Building a Quiet PC for gaming/photo editing

Mike Funnelly

Hi all, currently looking at replacing the old Dell XPS 420, Core2Quad Q6600 we've had here for the last ~8-10 years.
Would have used it for photo and video editing and apart from the odd harddrive failing over the years and a replacement graphics card, have had no issues. however, its currently still on Vista and since the extended support finished earlier in the year, i think its about time for an upgrade.

1. What is your budget? [€750 - 800]

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? [Gaming/Video editing/3D Modelling/Internet] (Skyrim, Sketch up pro)

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? [Yes, but not including price in budget]

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? [Sandisk Extreme 120GB SSD]

5. Do you need a monitor? [No]

5a. If yes, what size do you need. [19'/20'/22'/24'/etc.]

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? [1680*1050] [No plan to but might if see a bargain]

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? [No]

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? [No]

8. How can you pay? [Paypal/Credit Card/Laser]

9. When are you purchasing? [In next 2-3 weeks]

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? [Should be able to manage, North West Meath]

Here is what I am thinking I would go with, no graphics card selected yet so would like a few suggestions.
I would like for a quiet/silent style build if possible as i find the fan hum irritating when doing editing and no music playing to drown it out. Would like to be able to upgrade it going forward so don't necessarily need all that wild a graphics card at the minute.
I have an unused SSD that I would be planning on using for the OS and keyboard and mouse from old PC.

List below does not include prices for power supply (£58), CPU cooler (£48) or Windows(135euro from microsoftstore.com) have them in my Amazon basket, but not showing up on PC Part Picker. When all is added (except Win10) I'm getting a basket value of approx £600 or 700euro, only thing not accounted for is a Graphics card

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-7500 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£180.00 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Noctua - NH-U9S 46.4 CFM CPU Cooler
Motherboard: MSI - B250M MORTAR Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£78.44 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Crucial - 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£60.17 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Crucial - 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£60.17 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital - Blue 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive (£65.95 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Corsair - 100R Silent ATX Mid Tower Case (£51.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM 550W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit
Total: £496.72
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-05-17 05:21 BST+0100

Serephucus

This CPU with this motherboard is far better value for money.

For the same money, you get a four-core, eight-thread CPU that's also overclockable, should you want to extend performance further in a few years time. It should also be compatible with at least two more generations of CPUs, unlike Intel's offering. The build looks pretty good otherwise though.

Xenoronin

Since there is 3D modeling in there along with Video Editing, I'd say go with the Ryzen 5 1600. It beats the 7500 in almost every area due to more cores and threads (6C, 12T) being extremely good for CPU based rendering. Will cost a slight bit more and requires a graphics card though. You'd also have to go with faster RAM (3000MHz+ to get the most out of it). You will get to remove the CPU cooler though as the included cooler with the 1600 is better than stock intel.
Also, if you do decide to go with the i5, just stick with the stock cooler as you won't be overclocking (not supported by CPU).

Seems like this is for work as well as play, so I won't suggest the "don't activate windows 10 until you have to" trick to save a bit of money in the near term.

I'd suggest looking at something like the RX470/570 for a graphics card.

Edit: Serephucus is also correct in suggesting the Ryzen 5 1500, but I was weary of that CPU as the performance seemed lacking in comparison to the 1600 from a review I saw. That may have been fixed with a BIOS upgrade though.

TerrorFirmer

And if you're literally just playing Skyrim, and are presumably doing so at the moment on the current PC, you can just carry over the old graphics card for now and replace it later if needs be. Skyrim is actually pretty CPU bound, so with an old card and the new CPU your framerate should shoot up even with the old card, assuming it's in any way half decent (you said you replaced it at some stage so it's likely far newer than a Q6600 setup would suggest).

I agree that Ryzen is definitely the way to go here over the i5.

I would research the PSU to find out how loud it is. A 'quiet' build can only be as silent as it's loudest single component, and while PSU's aren't exactly known for roaring, it's not uncommon for it to be the loudest part of a system and it's often overlooked. I also do audio work and as close to silence as possible is really important...nothing worse than a faint hum being picked up on mic.

In this case I would consider a 3rd party CPU cooler a good investment for that reason, also consider fanless PSU.

Serephucus

Xenoronin wrote: »

Edit: Serephucus is also correct in suggesting the Ryzen 5 1500, but I was weary of that CPU as the performance seemed lacking in comparison to the 1600 from a review I saw. That may have been fixed with a BIOS upgrade though.

I'd also recommend the 1600. The only reason I picked the 1500X was that it was the closest match to his original components. If OP can stretch for it though, should totally go for the 1600.

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

I would research the PSU to find out how loud it is. A 'quiet' build can only be as silent as it's loudest single component, and while PSU's aren't exactly known for roaring, it's not uncommon for it to be the loudest part of a system and it's often overlooked. I also do audio work and as close to silence as possible is really important...nothing worse than a faint hum being picked up on mic.

In this case I would consider a 3rd party CPU cooler a good investment for that reason, also consider fanless PSU.

Valid concern here. A lot of PSUs these days are semi-passive, meaning their fans don't kick in until around 40-50% load. So you can get a PSU that's over-specced for your machine, meaning it never has to turn it's fan on, or you can get a fanless model. These tend to be quite expensive for what they are, and usually don't work too well in a build that has little or no other airflow anyway, so probably only worth investing in if you actually need a 0dBA machine.

I got a Platimax 600W from Enermax, based off this review back in the day, and it's been fantastic, FWIW.

Mike Funnelly

Hi Lads,

been busy with work for the last month so didn't really get a chance to go any further with the build. I had a revision of the parts list and came up with the following instead.

I know that the PSU is over powered for the build as it stands but I would be aiming to only have the PSU fan come on when the system is running flat out, plus it means that I should not have to upgrade down the line if I decide to upgrade the GPU.

With respect to the GPU, is there really enough difference between the 1050Ti and the RX 470/480 to justify the price difference of 50 to 60 pound?

Will end up getting everthing from Amazon UK as not really enough of a saving splitting up the purchase when the cost of postage is factored in.


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor (£188.99 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Noctua - NH-L9x65 SE-AM4 CPU Cooler (£41.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Motherboard: MSI - B350M MORTAR Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£84.80 @ Alza)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£129.60 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Western Digital - Blue 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive (£61.62 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB G1 Gaming Video Card (£146.40 @ Aria PC)
Case: Corsair - 100R ATX Mid Tower Case (£41.99 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£84.97 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £780.36
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-06-29 02:47 BST+0100

K.O.Kiki

You can't find RX 470/480/570/580 cards for love nor money; they've all been bought up by crypo-miners / are going for stupid money.

For that price, you're better off with a second-hand GTX 970 / 980, which would be nearly twice as fast.

TerrorFirmer

Though if all you are playing is Skyrim the GTX1050Ti is more than capable. It's a decent little card, the RX cards are worth the extra premium from a performance POV but in Skyrim it really won't matter unless you're running an insane amount of graphical mods or something like that.

Billy86

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor (£188.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350M-HDV Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£64.38 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£117.41 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Plextor - M7V 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£63.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate - BarraCuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.97 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Zotac - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB Mini Video Card (£124.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Thermaltake - Versa H15 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£34.98 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£48.39 @ Ebuyer)
Total: £683.10
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-06-29 11:08 BST+0100

£683 = €776. All products bar the motherboard nad PSU from Amazon, if neither of those retailers deliver to Ireland then use Parcel Motel who are excellent and only charge 3.95 per item.

You'll also get Windows 10 for way less than €135, here's a copy for £95 (€108)- https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/kmd/Windows-10-Home-32-bit-64-bit-English-International/B012U8Y2BM?th=1 . Aria PC also do it for £83 but they're complete snakes about delivery so I've left them off the build list above entirely, but it might be worth checking if theirs is the download code rather than a physical copy as no delivery would save a bit more cash again.

Keep in mind almost no motherboards around these price points are likely to have on-board wifi, though if you want wireless internet Amazon do good ones for £10-15.

As K.O.Kiki said, a second hand GTX 970 is your best bet for a strong GPU at the moment - everything over a 1050 TI and under a 1080 has gone completely out of stock or has skyrocketed in cost due to a massive spike in Etherium(sp?) mining. I both own a 970 (with a 6600K CPU, similar performance to Ryzen 1600) and can let you know at 1080p you will have no issues doing 60fps on ultra settings, and also did a budget build on a 1050 TI and can let you know that's hardly any slouch either - it really outdid my expectations (though a 970 is stronger). Ebay is a decent place to look but I would also say try adverts.ie, outside of them I have found second hand GPUs hard to come by in Ireland (and Ebay's are often in the UK which adds postage costs) but adverts often have a surprising number of good GPUs being sold. Two people put 970s up for sale there just yesterday and another over the weekend (two at €200, one at €180). If you can't get a strong GPU second hand though, a 1050 T will more than suffice. Also GPUs hold their value for resale quite well, so you could buy a 1050 TI now for let's say about €150, use it until the GPU market gets sorted later in the year, then upgrade to whatever you want while selling the 1050 TI for probably €120 or so, treating it as basically a €30 rental for a few months.

EDIT: Missed your bit on the PSU, grab the overkill one if you like so - just giving this as an alternative. Same for the case, they're completely subjective so just giving you an alternative again. Also I missed that the HDD you had was 2Tb, if you want the extra storage space this would be a better option - https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/dxH48d/hitachi-ultrastar-7k3000-2tb-35-7200rpm-internal-hard-drive-hua723020ala641 - do not go with 5400 RPM, it will make the computer seem like a 5 year old laptop.