Hi all, After bouncing ideas off everyone here, I built a system back in May with the idea of incrementally upgrading it. Thanks for all the help. It's been running great. And it is dead silent. While it's not what I paid for the parts, my current build is pretty close to this PCPartPicker part list...

A 1 bank kit is a tad less performing option, for some penny less: ... http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f32133c11d8gao I like this option of spending a little more on the faster RAM for future OC, since I'm planning on eventually swapping out for an unlocked K version processor. http://pc...

Thanks CA_Steve. I wasn't sure if 1 bank vs. 2 banks of RAM was still an issue or not. Using a 5,400 RPM drive should help since it's not going to be my primary disk. I'd also forgotten about the partially populated controllers on smaller SSDs. Yikes. Your fan advice is also appreciated, going back ...

Hi guys. Life happened and it's been a while since I posted. I'm looking to build an expandable, silent to very quite machine for heavy development including Nvidia GPU compute usage and some light gaming. My ideal would be something like one of the gaming builds that SPCR has done over the last few...

Haha, thanks ggumdol.

That old machine disappeared 13 years ago. Now even the fan in my wife's 2-year old Asus laptop drives me nuts. And sometimes the Macbook Pro at checking the empty Superdrive annoys.

I'll certainly check for some articles on actual CPU power consumption.

Thanks again.

Thanks ggumdol . CPU: i7-4770S vs i7-4770K I must confess that I'm sincerely skeptical about the efficacy of i7 CPUs for silent computing even for a software developer. Does it really make a significant difference whether compilation time is 30 seconds or 40 seconds? I think i7 CPUs are intended for...

I've been looking at this some more and reading quite a bit in addition to the suggestions people have made. Thank you all for the help. DRIVES: ??? Forgetting the 2.5" Scorpio Black drives, I have two questions: I know jack about SSD's beyond some anecdotes from work. Who makes a good stable SSD th...

Though I haven't used Scorpio Black ever, I highly suspect two of them will be the noisiest parts in your new rig. Those are really intended to be temporary. I'm trying to save a little money up front and would be willing to replace them later. I just looked and WD lists them as 28/28 dBA idle & se...

It's worth reading the review on the case. 3.5" drives block the airflow causing high CPU temps while under heavy load. It was that review which led me to consider the case and rule out an internal optical drive. I was planning on using my 2 2-1/2" drives instead of new 3-1/2" ones. Or would this a...

Hi all, I am looking at building a couple new machines over the next month or so. The first will be a development box, the second a storage/VM server. This is about the first one. It's been a long time since my last build and I could use some input. My priorities are quiet, powerful and small. Most ...