New build advice needed for a quiet pc

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snowbird122

n00b
Joined
Jun 19, 2010
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29
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
StarCraft II, general internet stuff

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$600 all in

3) Where do you live?
Austin TX

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
Motherboard, CPU, RAM, Video Card

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Antec case
LG DVD burner GH24NS50
Power Supply: XFX P1-650X-CAG9 650W
Hard drive: 128GB Crucial M4 SSD

6) Will you be overclocking?
No

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
Dell U3011 (2560x1600 resolution)

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
ASAP - hopefully today

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? etc.
Nothing special

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Yes, have Windows 8 64 bit

Also, I really want a quiet PC. I'm willing to pay more for quiet.
 
So what Antec case do you have? The case does make a big difference whether or not a PC is quiet.And by "pay more", do you mean you're willing to go over budget to get quiet parts?
 
I have the Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower case.
My current pc is loud as hell when I play starcraft. I prefer silence, but that isn't realistic. I'd rather stay at $600, but if I'm missing some super-quiet expensive part, I can pay more in order to get closer to silence.
 
Wow, that is a nice case. the cable management looks cool. Let me know how the sound dampening works out.
 
snowbird122 said:
Wow, that is a nice case. the cable management looks cool. Let me know how the sound dampening works out.
Click to expand...

If I didn't have to work tomorrow, I'd be building it right now. :)

The box is a lot bigger than I thought it would be (honestly, the size of the box for the CPU cooler is absolutely ridiculous - it is huge!) Will let you know as soon as I get 'er done.
 
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Has you psu made much noise in the past rig? I haven't had any experience with xfx psu's.
I've got my rig pretty silent and I found an important change was the psu. Originally I had a HX850. Now I'm rocking a corsair AX850 that only turns it's fan on at a low rpm when my system is at heavy loads.

Nothing worse than having one really noisy part of a rig when all the other parts are dead silent.
 
It's actually the CPU fan that is causing most of the noise in my PC. It's fine for normal web stuff, but under load, it is loud as hell. Even at no load, I can't really hear the PS over the CPU fan even with my ear right next to it.
 
Also, I want to bump my spend up to $700. It looks like the GTX 660 Ti may be the sweet spot between performance and noise. At $300, that takes up a lot of the budget.
 
Here is what I'm thinking about:
($220) Intel i5 3570K: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116504
($110) MSI Z77A-G43: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130646
($65) G.SKILL 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231556
($300) GIGABYTE GV-N66TOC-2GD GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125440

I may need a badass heatsink/fan too. I'm at $695. I'd appreciate any thoughts on this.
 
snowbird122 said:
BTW, Danny, you helped me build my existing "loud as hell pc" back in 2010 :)
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1527121

It's been running like a champ until yesterday when it just keeps rebooting. Time for a new rig.
Click to expand...
Hmm only two years out of it? The parts are still under warranty....
snowbird122 said:
Here is what I'm thinking about:
($220) Intel i5 3570K: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116504
($110) MSI Z77A-G43: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130646
($65) G.SKILL 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231556
($300) GIGABYTE GV-N66TOC-2GD GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125440

I may need a badass heatsink/fan too. I'm at $695. I'd appreciate any thoughts on this.
Click to expand...

Since you're not overclocking, no reason for you to get that K series CPU. Dropping down to the Core i5 3470 will save you $20 and get you roughly the same performance. In addition, there's a combo deal with that Core i5 3470 and your MSI mobo choice that knocks off another $13:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1099999

With $37 leftover in your budget, go for this fairly quiet HSF:
$30 - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus HSF for LGA 1366 and LGA 1156
 
Good luck with the build!

Though I'd seriously try to fix your current setup considering that it's still under warranty.
 
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