Please critique my quiet build

[RaynorWolfcastle]

I'm due for an upgrade, coming from an undervolted C2Q 9300 and moving to an Ivy Bridge build.

Usage: Photoshop and Premiere CS5.5, some light gaming (no FPS games, gaming is not a priority at the moment). No overclocking on this one, I'm looking for a nice, quiet build.

I'm in Canada so all prices in CAD.

Monitors:
- Dell U3011 (have)
- Dell U2412? Currently running a Westinghouse as a secondary monitor which I am thinking of replacing with a Dell U2412 as a secondary ($300)
Case: Antec Solo II (already bought)
Case fans: 2x Scythe Slip Stream 1200RPM
PSU: Seasonic X-660 (already bought)
Boot storage: Crucial M4 256GB (already bought)
Media Storage: 2x Samsung F4 2TB in RAID-1 (carry-over from current computer)
Video: Currently have a Radeon HD5770, thinking of keeping this for now until mid-range Kepler cards show up. I'm not gaming anyways, so I'm not too worried about holding onto this for a while longer
CPU: Intel 3570k Retail ($230)
Heatsink: Scythe Big Shuriken 2 Rev.B ($30)
RAM: 16GB Crucial Ballistix Elite 4X4GB DDR3-1866 1.5V CL9 ($126)
Motherboard: ASUS P8Z77-V Pro/Thunderbolt ($260)
OS: Windows 7 Pro x64 (have)
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Total: $969 + shipping + tax + ~$300 for video card upgrade in a couple of months

Any opinion on whether I should just pop for a mid-range Radeon (HD 7850 or HD 7870) card now or hold out for Kepler? Will either one make a difference for my application?

I'm buying the thunderbolt motherboard because I think that it will probably be pretty useful for connecting external drives in the future, maybe this isn't necessary and USB 3 is fast enough?

All suggestions and critiques welcomed!

Edit - Adding information as per the sticky:
- Resolution will be 2560x1600 + 1920x1200
- I'll be buying this weekend.
- No hard and fast budget, but I would like to keep it around what I've currently priced; I'm open to increasing budget if there's good reason for it.

 

[lehtv]

Case Good

Fans 1200RPM case fans aren't what I'd call quiet. Get two of the 500RPM Scythes for $8 each.

PSU X-660 is seriously overkill for your build, you'd be fine with a 400W PSU. How much did you pay for the X-660?

SSD Good

HDD's Good

GPU Good

CPU By the looks of the rest of your setup, you're not looking to overclock. I'd recommend i7-3770 for $300. Lose overclocking, gain hyperthreading. It'll be worth it for Premiere.

Heatsink Good, seems to be $30 at ncix. At the load RPM of 2000, it'll definitely make some noise... For another $8 you could install another Scythe 500RPM on it and enjoy the silence. My experience with photo editing is that when you've got a cooler with a very low idle RPM and a high load RPM, it will alternate a lot between those two states when manipulating the image, that can be annoying.

RAM Corsair 2x8GB DDR3-1600 $100

Mobo $260 for a motherboard? Why...? You should be fine with an Asus P8B75-M LE for $85.

OS Good

 

[Zxian]

Fans 1200RPM case fans aren't what I'd call quiet. Get two of the 500RPM Scythes for $8 each.

PSU X-660 is seriously overkill for your build, you'd be fine with a 400W PSU. How much did you pay for the X-660?

The 500RPM fans don't really have enough airflow for a system with an i5 and mid-range graphics. I'd recommend two of the 800RPM Slipstreams instead. You still won't hear them over the idle noise of the hard drives and they push considerably more air. I've tried the SL, L, and M models in my main rig. I'm currently using the M models but slowed using a fan controller. The L fans were inaudible, and the SL fans didn't have enough airflow to comfortably cool my system, even with everything at stock speeds.

The X-660 is a fantastic power supply. Sure, he might never be using all the power delivery, but it'll be quiet and very stable. I wouldn't really trust a 400W PSU in a new system. You're also limiting yourself in the event he ever does decide to upgrade in the future.

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

Case Good

Fans 1200RPM case fans aren't what I'd call quiet. Get two of the 500RPM Scythes for $8 each.

PSU X-660 is seriously overkill for your build, you'd be fine with a 400W PSU. How much did you pay for the X-660?

SSD Good

HDD's Good

GPU Good

CPU By the looks of the rest of your setup, you're not looking to overclock. I'd recommend i7-3770 for $300. Lose overclocking, gain hyperthreading. It'll be worth it for Premiere.

Heatsink Good, seems to be $30 at ncix. At the load RPM of 2000, it'll definitely make some noise... For another $8 you could install another Scythe 500RPM on it and enjoy the silence. My experience with photo editing is that when you've got a cooler with a very low idle RPM and a high load RPM, it will alternate a lot between those two states when manipulating the image, that can be annoying.

RAM Corsair 2x8GB DDR3-1600 $100

Mobo $260 for a motherboard? Why...? You should be fine with an Asus P8B75-M LE for $85.

OS Good

I got the X-650 (sorry, typo in the original post) during a newegg sale for $130ish, it is definitely overkill but it's passive and ultra quiet up to 300W, which is why I got it.

Done for the 3770, sounds good since I wasn't going to overclock anyways

RAM: sounds good to me

Mobo: Expensive, but I was mostly looking at this for Thunderbolt, which I think may come in handy for video editing in the future.

Fans: I think the 1200RPM fans undervolted through the motherboard fan controller should be quiet, at least according to Silent PC Review. I am worried that 500RPM fans will not move sufficient air.

 

[lehtv]

The X-660 is a fantastic power supply. Sure, he might never be using all the power delivery, but it'll be quiet and very stable.

Yes, I know

I wouldn't really trust a 400W PSU in a new system. You're also limiting yourself in the event he ever does decide to upgrade in the future.

That makes no sense. A 400W PSU should be more trustworthy in a new system than an old one. Anyway, a fanless Seasonic 400W unit would be easily powerful enough for a 3770 and a midrange graphics card.

Mobo: Expensive, but I was mostly looking at this for Thunderbolt, which I think may come in handy for video editing in the future.

No point jumping the Thunderbolt bandwagon this early on. When you actually buy a device that can use it, get a Thunderbolt PCI express controller card, it will cost much, much less than the difference between those two motherboards

As for the fans, get the 800RPM fans as Zxian recommende, they will move enough air without having to trust the mobo to downvolt them. I've got five fans at 500-800RPM in a system that consumes over twice as much power as yours (including an internally exhausting overclocked GPU) and have good temperatures (CPU 65C, GPU 75C under full load)

 

[Zxian]

That makes no sense. A 400W PSU should be more trustworthy in a new system than an old one. Anyway, a fanless Seasonic 400W unit would be easily powerful enough for a 3770 and a midrange graphics card.

My only issue is that lower power PSUs generally have lesser build quality than higher power PSUs (given the same OEM). Once you start looking at the Seasonic fanless series, you might as well just pick up the X-660 for the extra $20-30 for the room to expand in future.

See jonnyguru's disassembly of the X-400 and X-760 for what I mean on build quality. Yes, he did make a mention of the soldering issues to Seasonic after the X-400 review, but the fact that it went out the door like that makes me wary. Note that this was not the case with the X-650 review done back in 2009. Incidentally, the X-760 only was still running fanless at a 300W load.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Low power psus have the same failure rate as high power psus

 

[mfenn]

No point jumping the Thunderbolt bandwagon this early on. When you actually buy a device that can use it, get a Thunderbolt PCI express controller card, it will cost much, much less than the difference between those two motherboards

I definitely 100% agree with this. Thunderbolt on PC is way too immature to be (effectively) spending $150 on. It's just a PCIe extension, so you can bet that there will be plenty of adapter cards out there.

Another thing to consider is getting rid of the GPU entirely. Since you're not gaming, if you get a mobo with a DisplayPort and DVI connector, you are set. That'll remove another fan from the system, which is the best way to reduce noise. Example board: ASUS P8Z77-V LK $125 AR