Hey folks, thanks for putting together this quiet gaming build, it looks really great! I almost bought a pre-made silent PC before I found your guide. But now I'm thinking I might be willing to put the parts together myself and save about $1k.
I'm in the market for a quiet PC. My 6 year old PC is starting to show it's age, and I am really sick and tired of all the noise it makes. I was hoping you would look at my use case and offer recommendations that might make your build better for me.
First of all, I'm a little more flexible on price than your guide. I would have no problem going up to $1500, or maybe even $2000 if the upgrades were really worth it. My needs are a little different than your target audience. I'm really just doing office work with some lab experiments in VMs (VMware with 6 PCs, GNS3 with many router emulators), and some minor video and photo processing (Photoshop Elements, Visio, Handbrake). I don't actually game at all. I do need dual monitors though. The vast majority of the time I am just VPNing (and using remote desktop) to work and doing office tasks. So it would be great if the PC would be super quiet during that time. I do want it to be pretty fast at those tasks and at booting up. (I think a non-spinning drive would get me most of the way there though.) I would be more tolerant of noise the few times I do something more intense, but of course, if it's an option, quite all the time would be nice. But I do want the option to fire up an intense lab and hammer away at it without having to wait forever on slow VMs. Also, my office is not ventilated well. It can get really hot in here. So I was hoping that a side effect of a quiet PC would be less heat (in the room) during times of regular office work. I use MAC products everywhere except my home PC, so I'm a little disappointed that the case/mobo you recommend doesn't have usb C since Apple seems to be putting it on everything now. Ideally, I would want one on the front panel, but I guess I could get a hub type device to give me that. I have to say, I love the current choice of case (with the exception of no USB-C on front panel). I have no interest in lights or windows, or any of that stuff. I just want a nice looking box, which you have found.
I would probably double the ram of the guide, and do a 1TB drive. Can you think of any other changes that might be good for my situation?
When will you publish the July version?
You'll definitely be able to achieve your goals without spending too much money, certainly less than $2,000. Given that you use heavily-threaded apps like Handbrake and that you're not a gamer, the AMD Ryzen processor in the current Quiet Build is the way to go for sure. We might even bump it up a notch to the eight-core version. Let's see what we can come up with here:
(1) Case:
SilverStone RL05 - Why? Simple - it's got a front-mounted USB Type-C, of course! Honestly, that's such a rare feature in the PC world that you'd have to spend four times as much to get it on any other case. Furthermore, its 140mm front-mounted case fans are very quiet for the cooling potential they provide. Yes, it does have lights and windows, which you may not like, so you can stick with the Phanteks case in the guide, but it seems you really want that USB Type-C.
(2) Power Supply:
EVGA Supernova G2 - by far the quietest, highest-quality PSU in its price class. It's actually even a bit quieter than the newer G3 due to its larger fan.
(3) Motherboard:
MSI B350 Gaming Pro Carbon - I chose this board for two specific reasons. First, it has the dual USB 3.0 headers required to support the two types of USB 3.0 ports on the front of the case, and second, it has a rear-mounted USB 3.1 Type-C connector as well.
(4) SSD:
Crucial MX300 1TB M.2 - Given that you want more space, this is the only viable option in its price range.
(5) Cooler:
Noctua NH-U12S AM4 - there is no quieter cooler.
(6) RAM:
Corsair 2x16GB DDR4-2666 - since you want to go beyond 16GB, you really need to jump right up to dual 16GB sticks. Running four sticks on Ryzen can lead to slower speeds. I have reviewed the
MSI Memory Support List to ensure this exact kit is on the list.
(7) OS:
Windows 10 Flash Drive - you haven't mentioned if you need an optical drive, but I'm assuming you won't be installing one. The Phanteks case can't even fit one, and while the SilverStone case can, DVD drives are annoying loud.
(8 ) Video Card:
XFX Radeon RX 460 2GB Fanless - you want quiet, you've got it! Given that Ryzen does not have built-in graphics, you'll need some type of video card, and this one is silent while also providing plenty of dual-monitor options along with acceleration of some data-processing tasks.
(9) CPU:
AMD Ryzen 7 1700 - this is where things get really fun. This CPU is enormously powerful, and after a recent price cut, it's just $300. It's perfect for your applications.
All told, you're looking at $1,400 for an ultra-quiet, ultra-powerful system that will work perfectly for your needs. If you decide this is more than you'd like to spend, you can knock $150 off the price going with the six-core
Ryzen 5 1600 in the Quiet PC Guide, and just using its included stock cooler rather than the Noctua. It's more than decent.
By the way, the July guide will appear in late June, most likely, but I don't think it will have anything uniquely-applicable to your requirements.
P.S. Don't forget to enter the prize drawing TBG is currently running
right here!
