Steve, I went with your original recommendation, a used MSI GTX 1050 Ti off of eBay.

Thanks for everything!

Wonderful recommendations. Thank you!

CA_Steve, wow, that is quite the find (phoronix).

It seems the MSI 1060 comes in 2 variants. One with dual and one with single fans. Wondering what difference this might make with noise...

Thanks to CA_Steve and quest_for_silence I am very pleased to have a nearly silent recording rig for my home studio discussed in this thread: http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=69508 In a nutshell: Remove GPU: SPARKLE Computer NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti, add EVGA SuperNOVA 550G3 GOL...

Yeah, I saw that too...

And so to the question. What memory would you recommend?

Of course you are right, it has to be CPU loading! I had no idea how much crap was running at the same time. I think I am going to have to do a fresh install. The list of running processes is overwhelming.

Monitor: Dell UltraSharp U2312HM 23" Monitor 1920 x 1080 @ 60Hz via DVI

I have no DPC latency issues as reported by DPC Latency Checker V1.4.0.

Update: I installed the crucial MX300 525GB and the Noctua fan as well as a EVGA SuperNOVA 550 G3 whose fan is completely off (it does ramp up occasionally but then turns off again). I am so happy I can't tell you! Thank you for the suggestions. The next issue is tackling the somewhat sluggish monit...

Home country USofA (Long Island, NY)...

Thank you.

Thank you, I will move forward with your suggestions! As to the Crucial SDD, I see that there are different sizes at different price points. Is the 525GB in the sweet spot for price vs size or does that matter? Also, while I'm at it can you recommend a silent (maybe fanless?) PSU that will suite my ...

I think it is a Scythe Big Shuriken. I didn't build this PC but from the looks of it and my research on the internet it looks like it might be. One HDD is in a removable bay which has a power off switch so that takes care of one. I did as you recommended (turn off hard disk after xx mins) and it hel...

Dear beloved silentpcreview forum, Here is what I have: Case: Lian Li PC-V351B-U3 HTPC Desktop Case (Aluminum frame and bezel cube) PS: OCZ600MXSP MB: ASUS P8Z68-M PRO CPU: Intel Core i7-2600 CPU @ 3.40GHz RAM: 2 Patriot 4096MB sticks (8192 Total) DDR3-1333 GPU: SPARKLE Computer NVIDIA GeForce GTX 5...