New to the whole quiet PC business-- build sanity check.

[Morning Song]

Hi! I've been looking into the whole silent/quiet PC business recently, and given that my last (uneducated) attempt several years ago ended in loud tears, i figured i'd try to run this by some experts before i spend money.

My objective is a reasonably compact system that can do some modern gaming. (Want new prince of persia!), and be as quiet as possible. So i'm attempting to go passive

The build i'm looking at is:
CoolerMaster Elite 360 case--I'm in love with the compact layout and front-mounted power supply. Lots of open vents may be a help or a hindrance, but for what it's worth i'm putting plastic mesh air filters on all of them. My sweetie has curly hair, and our cat sheds--both hell on fans.
The case has space for five fans, and i'm not sure exactly how many of them i'll need, but i'm planning of putting Scythe S-Flex fans in all of them. Either low or medium speed (The motherboard i'm looking at has software fan control, so i could slow down the medium speed model). It has two 120mm spaces, one above the processor area, one 120mm to the north of the processor, 2x80mm spaces over the IO ports, and the final 80mm space south of the expanson card area. At the least, i'm going to put a fan in the space above the processor, probably exhaust, since i'm going to be running the system in the laying-down position.

Nexus Value 430 power supply--This looked really, really attractive (The shorter than usual aspect was especially nice given the case layout), and hopefully with enough oomph to power it all.
That failing, i was looking at the SeaSonic S12 Energy Plus SS-550HT--it's the same price, with higher wattage and seems to be pretty well-liked, evnen if it's not quite as quiet and small.

Asus P5Q3 deluxe/WiFi motherboard--This looked like a really attractive setup, with the built-in Wifi, frequency scaling, and software controllable fan headers (1 PWM and 3 analog, with a fourth uncontrollable analog, but the scythe fans seem to be low enough speed and amperage that i could put a splitter or two in there if needed.)

Processor: Either a Core 2 Duo E8500, or a Core 2 Quad Q9550 if i can get away with it. I'm hoping for a pasive CPU heatsink, and i'm not sure if the 95W that the Q9550 puts out would be too much for that.

For passive heatsnks, given the compact case, i'm pretty certain it won't be able to fit the massive 120mm towers, but I was looking at the
Silverstone NT-06e, since it would put the fins at or near the CPU-area vent of the case, so bettter to be exhausted by a fan in that spot .

The motherboard seems to be picky about Ram, so i'm planning on some Patriot DDR-1600, possibly underclocked to 1333.

For hard drive, i'm not at all certain yet. SSDs are exceeding attractive, but a bit too pricey and space-bare for my tastes, so I'll probably go with a 5400RPM HDD.
The SAMSUNG EcoGreen F2 HD103SI 1TB model is my tentative candidate, though i admit to not having yet done serious homework on this matter

And finally, for the videocard, The Gigabyte GV-N96TSL-1GI (a passive cooled GeForce 9600GT), or if i can get away with it, the GV-98TSL-1GI, a 9800GT. There are similarly nice Ati models (such as the HD4770, several passive versions of which seem to be in the works), but i'm planning on a linux dualboot, where ATi is a distant second choice, at best.

I'm going t put my old DVD burner in for an optical drive. It's a Plextor PX-716AL. It's horrendously loud, but i use it seldom enough that it won't bother me too much.
I'm also planning on putting a font bay card reader (Specifcally the Rosewill RCR-IM5001), an old Sound Blaster Audigy (Mainly for its gameport and linux support), and a Hauppauge WinTV-PVR500. None of which make noise, but might make a difference as far as load on the power supply go.

I'm most curious as to what opinions are on the number/speed of fans, and type CPU and graphics cards, but i do welcome any other suggestions and advice that people have to offer. Thank you all in advance for you time!

[MikeC]

Welcome to SPCR!

1) The case is probably the single most important part of a silent PC. The one you've chosen is unknown to SPCR, and its config is odd. Personally, I would not recommend it for someone new to quiet computing. Almost any PC can be silenced; it's just a question of how difficult it is to do so. There are many cases that have obviously better potential for quiet. To understand how better to assess them, try reading Case Basics.

2) Fanless CPU cooling -- don't bother -- unless by fanless you mean not having a fan on the HS but just next to it -- which is not fanless, imo. In any case, a single fan at very low speed can be inaudible yet provide WAY better cooling than no fan. A 65W TDP part is obviously preferable to higher power, and easier to cool quietly -- it can be done, but you want a big heatsink and room for it and clear airflow path in your case.

The rest... lots of details that you'll sort as you keep reading here. Check complete and DIY systems on the main site, DIY systems in the forums, esp. in the gallery.

[psiu]

The Sileo that SPCR just reviewed and found pretty good is on sale at Newegg today--$39.99 with free shipping. Might be a good alternative.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811119192

...okay just read some more and you want to use it as a desktop style. In that case here's yet another Antec NSK2480 recommendation. Comes with Antec 380W power supply, and TBH, it should be plenty quiet enough. Pricier but obviously has the psu included. And you can shop around as well.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811129034

As MikeC said, you don't need to go passive...pick the right components, the right cooling, and some slow fans and your system will be nice and quiet. I think the Ninja Mini fits in the NSK2480.

Hard drive for gaming, I think the 5400 rpm could bite you. The WD Caviar Blue 640GB is on sale again today for under $60 shipped...I've had 2 and both are quiet and fast.

Good luck and welcome to SPCR!

[WilliamMGeorge]

If you want the horsepower of a Q9550 but don't want the extra heat, consider the QXXXXS series processors from Intel. They are 65W just like the dual-cores, but give you the extra horsepower of a quad... for a small price premium, of course. I think the Q9550S is the highest-end option available, but the Q9400S should get you near the same level of performance and put the price back down where the vanilla Q9550 would have been.

[Morning Song]

Thank you all so much for the input!

Rats! And i liked that case. As far as alternatives, i couldn't find any µATX motherboards i really liked (And i'm planning on two PCI cards and one dual-slot videocard, so that would be pretty cramped, and limits my choice in boards), so that other CoolerMaster actually looks pretty good, especially with the sale price.

And by passive, i did mean with a casefan mounted very close to the heatsink, so not actually passive--in the original concept, there was going to be an exhaust fan directly, or very close above the heatsink. I'll be re-investigating heatsinks though, since this case would support a wider choice.

And as far as the QXXXXS series go, word on the street seems to be that the ~$100 price premium isn't worth it, that you can get similar or better results from undervolting the 95W ones, and the 65W ones don't undervolt any better.
I am admittedly leaning more in the dualcore direction, though, as I might be able to undervolt that a little bit, too, and save a few watts.

Thanks again for the input!