Hi,
The amount of noise generated by my previous systems has always been a major factor for me but i've never been in a position to do much about it! Finally, I now have the time and resources to build my own PC with a focus on performance and silence.
I have planned out the following build with a view to top end 1440p / 144hz gaming on Ultra but operating as cool as possible and at as close to silent as I can manage.
Any and all critique is very much welcome.
One thing of note: Please don't sacrifice performance for price, I absolutely want to maximise this build for gaming performance/ cooling and quiet operation. My budget maxes out around £2100 including the windows key but sub £2000 is preferable!
I'd also like advice on the best case/ case fans and cooler for this configuration ( I have not included them intentionally.)
I'm happy with ugly (subjective) Noctua fans too, as long as the case is enclosed although i'm open to windowed cases with be quiet or other black fans to show off the goods as it where!
Any opinions on the PSU and GPU are also welcome!
I'm in the UK so I have easy access to all traditional brands and Be Quiet etc from the continent.
Here is my build:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel - Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£306.00 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus - STRIX Z270F ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£156.80 @ Alza)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£135.50 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Crucial - MX300 1.1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£239.99 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Asus - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB STRIX GAMING Video Card (£779.94 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: Corsair - 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£117.60 @ Aria PC)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Pro Full - USB 32/64-bit (£89.00 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1824.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-07-25 22:08 BST+0100
New Silent High End Gaming Build (7700k/1080ti) - Help Pls!
Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee
Re: New Silent High End Gaming Build (7700k/1080ti) - Help P
Your list looks fine.
For a case the Fractal Design R5 is an obvious choice. Aria PC, Manchester (already on your list) seem to be one of the cheapest on these currently, £84 for the Black version non-windowed and £87.36 for the Black Windowed version.
For an air cooler I would suggest either the Noctua NH-U14S at £54.98 or the Noctua NH-D15 for £79.99, both from Scan.
Case fans, try using the Fractal Design fans that come with the case first. You could consider moving the exhaust fan that comes with the case to the front to give two frontal fans. For a replacement rear exhaust fan the Noctua Redux P14S 1200 PWM at £13.99 from Scan is an obvious candidate. It might be worth considering fitting a top rear exhaust fan as well, again the Noctua Redux P14S will do fine. If you want to spend more, there is the Noctua NF-A14 at £18.98 from Scan. Bear in mind that with the Redux you just get the fan, with the A14 you get the full set of accessories including soft fan mounts, a PWM extension cable and a PWM Y cable.
To get the lowest speeds from the fans try using the Optimize setting in the BIOS which will set all fans to the lowest speeds possible. This will include the CPU fan. It may be worth exploring the motherboard manual to see what options there are to control the fan; normal practice would probably be to select Manual rather than one of the BIOS fan profiles and then create a fan profile to suit your particular needs. I think your graphics card can control PWM case fans as well (ASUS FanConnect II ). Again something to investigate.
For a case the Fractal Design R5 is an obvious choice. Aria PC, Manchester (already on your list) seem to be one of the cheapest on these currently, £84 for the Black version non-windowed and £87.36 for the Black Windowed version.
For an air cooler I would suggest either the Noctua NH-U14S at £54.98 or the Noctua NH-D15 for £79.99, both from Scan.
Case fans, try using the Fractal Design fans that come with the case first. You could consider moving the exhaust fan that comes with the case to the front to give two frontal fans. For a replacement rear exhaust fan the Noctua Redux P14S 1200 PWM at £13.99 from Scan is an obvious candidate. It might be worth considering fitting a top rear exhaust fan as well, again the Noctua Redux P14S will do fine. If you want to spend more, there is the Noctua NF-A14 at £18.98 from Scan. Bear in mind that with the Redux you just get the fan, with the A14 you get the full set of accessories including soft fan mounts, a PWM extension cable and a PWM Y cable.
To get the lowest speeds from the fans try using the Optimize setting in the BIOS which will set all fans to the lowest speeds possible. This will include the CPU fan. It may be worth exploring the motherboard manual to see what options there are to control the fan; normal practice would probably be to select Manual rather than one of the BIOS fan profiles and then create a fan profile to suit your particular needs. I think your graphics card can control PWM case fans as well (ASUS FanConnect II ). Again something to investigate.
Re: New Silent High End Gaming Build (7700k/1080ti) - Help P
Thanks for the reply, really appreciate it.
The GPU can indeed control case fans, it has two PWM connectors.
With this in mind which fans would you suggest hooking up to it? I was thinking one front fan, the bottom probably and one exhaust, probably the rear rather than the top so the CPU can control air being pulled from.the too of the rad.
I have been considering switching the PSU to a Corsair rm750i which from my research appears to be one of the quietest PSUs available. It's also digital and has Corsair connect which (according to a friend) is very useful for profiling your fan setup and controlling speeds etc?
With the case you've suggested, is the windowed version still considered as quiet enough?
The GPU can indeed control case fans, it has two PWM connectors.
With this in mind which fans would you suggest hooking up to it? I was thinking one front fan, the bottom probably and one exhaust, probably the rear rather than the top so the CPU can control air being pulled from.the too of the rad.
I have been considering switching the PSU to a Corsair rm750i which from my research appears to be one of the quietest PSUs available. It's also digital and has Corsair connect which (according to a friend) is very useful for profiling your fan setup and controlling speeds etc?
With the case you've suggested, is the windowed version still considered as quiet enough?
Re: New Silent High End Gaming Build (7700k/1080ti) - Help P
Seems reasonable, but once the system is complete it will be easier to establish what actually is the best configuration.Vimmatron wrote:I was thinking one front fan, the bottom probably and one exhaust...
Using the Corsair software with one of the Commander units enables an integrated system that controls all fans in the system. It is an alternative to motherboard control. The Commander units only work with PWM fans. So if you go this route it would make sense to replace the Fractal Design fans with PWM units.Vimmatron wrote:...Corsair connect which (according to a friend) is very useful for profiling your fan setup and controlling speeds etc?
No idea, I don't see any reason why the windowed version would be significantly noisier.Vimmatron wrote:With the case you've suggested, is the windowed version still considered as quiet enough?
Re: New Silent High End Gaming Build (7700k/1080ti) - Help P
Even if you don't put a fan at the top, just removing the top center panel and letting it be a vent cools my system nicely. With some tweaking of the fan settings NONE of them run at all unless I am gaming. Even then they are barely audible (and I am a VERY picky/noise sensitive person!)