Quiet PC for DAW based on 2011 Buyers Guide recommendations

[BayCityRoller]

Hi, guys. Looking to keep this less expensive than a comparable Mac Mini with quiet in mind. The i7 Mac mini with 4gb RAM, AMD HD6630M, 500GB HD, Thunderbolt goes for $899. I think it doesn't have enough of what I need (RAM, HD space) and wastes money on components that I don't need (thunderbolt, mobile processors). However, I do like that it's quiet and not a hack.

Basing this on the 2011 Buyers Guide and some other forum posts regarding silent PC builds...

CPU: Intel i5 2500k Amazon : seems best bang for buck 4 core processor. should blow the doors off the mobile processor in current mini
Motherboard:Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3 Amazon : cheapest mobo with firewire (have fw audio interface)
Case: Fractal Designs R3 amazon relatively affordable quiet case
PSU: Seasonic x460 : amazon : quiet fanless PSU
RAM: 8GB Corsair Amazon : 16GB is probably overkill for my purposes

This comes in at around $670. I have lots of SATA drives laying around I'll probably use to keep cost down. I also have various Apple and MS keyboards and mice around.

So a few questions...

How does this build look for a fairly painless install and setup?

I'll go Mountain Lion I guess? Although Lion would probably be OK? SL would probably be fine too. I'll run Logic in 64bit mode.

Do I need a CPU cooler over the i5? If so, any recommendations for quiet and reasonable price?

I need a DVD drive to install the hack right? I have one laying around from an old XPC, and one in my dual 2ghz G5, will either work?

Are the integrated Intel HD3000 graphics on the mobo good enough for DAW? I mean I'll occasionally edit an iMovie perhaps, or watch youtube or an H264 rip, not really using it for games. It's mainly for DAW, not sure if I really need a graphics card and not sure if I want the noise of the fan on one anyway.

Thanks in advance for your words of wisdom.

Cheers!

 

[Going Bald]

Hi, guys. Looking to keep this less expensive than a comparable Mac Mini with quiet in mind. The i7 Mac mini with 4gb RAM, AMD HD6630M, 500GB HD, Thunderbolt goes for $899. I think it doesn't have enough of what I need (RAM, HD space) and wastes money on components that I don't need (thunderbolt, mobile processors). However, I do like that it's quiet and not a hack.

Basing this on the 2011 Buyers Guide and some other forum posts regarding silent PC builds...

CPU: Intel i5 2500k Amazon : seems best bang for buck 4 core processor. should blow the doors off the mobile processor in current mini
Motherboard:Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3 Amazon : cheapest mobo with firewire (have fw audio interface)
Case: Fractal Designs R3 amazon relatively affordable quiet case
PSU: Seasonic x460 : amazon : quiet fanless PSU
RAM: 8GB Corsair Amazon : 16GB is probably overkill for my purposes

This comes in at around $670. I have lots of SATA drives laying around I'll probably use to keep cost down. I also have various Apple and MS keyboards and mice around.

So a few questions...

How does this build look for a fairly painless install and setup?

I'll go Mountain Lion I guess? Although Lion would probably be OK? SL would probably be fine too. I'll run Logic in 64bit mode.

Do I need a CPU cooler over the i5? If so, any recommendations for quiet and reasonable price?

I need a DVD drive to install the hack right? I have one laying around from an old XPC, and one in my dual 2ghz G5, will either work?

Are the integrated Intel HD3000 graphics on the mobo good enough for DAW? I mean I'll occasionally edit an iMovie perhaps, or watch youtube or an H264 rip, not really using it for games. It's mainly for DAW, not sure if I really need a graphics card and not sure if I want the noise of the fan on one anyway.

Thanks in advance for your words of wisdom.

Cheers!

Parts list looks OK and the optical drive from your G5 will work if it is SATA. If it is IDE PATA drive, try using http://www.amazon.com/Drive-Adapter-Converter-Optical-External/dp/B001OORMVQ/ref=sr_1_5?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1349785222&sr=1-5&keywords=universal+hdd+adapter to adapt it and should work.

Integrated gfx will do fine for a DAW, but you need Lion or Mountain Lion for it to work properly with a MacMini system definition in smbios.plist. The http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-Passive-Graphics-01G-P3-1303-KR/dp/B004KABG18/ref=sr_1_5?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1349785440&sr=1-5&keywords=8400+gs will work fine in SL or Lion, but I think Apple dropped support for it in 10.8.2.

 

[BayCityRoller]

Thanks for that, very helpful. One question left I think...
Regarding cooling the i5. It will need a fan or heat sync of some kind I would imagine installed over the CPU? That's typical of any modern PC build? I've never put one together myself before.

 

[Going Bald]

Thanks for that, very helpful. One question left I think...
Regarding cooling the i5. It will need a fan or heat sync of some kind I would imagine installed over the CPU? That's typical of any modern PC build? I've never put one together myself before.

There is a stock cooler/fan that comes with the box when you buy the CPU. It will do the job if you have good airflow though your case. It might get loud at startup and under heavy load, but in normal use it should be no problem unless you overclock. If you OC you definitely need to look at getting a good CPU cooler.

 

[BayCityRoller]

Just caught price drop on the i5 3570k with Gigabyte Intel Z77 [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]GA-Z77-DS3H. Going to swap out sandy bridge parts for this setup. Once OSX is installed and the OS recognizes this machine as a Mac, I should be able to use a firewire PCIe card that has OSX drivers? Same is true for video cards, I assume?


[/FONT]

 

[Going Bald]

Just caught price drop on the i5 3570k with Gigabyte Intel Z77 GA-Z77-DS3H. Going to swap out sandy bridge parts for this setup. Once OSX is installed and the OS recognizes this machine as a Mac, I should be able to use a firewire PCIe card that has OSX drivers? Same is true for video cards, I assume?

Yes and yes. A http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608016&Tpk=nh-u9b will give you 8-10 C better than a stock fan and about 12-17dB at 12 volts. You can use the low noise adapters to drop the voltage further and use the quiet setting in most UEFI BIOSes in the Ivy boards to drop the noise even further - or leave the fans off altogether if you have really good air flow thru your case - I would watch the CPU temps very closely for awhile if leaving the fans off.

 

[BayCityRoller]

That's really interesting.... If I go fanless, I saw there is also the option of using an enormous heat sync with no fan.
http://www.quietpcusa.com/NoFan-CR-95C-IcePipe-Fanless-CPU-Cooler-P928C96.aspx
But like you say, then the case has to breath better.


So this is a toss up, sealed up case with fans....
Wide open case without...

How do people usually go about watching the temp in the case?
Is there a gauge on the mobo?
Or do you literally stick a thermometer in there?

 

[jeffcarrera]

I should be able to use a firewire PCIe card that has OSX drivers? Same is true for video cards, I assume?


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Go for startech pcie firewire card if you'll be doing some serious audio recording with this hack. .

 

[BayCityRoller]

I'd like one with both 400 and 800 ports on it. Most people recommend the TI chipset, you having success with the Agere on the Startech? What audio interface are you using it with?

 

[Going Bald]

That's really interesting.... If I go fanless, I saw there is also the option of using an enormous heat sync with no fan.
http://www.quietpcusa.com/NoFan-CR-95C-IcePipe-Fanless-CPU-Cooler-P928C96.aspx
But like you say, then the case has to breath better.
So this is a toss up, sealed up case with fans....
Wide open case without...

Not quite that bad - there are several other tower style heatsinks that will do a good job with a single fan or even 2 fans in push-pull that are smaller than that extreme version. Scythe Shuriken and Katana or the Noctua NH-U9B SE2 to name 3 that are medium sized. Any of these would work OK without the fans if you are not overclocking the CPU

How do people usually go about watching the temp in the case?
Is there a gauge on the mobo?
Or do you literally stick a thermometer in there?

Hardware monitor app will give you a lot of info on temps. Case fan controllers (the good ones) will have temp sensors you can place in different positions it the case to give you a more accurate representation of case temps.

For a firewire PCIe card go with the http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Express-FireWire-Adapter-PEX1394B3/dp/B000WCT5HK?ie=UTF8&tag=tonymacx86com-20 recommended by thelostswede