New Totally Silent and Dustless SFF Workstation Build.

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Seeking Silence
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Jan 06, 2013 8:16 pm

New Totally Silent and Dustless SFF Workstation Build.

Post by Seeking Silence » Sun Jan 06, 2013 8:31 pm

Looking to build a totally silent and dustless workstation in a small form factor.

Will need:
1) Ivy Bridge 3770 or 3770S (Haven't decided yet)
2) Samsung 840 Pro SSD
3) 12-16 GB Ram (preferably low latency)
3) DVD Burner (quietest possible)
4) Passively Cooled Video Card that will support 4 monitors like FirePro 2460 - or use a motherboard that already supports 2 monitors and another dual Video Card like Asus GT610 1GB - which setup is better for my purpose?
5) Motherboard - not sure what my choices are here.

Would like to have: Space for 1 additional SSD (willing to do without it if necessary)

Looking for a box that is designed to stand on its side. It cannot exceed 6.5 inches.

Looking at picopsu 160XT but not sure if that is best for my purpose or can I use a lower model.

The computer will be used for financial backtesting and live trading.

It really needs to be stable and not overheat. Would like CPU and MB temps to be no higher than 30 C idle and 50 and 40 at 3/4 load. I don't think that it will ever even get to 1/2 load (although I am not sure).

I would appreciate any suggestions regarding the case and psu that I should consider as well as anything else that may help me.
Last edited by Seeking Silence on Sun Jan 06, 2013 9:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.

CA_Steve
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Location: St. Louis, MO

Re: New Totally Silent and Dustless SFF Workstation Build.

Post by CA_Steve » Sun Jan 06, 2013 9:46 pm

Hi and welcome to SPCR.

Will your apps make use of the 4 cores/ 8 threads of the i7?

For video, what are the four monitors' resolution and inputs? You could probably go with IGP + a cheap passive Gfx card.

Seeking Silence
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Jan 06, 2013 8:16 pm

Re: New Totally Silent and Dustless SFF Workstation Build.

Post by Seeking Silence » Mon Jan 07, 2013 8:07 am

CA_Steve wrote:Hi and welcome to SPCR.

Will your apps make use of the 4 cores/ 8 threads of the i7?
I think so. I will be using a program called NinjaTrader.
CA_Steve wrote: For video, what are the four monitors' resolution and inputs? You could probably go with IGP + a cheap passive Gfx card.
Not sure of the resolution. I like to have the biggest text possible without distorting the image. 1 will be a 24inch Led. The other two 19 inch lcd. I will only be using 3 monitors to begin with. But wanted the option of adding 1 more later on. Which passive Gfx cards did you have in mind?

Any suggestions on a totally silent case given my dimensions?

CA_Steve
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Joined: Thu Oct 06, 2005 4:36 am
Location: St. Louis, MO

Re: New Totally Silent and Dustless SFF Workstation Build.

Post by CA_Steve » Mon Jan 07, 2013 9:00 am

I did a quick web search into Ninja Trader. Looks like ver 7 uses hyperthreading only for back testing and in some cases it slows down performance. However, upcoming ver 8 uses hyperthreading throughout. Hopefully, they'll do a better job on optimization.

gfx card: Something like the HD 6450 - there are a bunch of passive versions.

Other folks on the site are tracking tiny cases. I'll leave it to them to respond.

Seeking Silence
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Jan 06, 2013 8:16 pm

Re: New Totally Silent and Dustless SFF Workstation Build.

Post by Seeking Silence » Mon Jan 07, 2013 9:55 am

CA_Steve wrote: Other folks on the site are tracking tiny cases. I'll leave it to them to respond.
Thanks, but I am not particularly looking for a "tiny" case. I can go up to 6.5 inches wide. Would like it to be no deeper than 17 inches though. Is this still considered tiny?

Also, I really wanted something that is designed to stand on it's side (preferably with legs. although this could be a problem if the legs would widen the stance to beyond 6.5 inches) I wanted to place it right next to my TV. I hope there would be no interference while TV is on, or is this a big no no?

Thanks

CA_Steve
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Joined: Thu Oct 06, 2005 4:36 am
Location: St. Louis, MO

Re: New Totally Silent and Dustless SFF Workstation Build.

Post by CA_Steve » Mon Jan 07, 2013 10:24 am

Tower and mini tower ATX cases tend to be 8-9" wide in order to support 5 1/4" ODD drive, full height PCI-e cards, CPU coolers > 150mm, and still have some room behind the mobo for cable routing. So, you'll probably be herded toward a mATX case that supports at least half-height PCI-e (for the gfx card) and a sideways slot mounted ODD to fit the 6.5" width.

PC next to a TV - not a problem unless it's an old CRT.

edh
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Joined: Mon Mar 17, 2008 1:49 pm
Location: UK

Re: New Totally Silent and Dustless SFF Workstation Build.

Post by edh » Mon Jan 07, 2013 2:41 pm

One of the Streacom passive HTPC cases might make sense. This is intended to work with a PicoPSU and the heatpipe system works effectively for fairly high power CPUs and graphics cards according to user reports on these forums. This will also sit very well with a TV.

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