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New silent and energy efficient system

B

BlissYb

Junior Member
I'm looking to buy a new PC. I want it to be silent and energy efficient. I don't game, so it doesn't have to be optimized for that. It should be a powerfull machine, able to last 3-4 years. Also, I often have many things going at the same time.


1. What YOUR PC will be used for. Music, entertainment, HD movies, light photoshop work and online poker.

2. What YOUR budget is. $1,100-$1,400

3. What country you will be buying your parts from. Denmark

4. IF you're buying parts OUTSIDE the US? Yes

5. IF YOU have a brand preference. Intel

6. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts? NO

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking? NO

8. What resolution, not monitor size, will you be using? 2560*1440

9. WHEN do you plan to build it? 1-2 months

10. Do you need to purchase any software? NO
 
Well, hello and welcome to the forums.

BlissYb said:
8. What resolution, not monitor size, will you be using? 2560*1440
Click to expand...

That's the biggest hurdle right there. If you're going to use integrated graphics, that is. Very few Intel mainboards have a dual-link DVI port. So you're pretty much limited to using displayport.

Here is what I'd consider a good starting point:

Mainboard: Asus B85M-E (cheapest one with displayport) http://www.computersalg.dk/produkt/1014372/1014372#
CPU: Intel Core i5 4670non-K http://www.computersalg.dk/produkt/715060/intel-core-i5-4670-34-ghz-4-cores-
RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB 1600MHz 2x4GB: http://www.computersalg.dk/produkt/973951/crucial-ballistix-sport-hukommelse-8
SSD: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB http://www.computersalg.dk/produkt/1037179/samsung-840-evo-mz7te250-solid-state-
Case: Coolermaster Elite 330 (cheap. case preference is always individual, so YMMV.) http://www.computersalg.dk/produkt/934357/cooler-master-elite-330u--miditower-
PSU: Corsair CX600V2 http://www.computersalg.dk/produkt/584411/corsair-builder-series-cx600-v2-strømf

That's a fairly good basic system and leaves you room in your budget for a graphics card or a larger hard drive to compliment the SSD. If you're going to use a discrete graphics card, you can of course save on the mainboard.
 
Insert_Nickname has you covered - he's exactly right about the display adapters, and it looks like he got the right store for you too.

Just one thing - if you're doing Photoshop work, you'll definitely want to add a hard drive to store your files, as an SSD on its own will fill up quickly with RAW files.

Also, I assume he picked the CX600 because it was a good deal at your store, but you could also use the CX430 for your system.
 
Silent, non audible.

I've been researching a little myself. Any comments on this:

Mainboard: ASUS Z87I-Pro (Has Wifi which I would like)
CPU: Core i7-4770T or Core i5-4670T - TDP 45 Watt
PSU: Sea Sonic X-Series Fanless 460w - maybe 400w model is enough
RAM: G.Skill RipJawsZ DIMM Kit 16GB, DDR3-2133 - 8GB would probably be fine.
CASE: Deep Silence 4 (Not on the market yet) or BitFenix Prodigy

All for around $1000.

Got a Vertex 3 120 GB in my current machine, that I will use in this build aswell. And will probably buy a 4TB for storage. And possibly I will get a GFX, Sapphire Ultimate Radeon HD 7750 Passive Cooled.
 
BlissYb said:
Silent, non audible.

I've been researching a little myself. Any comments on this:

Mainboard: ASUS Z87I-Pro (Has Wifi which I would like)
CPU: Core i7-4770T or Core i5-4670T - TDP 45 Watt
PSU: Sea Sonic X-Series Fanless 460w - maybe 400w model is enough
RAM: G.Skill RipJawsZ DIMM Kit 16GB, DDR3-2133 - 8GB would probably be fine.
CASE: Deep Silence 4 (Not on the market yet) or BitFenix Prodigy

All for around $1000.

Got a Vertex 3 120 GB in my current machine, that I will use in this build aswell. And will probably buy a 4TB for storage. And possibly I will get a GFX, Sapphire Ultimate Radeon HD 7750 Passive Cooled.
Click to expand...

Mainboard: Good. But why would you spend more on an ITX board, unless you want to go fully ITX? Also WIFI is easily added as an expansion card or via USB. No reason to pay more unless you're space constrained.
CPU: Bad. Just grab a regular 4770. Or if stretching things a bit an 4770S. The T version is not going to save either power, nor heat or make more noise then a regular with an appropriate cooler. Coincidently the COOLER is where you should invest. A really good 3rd party like Noctua is a MUCH better buy then a T-series CPU.
PSU: Great, but not for this kind of use. You'll want one with a fan, to help with airflow though the case...
RAM: Not much point in equipping an Intel CPU with 2133MHz memory. Get some quality 1600MHz Cruicial/Samsung 1.35V instead.
Case: Well that's individual, but the Prodigy has an excellent reputation on the web.
 
Thanks for your reply. Im not really sure what you mean with going fully ITX. Probably because I dont exactly know the difference between mini atx and micro atx and what should be used where.

Good info about the CPU, I will look at other options. Is looking at TDP is pointless for me or what? And I will definately get a good cooler.
I see your point also about ram and psu.

I'm just worried that I won't get a totally silent PC. Getting a silent PC is the main thing for me. And next thing is to get a machine with a low power consumption, while still being powerfull.
 
BlissYb said:
Thanks for your reply. Im not really sure what you mean with going fully ITX. Probably because I dont exactly know the difference between mini atx and micro atx and what should be used where.
Click to expand...

You're welcome. We sometimes throw acronyms around, expecting everyone to understand what we're talking about... :$

Generally ATX refers to the size of the mainboard. Sizes are in descending order (largest to smallest) WATX, EATX (both of which are not something you're likely to encounter in consumer-level boards), ATX, miniATX (I wonder if anyone is still making those), microATX (pretty much the current standard in consumer boards), FlexATX and finally ITX (there are smaller board, but they're embedded and proprietary).

Now an ATX-size case can fit ATX and smaller, right down to ITX because they use the same mounting holes. But you can't fit an ATX-sized board in an ITX case. At least without a Dremel... :biggrin:

The smaller boards get, the more expensive (generally) they get for the same features. There is nothing wrong with ITX boards, but you pay a premium and also limit your future upgrade potential. Weather or not that is worth it, is entirely an individual decision.

BlissYb said:
Good info about the CPU, I will look at other options. Is looking at TDP is pointless for me or what? And I will definately get a good cooler.
I see your point also about ram and psu.
Click to expand...

TDP is just a guideline to the amount of heat that your cooling system has to be able to deal with. F.x. a 4770K will require a cooler that can handle 84W, but the 4770T can make do with a (smaller) cooler because it only dissipates 45W. Placing a 4770K cooler on a 4770T would, everything else being equal, make for a cooler running chip. In practice an awful lot of things can influence cooling though.

BlissYb said:
I'm just worried that I won't get a totally silent PC. Getting a silent PC is the main thing for me. And next thing is to get a machine with a low power consumption, while still being powerfull.
Click to expand...

There are completely passive cooled cases on the market. Streacom makes some, but I'm hesitant to recommend them, both because they're difficult to get here in Denmark and you need to pay very close attention to hardware and thermal conditions.
 
At some point there is no such thing as a free lunch. CPUs produce a given amount of heat to perform a given amount of work and the cooling system has to dissipate that heat. Given that silent means no moving parts whatsoever, you are quite limited in the total amount of heat that you can output into the case. This means that you aren't going to be buying the fastest version of anything.

And that's not the worst of it. To get into the realm of the truly silent, you have to worry about all of the electronic noises produced by nominally solid state parts. Chiefly, this means you need parts with little coil whine. You also have to be open to pulling the components apart and putting dampening materials on the noisy components. Clear nail polish works great for this by the way. Of course, every coating of nail polish or other dampening material you add further reduces the heat dissipation capabilities of the machine.

This is actually a good application for a T series part because the OP is going to be significantly constrained in the amount of heat that he can dissipate per unit time. The T series will of course use more overall energy to perform the same task than the K series would, that fact has not changed. It will however tax the cooling system less.
 
Truly silent is not going to be easy, without getting something like that fancy case, unless you give up a lot of computing power.

However, inaudible is quite doable, since you don't need a powerful video card, just a decent one with HDMI/DP/DL-DVI, or none at all. A GT 640 passive (Asus makes it) would, IMO, be ideal, if getting a video card. It'll benefit you with Photoshop, while not having a fan, and not making too much more waste heat.

After that, what you really have to worry over are case, CPU cooler, fans, and PSU.

Oh, and HDDs. IMO, spend some of your spare budget on a bigger SSD, instead of putting a HDD in there. Something big like the Define R4 can sufficiently quiet down a typical HDD, but the Prodigy can have trouble even with low-vibration drives, like WD Reds. But, not having them to resonate with the case, or whine through a grate, is the best solution. If an HDD was already not going in, get a nice ~250GB SSD, anyway, just because they're faster, nowadays 🙂.

For a big high-mass, dampen-anything case, the Fractal Design R4 is hard to beat. But, it's a monster. The Bitfenix prodigy will require you to use quiet components, with care, because, while it's not terrible about noise, it's a pretty open case, with nothing to keep noise from coming out to you. Getting a tower cooler in it, FI, you'd probably want to have a single low-RPM case intake fan, preferably soft-mounted, just in case, and nothing else moving, outside of the PSU.

An over-spec PSU, like a 550W or 650W Seasonic G, should do the job. While they have fans, the fans are typically going to be off or at very low speeds, and your system will not tax them much. Also, the Prodigy gives the PSU its own intake and exhaust, so it will not have to deal with the direct heat of the rest of the PC (you want one with a fan, but for a different reason than Insert_Nickname suggests: the PSU should be able to turn it on to cool itself, if necessary).

CPU TDP isn't pointless, but most of your time won't be spent near the TDP, as it's a maximum, and a big cooler that can make it easy to go quiet can typically quietly handle hot CPUs just fine. The best cooler options will probably be a Noctua NH-D14, Thermalright Macho, or NoFan CR95 (huge, to the point of blocking 1-2 PCi-e slots, depending on if the 1st card has a backplate). A single intake fan <1kRPM, and the PSU having its own fan, should be plenty good enough for a Macho.
 
Don't get the 3770T, just get the regular one. While the 3770T will use less power, then it will also work slower, so the performance/watt is better in the 3770.

The problem with trying to go all fanless is that you will need a small amount of airflow some way. A couple of 120 or 140mm case/cpu fans @ 5V will be extremely silent, and be perfectly fine for a non overclocked computer.

Oh, and Velkommen til 🙂
 
Resist the urge to go small... if you use a big, well-designed case, you can use giant 120mm (or larger) fans. Bigger, slower fans produce a lower pitch which is less annoying, as well as being much quieter. 1-2 giant fans blowing out the back (avoid top fans which are easier to hear) and a BIG 120mm CPU fan/heatsink will make the system very, very quiet.

I always have crappy luck with power supplies though... some even complained the fanless ones made a high-pitched electric whine! 🙁

I'm in the market for a dead-quiet PSU as well... and do your research, some fans & heatsinks are definitely quieter than others!
 
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