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Quiet Mini-ITX Gamer Build Guide

LOL what a load of crap. Started with the Ncase M1, only to end up with it's worst ripoff. All 31 liters of it. SFF my ass, that's mATX territory. An M.2 SSD with a SATA Phison controller ? A Silverstone Argon AR03 cooler ? I'm having a hard time taking that article seriously.
 
I thought the dismissal of the Ncase M1 was odd, since he desired a mITX build.

When my V3 arrives, it is designated for a QUIET Build (aka Recording/Studio -- dB low).
I would love to do a fanless PSU, but the 160mm (ATX) offering is too long and no offerings in SFX (yet).
I do have a quiet PSU backup at 140mm (ATX), if Silverstone fails with their upcoming 500 watt SFX.

The thermal design key is heat sink mass, and enough air flow for its radiation.
 
Yea MikeC is great at some things, but small isn't one of them. I stopped frequenting his site when the advertisements started getting out of hand. I reference it from time to time to check on new heatsink's n such (his site is one of the only ones i know of that reviews heatsinks with a reference fan and not just the fan that comes packaged with the heatsinks), but for the most part the site is pretty out dated. The original content is still good, just doesn't get updated often enough with relevant information.
 
That guy clearly missed the point of mITX. Cases like the rosewill one and the Prodigy limit you to mITX artificially, because their size would easily allow for larger motherboards, which come with more RAM-slots, more expansion slots, and chipsets that make overclocking way easier.
If you want a silent mITX build, it's totally fine to go a bit larger, the SG09 would've been ok in this case.
But not 30+ litres.
 
To be fair, to get that kind of low dB scores, he probably couldn't do it in under 20 litres.

Going with a fanless platinum PSU was what prevented him from using most of the cases he mentioned. Only the Carbide Air would otherwise have fit that X-520.

But I question the need for a tower cooler on a non-overclocked i5.

And the need for an open-shroud 980. The reference 980 with Titan cooler is surprisingly quiet if you aren't pushing the volts.

My guess is that he would have picked the Node 304 had Lawrence Lee not already done a review on it.
 
i have to agree with Mike here. As of right now, there is no way to put together a small, near-silent build that runs at high load (like gaming) while using off-the-shelf parts. So he compromised with the case size to achieve the other goals.

There is not one commercially available small itx case right now that allows you to run a beefy tower cooler, passive PSU, and long graphics card at the same time. (M1 and SG08 come very close but have flaws with PSU length. SX500-G is promising but not out yet)

Thankfully for those of us concerned about noise, it's gotten much easier to make quiet itx rigs lately, but the ultimate goal of a passive gaming machine is a tiny box is still not here yet.

tiny, (near) silent, powerful - pick 2 :D
 
Ncase M1 was primarily made for custom water cooling. Although he said "we could not turn it into a SPCR-quiet serious gaming rig", I guess custom water cooling is much too serious for him to consider.
 
Phuncz said:
That isn't a flaw, that's a design choice. The front LED light leaking through the USB and audio port on that Rosewill case, that's a flaw.
Click to expand...

Some might consider it a flaw though. Although I am content with it, there are certainly problems with the SFX power supplies that one has to use to fit in a long GPU.

Although I do agree they are needed for such a small case.
 
rawrr said:
Some might consider it a flaw though.
Click to expand...

Think he meant that the SG08 and M1 being primarily intended to use SFX could be seen as perhaps a shortcoming or con, but not as a flaw, since it was intentionally designed that way. The nice thing about the M1 is that it also happens to accommodate ATX PSUs with some restrictions.

The M1 is designed primarily to use an SFX power supply, for which it is best suited. However, if the dual 3.5" HDD cage or 240mm radiator support aren't needed, and a short GPU under (195mm long) is used, then an ATX power supply can be installed with an included bracket. - NCASES.com
Click to expand...
 
rawrr said:
Some might consider it a flaw though. Although I am content with it, there are certainly problems with the SFX power supplies that one has to use to fit in a long GPU.

Although I do agree they are needed for such a small case.
Click to expand...
But it is not a flaw, Necere explained the limitations of the case and it's limited support for ATX well before the case went into production. If the ATX PSU support would be extended, it would mean the case would be larger. Many discussions about this preceeded the decision to make the case as it is known now for various reasons.

Mainly because every single GPU graphics card can be powered by the then most powerful 450W PSU and the case wasn't meant to handle much more heat that a dual GPU graphics card would generate. While it is "possible" though. And it was also never being marketed as a quiet gaming case.

In regards to these facts, the limited ATX PSU support is IMO a design choice (it was as intended) and not a flaw (meaning something is wrong).
 
Phuncz said:
But it is not a flaw, Necere explained the limitations of the case and it's limited support for ATX well before the case went into production. If the ATX PSU support would be extended, it would mean the case would be larger. Many discussions about this preceeded the decision to make the case as it is known now for various reasons.

Mainly because every single GPU graphics card can be powered by the then most powerful 450W PSU and the case wasn't meant to handle much more heat that a dual GPU graphics card would generate. While it is "possible" though. And it was also never being marketed as a quiet gaming case.

In regards to these facts, the limited ATX PSU support is IMO a design choice (it was as intended) and not a flaw (meaning something is wrong).
Click to expand...

I did say that I agreed that it was needed for a case this small. And the flaw with SFX power supplies are more to do with the noise issues, etc... to me.
 
rawrr said:
I did say that I agreed that it was needed for a case this small. And the flaw with SFX power supplies are more to do with the noise issues, etc... to me.
Click to expand...

Yes, it's the SFX PSUs that are indeed flawed with noise issues.. the M1 works perfectly as designed ;)
 
AFD said:
Yes, it's the SFX PSUs that are indeed flawed with noise issues.. the M1 works perfectly as designed ;)
Click to expand...

Perhaps my phrasing was not very clear... my point is that to use the M1 in its intended config (so a long, mid-high end gpu) you are forced to use a noisy SFX psu.
 
Last edited:
rawrr said:
Perhaps my phrasing was not very clear... my point is that to use the M1 in its intended config (so a long, mid-high end gpu) you are forced to use a noisy SFX psu.
Click to expand...

Semantics :p

Though I'm sure you know that a full-size ATX *and* upper mid-range GPU (short 970 ITX-style) will fit the M1 quite easily. I'm surprised Mike @SPCR didn't try something like that for a near-silent SFF build. Could've even replaced the GPU fan with something a little quieter, or even watercooled the damn thing. Would be light years better than recommending ginormous cases 2 to 3x the size for quiet SFF builds.
 
AFD said:
Semantics :p

Though I'm sure you know that a full-size ATX *and* upper mid-range GPU (short 970 ITX-style) will fit the M1 quite easily. I'm surprised Mike @SPCR didn't try something like that for a near-silent SFF build. Could've even replaced the GPU fan with something a little quieter, or even watercooled the damn thing. Would be light years better than recommending ginormous cases 2 to 3x the size for quiet SFF builds.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I guess its all into making the whole thing more "accessible" for the general public... :rolleyes:

sigh
 
Screes said:
Yea MikeC is great at some things, but small isn't one of them.
Click to expand...

Nope, that's why it is Silent PC Review, and not Small PC Review.

XcPNehVYlE4A3C said:
i have to agree with Mike here. As of right now, there is no way to put together a small, near-silent build that runs at high load (like gaming) while using off-the-shelf parts. So he compromised with the case size to achieve the other goals.
Click to expand...

I'd agree that too. The problem with this is everyone has their own definition of "silent" and sometimes their personal threshold of noise changes over time. I know that I used to not care at all about noise, until I was in grad school. Then, I got super serious about silence (passively cooled everything, bungee corded HDDs, etc). I've since rebounded, and am not as concerned about noise as long as "it isn't loud." I still occasionally get buddies over that think my rig is completely "silent" even though I can plainly hear fan/airflow noise. All a matter of perspective.

That is, except for SPCR and their measuring tools and anechoic chamber. If they say "X fan is quieter than Y fan" you can accept that for fact (apart from sample variance). This is unlike how fan companies rate their own fans, some at 1m, some at 1', some in dBA, some in Sones.

The takeaway is that you don't know what I consider "silent" and I don't know what you consider "silent." Obviously, some of the posters in this thread do not know what SPCR considers "silent."

cowsgomoo said:
Ncase M1 was primarily made for custom water cooling. Although he said "we could not turn it into a SPCR-quiet serious gaming rig", I guess custom water cooling is much too serious for him to consider.
Click to expand...

For the silent freaks (and I say "freaks" with much respect), even a pump is unacceptable noise. Some of them demand no moving parts at all (fan motor/pump/water) and not even electrical noise like coil whine or capacitor squeal.
 
Mike Chin did write that he has "one final cooling solution" on its way, implying he might change his mind. I wonder what part he's talking about.

Although, the 980 Strix he picked wouldn't fit in the M1 anyway. Same for all the alternatives he listed.
 
Zap said:
The takeaway is that you don't know what I consider "silent" and I don't know what you consider "silent." Obviously, some of the posters in this thread do not know what SPCR considers "silent."

For the silent freaks (and I say "freaks" with much respect), even a pump is unacceptable noise. Some of them demand no moving parts at all (fan motor/pump/water) and not even electrical noise like coil whine or capacitor squeal.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the same SPCR that found the noise of the SX600-G perfectly acceptable in their review, while most of us here bitched up a storm about it.

Between this guide and that review, it gives me a pretty good idea as to what they consider "small" and "silent" (and I don't even consider myself a "silence freak") :D
 
cowsgomoo said:
Ncase M1 was primarily made for custom water cooling. Although he said "we could not turn it into a SPCR-quiet serious gaming rig", I guess custom water cooling is much too serious for him to consider.
Click to expand...

Actually the issue with WC loops is that they are commonly *not* under the noise floor set by high end air cooling.

Mike didn't go with the M1 precisely for the reasons stated: he couldn't get the noise levels he wanted in a volume as low as the M1 offered.

It's not a negative reflection on the M1... the M1 was never touted as a "quiet" case.
 
I'll be the first to admit that the M1 isn't ideal for a quiet (by SPCR standards) gaming mini-ITX build, nor was it intended to be. There are open vents on every side except the front, and the constraints on PSU size and GPU cooling pretty much preclude quiet/passive components. If you design for those things, you will end up with a significantly bigger case. No getting around that.

What you can do with the M1 is get a powerful gaming system down to acceptable (IMO) noise levels- through watercooling the GPU, running pumps/fans at low speed, doing an external fan mod on the Silverstone SFXs, etc.
 
Best way to deal with the SFX fan noise (provided you don't mind voiding the warranty):

fyvBxNs.jpg
 
Zangmonkey said:
Actually the issue with WC loops is that they are commonly *not* under the noise floor set by high end air cooling.
Click to expand...

I was always under the impression that noise was exactly the point of watercooling. You increase the area where heat dissipation happens so fans can run slower.
To be frank, I don't have the slightest clue about watercooling, nor do I ever want to do it (the money! :eek:), but that always seemed like the whole point of it to me.
 
The pump is the general problem. In my case it's the loudest/least-silent part.
 
Necere said:
Best way to deal with the SFX fan noise (provided you don't mind voiding the warranty):

fyvBxNs.jpg
Click to expand...

I understand why the blower is the superior GPU cooler *style* for this case because otherwise it heats up the low volume of air already in the case which then needs to be evacuated.

I wonder, though, if two quiet intake fans were on the bottom blowing cool air onto the GPU and creating the positive pressure would that higher ambient temperature make the CPU sufficiently hotter to inhibit "real world gaming" performace?

I wonder if this is only a problem in benchmarks....
 
For this case to function well and going full air-cooling, you don't need *any* casefans. But when you use an open heatsink design cooler like the one in the picture above me, suddenly your 85W TDP CPU is being accompanied by a 200-250W TDP GPU and things start going beyond comfortable levels.

And that's when you do need casefans.
 
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