[Success] Overclockable silent i7700k + GTX 1060 - Passive PSU

[EricDi]

Hi,

I'm building a new Hackintosh next week and have compiled a list of parts. I would love to hear your feedback.

My goal with the build is to create a extremely silent desktop (passive PSU cooling, very quiet and big CPU cooling, no rotating drives, GPU is silent in indle). My secondary goal is to create a beast that can overclock to 5GHZ. The goal of the overclocking is rendering, and gaming in windows.

Parts list

Intel Core i7-7700K Boxed
Asus Prime Z270-A
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1060 G1
Noctua NH-D15
32GB Corsair Vengeance LPX CMK32GX4M2B3000C15
Super Flower Golden Silent 500W
Samsung 960 EVO 500GB M.2
Addidtional SSD
   
Fractal Design Define S or another  case

Would this build work well?

 

[pastrychef]

In my experience, nothing helps with keeping temperatures down more than delidding the CPU and, of course, keeping temperatures down also helps keep fans running at low RPMs and with overclocking.

I know that delidding a CPU can be a bit scary. I know I was nervous the first time I did it. But there are now tools being sold to greatly simplify the process and take most of the fear out of it.

Delidding helped me get my i7-6700K get to 4.8GHz and top out at around 72C under full load with a Noctua cooler. My delidded i7-7700K is running at 5.1GHz with max temps of about 77C with the same Noctua cooler. This all translates to a system that is inaudible to my ears under normal use and I only start to hear the movement of air when the CPU is under heavy load.

I have never used the Fractal Design Define S so I don't know how good the ventilation is on that case... I chose the Silverstone KL-06 which has two, mostly unobstructed, large fans in front that blow straight through to the back. The Define S, on the other hand, relies on little slits along the edge of the front which may or may not limit the amount of air in the case to cool things and may or may not cause a more turbulent path for air to travel which can contribute to noise.

These are just my own personal theories and I have no scientific evidence to back up these theories...

I also used Noctua fans throughout my build and think they are fantastic.

 

[EricDi]

In my experience, nothing helps with keeping temperatures down more than delidding the CPU and, of course, keeping temperatures down also helps keep fans running at low RPMs and with overclocking.

I know that delidding a CPU can be a bit scary. I know I was nervous the first time I did it. But there are now tools being sold to greatly simplify the process and take most of the fear out of it.

Delidding helped me get my i7-6700K get to 4.8GHz and top out at around 72C under full load with a Noctua cooler. My delidded i7-7700K is running at 5.1GHz with max temps of about 77C with the same Noctua cooler. This all translates to a system that is inaudible to my ears under normal use and I only start to hear the movement of air when the CPU is under heavy load.

I have never used the Fractal Design Define S so I don't know how good the ventilation is on that case... I chose the Silverstone KL-06 which has two, mostly unobstructed, large fans in front that blow straight through to the back. The Define S, on the other hand, relies on little slits along the edge of the front which may or may not limit the amount of air in the case to cool things and may or may not cause a more turbulent path for air to travel which can contribute to noise.
View attachment 269568 View attachment 269569
These are just my own personal theories and I have no scientific evidence to back up these theories...

I also used Noctua fans throughout my build and think they are fantastic.

Thanks so much for your detailed reply. I decided on the Define S case because of price and acoustics. In benchmarks it showed acceptable thermal performance. The front panel can actually be opened, since it is a door. So when needed additional air intake can be applied. For example this can be done when gaming (headset on, so I won't hear the computer anyway).

Delidding the CPU is something I have not considered yet. I will look into this when and if the overclocking performance is limited by the temperatures. Who knows, maybe I'll hit a stable 5ghz out of the box.

I just ordered all the parts. I did do some tweaks. I went for the smaller Noctua fans, since benchmarks showed no significant difference between that and the more expensive ones. Also I ordered a different passively cooled PSU because of availability.

I went with a ATX board since it has superior connectivity and USB 3.1 support. However I am disappointed with the case sizes overall. There seem to be a large emphasis on many hard drive bays. A feature I will not be using since I wen the m.2. and SSD route (SSD can be mounted on the rear of a motherboard). This left a lot of cases with liters of useless empty space. There are other smaller cases but their thermal performance and acoustics seem less than I wanted. So a big case it is .

I will report back with my results and some benchmarks!

 

[EricDi]

Update time. I've finished building the desktop. Ran Mac OS installer without any issues. Did have some issues with audio, fixing that now.
[edit: Audio is working]

At normal usage it's near silent, CPU runs at 29C. The M.2 NVME drive benchmarks at 1800MB writes and 2700MB reads. Which translates to apps opening instantly.

Going to try overclocking soon.

Mobo

• EricDi
• Aug 4, 2017

 

[EricDi]

GeekBench Results at 5ghz overclock.

Build is working. Only need to fix imessage.

 

[pastrychef]

The following guide is fantastic:

An iDiot's Guide To iMessage | tonymacx86.com

 

[EricDi]

Just fixed iMessage.

No problems with the build. Working perfectly.

 

[luckyal]

Just fixed iMessage.

No problems with the build. Working perfectly.

Thanks for all the follow up posts. Not many go through the trouble. I'm on the cusp of building my first hackintosh and am flip flopping between going with a Gigabyte board versus Asus. From what I read, Gigabyte offers more compatibility, but I haven't been able to track down the details on why. Can you share why you went with your particular board?

 

[EricDi]

Thanks for all the follow up posts. Not many go through the trouble. I'm on the cusp of building my first hackintosh and am flip flopping between going with a Gigabyte board versus Asus. From what I read, Gigabyte offers more compatibility, but I haven't been able to track down the details on why. Can you share why you went with your particular board?

I don't feel confident enough to advice one over the other. Only thing I can say is that the configuration I used works great.

Any specific hardware compatibility questions might be better asked in the hardware forum.

 

[luckyal]

I don't feel confident enough to advice one over the other. Only thing I can say is that the configuration I used works great.

Any specific hardware compatibility questions might be better asked in the hardware forum.

Fair enough. Is it as quiet as you had hoped?