will be one of the best pics.

The rest seems solid.

[lalib]

Thanks for all the advice everyone! The rmx550 price was based on a $20 mail in rebate visa card, today was the last day for it so I went ahead and bought it.

For the motherboard looking away from gigabyte and towards half dozen mITX offers from Microcenter (due to their extra $30 off when I buy a cpu/mono) that had: wifi, 3.1 USB-C, and m.2 I'm looking at asrock z170 gaming I know I'm not over clocking, nor do I intend to, but at $119 from Microcenter the price was good.

For RAM there's some fast Kingston hyperfuryX that's low profile for a reasonable price on the QVL for the board I picked.

That Raijintek Styx Red Windowed is a gorgeous case, sadly it only takes a rather short GPU, the 1060 looks to be about 90mm too long!

Also, it turns out that there is more than 140mm clearance for the cpu tower in the core v1, up to 149mm according to people who own it. So I can fit in the 145mm tall Thermalright True Spirit 120M.

Hopefully with the TS 120M cpu tower cooler and the fact that the GPU sits next to the side grill for air I can get some decent cooling going, I might have to toss in a couple noctua 80mm in the back or replace the 200mm fan up front, but I'll probably see where I'm at with heat/noise and move from there. Well, first I have to wait for the card to actually be released heh.

[CA_Steve]

The True Spirit 120M is a decent cooler - the fan can be buzzy... and may need a replacement like the Scythe SY1225DB12M-P.

[quest_for_silence]

The True Spirit 120M is a decent cooler - the fan can be buzzy...

That fan is plainly terrible.

and may need a replacement like the Scythe SY1225DB12M-P.

I am sorry to disagree with out gentle co-forumer ehume (and you too, of course), but no, thanks, no.

Either a SY1225HB12M-P or a SY1225SL12LM-P, or eventually a SY1225HB12MS-RKP if you like that color scheme more.

BTW, on a 1500 bucks boxy build I'd rather a Noctua NH-C14 if available.

[Abula]

Accordming to Thermalright TRUE Spirit 120M, Dimension: L132 mm x W57 mm x H145 mm, and the thermaltake has a 140mm restriction, or maybe im wrong and looking at another model?

[quest_for_silence]

x H145 mm, and the thermaltake has a 140mm restriction

140mm nominally, ~150mm actually.

[lalib]

BTW, on a 1500 bucks boxy build I'd rather a Noctua NH-C14 if available.

Thanks for the info. Does it matter how airflow works in the case for a topdown cpu cooler vs tower cooler pushing air to the rear. Here's an image of the case for reference. If I'm understanding this right, air comes in the front and left (gpu) side with some vents on the right. Exhaust is to the rear. The top is windowed and has no vents. The PSU has it's own intake on the bottom and exhausts in the rear.

[quest_for_silence]

Does it matter how airflow works in the case for a topdown cpu cooler vs tower cooler pushing air to the rear. Here's an image of the case for reference. If I'm understanding this right, air comes in the front and left (gpu) side with some vents on the right. Exhaust is to the rear. The top is windowed and has no vents. The PSU has it's own intake on the bottom and exhausts in the rear.

Yes it matters, and you have to exploit the airflow coming from the huge front fan: on the other hand the C14 has proven to be more efficient at very low airflow, and moreover you picked a very hot motherboard (check the SPCR review), so that board need some active cooling (albeit how it controls 3 pin fans has to be checked twice).

Definitely each option has its own drawbacks, and if you've already stretched your budget, maybe the TR is a more rational choice (particularly because it has to be just a "a reasonably quiet gaming build").

[lalib]

(particularly because it has to be just a "a reasonably quiet gaming build").

yea I'm used to vacuum cleaner sounding computers, so reasonably quiet is my goal. Honestly it's exceeded expectations even with stock case fan, cpu cooler, and gpu. Looking forward to what it won't sound like in the future. heh


got the msi gaming X 1060, its reasonably quiet overall (just 200mm case fan and stock cpu cooler), especially considering I use a mechanical keyboard. The keyboard, even when typing slowly, is louder than the computer. Still waiting on a couple 80mm case fans to come in, and a noctua cpu cooler. Should help with system noise a lot. Gotta get some o-rings for my brown cherry mx keyboard though and learn to not bottom out so much. Mech keyboard is really nice to type on, but super loud.



updated part list

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (Purchased For $179.99)
Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming-ITX/ac Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard (Purchased For $119.99)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (Purchased For $42.99)
Storage: Sandisk Ultra II 960GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Purchased For $167.00)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1060 6GB GAMING X Video Card (Purchased For $299.00)
Case: Thermaltake Core V1 Mini ITX Tower Case (Purchased For $32.99)
Power Supply: Corsair RMx 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (Purchased For $69.99)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($83.89 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: ARCTIC Arctic F8 PWM 31.0 CFM 80mm Fan (Purchased For $6.49) Case Fan: ARCTIC Arctic F8 PWM 31.0 CFM 80mm Fan (Purchased For $6.49)
Monitor: Samsung U24E590D 23.6" 60Hz Monitor (Purchased For $294.99)
Keyboard: Corsair K70 Wired Gaming Keyboard (Purchased For $119.99)
Mouse: Logitech G700s Wireless Laser Mouse (Purchased For $0.00)
Total: $1423.80 Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-19 23:58 EDT-0400

[CA_Steve]

Congrats on your build. Hey - you're the first person here with the MSI card. Care to share some insights? What's the lowest fan rpm you can set it to?

[lalib]

Congrats on your build. Hey - you're the first person here with the MSI card. Care to share some insights? What's the lowest fan rpm you can set it to?

Thanks!

Messing around with MSI Afterburner looks like it won't let me go below 25% which is 625 RPM by default. Of course the fans completely stop below 60C.

Playing around with it further I set it to 21% fan speed = 520sih RPM, fluctuates by about 10RPM, dunno if this is normal. Below 21% it kept turning on and off. Going up to 22% stabilizes at 550 RPM.

Caveats: I've never used MSI afterburner before, nor have I ever messed around with fan settings before. The other fans on the computer are louder than the GPU, so I couldn't tell the difference between off and 550 RPM.

[CA_Steve]

Thanks. I wouldn't read too much in the 10 rpm fluctuation...it may be down into the accuracy/reapeatability of the sensor.

[lalib]

[ (albeit how it controls 3 pin fans has to be checked twice).

I ended up going with the ASrock z170 itx, it's got very easy to use bios fan controls, but sadly no voltage control for 3-pin fans.

My only choice would be to use regulator cables? Or use a different CPU cooler. PWM controls are easy with the mobo, seems a waste not to use it. I'll get a better chance to play around with the settings when a couple more case fans come in (Arctic F8 PWM).

Unfortunately the 200mm case fan is only a 3pin, so it's running at a constant 880 RPM, while not obnoxious, is a constant fan noise I could do without. I couldn't even hear the stock intel cooler over the 200mm fan when running prime95 (59C), although that could be because the temps are fairly low given the 200MM fan. I think these are the kind of cables I'd need to change the voltage on the fan? https://www.amazon.com/Noctua-NA-SRC10- ... B00KG3KELQ The 200mm fan is TT-2030 DC brushless 12V 0.42 amps

After some more testing and running both prime95 and the 4K Furmark benchmark while manually stopping the case fan I had temps below 70 for both CPU and GPU and both fans sounded quiet to me. The 200mm case fan @ 880 RPM is louder than cpu/gpu fan under load. The most significant noise wasn't either the GPU fan or the stock intel fan when stress testing. It was actually the graphics card itself. I'm not sure if this is normal or not. I could hear noise from the GPU, but only when my ear was pointed at the GPU. If I simply turned my head to face the GPU, I couldn't hear it anymore.

The fan noise on the GPU and CPU have exceeded my wildest expectations honestly. I was expecting the stock intel cooler to be loud when under 100% load (though the fan is set to silent mode in bios) but running prime 95 I could only really notice the stock cooler when it went above 1700 RPM (1750 was 24-25 SPL@1m according to spcr). Given that I'm apparently not that sensitive to noise unless its above spcr defined level of quiet, I think I'm going to switch out my CPU with the i5-6600K and try overclocking a bit. Apparently micro center doesn't mind or charge me anything as I just pay the $30 difference in CPU prices.

Much, much, much thanks to the SPCR community for your help!

[Abula]

I ended up going with the ASrock z170 itx, it's got very easy to use bios fan controls, but sadly no voltage control for 3-pin fans.

On my AsRock H170 Pro

1 x CPU Fan Connector (4-pin) (Smart Fan Speed Control)
3 x Chassis Fan Connectors (2 x 4-pin, 1 x 3-pin) (Smart Fan Speed Control)
* CPU_FAN1 and CHA_FAN1 can auto detect if 3-pin or 4-pin

Your AsRock Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming-ITX/ac has

1 x CPU Fan Connector (4-pin) (Smart Fan Speed Control)
2 x Chassis Fan Connectors (4-pin) (Smart Fan Speed Control)

What i don't see is the Auto Detect feature, but you can try, in my case the CPU_FAN is controlling a 3pin voltage DC fan, and its doing fine, try not to go that low, just lower it to 80%, when i started i tried 30% but the fan really only came down to 60%, so it was more my fault, now if the fan remtains at 12V always then the header cant control 3pin dc fans, only 4pin pwm.

[lalib]

the CPU_FAN is controlling a 3pin voltage DC fan, and its doing fine, try not to go that low, just lower it to 80%, when i started i tried 30% but the fan really only came down to 60%, so it was more my fault, now if the fan remtains at 12V always then the header cant control 3pin dc fans, only 4pin pwm.

WOW, The difference in night and day. Thank you so much. Speed fan reports a steady 447 RPM on the 200mm case fan and I can only hear it if I get closer the case.

I plugged my 3pin fan into cpu_fan1 and my cooler fan into cha_fan1 and set both to silent mode. In bios I set cha_fan1 to monitor CPU temp, since that the where the cpu cooler is plugged in. I can just leave things like that yea?

running both prime95 and furmark 4k preset I can barely hear anything. 200mm @ 566 RPM, stock cooler @ 1819 RPM, msi 1060 @ 1130 RPM gpu is running at stock settings, didn't even mess with the fan curve.

67C on CPU and 67C on GPU after 30 min of prime95 and furmark 4K, temps briefly hit 71, but otherwise steady around 67.

[Abula]

I plugged my 3pin fan into cpu_fan1 and my cooler fan into cha_fan1 and set both to silent mode. In bios I set cha_fan1 to monitor CPU temp, since that the where the cpu cooler is plugged in. I can just leave things like that yea?

Yup you can leave it like that, really dont matter which is which, I have both of my 3pin fans to CPU_FAN and CHA_FAN1, mainly because this are the two that can control 3pin fans, and my CPU fan is connected to the CHA_FAN2 because its only PWM, and all works fine, all of them i have them set to CPU temp.

I think your setup end up pretty good, enjoy.

[quest_for_silence]

Still waiting on a couple 80mm case fans to come in, and a noctua cpu cooler. Should help with system noise a lot.

Which cooler? The NH-C14 has 3 pin fans, the NH-C14S and all the others has 4 pin PWM ones.

To manage 3 pin fans with your board you might even look to an internal USB fan controller like the Aquacomputer Aquaero 5LT, voltage adapters like the quoted NY-SRC10 may work but YMMV and it's a lot less flexible setup (if that matters): please take note to not overload the mobo headers, given the rather robut 0.42A rating of your front fan it's something to keep under eye, in case.

With reference to the mobo cha_fan header, whether the overall current draw of all the PWM fans exceeded 0.5A, I would use a PWM splitter too (for instance like this one).

[lalib]

I ended up getting the noctua U9S. I liked the small profile, so it isn't going to bump against anything, and noctua says it's fine for mild over clocking skylake CPUs.

I didn't want to deal with the 3-pin fans of the NH-14 and by my measurements it would have bumped into the rear case fans. The new NH-14S I really liked due to the offset design and it's low profile when mounting the fan below, but at $90, the price was a bit too much for me. Especially since I don't seem to notice the stock Intel cooler noise. I think for me I just needed a solid small cooler.

As for mobo headers, thanks for letting me know. I'll double check the limits on the mobo, but I have 3 headers for 4 fans. The two 80mm Daisy chain together by design according to Arctic, but I'll double check the numbers.

I'm started to get addicted to quiet computing. My fridge hums at about the same volume as my computer when I play overwatch and the crickets outside are louder than both!

[Abula]

I'm started to get addicted to quiet computing. My fridge hums at about the same volume as my computer when I play overwatch and the crickets outside are louder than both!

Thats the downside of SPCR, once you quiet down your PC other noises that you didnt notice start to appear. I also used to have a small fridge near me.... no longer he is operating due to noise.

Building a PC is relatively easy, but building a good performing an quiet is where is at, yesterday i help an old friend build a $7000 PC, with 10 core, AIO coolers, Intel PCIe SSD, twin samsung 850Pro, 64gb ddr4, twin EVGA GTX1080, and his choice of fans were not bad, not great, Nexus 120 transparent, but he has no intentions to run them below 100%, when it boot it up, the PC simply was like AC niosy, i was sad, because he has a Asus FanXpert4 mobo that could manage everything for him on a touch of a button, but simply for him in his mind, having noise means he pc is getting great cooling and enjoys the noise, different strokes for everybody.

[ggumdol]

Noctua U9S seems to be a sensible choice for a Skylake i5 CPU. I like Noctua coolers because their mounting system is very sturdy and fastens the heatsink properly, not to mention their quality fans. I tend to recommend Scythe Big Shuriken 2 for budget-oriented builds but their "acrobatic" mounting system makes me slightly nervous.

I ended up getting the noctua U9S. I liked the small profile, so it isn't going to bump against anything, and noctua says it's fine for mild over clocking skylake CPUs.

Welcome to the club of quiet computing addicts!
In all fairness, it's a relatively economical hobby, as compared with other hobbies.

I'm started to get addicted to quiet computing. My fridge hums at about the same volume as my computer when I play overwatch and the crickets outside are louder than both!