Hi!
I’m chosing components for a quiet hackintosh. My needs are not that big, but I like having a fast machine (especially since I tend to upgrade very seldom). Desktop work, a bit of photography work, coding, occasional 3D games... I'm mostly doing it for the sake of learning to build a hackintosh, and not making it quiet would make me avoid using it.

With help of SPCR and tonymacx86’s great article:
http://tonymacx86.blogspot.com/2011/06/ ... tomac.html
I came up with this:

Graphics
Gigabyte Radeon HD5770SL 1GB (fanless)

Processor
INTEL Core i5 2400S / 2.5 GHz processor (BX80623I52400S). 2.5 GHz, quad.
(S for slower clock, I suppose. It specifies 65 W of Thermal design power, which is why I chose it above the 2400K).

Box
Antec LifeStyle SOLO.
Nice rubber band fastening of HDD, one of the preferred boxes at silentpcreview.
An alternative is to reuse my Antec Sonata from 2005.

Mobo
GIGABYTE GA-H67MA-UD2H-B3 (micro ATX)

PSU
Seasonic X-560 560W

RAM
Corsair XMS3 4 GB 1333mhz DDR3 (4GB)

HDD
not decided yet. Probably an SSD for the OS(es), and a spinpoint for data.

Does this look ok? I am mostly concerned about airflow, considering the fanless graphic card.
I also wonder why the case has two 92 mm fan slots on the front, instead of 120 mm.
In my dreams I would have only two fans, one on the back (hopefully close to a tower CPU heatsink), and one on the front of the case. Is this realistic? Could I even reuse my Thermalright XP-120 heatsink without a fan on it if it gets close to the back fan?

That mostly looks good.

The Antec case design is an older one. That is why it has the 92mm fans and it may not have enough venting/airflow for your graphics card. I would try your build in the old case before spending any money on a new case.

You can get your CPU heatsink close to the back fan, or you could remove the back fan and us the CPU fan to vent the case. That is what I did in the following thread. The 5770 that you are going to use will make more then double the heat of the 5570 in my thread.

Empty 120mm fan frame as duct = no case fan

Hi and Welcome to SPCR!

The Solo has served me well for 5 years. But, there are newer cases out there with better features. Consider the Fractal R3 or Silverstone Raven or even the Antec 300 and add some mass loaded vinyl for damping (nice case thread here). If you go with the Solo, that gigabyte 5770 is 10.8" long and won't fit unless you remove the drive cage (drilling out rivets, etc). I think you need to be in the 10" range (dependant on how the connectors are laid out).

Solo fans: comes with a rear fan that you'll want to replace. If you go with a passive gpu, you will want to use a front fan. I have a front fan on mine mostly to lower the HDD temp a few degrees.

I wouldn't bother with the 2400S. All the i5 Sandy Bridge CPUs will consume about the same idle power. While they might have different TDPs/load power, you really don't save any electricity over the load task time (slower processor - takes longer). You won't notice the thermal increase in a decent case. Photoshop is dependant on 3 things: CPU horsepower, amount of RAM, and speed of the OS and scratch disk. I'd get a i5-2500K, or 2400/2500 if you don't care about OCing. Get 8GB of RAM as it's a huge improvement over 4GB. Get an SSD to use as OS/app/scratch disk.

Mobo: Nothing perfect out there.
Gigabyte: funky UEFI work around to allow 3GB disks, poor fan control.
Asus: nice UEFI interface, ok fan control, tends to have higher power use than others.
MSI: UEFI interface, fair to middling fan control.

You can always fall back to manual fan control with a couple of Zalman Fanmate 2's.

Just throwing some more options in case your looking for alternatives,
I havent been able to find avialable yet, but just in case, Sapphire Ultimate Radeon HD 6670 Review (Dimesions according to the another review, 18cm x 13cm x 5cm)
GIGABYTE GV-R677SL-1GD Radeon HD 6770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 (Dimension according to newegg 10.8" x 5.9" x 1.5")
PowerColor SCS3 AX6850 1GBD5-S3DH Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 (dimensions according to powercolor web 223.3mm x 111.2mm x 62mm)

Here i agree with CA_Steve, i would go with better cpu, like 2500K, and as he says most of the Sandy Bridge will idle very low and similar, so to me extra power of the 2500K and the abillity to OC in case you need it imo its worth it, and the price difference is so small. On the mobo, i always like to invest a little more for features and quality, and having a 2500k, i would go with ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard, beautiful mobo. Btw this isnt that mobo but for you to see how Asus mobo are controlling the fans and for a peak into UEFI bios, ASUS Sabertooth 990FX Motherboard Overview (AMD Bulldozer) | JJ's Corner also here is a video of the mobo, really nice, Official ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z Motherboard Unboxing - Episode 16

I would go with Fractal Design Define R3 Black ATX Mid Tower Silent PC Computer Case beatiful mid tower case, has a good clearance for heatsinks, comes with fan filters, good cable management, and comes with sound dampening material. Its been reviewed here in SCPR, Fractal Design Define R3 ATX Tower, and its recommended. If you want something smaller and if you liked the Asus mobo since its micro itx, you could also go with the Fractal Design Mini, which is almost the same as the Define R3 just smaller, since its design for micro atx, i read somewhere that around mid july eta, but dont quote me on that, there is Fractal Design representative here on the forums you could ask.

No suggestions here, the X 560 is a wonderful PSU.

I would second CA_Steve, go with 8GB.

For Sata III, I would go with Crucial M4 64/128/256GB depending on your budget and needs, but most of the macbook pros are coming with Samsung 470, so that might also be a good option for hackintosh, but its only sata II. And for Storage HDD, i would go with Western Digital Green Caviar.

As an extra suggestion, if you go with Fractal Design R3/Mini + Asus mobo + 2500k, i would also consider a quieter and more capable cpu heatsink, this might even allow you OCing down the road in case you need it. Sandy Bridge mobos, come with 4pin PWM fan connectors, so i would buy a CPU cooler with PWM fans, Scythe MUGEN 3, comes with pwm slipstream that can be control via bios with pwm fan between 300rpm and 1600rpm. Check the SPCR Scythe Mugen-2 CPU Cooler Review, it even got the Editor Choice Award (this is the predecesor but seems the same, just with an extra heatpipe).

And just in case you like the sound signature of the slipstreams (a lot do), and you like to control the fans via bios, you could replace the case fans with Scythe Slip Stream 120mm x 25mm PWM Mid Speed Fan - (SY1225SL12LM-P) 200rpm to 1300rpm, the Asus mobo only has 2x 4pin PWM, use one for the CPU so you can control it independantly, and use the second with Akasa PWM Splitter - Smart Fan Cable (AK-CB002) to connect the case fans to the mobo PWM connector it will draw the power from the PSU 4pin "Molex", but the mobo will still control them via BIOS with the 4pin mobo connector, the Define R3/Mini even has a optional bottom case fan (next to PSU), mentioning this out of you going passive with the gpu, so you could even adds this and control it via bios, etc.

I would vote for a 2400. It is low cost and has almost as much processing power as a 2500. If you want the stronger graphics processor, then look at the 2500K or the 2105 dual core.

Really depends into what you need, but for $30 ill take better built in gpu, slighly better clocks and paired with Z68 and good cooler the ability to OC if any task demands more cpu power.

Looks good, mostly.

I wouldn't put a hot, Passive GPU in the Solo.
The MSI 6870 Twin Frozr II is very quiet.

If you want to OC you need a K CPU (2500K/2600K) and a mainboard with the P67 or Z68 chipset. MSI and Asus boards have better fan controllers than Gigabyte's.
The difference in IDLE power between any of these CPUs is small. Missing from your list is a good CPU cooler. With a good cooler the difference in sound level when the CPU is loaded is small. Get a 2400 and save a few bucks from the 2400s and get a good cooler.
Pick any from the recommended list. The Mugen 2 has the best price/performance ratio. Beware the Mugen's backplate is not compatible with every mainboard. Check before you buy. I use Thermalright coolers because they have a great build quality and I don't use the standard fan anyway. They are on the expensive side.
Ram is extremely cheap these days and OSX will benefit from more. Get 8GB, consider 16GB since you don't upgrade often.

5770 isn't a very power-atrocious card to begin with ............ That said, with decent case cooling like a combination of low-RPM 90mm/120mm fan in the case, I think 5770 fanlesss will be doable. Not fantastic temp like 60'c during gaming, but like 70'c under normal stress will be predictable depending on ambient temperature.

Thanks for the replies, exactly what I was hoping for then some more!

Case:
I couldn't find a case with the rubber band system for HDD, other than the older Antec Solo case. Since it seemed to still be a favorite here at spcr, I figured it would do fine in spite of its age. I'll have a look at the Fractal R3, Antec 300, and Raven (the latter probably too ugly for my taste).
Thanks a lot for pointing out the size issue of the VGA card, that'd have been a pain to notice too late.
I'm ok with having a front fan, especially if I can skip VGA fan and use the rear box fan as CPU fan.

Ducting seems very interesting. In fact, I was wondering if you couldn't use a single 200 mm fan or bigger, and ducting to all critical points. But that'd be a DIY project a little too advanced for me right now. I know I had a Dell box at a previous work place, that ducted from the rear fan (or maybe side?) to the CPU. But not for now.

About the Fractal R3, I noticed there is no USB3 on the front panel. Not really a bummer right now, but might become one soon. The Fractal define R3 Mini you mentioned has it, though. Graphic cards up to 400 mm. Nice price too, and it seems to be available in Sweden, I might just as well go with that.

One question though: the size of the case could impact the sound. Are the Define R3 and the Mini really going to be comparable?
(aaand, I need to check clearance for the VGA).

Processor:
I will certainly go for the faster processor, with 8 GB RAM. The whole "work faster and go to sleep earlier" makes perfectly sense. I don't think I'll ever overclock though.

CPU heatsink
Mugen-2 sounds nice. So you don’t think it’s a good idea to reuse my Thermalright XP-120?

Mobo:
The reason I picked a Gigabyte is that is was recommended at tonymacx86 for hackintosh builds. According to tonymacx86 himself, on 26th of june:
“On Asus 1155 stuff- the reason we haven't recommended them yet is because there are more tweaks to do to get Power Management working. Hence all of the CustoMacs for now have Gigabyte motherboards.”
But the 1600 MHz RAM channels could be interesting...
About fan control, I’ll be running OSx86, so whatever fancy fan control SW is available on windows won’t help me. Did I misunderstand?
It is also much more expensive.
But thanks for the alternative, it does look beautiful.

So with this new info, the rig would rather look like:

Graphics
Something fanless, I will check the differences between 5570 and 5770. I can get a fanless 5570 at half the price of the 5770. I have not much clue about what does what, and assumed a fanless would sound less, which I understand now is not necessarily true.
Also, I need to keep in mind that the card needs to be supported for hackintosh.

Processor
Intel Core i5 2500K 3.3GHz

Box
Fractal Design Define Mini

Mobo
GIGABYTE GA-H67MA-UD2H-B3 (micro ATX)

PSU
Seasonic X-560 560W.

RAM
Corsair XMS3 8 GB 1333mhz DDR3 (2x4GB)

HDD
crucial m4 128 GB (need to check the need for OS’s)
Spinpoint or WD green caviar for data.


More thoughts?

Define Mini thread.

HDD mounting in the Define Mini: If the soft grommets don't work well enough for vibration dampening...you could maybe remove a couple of the drive sleds and hang your own elastic bands (just buy some at a craft shop for a $1). Or, maybe remove a HDD-bay and hang the HDD below it.

GPU in the Define Mini: Looks like the length problem is solved.
"Supports graphic cards with lengths up to ca 260mm when removable HDD-bay is in place
Supports graphic cards with lengths up to ca 400mm when HDD-bay is removed"

Thermalright has a backplate that will adapt your existing cooler to 1155 socket.

I find that difficult to believe. My son has a much more powerful video card in that same case and has no problems running just a single 92mm Noctua.

What fanless graphics card is your son using, if I may ask?

I'm personally running an 8800GT fanless with an Accelero Rev2, and I top out just over 60C during graphics stress testing, or just over 70C if I start stressing the CPU and graphics. For real-world use, I almost always see the graphics temperature stabilize at 59C while gaming.

That's with 2x noctuas (with the bigger resistor they shipped with) and the grilled PCI slot cover, though. My guess is I would still be below the GPU Tjmax for the card if I removed one of the 92mm fans, but I don't have figures on the VRMs and RAM...

If I were buying a case today, I would probably look at some of the more recently developed models. The main advantage of the SOLO is the HDD suspension, but this is really easy to emulate with a 5.25" bay (or a 3.5" bay with trays) and a $5 trip to the craft store. Other cases have nicer PSU mounting, cable management options, a cutout under the CPU area of the motherboard for easier back-plate access, etc.

As Steve pointed out, Fractal is a pretty good place to start. The R3 is a pretty sweet case for a pretty sweet price. It might not allow for elastic mounting of HDDs, but they really do not vibrate as much as they used to, and the R3 does have silicone damping.

It isn't fanless. It is I believe an Nvidea 260. The role of the front fans is to assure that the internal air is being refreshed... so whether or not the card is fanless shouldn't make a difference with what the card does or does not do with the cooler outside air.

If I understand correctly, you mean the case fans are not helping a fanless graphics card?
I made the assumption that a fanless card would require more case air flow than a card with a fan. Is that wrong?

In general, yes. In specific, it depends on the amount of airflow through the case, the TDP of the card, and what's a satisfactory load temp to you for the graphics card.

For the PowerColor HD 6850 SCS3 I was wondering what the real height is off the mainboard? 112mm was PCB height, so I assume it is not the actual height.

btw the heat sink does seem to have horizontal clearance in the slots for two cards, even 2xSCS3 I recon 1 or 2 mm or maybe 0mm, it is not 62mm in width as mentioned above (it has 62 fins).

The height of the 6850 to the top of the cooler is 145mm (source HT4U).
99 degrees load! I think you need to strap a slow running fan on that thing.

Full review at HT4U of the Sapphire 6950 Dirt3.

19mm above PCIe so PC 6850 may fit in the NSK2480B... wow.. looks like this card was even made for the Antec SPCR case as it could be exactly the dimensions.

The cooling might work in this case with 1 case fan for the whole system if you opened the other slots up a bit and blocked off the correct places. I would take the punt on that.

I don't think I will take the punt though on the size, if I was 1mm out I would cry.

I might go for the frozer II 6870 but the NSK2480B would act like a giant frozer with one PC card, so you could get rid of 2 fans. You could even have 2 fans at the end of the antec case if needed.

You might need to mod the power connector, but probably not (or not much).