Can you build a silent/exteremly quiet mITX sytstem?

[kev507]

And have it be powerful at the same time?

 

I'm looking at building a new rig, with a budget around $1500-$2000 and performance and silence are the two most important things to me, but if it's possible I'd also like for it to be small. I haven't seen any silence optimized mITX chassis on the market, but what do you think could be done to keep the sound levels as low as possible while still maintaining i5/i7 and gtx 960/970/980 levels of performance? Or should I just forget about it and go with something the Fractal Design Define Mini. It would be used for gaming as well as some light/medium photo and video editing with adobe photoshop and premiere. If I go Nvidia (and I likely would for the lower power) I'd probably be looking into a new gsync display at 27in 2560x1440 IPS if possible.

[MegaDave91]

At the expense of heat which opens the possibility of throttling.

[EpicGeekonFire]

It can be done, but don't expect much overclocking to be done without overheating.

[brob]

And have it be powerful at the same time?

 

I'm looking at building a new rig, with a budget around $1500-$2000 and performance and silence are the two most important things to me, but if it's possible I'd also like for it to be small. I haven't seen any silence optimized mITX chassis on the market, but what do you think could be done to keep the sound levels as low as possible while still maintaining i5/i7 and gtx 960/970/980 levels of performance? Or should I just forget about it and go with something the Fractal Design Define Mini. It would be used for gaming as well as some light/medium photo and video editing with adobe photoshop and premiere. If I go Nvidia (and I likely would for the lower power) I'd probably be looking into a new gsync display at 27in 2560x1440 IPS if possible.

 

• Pick a case with 120mm or 140mm fans. And, counter intuitively, very good ventilation.
• Go with a low power cpu (S or T variants) & memory (1.35v) - no cpu overclocking.
• Go with a GTX 980 that has smart fan control, i.e. doesn't spin at idle and ramps with need.
• Try undervolting the gpu.
• Use a quiet after market cpu air cooler.
• Get a slightly oversized psu with smart fan control (most modern models have the feature).

[daaaaab]

I'm looking for the same thing. ITX, very quiet, sufficiently powerful and small, good looking as much as possible.

Here is what I came up with: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/BTf43C

 

The CPU cooler will be fan-less helped by the PSU fan and the back fan should be switched for intake, as there's a filter for it and it's stupid to use it as exhaust and leave the front vents (not filtered) for intakes, it should also be hooked up to the CPU_FAN header and PWM controlled for better acoustics. (I'm currently trying to find if smaller fan-less heat sinks that will do adequate job)

The motherboard is best price for features as far as I know, AC WIFI, mSata, good sound solution, decent I/O. From my pov msata is important as I'll get rid of 2 extra cables vs a classic SSD, plus when prices go down I can get something like a HyperX Predator msata.

Zotac was the smallest GTX970 with dual fan cooling.

PSU was silent, powerful enough and cool looking.

 

What do you guys think? (Parts may change)

Shouldn't we ask for a video like this? Really small, powerful and silent.