Hello Everyone,
I haven't posted here since I built my first desktop all the way back in high school- this site was instrumental then, hopefully the same is true here. In any event I am working on a build primarily focused on maximum silence and audio quality (for music production etc), with gaming and video as secondary concerns. I tried to be power-efficient as the prevailing wisdom I have read about high-end music servers (unless the budget is insane) is to use as little power as possible. Here's what I've got so far (consider the cpu cooler an overly optimistic price placeholder)
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($176.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Gelid Solutions SnowStorm 66.3 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler ($22.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97MX-Gaming 5 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($124.98 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Low Voltage Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial M550 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($90.98 @ Newegg)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB TWIN FROZR Video Card ($139.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master Silencio 352 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($63.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($133.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $840.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-07 19:55 EST-0500
Of course, as soon as I came back here I started coming up with possible alternatives, but here's my reasoning so far:
Case: I wanted a reasonably priced quiet mATX case (college student budget). I considered the Fractal Define mini, but wasn't sure if the extra $30 was worth it. Since stopping by this forum, I'm now also considering the deep silence 4. Anything else I should be looking at? I'm also willing to do a full ATX build if the reason for it is compelling.
Motherboard: I chose this board for its "DAC-UP" feature, which provides gold plated, low noise, power-defeatable usb ports- aka better sound quality for external audio interfaces. The gaming features are a nice benefit. I went for the mATX because I prefer a smaller form factor, and don't anticipate needing more than 1 pci-e card over and above my GPU.
PSU: I'm not sure if the parts list is showing this correctly, but it is the 520w Seasonic platinum fanless unit. I chose it for silence, and its excellent ripple/noise performance- once again in pursuit of audio quality. I think it should be enough power, but I haven't built a PC in years- correct me if I'm wrong.
GPU: I went for a 750 TI for its power efficiency and affordability- It should cover my video/gaming needs. I would love to get the pailt fanless edition, but I can't find that in the US without importing it for a fortune. The few benchmarks I have seen show it doing well as far as noise goes for 750 ti's. is there a better choice for me?
CPU: Much of what I will be doing with this machine will involve Native Instruments' Reaktor- which is not multi-threaded (because they still haven't rewritten it from the ground up, lol. hopefully in reaktor 6). Thus, unless I want to OC (which I can't imagine being good for usb noise performance, but maybe I'm wrong) I don't gain as much as most from a better CPU. So this is basically a budget play.
Memory: I went low voltage to conserve power, otherwise this is basically a choice based on budget.
SSD: more space would be nice but it's not in the budget. I needed 256mb for cheap, and I didn't see a compelling reason to pay $15 more for the MX100. Is there a non-crucial 256 ssd in this price range I should know about?
Optical: budget again- nice feature list on this one though
CPU Cooler: Help! This is my big question: between this, case fans, and a fan controller if necessary, how do I get good silent cooling, preferably without wrecking my budget? The only suggestion I have gotten so far is noctua everything- but that's expensive! I guess I can do it if necessary...
Thank You in advanve OCN!
-MPZ
I haven't posted here since I built my first desktop all the way back in high school- this site was instrumental then, hopefully the same is true here. In any event I am working on a build primarily focused on maximum silence and audio quality (for music production etc), with gaming and video as secondary concerns. I tried to be power-efficient as the prevailing wisdom I have read about high-end music servers (unless the budget is insane) is to use as little power as possible. Here's what I've got so far (consider the cpu cooler an overly optimistic price placeholder)
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($176.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Gelid Solutions SnowStorm 66.3 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler ($22.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97MX-Gaming 5 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($124.98 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Low Voltage Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial M550 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($90.98 @ Newegg)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB TWIN FROZR Video Card ($139.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master Silencio 352 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($63.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($133.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $840.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-07 19:55 EST-0500
Of course, as soon as I came back here I started coming up with possible alternatives, but here's my reasoning so far:
Case: I wanted a reasonably priced quiet mATX case (college student budget). I considered the Fractal Define mini, but wasn't sure if the extra $30 was worth it. Since stopping by this forum, I'm now also considering the deep silence 4. Anything else I should be looking at? I'm also willing to do a full ATX build if the reason for it is compelling.
Motherboard: I chose this board for its "DAC-UP" feature, which provides gold plated, low noise, power-defeatable usb ports- aka better sound quality for external audio interfaces. The gaming features are a nice benefit. I went for the mATX because I prefer a smaller form factor, and don't anticipate needing more than 1 pci-e card over and above my GPU.
PSU: I'm not sure if the parts list is showing this correctly, but it is the 520w Seasonic platinum fanless unit. I chose it for silence, and its excellent ripple/noise performance- once again in pursuit of audio quality. I think it should be enough power, but I haven't built a PC in years- correct me if I'm wrong.
GPU: I went for a 750 TI for its power efficiency and affordability- It should cover my video/gaming needs. I would love to get the pailt fanless edition, but I can't find that in the US without importing it for a fortune. The few benchmarks I have seen show it doing well as far as noise goes for 750 ti's. is there a better choice for me?
CPU: Much of what I will be doing with this machine will involve Native Instruments' Reaktor- which is not multi-threaded (because they still haven't rewritten it from the ground up, lol. hopefully in reaktor 6). Thus, unless I want to OC (which I can't imagine being good for usb noise performance, but maybe I'm wrong) I don't gain as much as most from a better CPU. So this is basically a budget play.
Memory: I went low voltage to conserve power, otherwise this is basically a choice based on budget.
SSD: more space would be nice but it's not in the budget. I needed 256mb for cheap, and I didn't see a compelling reason to pay $15 more for the MX100. Is there a non-crucial 256 ssd in this price range I should know about?
Optical: budget again- nice feature list on this one though
CPU Cooler: Help! This is my big question: between this, case fans, and a fan controller if necessary, how do I get good silent cooling, preferably without wrecking my budget? The only suggestion I have gotten so far is noctua everything- but that's expensive! I guess I can do it if necessary...
Thank You in advanve OCN!
-MPZ