Looking to scratch-build quiet multi-purpose PC - EDIT: now with build

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
A

akilius

Junior Member
Dec 3, 2013
18
0
66
Hi all,

I am new to this forum and also to self-assembly. I am looking to replace my Sony Vaio VPC-EB1S1E with a desktop PC for the following uses:

- 50% photo editing (mainly PS and LR)
- 30% gaming (single-player FPS at high-ish settings, preferably at 1920x1080)
- 20% media center (mostly streaming Netflix)

My Sony has been having issues with the first two points, unsurprisingly, and it was also rather loud. I live in a small apartment and want my PC to be really quiet in order not to disturb my family. I guess that means a sizeable SSD, quality PSU and fans. Watercooling maybe? No intention to overclock.

My budget would be around €1200 - 1300 for the entire build, including OS. I am located in Belgium, so I will have to source from Europe only. Recommendations for reliable online stores with reasonable prices are highly welcome.

I have no useable parts, other than a mouse and headset.

I would prefer an Intel/nVidia build, unless other options are clearly superior/better value for money etc.

I will also need a new display that is suited for the above purposes, with the priority given to photo editing (so likely IPS), and would be very grateful for recommendations. My desk is rather small, so probably 23-24' maximum. Budget: €600-700.

I am hoping to acquire all parts by the end of the year.

EDIT: I have now compiled a possible build based on your advice and would be grateful for comments and possible suggestions on how to improve it:

Case: Fractal Define R4 Titanium - € 90
Mobo: ASRock H87 FATAL1TY Performance Mainboard - € 90
CPU: Intel Core i5 4670 - € 195
Cooling:THERMALRIGHT HR-02 Macho - € 40
Graphics: MSI NVIDIA GeForce N770 TF 2GD5/OC - € 320
RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport 2x8GB - € 125
PSU: Seasonic S12II-520 - € 60
SSD Samsung Serie 840 EVO 250GB - € 150
HDD Western Digital Blue 1TB - € 55
Sound: Asus Xonar DX 7.1 - € 65
Optical: LG BH16NS40 BluRay burner - € 70
OS: Windows 8.1 - € 80

Total: € 1340

Additional questions:
- Do I need the dedicated sound card?
- Do I have enough juice to power this system?

For the display I'm looking at a 24' 1920:1200, e.g. Asus PA248Q (€365) or Eizo EV2436WFS (€420), but still open to suggestions.
transparent-pixel._V386942701_.gif




Many thanks in advance for your help!
 
Last edited:
Cerb

Cerb

Elite Member
Aug 26, 2000
17,484
33
86
Define quiet. The CPU can easily be quietly cooled with an aftermarket heatsink. The GPU will be the main problem, noise-wise if anything is.

Also, any form factor, or case aesthetics, preferences?
 
A

akilius

Junior Member
Dec 3, 2013
18
0
66
Re "quiet" - hard to define, but quieter than my laptop, and as quiet as reasonably possible within the budget limits without neglecting other criteria.

Re case: no real preferences there, clean looks over flashiness if anything. I could probably place it under my desk, so any mid-sized tower would do. I have nothing against smaller cases, but I understand they can be harder to cool.
 
Cerb

Cerb

Elite Member
Aug 26, 2000
17,484
33
86
Well, that were you thinking about for a video card? Your performance reqs are useful, but kind of vague. A GTX 760, maybe?

Also, do you know where you're going to order from?
 
A

akilius

Junior Member
Dec 3, 2013
18
0
66
Cerb said:
Well, that were you thinking about for a video card? Your performance reqs are useful, but kind of vague. A GTX 760, maybe?

Also, do you know where you're going to order from?
Click to expand...

Was thinking a GTX 770 as a possible starting point.

I don't have much experience with buying parts separately, but I would be looking to
Amazon.de
Mindfactory.de
Alternate.de
 
Last edited:
P

piasabird

Lifer
Feb 6, 2002
17,168
60
91
Have no clue about EU computer stores just searching someone tried to give me a virus. Good Luck.

Might try Amazon for parts or they may also have some custom build websites or affiliated stores.

http://www.amazon.de/gp/node/index.html?ie=UTF8&me=AFI826QYOAX6J&node=667359031

"One Computer"? No way to know if this is a good store?

This is an Amazon Site. Looks like they do custom computers. Maybe look for sites like this maybe. You still have to know what kind of Motherboard like MSI, ASUS, GIGABYTE with a good chipset that is best to buy. For Gaming you want an I-5, 8-16gigs of DDR3, Hard Drive of at least 1 gig. In the USA we sometimes are using Solid State Drives to make it faster. I think they had an i5 with no video card for like 539eu. Who knows what shipping is? So you have to figure out how much extra is a video card that you want.

Try some different stores and compare.
Also see if they have a store rating system for online retailers so you know who you are dealing with. Maybe find some local Websites. I think there is a Tom's Hardware site in Germany.

Just look at some i5 builds on this site in the $800-$900 range.
 
Last edited:
Cerb

Cerb

Elite Member
Aug 26, 2000
17,484
33
86
Prices look comparable on a USD to EUR basis--some things more, most just a little less. So...

If a GTX 770, get the 3-slot Asus DirectCU II model.

The Thermalright Macho 120 is available, and is a very nice quiet heatsink.

If case size can be, well, big, check out the Fractal.Design R4. It has baffles, absorbing material, and plenty of mass, to help tackle the unavoidable noise of a stock cooler on a powerful GPU.

Since you don't need any extra features, look at the ASRock B85-Pro4 for a motherboard.

Any >=1600MHz, <=CAS9, <=1.5V rated DDR3 is about as good as any other. Get at least 8GB, though, preferably as a 2-piece kit (2x4GB for 8GB, 2x8GB for 16GB).

PSU prices are a bit odd, in comparison to over here, but aside from not being quite as efficient as the latest and greatest, the Seasonic S12II-520 and 620 look like good values.

Just like over here, the Samsung 840 Evo and Crucial M500 are well-priced, so either one of those, fitting in what's left of your budget, will do very well.

Much the same way, with CPUs, either a i5-4570, i5-4670, or i7-4770, depending on budget.

If you stay with Windows 7, be aware that, if you're a RAM hog, you need Pro to use more than 16GB. Windows 8 home maxes out at 128GB, which should be good for awhile, yet :).

With Windows 8.1 OEM, an i5-4670 CPU, M500 240GB SSD, S12II-620 PSU, and G.Skill Ares 2x4GB RAM kit, I got 1076 EUR raw cart price at Amazon. Since I can't read much of it* :), I'm not sure if that includes any relevant taxes or not, nor what they are if it doesn't. But, depending on that, you can, depending on wants, move to an i7 (some games, and photo editing, may benefit), get a bigger SSD (more stuff w/o slowing down), and/or more RAM (photo editing and/or heavy multitasking). Overall, I would make getting more RAM the lowest priority, because it's so easy to add more of it later on.

* It is interesting, not being able to read it, how easy these sites were to browse, though, due to the similarities of the words and grammar, compared to some other languages.
 
M

Morbus

Senior member
Apr 10, 2009
998
0
0
Gigabyte's Windforce 3X cooling solution is, from my experience, very quiet. It comes with all their 7 series nVidia and their new ATI cards too. I recommend it.
 
A

akilius

Junior Member
Dec 3, 2013
18
0
66
Wow, thanks a ton for your help, guys!

@Cerb: Thanks again, that looks like a very solid build! The prices on amazon.de are including taxes, so I would have &#8364;100-200 left for upgrades. Is it worth it to go with a i7 over the i5 in terms of future-proofing?
 
ShintaiDK

ShintaiDK

Lifer
Apr 22, 2012
20,378
146
106
geizhals.at for EU prices.

More quiet than a laptop will be very hard, unless its a badly designed laptop.

I would stick to the i5.
 
Cerb

Cerb

Elite Member
Aug 26, 2000
17,484
33
86
I would go with a bigger SSD, before the i7. Of course, I just bought just such a bigger SSD, so I might be slightly biased.
 
A

akilius

Junior Member
Dec 3, 2013
18
0
66
OP now updated with concrete idea for a build. I'd greatly appreciate your comments.
 
M

mfenn

Elite Member
Jan 17, 2010
22,400
5
71
www.mfenn.com
akilius said:
Case: Fractal Define R4 Titanium - € 90
Mobo: ASRock H87 FATAL1TY Performance Mainboard - € 90
CPU: Intel Core i5 4670 - € 195
Cooling:THERMALRIGHT HR-02 Macho - € 40
Graphics: MSI NVIDIA GeForce N770 TF 2GD5/OC - € 320
RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport 2x8GB - € 125
PSU: Seasonic S12II-520 - € 60
SSD Samsung Serie 840 EVO 250GB - € 150
HDD Western Digital Blue 1TB - € 55
Sound: Asus Xonar DX 7.1 - € 65
Optical: LG BH16NS40 BluRay burner - € 70
OS: Windows 8.1 - € 80

Total: € 1340

Additional questions:
- Do I need the dedicated sound card?
- Do I have enough juice to power this system?

For the display I'm looking at a 24' 1920:1200, e.g. Asus PA248Q (€365) or Eizo EV2436WFS (€420), but still open to suggestions.
transparent-pixel._V386942701_.gif
Click to expand...

These parts all look pretty reasonable to me, however you could do without the dedicated sound card. In any serious sound configuration, you're going to be going digital (S/PDIF or HDMI) or to a DAC or receiver anyway. A quality 520W is plenty for a single GTX 770.

As for monitor, I could see an Eizo if you make your living from photo editing. Otherwise, not so much. If your photo editing is more casual/hobbyist, I would strongly consider the Dell U2412M for €235. It isn't a "professional" monitor, but it is very accurate after calibration. (And really, you should be calibrating any monitor where you're doing color-critical work.)
 
A

akilius

Junior Member
Dec 3, 2013
18
0
66
mfenn said:
These parts all look pretty reasonable to me, however you could do without the dedicated sound card. In any serious sound configuration, you're going to be going digital (S/PDIF or HDMI) or to a DAC or receiver anyway. A quality 520W is plenty for a single GTX 770.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice! In that case I will drop the sound card and go with the rest as listed above. Seems like I can start ordering the parts tonight.

One final question: Is there a good way to achieve in-built wifi and BlueTooth connectivity without using dongles? Are there any reasonably priced mobos that have this?
 
lehtv

lehtv

Elite Member
Dec 8, 2010
11,897
74
91
That's a good pick. I didn't know Asus had a bluetooth board... it doesn't come up in newegg's search results with "z87 bluetooth"
 
vbuggy

vbuggy

Golden Member
Nov 13, 2005
1,610
0
71
The Noctua NH-D14's a great option for dissipating lots of heat with low noise, especially if you run it single fan. Case clearance does become a factor, though it will fit in an ATX / eATX Define.

Whatever mobo you get, I'd look for one that has the best fan control you can get while fitting other criteria. e.g. if the mobo can switch case fans off that aren't needed when you're idling, it can contribute a lot to noise reduction.

RE: Monitors, a U2713HM isn't mahoosive compared to a 24". If you want productive (as opposed to UHD in a smaller screen, which makes text look a bit nicer but isn't necessarily more productive) pixels, get the 27".
 
Last edited:
A

akilius

Junior Member
Dec 3, 2013
18
0
66
vbuggy said:
The Noctua NH-D14's a great option for dissipating lots of heat with low noise, especially if you run it single fan. Case clearance does become a factor, though it will fit in an ATX / eATX Define.

Whatever mobo you get, I'd look for one that has the best fan control you can get while fitting other criteria. e.g. if the mobo can switch case fans off that aren't needed when you're idling, it can contribute a lot to noise reduction.

RE: Monitors, a U2713HM isn't mahoosive compared to a 24". If you want productive (as opposed to UHD in a smaller screen, which makes text look a bit nicer but isn't necessarily more productive) pixels, get the 27".
Click to expand...

The Noctua is twice as expensive as the THERMALRIGHT HR-02 Macho, so I am not sure it would be worth it.

Regarding fan control, the Fractal R4 has a fan controller for up to 3 fans (2 supplied), so that should cover it.

However, I was wondering if I should replace the original fans in the R4 right away, since some reviews say they are rather noisy. Using 3 be quiet! Silent Wing 120mm would cost &#8364; 45 total. Is that worth it in terms of noise reduction? How difficult would it be to exchange the in-built fans after full assembly?

As for the monitor, being productive means editing photos in my case, so high details and good color reproduction are important for me. I spend very little time on Office docs or similar. Gaming in my spare time, and I am not sure if my intended build would run FPS on high settings at 2560x1440. If so, the Dell 27'' could be an interesting option. Otherwise I would go for the Asus PB248Q with 1920x1200.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom