GOAL
Putting together a small form factor PC with high performance for the use of 3D modeling, texturing and limited rendering yet cool and quiet. I don't want bling, I don't want a gaming system or to get high scores on some fancy benchmark. The end result should be stable, powerful, very quiet and easy to transport as I do a bit of traveling and my old P182 weighs about half as much as I do, so time to replace it.
BACKGROUND AND CHALLENGES
I've always built my own boxes. However picking parts has never stretched much further than choosing what seems like high specs at reasonable prices. I decided to go a bit deeper into research this time, particularly because it would be necessary for this kind of build. High performance means heat, small case means less airflow and less efficient fans. I had a feeling this was going to get too hot or too noisy and I wouldn't know until I'd put all the components together to give it a go.
CASE
Trawling silentpcreview.com and HarOCP's forums I assembled a list of cases that are rated high for silence and quality.
Here are some of the choices I had, along with relevant findings, ordered by volume size:
Silverstone SST-SG05 mITX
- 4.8kg
- Absolutely tiny. A real temptation though not a high performance case. Supports max. 9,5 inch gfx cards
- 295x130x348mm
- max 140mm PSU, tiny and horrendously looking.
- 4.9kg, 263x212x393mm
- The first case that may qualify for high performance. The "F" version supports large graphics cards.
- 4.9kg,263x212x393mm
- Supports large video cards (12").
- Two 12" SLI cards possible by removing the HDD cage fan
- PSU mounted above CPU, so huge passive CPU cooler out of the question.
- 3.5kg, 200x360x312mmm
- Doesn't seem to stay cold enough
- Although bigger than the SG02, doesn't seem to have more room for a CPU cooler.
- Overall not too enthusiastic reviews online.
- 4.8kg, 200x360x347mm
- Relatively poorly reviewed
- 8.1kg, 200x350x360mm
- Relatively poorly reviewed
- Not good ventilation for HDDs, drives run hotter
- Is an NSK 3400 w/ PSU...
- Can't hold PSU deeper than 150mm
- 195x370x350
- Same internal layout as the TJ08, but significantly lower price. Doesn't come with PSU or fans.
- Two 3.5" bays
- 6.5kg, 445x139x414
- Well reviewed. Nice looking. Fits a big passive CPU cooler.
- 279x262x373
- Room for 11 inch gfx card
- 5.5kg, 195x378x381
- Well reviewed. I initially was going for this before laying my eyes on even smaller cases.
- 15kg, 210x520x510
- My existing case, for reference.
CPU
Originally I had eyes for nothing but the i7. I came to realize it might pose a heating problem and did research performance. It was quickly apparent that a quad core would easily meet my needs. Reading articles about undervolting 45nm processors got me interested. It seems they're very well suited for this (Intel sells already undervolted versions at high premiums, but in many cases you can do it yourself with a regular processor). This would come in handy if it turned out that even a quad-core would get too hot. I was being careful. I ended up with the Q9400 2.66GHz 1333Mhz.
RAM
I was now firmly back in DDR2 land and started digging for how to maximize performance. RAM timing was only the introductory subject - there's also the matter of matching the sticks with your cpu FSB and making sure the mobo supports both. Honestly I never got to the bottom of this topic. There was so much conflicing information to be found online that I figured the issue would not have a definitive impact on performance. However I understood that it's futile to buy too fast ram. Still, I believe I did. Oh well, I was getting impatient at that point.
2x OCZ Platinum DDR2 PC9200 4GB KIT CL5 - Great reviews, and they glitter like gold. How to refuse?
MOTHERBOARD
A new ASUS board had very recently been released. It was love at first sight. Mostly an mATX version of their Formula board, the ASUS Maximus II GENE looked like seven degrees of win and was an instant purchase.
GFX CARD
Being used primarily for creating 3d assets, my graphics hardware requirements are different than a gamer. First off I needed GeForce. ATI is rarely ideal in a professional environment. Second I needed plenty of RAM. JamieG on the silentpcreview forums recommended the Gigabyte 9800GT Silent Cell 1GB. I had no idea that there was a passively cooled 9800GT. I believe that's the only one in existence. I had spent a lot of time looking at GPU coolers, their installation processes and so on and was getting tired. The silent cell was another insta-purchase. More than adequate performance for my needs and no fan!
PSU
People so far ponder that the choice of a 750W psu is overkill for my needs. I chose the Seasonic M12D Power supply due to its efficiency and noise characteristics at low wattages. It'll never run at 750 in this case.
Some recommendations (all of these highly rated on efficiency, ripple and noise tests):
- M12D also comes in 850W if you're particularly worried about power (don't be)
- Enermax Modu82+ 625W
- Corsair HX 520W/62W - Extremely silent, great stiff cables, 5 year guarantee
- Seasonic S12 Energy Plus 550W - Not as low-noise as some of the reviews claim, but solid indeed
- Antec Signature 650W
- Corsair TX650W
Scythe Shuriken BIG CPU cooler and 3 x Scythe Kama FLEX 80mm case Fans. What to say? The reviews speak clearly; evidently you can't go wrong with these choices. 80mm is the max for the chosen case. I was concerned about that, but it turned out not to be an issue.
STORAGE
WD VelociRaptor® 300GB SATA - System disk. Will hold OS, program file and everything that needs speedy loading. SSD was an option I chose to pass on. They still do not seem mature and reliable enough for my use.
Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB SATA2 - Highly rated performance drive. Chose this over the WD Caviar Black and hitachi deskstar 7k1000.B due to reports of lower noise signature.
QNAP QBack-35S eSATA - External drive case, comes with a one-button backup system that seemingly doesn't work yet with drives larger than 1TB.
Western Digitial Caviar® Green 2TB - Goes in the external case. For backups, archiving and so on. Space inside the SG02 is limited so this will come in handy.
OPTICAL DRIVE
What to say? I ended up with a black Sony NEC Optiarc DVD±RW AD-7243S. It burns at 24x, supports labelflash which sounded like a good idea but is something I'm unlikely to ever make use of, and it's supposedly quiet and cold. A quiet DVD drive... really?
MISC
OCZ Freeze thermal paste - Easy to work with, not electrically conductive, no curing time.
Arctic Silver Arcticlean - Smells nice. What to say? Highly rated
... a whole bunch of cable management stuff, most of which naturally ended up unused.
Koss Porta Pro headphones - When I'm on the run, these high-performing headphones fit my needs. They fold together to take up little space and should they break they're cheap to replace.
Logitech Ultra X - This keyboard has a terrible build quality and frequently breaks. However, it's small, sexy, has laptop keys without the horrible laptop layout, and again should it break it's cheap to replace.
PURHCASE SUMMARY
Silverstone SG02B-F Sugo
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 2.66GHz 1333Mhz 6MB
OCZ Platinum DDR2 PC9200 4GB KIT CL5
ASUS Maximus II GENE, P45, Socket-775
GIGABYTE NVIDIA GEFORCE 9800GT SILENT CELL 1GB DDR3
Seasonic M12D 750W
Scythe Shuriken BIG Quiet CPU Cooler
3 x Scythe Kama FLEX 80mm Case Fan 2000 RPM
Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB SATA2
WD VelociRaptor® 300GB SATA
QNAP QBack-35S USB/eSATA Auto Backup
Western Digitial Caviar® Green 2TB
Sony NEC Optiarc DVD±RW burner AD-7243S
1 x OCZ Freeze thermal paste
Arctic Silver Arcticlean
Koss Porta Pro headphones
Logitech Ultra X Keyboard
OK, on to the fun stuff...