Best (near) silent system build bang for the buck

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khelvan

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Feb 27, 2009
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Hi there, I'm looking to put together a silent or near-silent gaming PC. I have all of the peripherals I need (display, controllers, speakers, headset, keyboard) so this will just be the PC itself. I'm more concerned with finding sweet spots for price points than I am a strict budget, as I'm flexible. I'm happy to make some room in the budget for cable management/windowed case lighting as I do enjoy a pretty PC :)

Approximate Purchase Date: I'm ready to order parts right now.

Budget Range: Ideally under $2800, but flexible

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, photo editing, linux gaming

Parts Not Required: Display, keyboard, mouse, flight controller, speakers, headset, big data storage (I have a NAS for this)

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: amazon.com as I have Prime, but I'm open

Country: USA (California)

Parts Preferences: I really like the Fractal Design Define R5 Black Window case, but I'm open, and otherwise I'm brand neutral. I'd give preference to brands that are known to be compatible in linux (probably Ubuntu or SteamOS) as I'd like to try my hand at dual booting

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe

Monitor Resolution: Currently 2560x1440

Additional Comments: Basically I'd like to build the best gaming PC I can for the money that is extremely quiet, looks nice, and won't have to be upgraded next year. I don't need peripherals, I won't (yet) be gaming in 4k, and my network attached storage can handle my data so I only need 500GB (at most) of SSD room.

I'm curious to see at what price point the performance curve starts to give me greatly diminishing returns.

Thanks in advance!
 
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bliq

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That budget is pretty large. The loudest thing in my PC is the GPU fans when gaming. perhaps look into liquid cooling the GPU(s). Keeping the CPU cool quietly isn't really too hard.

research silentpcreview.com
 
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blue_smoke

blue_smoke

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Nov 10, 2013
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Stick to skylake and ddr4
Something like this
i7-6700k - $400
Asus Z170-A - $160
Crucial Ballistix Sport 16gb DDR4 Set - $110
Cooler Master N200 - $50
Cooler Master Seidon 240M - $105
Sli GTX 980 Ti - $1300
EVGA SuperNova 750 G1 - $100
Crucial BX100 256gb ssd - $85
2tb Western Digital Blue Drive - $90
LG WH16NS40 Blue Ray Drive - $50
Sabrent 3.5" Card Reader - $10
9x NF-F12 iPPC Fans - $200

That's going to put you around your suggested range and will be a compact, beast of a computer.
 
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JamesSneed

JamesSneed

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Oct 26, 2009
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The fractal case is a fine choice for a quiet gaming PC.

You will want an Nvidia graphics card due to the lower thermals than AMD i.e. will be able to run the fans slower. On the very high end something like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487142 Two bigger fans mounted to a big heatsink are better than three smaller fans for quieting things down if you are looking around at choices.

For the CPU cooler get something that is overkill so you can run the fan slower like a Noctua NH-D14.

Make sure to get a PSU that can go hybrid and buy much more power than you need so the fan wont spin up hardly ever like(this overkill will waste a tad of efficiency but will be quiet): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151141

Get a motherboard that has lots of fan headers so you can control the case fans in the R5.

You will see a lot marketing but really big fans that spin slower are the ultimate answer as it simply comes down to basic physics.

 
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khelvan

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Hi all, thanks for your responses. Currently, I'm looking at the following, to get the best (near) silent gaming pc possible without spending a fortune.

Case: Fractal Design Define R5
Motherboard: ASUS Z-170A
CPU: Intel I7-6700K
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14
GPU: EVGA GEForce GTX 980 Ti
GPU Cooler: Stock?
RAM: 2x8GB G.Skill Ripjaw V
HDD: Samsung 950 Pro 512GB SSD
PSU: SeaSonic SS-1050XP3
Optical Drive: LG Blu-Ray
Card Reader: Sabrent 75-in-1

Currently that puts me under $2200, which is less than I expected. I wouldn't mind throwing a few extra dollars into making the case/cable management look pretty through sleeves/lighting/etc., since I do like a pretty PC.

Any suggestions on how to improve this build?

Thanks again!
 
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blue_smoke

blue_smoke

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Don't just go with a 512gb ssd. Go with something like a 250gb samsung 850 evo and a 2tb WD Black. You will be much happier with the added storage.
 
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khelvan

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I have a 4 TB NAS device that stores all my data in a RAID array, so I don't need extra storage. I just need enough for the games/applications and potentially for, say, the current set of photos that I'm editing. I'd rather have 512 GB of blazing fast storage and use my NAS for anything large than 256 GB of fast storage and a 2 TB traditional platter HDD.
 
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lodders

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All you need for a quiet PC is to get rid of the fans
For example the fans on my GPU will not go below 30%, so even when not playing games the GPU makes a small background noise.
You can buy PSU with no fan, GPU with no fan. You can even get a CPU cooler called Thor's Hammer which is fanless.
Or you could buy conventional GPU, PSU, then replace the fans with quieter ones.

As for overclocking CPU, and buying overclocked graphic cards, I suggest the opposite. Undervolt your processor and down clock it a bit. Less heat = less noise.
All the high end stuff produces a lot of heat. That is why laptop CPU and GPU are so much less powerful than desktop, they are running slow and low voltage.
 
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