NanoSquid

Only 4gb for a new flagship? That tells me that AMD probably has something up their sleeves even beyond the HBM stuff they've been showing recently. Maybe that's just me being hopeful, though. I feel nVidia has gotten way too comfortable at the top, judging by their recent behavior, and I really want AMD to give them something to worry about. Same for Intel, frankly. I know AMD is an amoral corporation just like them but at least if competition gets healthier they'll all try to be more consumer-friendly. Hopefully.

Regarding the SSD, I'm not sure if that extra little bit of noise reduction justifies the price jump. Even a 500GB SSD will bring my overall cost to 1.7K from 1.5.

Thank you, that's exactly what I needed.

Anyone? I guess I should ask more specific questions. Does sound dampening foam (such as the kind in the Silencio 352 case I'm looking at) cause heat buildup? Is there any part in this build that seems overpriced/unnecessary to more experienced builders? Am I being unrealistic in looking for high performance, compact size, AND quiet operation? Do I need to cut back on one of them?

Hi all, Hope you all had a merry Christmas! As of the holiday, I have some spending cash, and for the first time in some eight years I'm planning out a new PC. I used to own a monster that took up half of my desk space, so I'm aiming for a small form factor. My current machine is an Asus G73 "gaming laptop". This device has one major design flaw: it outputs way more heat than its fans can keep up with. The tiny fans on the back are almost always squealing and my laptop has begun to sound more and more like a hair dryer. I fear if I have to put up with this any longer I will have an aneurysm. So in addition to the small form factor, I'm also aiming for quiet operation. My budget is around 1.5k USD, so I threw together this parts list. I wanted to ask advice about cooling here since it's been so long since I last built anything. First of all, I'm going fanless with the PSU for quiet operation, and placing an Asus STRIX directly over it. The idea is that this will give me minimum sound, and when under load hopefully the GPU will help pull air through the PSU as well. I'll be using Noctua's tiny NH-L12 CPU cooler for space/airflow concerns. I will also be using noctua NF-F12 120mm fans for case airflow, with two at the front panel and one for exhaust to maintain positive pressure and achieve a wind-tunnel layout. I am conflicted about whether or not to remove the 120mm fan from the CPU cooler and use it as my exhaust fan to reduce noise even further (I don't plan to do any overclocking in the near future). Is this a decent concept? I had some pretty bad experiences with overheating in my early days of PC gaming and I'd hate to screw up again.