Cheap, Silent and gaming? Doable? Please have a look at this build

[Grodel]

Hi guys! Thanks for looking!

Iam a gamer... but a gamer that can live with NOT having the fastest computer in the hood. Currently I own a 3 year old iMac 27" which has served me well. But I am also spoiled by the "no noise at all" from it.

So my plan is to build a computer that I can use to play never games (Neverwinter, BF3, Sim City and various Steam games) and at the same time be as silent or close to as my iMac.

I will use my iMac as monitor for my new PC. (And I will use my iMac for everything else but gaming: music, photos, video etc etc.)

So taking those 2 factors in count: gaming/noise, I have a 3rd little factor called price I cant say exactly in dollars what my budget is since hardware prices here in Denmark are a bit higher than when looking at US prices, but Id say from 1000 to 1200 dollars.

So now my proposed build.. please feel free to comment and or make other suggestions, which might improve one or more of my 3 factors

Thank you!

• 
  CPU: i5-3570K 3.4GHz (This seems to be the best overall CPU)
  HDD: Samsung 840 SSD MZ-7TD250 250GB (Is there any other valid option?)
  MB: GigaByte GA-Z77N-Wifi ITX (This is where I really need some input, I want ITX since that will fit in the case I chose, but what about chipset etc. is this the right MB for me? Wifi is not really needed since I have cabling)
  GFX: HIS HD7750 iSilence5 1GB Passive (This is my major compromise, the GFX card, man do they make a lot of noise... but this one is with passice cooler and looking at the charts its not all to bad... but I know it wont compare to the HD7850 or better cards. Will I be able to play with this one?)
  MEM: Kingston HyperX Genesis XMP X2 2x4GB (Does it matter besides price when Iam not O/C?)
  PSU: Be Quiet! 450W System P (I have the 350W in my sons computer and I think it has a great noise lvl)
  CASE: Cooler Master Elite 120 Advanced (I like the look and size of this but havnt seen it in RL. Any suggestions on cases that are small and still fits a full size gfx card?)
  DVD: LiteON iHAS124 (Seems like the cheapest optical drive)
  CPU COOLER: Which one?? HELP! Low noise and able to fit in the case... I guess Ill be starting out with the Intel cooler and see how bad it is.

 

[Tesla6078]

The 3570k is a bit overkill for a 7750. Keep in mind for gaming generally the GPU should cost more than the CPU. So I would recommend getting the new 650ti boost(about 50 dollars more than the 7750) for a GPU and downgrading the CPU (if budget is a concern). For a CPU cooler it depends if your going to be overclocking or not. If you are NOT going to be overclocking a simple 30$ CPU cooler would do just fine.

P.S the stock Intel cooler can get quite loud. If you have any more questions feel free to ask.

 

[Grodel]

Thank you for your input.

My main concern is to keep it quiet. I have been looking at the "noise" factor for GFX cards and have found that the "ASUS ENGTX560 Ti DCII/2DI/1GD5" should be rather quiet althou it comes with 2 fans
Do you know if any of the 650ti cards comes with a similar "low noise" feature?

Looking at the charts its hard to tell which card is better. The 560ti or the 650ti - Which would you chose?

I am on a budget so downgrading the CPU could be an option. And Iam not going to OC at all. (OC would probally not help on the overall noise lvl of the system)
Which CPU would you recommend for the GFX cards?

THANKS!

 

[Grodel]

Arrggg... the possibilites... now I see that the 660 (not TI) card from Gigabyte (GV-N660OC-2GD (2 GB)) is in my price range and is low on the noise chart. Should I go with the 660 over 650ti? The 660 is a bit cheaper than the ASUS 650ti.

 

[Tesla6078]

Arrggg... the possibilites... now I see that the 660 (not TI) card from Gigabyte (GV-N660OC-2GD (2 GB)) is in my price range and is low on the noise chart. Should I go with the 660 over 650ti? The 660 is a bit cheaper than the ASUS 650ti.

Hello again,

I looked over your initial build and was wondering if you really needed a 250GB SSD? A windows operating system takes up only about 20GB and getting a 128GB Samsung 840 Pro SSD would leave plenty of room for other things and save about 100 $. If you need more space than that you could add a 500GB HDD for about 50$ giving a lot of room for games.Your initial CPU + GPU +SSD= about $510

3570k+660( I would recommend this over a 650ti)+128 GB SSD= about $510 or $560 with a HDD

Another option is no SSD and only a HDD. The only real benefit a SSD provides over HDD is start up times for your OS and games, with this freeing up a additional 100$ you could get a 660ti or a 7950 from AMD. Doing this option would slow down start up times, but it would also make you machine better for gaming. So in conclusion if you want fast start ups i would recommend the SSD+660,but if you dont mind waiting a little longer get the HDD+660ti or 7950.