Budget: 2-3k Main uses of intended build: Gaming, photo editing. Parts required: All, (doubt I will re-use much from current rig, might re-purpose as a server). Previous build information (list details of parts): i7 920, Asus P6, 6GB, 256 OCZ SSD, 660 GTX, Antec 800 Monitor resolution: Currently have a HP 24" screen, looking at an upgrade to that as well (separate budget). Storage requirements: SSD only, large file storage is on a file server already existing Will you be overclocking: yes but not a major factor Any motherboard requirements (no. of USB, Xfire/SLI, fan headers): SLI Extra information about desired system: Quiet! Mid-tower case, not flashy or lots of lights. My current thinking is: i7 4820, GTX 780 (maybe 2x for SLI), 16GB Kingston Hyper-X, 512GB SSD, Asus P9X79PRO, Fractal DEFINE R4 case, Corsair H80i CPU cooler. This machine unlike my current will be in the living area so I want it to be as discreet as possible. I have no experience with water cooling but I guess I need to go there for reasonable sound levels. I'm assuming the GFX are pretty loud, should be able to find a decent quiet PSU. W/C the GFX cards sounds quite a lot of effort, especially if I decide to go SLI. How difficult would that be and would I be able to fit it all in a small case? I guess the water pumps are less noisy the GFX card fans?
Hi Yazoo I can link you two systems that we do that fit into your budget and would be great gaming and photo editing systems. http://www.yoyotech.co.uk/warbird-xt-mkiii and http://www.yoyotech.co.uk/wabird-xt-mkiv Let us know what you think.
Budget doesn't include monitor. Keyboard and mouse will re-use. No speakers required either. Just looking around, have come across this well reviewed closed loop GFX card cooler, ARCTIC Accelero Hybrid. Just trying to figure if it would fit in the case I like, let alone two of them.
I think you'd struggle to fit two Arctic coolers and a H80i into one case and still keep it cool inside. I'd go for the Twin Frozr cards and leave them air cooled.
Gigabyte 3x cooler cards are very quite. I would suggest a ITX build so its easy to keep discreet. A large tower is hard to fit into a living room without it sticking out. THe new Coolermaster case is a good cheap option. Review Replace all fans with quite ones, a good place to look for quite fans is: quietpc
Thanks guys. That MSI card gets great reviews for noise levels. I think I have just had a really noisey GFX card but they seem to have come along nicely. Going for two closed loops as you say is way too much of a hassle for cooling of the GPUs. As for the coolermaster case, I did think a bit about of ITX. Haven't landed one way or the other yet. As it's going in the living space, I need to keep whatever machine off the floor as I have a little one on the way who'll love bashing hell out of it. I'll miss my man room!
So, been busy having another kid and arranging a move. Have had a re-think regarding my new build. I've fired off this list to a local PC shop to provide me a quote on the components. Might not be as cheap if I went to webshops for each individual part but I like to support local places if possible and buy it all in one go. Case: Fractal Design Node 304 Mini ITX Tower Storage: Samsung 840 Pro Series 512GB 2.5" SSD GFX: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti Superclocked ACX CPU Cooler: Corsair H60 54.0 CFM Liquid CPU: Intel Core i7 4770K Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VI IMPACT Mini ITX LGA1150 RAM: G.Skill Sniper Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-186 PSU: Silverstone SST-ST65F-G Strider 650W Full Modular Power Supply 80+ Gold Cables for PSU: Silverstone Model PP05 Short Cable Set Anyone comment on case fans for the Node, worth replacing? Seem mostly decent from reviews I've read.
Just as a follow up, built the rig as above but with the 550W version of the Silverstone power supply and the MSI Gaming 780 Ti instead. Very happy with the machine overall, very quiet GFX card which is what I wanted. Small niggle with the microphone which I'm trying to sort out and the cable management leaves a lot to be desired, seems tricky with the Node overall, I may have another bash at it.
Here is an idea. there is no SLI, but it has a 780 TI over a 780, 1tb SSD over a 512GB one, it is water cooled, all the parts needed are provided for including for the GFX card. I've even thrown a 4k monitor in there, and stayed under your budget, which should be fantastic for photo work and you can still play games at 1920x1200. http://www.scan.co.uk/savedbasket/a5a292b146c548a28591cef56229a6ea Just an idea. EDIT: oops sorry didn't read the last post until now. Still I will leave the build here for future reference should anyone need it.
No worries, that is a solid build indeed. Had not seen that case before but really liked the Node which wouldn't have worked as easily with the water cooling loop. The MSI card however is extremely quiet so no issues there. I am on the hunt for a new screen, will check out that one you linked!
Thanks, I had a little look into it, don't think the timing is right as you say. Think I'll go for a 2560x1440 monitor which will be a nice upgrade, only really restricted by desk size so don't know if I will have to settle for 27 or squeeze in a 30!
Here's a suggestion out of left field - makes compromises in a couple areas, but ticks the discreet box better than any other... HP Z1 G2 Workstation - probably £1500-1700 base - http://www8.hp.com/us/en/campaigns/workstations/z1-g2.html GTX880M + appropriate cooler: £700 The G2 model isn't quite available in the UK just yet, but give it a few weeks and it will be. You'll want to swap out the memory, CPU and HDD from the base model - so figure another £500-700 for 16GB, SSD of choice (MSATA or 2.5", up to 2x of each) and a Xeon E3-1270v3 (or a 1280v3, but £200 for another 100MHz is a bit daft IMO) - but you'll also be able to flog the included base CPU, RAM and HDD to recoup £100-150. And you get your 2560x1440 27" monitor for "free" (and a cracking one it is, at that). All-in probably around £2500 give or take depending on storage/memory/CPU As this is a "business" machine, you also get HP's 3 year business support included - dealing with HP direct, next day parts, intelligent people on the phone or raising online tickets, onsite engineers etc. I've had the Z1 (G1 version) for just over a year and it is without a doubt the best bit of PC kit I've ever owned, everything is just miraculously engineered. I don't game on it at the moment, however for a few games I'm looking at popping in a GXT8xxM in the near-ish future. Probably won't tick the right boxes, but then everyone coming up with nigh-on the same options is boring
That is indeed an alternative suggestion! I have now built the rig for myself with the specs listed above, and got a rMBP for a family laptop and photo editing on the go. I did at one stage consider something like this as the family machine but had never come across that particular HP. Looks very smart indeed, quite a fan of HP, use their business laptops for work and it has been very reliable. Does mention it can take a discrete card, but are they only the mobile versions as you suggested? What's the noise like on yours?
It's "basically" silent at idle - you can tell it's on in a dead silent room but road noise from a distant A road, a tumble dryer on two floors down or a window open with rustling trees masks it entirely. It's quieter than when I used to have a WC gaming system that I thought was almost silent, but less silent than my last system which was actually silent, as in there were no moving parts at idle. At load the noise level increases a little bit, but still compares well with a home-built noise-focussed gaming system in my experience (having built many myself over the years and always had a thing for quiet). The only axial fans in the system are in the PSU, and I'm not sure they even even spin up, certainly not to an audible level. The rest of the fans are blowers, and fairly large ones at that, so no high pitched fan noise, very low and unobtrusive even when it is running at full pelt. A Haswell based one would likely be a bit better still, I think the crappy TIM on Ivy Bridge is partly the cause of the noise in my case, as the core temps go up very quickly from idle to load. I keep meaning to attack my CPU (E3-1245v2) with a razor blade and replace the internal TIM, just haven't gotten around to it yet. Discrete graphics are via a standard MXM 3.0b slot, so the main compromise is mobile GPU only, but it can accommodate pretty much any modern mobile GPU out there. Official options are limited to Quadro cards and the GTX680M, however people on the HP Business forums have reported success with plenty of other non-whitelisted nvidia cards (670m, 675mx, 770m, 680mx). ATI cards should work in theory, however the cooler for the system apparently fouls some components and requires modding, so it's a bit of added faff and I don't think I've seen anyone confirm that they have an ATI card working in the system because of this. The cooler itself is around £70 available from HP spares resellers as P/N 709555-001. I've tracked the unsupported GPU discussions pretty closely as I've had it in the back of my mind to do the same for quite some time. Note that all of these discussions are with regards to the G1 system, it's not yet been confirmed that the G2 system can accept non-whitelisted cards, however a quick call to HP support is all that's needed to confirm this and there's no reason it would be any different. This teardown on ifixit gives a good insight in to the internals, the internals of the G2 are identical save a new chipset/socket and thunderbolt 2.0 instead of firewire on the side I/O - http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/HP+Z1+Teardown/8840
Can almost see this as being a great compromise, touch screen interface for the wife and bring out keyboard/mouse when you want to game on it or anything else. That's a great teardown, seems a really well thought out machine, easy to repair is so hard to find these days what with the love of gluing things together! You are a bit of a pain M_T putting this in my head, it looks great, must resist temptation!
I know it's not helpful, but it's just as fantastic in use as it is a piece of engineering just to marvel at. It's one of the nicest things of any type I've ever had the pleasure of using. Just opening the chassis is a thing of beauty - fold it flat and pop the two switches at the bottom and the gas lifts open it up like a briefcase. I challenge anyone with an engineering or technical background not to get giddy at this point I always liked the idea of an AIO, however was never willing to compromise on the user serviceability. I've replaced an HDD with an SSD in my parent's AIO before and it was a nightmare just opening the chassis to start (tape and tabs, half of which broke). Once it was open basically the entire thing had to come to bits just to get to the HDD to swap it. I also discovered in the process that the memory was soldered to the board, burned. I couldn't handle something like this for my main PC and checked out a few AIOs but they all seemed to have the same issues. I nearly missed the Z1 (look under Home -> Desktops on their site and it's notably missing, it's under Business -> Workstations), but stumbled across a write-up on a review site and had to have one from that point onwards. I was floored by the price of the higher end models (the ones with SSDs, 16-32GB, Xeons and Quadros from the start are in the £3-4k+ range), but since it's entirely (and easily) user serviceable it's straightforward to swap parts out yourself. I ended up buying the i3, 4GB and 500GB HDD model and an E3-1245v2, 16GB and a pair of SSDs separately. The potential lack of flexibility of the integrated screen did raise a concern with me as well, however the DP connector on the system is bi-directional, allowing the use of a either a second screen for the main system or to use the Z1's screen as a monitor for another. I've not come across another AIO that's quite the same and did at one point think that perhaps the Z1 was one of those rare one-offs not to be repeated, but delightfully the announcement of the G2 proves this wrong.
