impossible equation?

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samokko
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Jan 03, 2014 9:57 am

impossible equation?

Post by samokko » Fri Jan 03, 2014 11:12 am

Hello gents! Been reading these forums some time now.. now gonna do new build and wanted to jump into these forums.

silent or at least quiet+ mini itx + overclocked gaming pc(small clocking, what comes easy), is it too much to ask?

currently running fractal R2 with very silent setup.. 6x noctu with low rpm and cpu i7-2600 clocked 3.4-> 4.7.. but now wife says that its too big(im talking about the case) :)

now im looking best possible mini itx case + mb + cooling for my purpose.. setup gonna be:
i7-2600k(can be replaced if needed) + gtx 780 + 1x 840 evo ssd.. (no need for 3.5's or 5.25" ) prefer aircooling but i can go also for water. budget is 2.500usd.

-Samo

sorry for the bad english

Abula
Posts: 3662
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:22 pm
Location: Guatemala

Re: impossible equation?

Post by Abula » Fri Jan 03, 2014 1:29 pm

Welcome to SPCR.
i7-2600k(can be replaced if needed) + gtx 780 + 1x 840 evo ssd.. (no need for 3.5's or 5.25" ) prefer aircooling but i can go also for water. budget is 2.500usd.
Solid components and great budget... personally i dont think you need to change your 2600K, specially thinking Haswell runs hotter and going into mini ITX will limit the cooling, the gains in CPU is so little at stock, and overclocking and sustaining good temps on haswell is hard, so i would even prefer your 2600K for mini itx build, and since you own it, much more money you keep on your pockets.

Two of cases i would consider for buildling a gaming mini itx build are Bitfinix Prodigy and Fractal Design Node 304, ill leave you a couple of links on OCN for respective threads that you can see tons of builds to see what suits more what you are looking, [Official] Fractal Design Node 304 Owners Club and [Official] Bitfenix Prodigy & Phenom Owner's Club.

Reviewed by SPCR Fractal Design Node 304 Mini-ITX Case and gotten the editor choice, this would probably be my first choice, you can pack a lot of hardware in it, check xrfx post #1976 he was able to fit a cooler like Phantek PH-TC14PE_BK, and since you dont want 3.5hdds you can fit the ssd on the front (check the pictures), the case is capable. Now in the past there were not that many options for mini itx motherboards like there are on haswell, but if you check the thread on OCN, you will see that one of the most used motherboards for Sandy/Ivy bridge was ASUS P8Z77-I Deluxe, the main reason beside being a good motherboard, is the placement of the CPU socket, in the past there were either right next to the PCIe socket or oposite, but asus centered it more, this allows the use of very wide tower heatsinks on the NODE 304.

Memory, i would probably just go low profile, personally i like a lot Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Low Profile Desktop Memory Model BLS2K8G3D1609ES2LX0, for bieng so low height, this will ensure that you can place a twin tower easily but feel free to go with whatever memory you wish or own.

PSU, try to go with a small one in lenght, as it will help you with fitting a long card like the GTX780, and try it to be modular as there is very limited space for where you will be able to fit cables, try to mantain it on 160mm, power supplies that come to mind if you want something not so expensive SeaSonic SSR-650RM or CORSAIR RM Series RM650, if you want a platinum PSU, look into Seasonic SS-660XP2.

CPU cooler, there are ton of options, almost any cooler will fit, including twin towers, you seem to like noctua from what i can see, so consider Noctua NH-U14S Slim 140mm Tower Cooler, if you wish change the case fans for 1x Noctua NF-A14 PWM + 2x Noctua NF-B9 PWM, get a PWM fan splitter like GELID 1-to-4 4-Pin PWM Computer Case Fan Power Connector Splitter Sleeved Adapter Cable CA-PWM-03 and connect it to the 4 PWM fans and the CPU_FAN, run AI SUITE / FanXpert tunning and let them be controlled by it for quiet setup.

quest_for_silence
Posts: 5275
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:12 am
Location: ITALY

Re: impossible equation?

Post by quest_for_silence » Fri Jan 03, 2014 2:06 pm

samokko wrote:now im looking best possible mini itx case + mb + cooling for my purpose


Probably I would look either to the Fractal Node 304 (as said by Abula), or to the newer Lian-li Q33: at any rate, the latter shouldn't be able to host a regular GTX780.

However, take note that those enclosures are all about 18-20lt (the Prodigy/Phenom are about 30lt), while some mATX case - like the Antec NSK3480 - are about 24-25lt and they may offer virtually no noticeable practical/cooling limitations (with reference to your proposed setup).

samokko
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Jan 03, 2014 9:57 am

Re: impossible equation?

Post by samokko » Mon Jan 06, 2014 10:48 am

Abula wrote:Welcome to SPCR.
i7-2600k(can be replaced if needed) + gtx 780 + 1x 840 evo ssd.. (no need for 3.5's or 5.25" ) prefer aircooling but i can go also for water. budget is 2.500usd.
Solid components and great budget... personally i dont think you need to change your 2600K, specially thinking Haswell runs hotter and going into mini ITX will limit the cooling, the gains in CPU is so little at stock, and overclocking and sustaining good temps on haswell is hard, so i would even prefer your 2600K for mini itx build, and since you own it, much more money you keep on your pockets.

Two of cases i would consider for buildling a gaming mini itx build are Bitfinix Prodigy and Fractal Design Node 304, ill leave you a couple of links on OCN for respective threads that you can see tons of builds to see what suits more what you are looking, [Official] Fractal Design Node 304 Owners Club and [Official] Bitfenix Prodigy & Phenom Owner's Club.

Reviewed by SPCR Fractal Design Node 304 Mini-ITX Case and gotten the editor choice, this would probably be my first choice, you can pack a lot of hardware in it, check xrfx post #1976 he was able to fit a cooler like Phantek PH-TC14PE_BK, and since you dont want 3.5hdds you can fit the ssd on the front (check the pictures), the case is capable. Now in the past there were not that many options for mini itx motherboards like there are on haswell, but if you check the thread on OCN, you will see that one of the most used motherboards for Sandy/Ivy bridge was ASUS P8Z77-I Deluxe, the main reason beside being a good motherboard, is the placement of the CPU socket, in the past there were either right next to the PCIe socket or oposite, but asus centered it more, this allows the use of very wide tower heatsinks on the NODE 304.

Memory, i would probably just go low profile, personally i like a lot Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Low Profile Desktop Memory Model BLS2K8G3D1609ES2LX0, for bieng so low height, this will ensure that you can place a twin tower easily but feel free to go with whatever memory you wish or own.

PSU, try to go with a small one in lenght, as it will help you with fitting a long card like the GTX780, and try it to be modular as there is very limited space for where you will be able to fit cables, try to mantain it on 160mm, power supplies that come to mind if you want something not so expensive SeaSonic SSR-650RM or CORSAIR RM Series RM650, if you want a platinum PSU, look into Seasonic SS-660XP2.

CPU cooler, there are ton of options, almost any cooler will fit, including twin towers, you seem to like noctua from what i can see, so consider Noctua NH-U14S Slim 140mm Tower Cooler, if you wish change the case fans for 1x Noctua NF-A14 PWM + 2x Noctua NF-B9 PWM, get a PWM fan splitter like GELID 1-to-4 4-Pin PWM Computer Case Fan Power Connector Splitter Sleeved Adapter Cable CA-PWM-03 and connect it to the 4 PWM fans and the CPU_FAN, run AI SUITE / FanXpert tunning and let them be controlled by it for quiet setup.
Thanks for the great imput! I just placed order for the node 304+P8Z77-I Deluxe+memory+RM650.. :)
I also took some "PaxMate Plus: Noise ruduction designed for full ATX PC case", any point to use this? (was very cheap)

For the cooling, i took current noctua coolers only becouse the were the most quiet at the time. Are those the best cooling options for the case and processor? and should i also connect cpucooler for the Gelid?

also looking the most silent gtx 770/780, any tips?

-Samo

Abula
Posts: 3662
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:22 pm
Location: Guatemala

Re: impossible equation?

Post by Abula » Wed Jan 08, 2014 5:52 am

samokko wrote:Thanks for the great imput! I just placed order for the node 304+P8Z77-I Deluxe+memory+RM650.. :)
Good components, hope everything works outs.
samokko wrote:I also took some "PaxMate Plus: Noise ruduction designed for full ATX PC case", any point to use this? (was very cheap)
I helps, but the best is to chose quiet components all around, then things like dampening are just the icing on the cake, it doesn't do miracles, like quieting a noisy computer, but they lower a little the resonance of certain noises, but its not a big difference either, personally i don't recommend it as its not that cheap, i prefer user to invest their money into more quiet hardware instead of silencing noisy components.
samokko wrote:For the cooling, i took current noctua coolers only becouse the were the most quiet at the time. Are those the best cooling options for the case and processor? and should i also connect cpucooler for the Gelid?
There are lots of way you can go here,

1) Use the stock fans and use the built in fan controller

2) Use the stock fans and connect them to CHA_FAN header (you will need a 3pin Y splitter, not the gelid i linked). The splitter should have one that reports the RPMS (yellow wire) and two without, connect the one that has the yellow to one of the frontal fans (they start much higher on voltage than the 140 so you need it this way else the two frontal fans wont spin at idle), then connect the other frontal fan and the back fan to the Y splitter and connect the CPU fan to CPU_FAN header, run FanXert and the tuning, let it stablish the lowest RPMs, it will also stablish a graph into how it will ramp the fans depending on the CPU temps, you can change it also by just moving the breakpoints on the graphs.

3) Using pure PWM fans, if you find the stock fans not good enough, and since you liked noctua, then consider going full PWM, with the fans i linked on my previous post, you will also need a PWM fan splitter (gelid or akasa or swiftech lots of brands offer this splitters), and the splitter to the CPU_FAN header, then connect all 4 fans to the splitter and also the molex/sata power to the PSU (this makes it safe to connect so many fans to a header), the run fanXpert2 and let the tuning stablish the lowest rpms of the fans. Here is important to do it at least 3 times, the splitter have also a main reporting cable, try this with all 3 type of fans, and see what works out better for your setup. I can help you more detailed later if this is the way you want to go.

On the CPU cooler, its up to you, check the thread that i linked you on my previous post, you will see tons of builds there with the exact motherboard, so you can get ideas into how each cooler looks, and the temps they are getting. SPCR and forum members usually recommend a couple more than most, Thermalright HR02 Macho and Scythe Mugen 4, both were reviewed by SPCR and got editors choice, and both are the most recommended out of being very good value for the money, they are not the best cooler temp wise, but they cost half of them, so overall its up to you and what you want. The way you are setting up the case/motherboard, it will allow you almost any cooler out there, even twin towers, you have a huge budget, and you like to overclock, so here is up to you into what you feel will work out better. Now if you were going with noctua fans, then i would also invest a little more and go with Noctua NH-U14S as it will play better with the fan control minimums.
samokko wrote:also looking the most silent gtx 770/780, any tips?
I would go with MSI Twin Frozr N Gaming (not lightning or hawk), there are no SPCR reviews, so cant know if they are really super quiet, but they seem to be most quiet of all the aftermarket factory coolers, i'll leave you a couple of reviews for you to read and decided if they are the right for you.

Techpowerup MSI GTX 780 TwinFrozr Gaming 3 GB
Techpowerup MSI GTX 770 TwinFrozr Gaming 2 GB

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