Looking for a QUIET Workstation for $2050

[FinalFantasyBros]

Hello LTT,

 

At work I have a budget surplus that needs to be spent and I've decided to spend it on a new workstation. The budget surplus is $2050, and as such I need to spend the whole budget so please don't try and save me any money. Please try to get as close as you can.

 

I'll be primarily using this for 4k video rendering in Adobe Premiere Pro CC. Here's the requirements for the build. It needs to be QUIET. As quiet as possible. To me, how quiet it is is as important to me as performance is, which is very important. Ideally I don't want to be able to hear it at all. I also need it to be no larger than a mid sized tower.

 

With all that in mind does anyone have any ideas?

[Jurrunio]

in the US?

[GoldenLag]

12 minutes ago, FinalFantasyBros said:

I'll be primarily using this for 4k video rendering in Adobe Premiere Pro CC

only as a rendering server?

[jerubedo]

Here's what I came up with:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	Intel - Core i9-9900K 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor	$525.99 @ Walmart
CPU Cooler	Corsair - H150i PRO 47.3 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler	$139.99 @ Newegg
Motherboard	Gigabyte - Z390 AORUS ULTRA ATX LGA1151 Motherboard	$243.05 @ Newegg
Memory	G.Skill - Trident Z RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$179.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Western Digital - Black NVMe 1 TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive	$229.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Western Digital - RE 3 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$89.99 @ Amazon
Video Card	Asus - GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6 GB STRIX GAMING Video Card	$319.99 @ B&H
Case	Fractal Design - Define R6 Gunmetal TG ATX Mid Tower Case	$119.99 @ Newegg
Power Supply	Corsair - HX Platinum 1200 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply	$159.99 @ Amazon
Case Fan	Corsair - ML140 97 CFM 140mm Fans	$35.99 @ Amazon
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$2064.96
	Mail-in rebates	-$20.00
	Total	$2044.96
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-03-13 03:24 EDT-0400

 

So let me break this down for you. From a being quiet perspective:

 

- The H150i is one of the most quiet coolers on the market at 33.1db(A). That is using it's "quiet" profile, which it's optimized to use and still cools as well as top air coolers using that profile. It uses magnetic levetation fans for maximum silence. It also supports the fans turning off when the CPU is idle, making it completely silent at idle. You're going to want to front mount this to the R6 tower I have in the build, removing the noisier fans from the front.

 

- The extra fan I have is for the rear of the case. Again, it's an ML fan, so it's very quiet. Replace the default rear fan with this.

 

- The power supply is 1200w, WAY more than you need. The reason for that is because this particular power supply has a fan that does not spin up until 40% load is reached, which is a load you will never hit on these parts, meaning the fan will never spin up and it'll be completely silent in operation.

 

- The video card is a triple fan design, for better cooling while remaining quieter than dual and single fan designs. This will still be the loudest part in the whole system at load, but should be bearable.

 

Performance-wise:

 

- The 9900K has leading performance in Premiere Pro CC. It's not THE top CPU for it, but it's close.

 

- The GTX 1660 Ti is a excellent pairing for Premiere Pro. You COULD go higher than this, but it starts to have a diminishing return.

 

- 32GB of RAM, which is the recommended amount from Adobe for 4K video editing.

 

-1TB NVME 3D TLC 600TBW endurance M.2 SSD. Basically this thing is fast and durable. I paired it with a 3TB enterprise HDD, which again is reliable and is great for storing large videos.

 

That's about it. Let me know if you have any questions!

[FinalFantasyBros]

12 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

in the US?

yes

[FinalFantasyBros]

9 minutes ago, GoldenLag said:

only as a rendering server?

That will be at least 90% of what it's used for, yes.

[GoldenLag]

Just now, FinalFantasyBros said:

That will be at least 90% of what it's used for, yes.

so essentially no editing and it will be dedicated to exporting files?

 

will it operate as a NAS aswell to keep all the project files on that System?

[FinalFantasyBros]

5 minutes ago, jerubedo said:

Here's what I came up with:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	Intel - Core i9-9900K 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor	$525.99 @ Walmart
CPU Cooler	Corsair - H150i PRO 47.3 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler	$139.99 @ Newegg
Motherboard	Gigabyte - Z390 AORUS ULTRA ATX LGA1151 Motherboard	$243.05 @ Newegg
Memory	G.Skill - Trident Z RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$179.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Western Digital - Black NVMe 1 TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive	$229.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Western Digital - RE 3 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$89.99 @ Amazon
Video Card	Asus - GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6 GB STRIX GAMING Video Card	$319.99 @ B&H
Case	Fractal Design - Define R6 Gunmetal TG ATX Mid Tower Case	$119.99 @ Newegg
Power Supply	Corsair - HX Platinum 1200 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply	$159.99 @ Amazon
Case Fan	Corsair - ML140 97 CFM 140mm Fans	$35.99 @ Amazon
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$2064.96
	Mail-in rebates	-$20.00
	Total	$2044.96
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-03-13 03:24 EDT-0400

 

So let me break this down for you. From a being quiet perspective:

 

- The H150i is one of the most quiet coolers on the market at 33.1db(A). That is using it's "quiet" profile, which it's optimized to use and still cools as well as top air coolers using that profile. It uses magnetic levetation fans for maximum silence. It also supports the fans turning off when the CPU is idle, making it completely silent at idle. You're going to want to front mount this to the R6 tower I have in the build, removing the noisier fans from the front.

 

- The extra fan I have is for the rear of the case. Again, it's an ML fan, so it's very quiet. Replace the default rear fan with this.

 

- The power supply is 1200w, WAY more than you need. The reason for that is because this particular power supply has a fan that does not spin up until 40% load is reached, which is a load you will never hit on these parts, meaning the fan will never spin up and it'll be completely silent in operation.

 

- The video card is a triple fan design, for better cooling while remaining quieter than dual and single fan designs. This will still be the loudest part in the whole system at load, but should be bearable.

 

Performance-wise:

 

- The 9900K has leading performance in Premiere Pro CC. It's not THE top CPU for it, but it's close.

 

- The GTX 1660 Ti is a excellent pairing for Premiere Pro. You COULD go higher than this, but it starts to have a diminishing return.

 

- 32GB of RAM, which is the recommended amount from Adobe for 4K video editing.

 

-1TB NVME 3D TLC 600TBW endurance M.2 SSD. Basically this thing is fast and durable. I paired it with a 3TB enterprise HDD, which again is reliable and is great for storing large videos.

 

That's about it. Let me know if you have any questions!

This looks promising. I can't use MIR though. But I may be willing to pony up the extra $15 myself.

[FinalFantasyBros]

6 minutes ago, GoldenLag said:

so essentially no editing and it will be dedicated to exporting files?

 

will it operate as a NAS aswell to keep all the project files on that System?

I'll be editing on it as well, also using Adobe Premiere Pro CC. Sorry, I thought that was implied. It will not operate as an NAS.

 

jerubdo, does this change anything for what you said?

[jerubedo]

7 minutes ago, FinalFantasyBros said:

jerubdo, does this change anything for what you said

Nope, I had assumed that you meant editing and exporting. I've seen many people blanket that into the term "rendering." 

[Stormseeker9]

23 minutes ago, jerubedo said:

*snip*

 

- The GTX 1660 Ti is a excellent pairing for Premiere Pro. You COULD go higher than this, but it starts to have a diminishing return.

 

 

-1TB NVME 3D TLC 600TBW endurance M.2 SSD. Basically this thing is fast and durable. I paired it with a 3TB enterprise HDD, which again is reliable and is great for storing large videos.

 

That's about it. Let me know if you have any questions!

If you’re going for a build like this.. get at least a RTX 2080 in it and you might as well have Samsung NVMe m.2 drives as they are the fastest out there.

 

so much money can be saved in this build on things it doesn’t need. 1200w PSU? I have a small RMx from Corsair and I never hear it either. Has 0 fan mode.

 

sorry but had to point this out 

[GoldenLag]

9 minutes ago, FinalFantasyBros said:

I'll be editing on it as well, also using Adobe Premiere Pro CC. It will not operate as an NAS.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i9-9900K 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor  ($525.99 @ Walmart) 
CPU Cooler: Corsair - H150i PRO 47.3 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($159.99 @ Newegg) 
Motherboard: ASRock - Z390 Taichi ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($203.88 @ OutletPC) 
Memory: G.Skill - Sniper X 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($174.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Crucial - MX500 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($134.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Toshiba - X300 5 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($114.99 @ Newegg Business) 
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce RTX 2060 6 GB GAMING OC PRO Video Card  ($387.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Case: be quiet! - SILENT BASE 801 | BLACK ATX Mid Tower Case  ($148.98 @ SuperBiiz) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Plus Gold 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($119.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $1971.79
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-03-13 03:52 EDT-0400

 

changed aspects of the build above. it should be quite more silent, in this config with an option to upgrade to 64GB memmory down the road. 

[jerubedo]

5 minutes ago, Stormseeker9 said:

If you’re going for a build like this.. get at least a RTX 2080 in it and you might as well have Samsung NVMe m.2 drives as they are the fastest out there.

What? Premiere Pro does not benefit meaningfully from anything beyond a 1660 Ti. See here. There 1660 Ti performs in between the GTX 1070 and 1070 Ti. 750 overall score vs 790, very small difference.

 

 

 

7 minutes ago, Stormseeker9 said:

so much money can be saved in this build on things it doesn’t need. 1200w PSU? I have a small MRx from Corsair and I never hear it either. Has 0 fan mode.

He said the level of quiet is as important as performance. He also said to not save him money. The smaller MRx will not maintain 0 fan under a full load from this system. 

[GoldenLag]

1 minute ago, jerubedo said:

He said the level of quiet is as important as performance. He also said to not save him money. The smaller MRx will not maintain 0 fan under a full load from this system. 

nor will the 1200 watt PSU. 

 

isnt the zero fan mode below 400 watts?

[GoldenLag]

2 minutes ago, jerubedo said:

He said the level of quiet is as important as performance. He also said to not save him money. The smaller MRx will not maintain 0 fan under a full load from this system. 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i9-9900K 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor  ($525.99 @ Walmart) 
CPU Cooler: Corsair - H150i PRO 47.3 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($159.99 @ Newegg) 
Motherboard: ASRock - Z390 Taichi ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($203.88 @ OutletPC) 
Memory: G.Skill - Sniper X 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($174.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Crucial - MX500 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($134.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Toshiba - X300 5 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($114.99 @ Newegg Business) 
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce RTX 2060 6 GB GAMING OC PRO Video Card  ($387.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Case: be quiet! - SILENT BASE 801 | BLACK ATX Mid Tower Case  ($148.98 @ SuperBiiz) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic - PRIME Titanium 600 W 80+ Titanium Certified Fully-Modular Fanless ATX Power Supply  ($194.98 @ SuperBiiz) 
Total: $2046.78
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-03-13 04:04 EDT-0400

 

oh boy. here you go. 100% fanless PSU. and Adobe premiere is likely to start utilizing the extra fp16 units the RTX series offer over the GTX series of cards. if they ever decide to update that is

[jerubedo]

3 minutes ago, GoldenLag said:

nor will the 1200 watt PSU. 

 

isnt the zero fan mode below 400 watts?

No, it's below 40% load, which on 1200w is 480w. This system draws 370w under max load without overclocking, and for 5.0 GHz overclock it hits 435w (assuming 1.35V), and also assuming 100% TDP.

[GoldenLag]

1 minute ago, jerubedo said:

No, it's below 40% load, which on 1200w is 480w. This system draws 370w under max load without overclocking, and for 5.0 GHz overclock it hits 435w (assuming 1.35V), and also assuming 100% TDP.

at that point you might aswell grab a fanless PSU and a silent oriented case aswell. like the ones i picket out above

[thinwalrus]

New consumer ssd:s will last about 0,2 drive writes per day. So if you dump something like 400GB of video onto that ssd, it might die in 2,5 years. Corsair mp510 960GB has 1700tbw and mx500 360tbw.

 

Who cares if the psu fan spins at 600-800rpm? You would need a special built room to measure a difference in dB output between systems running a passive psu or one with 600rpm.

 

[jerubedo]

Just now, GoldenLag said:

at that point you might aswell grab a fanless PSU and a silent oriented case aswell. like the ones i picket out above

Those will get warmer as they approach max load. If he gets to 480w, that'll be an 80% load, which will produce heat. The smaller the load you put on a PSU, the less heat it generates. So having a way overkill PSU will allow for low thermals AND no noise.

[Stormseeker9]

7 minutes ago, jerubedo said:

What? Premiere Pro does not benefit meaningfully from anything beyond a 1660 Ti. See here. There 1660 Ti performs in between the GTX 1070 and 1070 Ti. 750 overall score vs 790, very small difference.

 

 

 

He said the level of quiet is as important as performance. He also said to not save him money. The smaller MRx will not maintain 0 fan under a full load from this system. 

 

Just putting this out there too.

 

also, any good tier 1/2 power supply you don’t ever hear anyway (at least I don’t) - still

think way overkill.

 

i was thinking maybe a Quadro card as it’s only for premiere and nothing else or back to 2080...

 

[Stormseeker9]

2 minutes ago, jerubedo said:

Those will get warmer as they approach max load. If he gets to 480w, that'll be an 80% load, which will produce heat. The smaller the load you put on a PSU, the less heat it generates. So having a way overkill PSU will allow for low thermals AND no noise.

And also run not efficiently 

[jerubedo]

1 minute ago, Stormseeker9 said:

And also run not efficiently 

Yes, that too!

[GoldenLag]

2 minutes ago, thinwalrus said:

New consumer ssd:s will last about 0,2 drive writes per day. So if you dump something like 400GB of video onto that ssd, it might die in 2,5 years. Corsair mp510 960GB has 1700tbw and mx500 360tbw.

in other words. it will last forever in the eyes of the consumer. 

2 minutes ago, jerubedo said:

Those will get warmer as they approach max load. If he gets to 480w, that'll be an 80% load, which will produce heat. The smaller the load you put on a PSU, the less heat it generates. So having a way overkill PSU will allow for low thermals AND no noise.

and? a fanless PSU doesnt care. its meant to run with no fans. 

 

also 750watt or 850watt Tier A/S PSU is allready overkill. no need to buy a meaningless 1200watt PSU unless you are running 2 GPUs and a 9990XE. 

 

the fanless PSU was sort of a joke tbh

[jerubedo]

9 minutes ago, thinwalrus said:

New consumer ssd:s will last about 0,2 drive writes per day. So if you dump something like 400GB of video onto that ssd, it might die in 2,5 years. Corsair mp510 960GB has 1700tbw and mx500 360tbw.

I agree with this fully. I went with the middle ground in my build with the 600TBW endurance drive, BUT I also paired it with an enterprise class HDD (assuming he'd write many of the video files to it, and use the SSD for only projects that would be copied off the PC frequently).

[thinwalrus]

There is really no sense in getting a passive psu. RM750X runs about 600rpm till 525W in a hot box.