Upgrading my rig

[Mattiemus]

Hi all,

So a year ago I built my first PC - I wanted something with a bit more bang than what I could find in stores and building my own seemed to be much cheaper. So I went out and brought these parts, and got to work building the thing:
 

• MSI x79-gd45
• Intel i7 3930k (Socket 2011)
• GTX 660
• 16GB 1600MHz corsair vengeance lp RAM
• Black Rock Pro 2 (aka: the hairdryer)
• NZXT Phantom 630
• 750W PSU
• Seagate 2TB HDD

Overall everything works great - its fast, plays games, and was quite cheap for the specs i got (everything was just under £900 in total).

However a year on I want to upgrade what I have, mainly addressing 3 key problems:
 

• It sounds like a hairdryer.... it is LOUD (yes I have cleaned it with compressed air etc) but the cooler whines and even when listening to music with my headset on i can hear it in the background.
• Its bulky. The case is WAY bigger than I expected and taking it to and from uni is getting to the point of being extremely tedious.
• As this was my first build, its messy. And want to tidy up the offending cables (shown below).

The offending cables: http://up2go.us/static/img/2014-03-14_15.44_.55_.jpg

 

So I have a budget of about £300 and for that i would like a smaller case, a quieter cooler for the CPU. And if anyone has any tips to help tidy up the cables, that would be awesome too.

Anyone have any recommendations for cases or coolers that I could use? Ideally air cooled as I don't think i would trust a water cooling setup that is getting moved every 2-3 months.

 

Thanks!

[Shd0w2]

A 660 with a3930k? ._.

[Mattiemus]

A 660 with a3930k? ._.

For work I do research on inductive reasoning - the simulations we run only run on the CPU (so while it seems like overkill, it really isnt - if anything id prefer something faster, but just cannot afford it). 

I rarely play games, and when i do the 660 runs them fine.

[WoodenMarker]

How's this look? http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/3QKb3

Replace case fans with Akasas. 

[Rheinwasser]

upgrade you gpu and get an h440. or an define r4 since sounds seems to be a concern.

which gtx 600 do you have?

get all noctuas and thats it.

maybe switch out your psu, you didnt mention the model.

[Mattiemus]

How's this look? http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/3QKb3

Replace case fans with Akasas. 

 

The case looks very nice! however my only concern is the lack of dust filters.

 

upgrade you gpu and get an h440. or an define r4 since sounds seems to be a concern.

which gtx 600 do you have?

get all noctuas and thats it.

maybe switch out your psu, you didnt mention the model.

I really liked the look of the h440 (it was nearly what i brought) and the r4 looks like it has nice sound dampening on it.

Its an MSI twinfrozr 660, and the PSU is an OCZ 750w and fully moduler, however i dont really want to change either as they both work and are pretty much dead silent (the main concern atm is the noise + case size).

I have been looking at a H100i, does anyone have any experience with these? and do you think they will hold well to being move around a lot?

[Rheinwasser]

The case looks very nice! however my only concern is the lack of dust filters.

 

I really liked the look of the h440 (it was nearly what i brought) and the r4 looks like it has nice sound dampening on it.

Its an MSI twinfrozr 660, and the PSU is an OCZ 750w and fully moduler, however i dont really want to change either as they both work and are pretty much dead silent (the main concern atm is the noise + case size).

I have been looking at a H100i, does anyone have any experience with these? and do you think they will hold well to being move around a lot?

ok, if you say that your psu is silent.

then get the r4 and noctuas.

[WoodenMarker]

The case looks very nice! however my only concern is the lack of dust filters.

I have been looking at a H100i, does anyone have any experience with these? and do you think they will hold well to being move around a lot?

You can always just get aftermarket filters. You can also alternatively get the Tempest 210 which has pretty much the same layout with filters but has some adornments that make the case just slightly bigger.

The h100i is rather light but the stock fans are pretty dark loud and the pump can potentially add to noise. It's fine with being moved around but it's more expensive and louder than it's worth imo.