Hi everyone,
Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this - new to this site and not sure exactly where everything goes.
I'm a theoretical physics grad student in a small office with limited space. I need a compact machine due to these space constraints (mini-ITX), and I would like it to be as quiet as possible because I can't think when there's a ton of noise. I mainly will be doing basic office stuff. I often have dozens of academic papers (pdfs) open at once, I edit a ton of text/LaTeX, I Skype frequently, and I often watch talks/lecture videos. I also do quite a bit of coding, mainly in Mathematica. Sometimes this is heavy-duty, but I have access to a supercomputer if things actually get to that point. My computations are primarily symbolic, not numerical, since my research is more mathematically oriented.
In particular, I don't plan to do any gaming whatsoever on the machine, but I have dual 1440p monitors. I want to be able to run these at native resolution, at 60Hz, with good performance, basically no matter how much crap I have open on my screen. I think this is possible just with the integrated GPU on any new Intel processor. Correct me if I'm wrong?
My tentative plan was the following:
Case: Silverstone Sugo SG-13
CPU: i7-6700
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H170N-WIFI
Cooler: Noctua L9i
GPU: none! or some kind of GTX 950 if I actually need it
Storage: Samsung 950 Pro 512GB
RAM: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133
Power Supply: Either Silverstone's 500W SFX-L or the 400W fanless Seasonic model
Case Fan: Nexus D12SL-12
My main questions are:
1) Do I need a graphics card at all?
2) What power supply I should use? I've heard the Silverstone makes some annoying noises (at least to some people), but it will probably not just overheat and die. On the other hand, I'm not sure it's a good idea to cram the Seasonic (which is guaranteed 100% quiet, right?) into this case with such limited airflow.
3) Since I'm going for a silent build, I have chosen a non-K processor so that I can run the L9i with the fan speed reducing cable, but I'm not sure if symbolic Mathematica computations make use of hyperthreading, or if hyperthreading even helps with dealing with large numbers of windows opened simultaneously. If not, would it be better to just save the $ and go for the i5-6600?
4) If I don't need a GPU, is there a decent smaller case like the Antec ISK-110? Theoretically, I should be able to get away with something like that, but I'd want more than a 110W PSU, and I've heard the ISK-110 has awful shielding issues.
Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this - new to this site and not sure exactly where everything goes.
I'm a theoretical physics grad student in a small office with limited space. I need a compact machine due to these space constraints (mini-ITX), and I would like it to be as quiet as possible because I can't think when there's a ton of noise. I mainly will be doing basic office stuff. I often have dozens of academic papers (pdfs) open at once, I edit a ton of text/LaTeX, I Skype frequently, and I often watch talks/lecture videos. I also do quite a bit of coding, mainly in Mathematica. Sometimes this is heavy-duty, but I have access to a supercomputer if things actually get to that point. My computations are primarily symbolic, not numerical, since my research is more mathematically oriented.
In particular, I don't plan to do any gaming whatsoever on the machine, but I have dual 1440p monitors. I want to be able to run these at native resolution, at 60Hz, with good performance, basically no matter how much crap I have open on my screen. I think this is possible just with the integrated GPU on any new Intel processor. Correct me if I'm wrong?
My tentative plan was the following:
Case: Silverstone Sugo SG-13
CPU: i7-6700
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H170N-WIFI
Cooler: Noctua L9i
GPU: none! or some kind of GTX 950 if I actually need it
Storage: Samsung 950 Pro 512GB
RAM: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133
Power Supply: Either Silverstone's 500W SFX-L or the 400W fanless Seasonic model
Case Fan: Nexus D12SL-12
My main questions are:
1) Do I need a graphics card at all?
2) What power supply I should use? I've heard the Silverstone makes some annoying noises (at least to some people), but it will probably not just overheat and die. On the other hand, I'm not sure it's a good idea to cram the Seasonic (which is guaranteed 100% quiet, right?) into this case with such limited airflow.
3) Since I'm going for a silent build, I have chosen a non-K processor so that I can run the L9i with the fan speed reducing cable, but I'm not sure if symbolic Mathematica computations make use of hyperthreading, or if hyperthreading even helps with dealing with large numbers of windows opened simultaneously. If not, would it be better to just save the $ and go for the i5-6600?
4) If I don't need a GPU, is there a decent smaller case like the Antec ISK-110? Theoretically, I should be able to get away with something like that, but I'd want more than a 110W PSU, and I've heard the ISK-110 has awful shielding issues.