Seek advice on choice of motherboard etc.

[evalon]

Hello forum'ers,

I'm in the market for a completely silent and low power consumption PC which is also as small as is feasible - and since it's not a field I've been around for some years I hope I can ask you for advice on what to buy.

What I basically need is:

- a small motherboard (Asus?),
- a reasonably quick processor (must be Intel) - a good price/performance buy is desired. I'll mainly use it for streaming data from an external card but at a high speed (250 Mb/s),
- a reliable SSD harddisk which is also fast (~128 GB). Without knowing my guess is that the write speed is most important,
-on-board audio card of reasonable/good quality,
- on-board videocard (HDMI - I never play games but a fine image quality is desired),
- a completely silent PSU (I'll appreciate a specific advice on this - must be without a fan)
- 4 GBs of RAM (for a start - should be expandable),
- USB2 & USB3
- wireless or other similar features really are not needed ...


Altogether low power consumption is required and no drop-outs in the streaming is mandatory. It must before all be a reliable computer.

I've been thinking about a new Asus motherboard combined with an SSD harddisk but don't know which SSD to chose nor if there's another motherboard that combines low power, reliability and speed better than the Asus cards ... ? Also, I would really like an advice on which processor is considered a "best buy" price/speed/reliability wise.

Hope someone here may be able to give advice - I'll appreciate your input

Best regards,

Jesper

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

This is a little different than what you state you are looking for but I think it will fit your needs very well.... The Intel® NUC BOXDC3217BY. These small unit computers in which you will simply add the RAM and a small SSD (mSATA drive) and away you go.

 

[evalon]

Hi Christian,

Thanks for the tip - but as far as I can see it's got a fan. And that won't work - it needs be completely silent so no fans.

But thanks for suggesting ;-)

Jesper

 

[piasabird]

This website specializes in testing low sound computers.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/

They have testing things like almost soundless CPU Coolers and power supplies with no fan cooling fans and might have some builds you want to look at. I think they tested a setup on some cases like the Antek ISK-300.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/Antec_ISK300-65

 

[evalon]

Hi piasabird,

Thanks for the tip. I actually do know silentpcreview but posted here because I reckoned/assumed that knowledge on SSD harddisks and motherboards may be "more explicit" here ... ;-)

Best regards,

Jesper

 

[coffeejunkee]

Passive psu is easy, either this one: http://www.super-flower.com.tw/products_detail.php?class=2&sn=13&ID=79&lang=en or one of these: http://www.seasonicusa.com/Platinum_Series_FL2.htm.

But it's not really clear to me what the intended use is, what do you mean by 'stream from external card'? If you want to passively cool a cpu you'll need a fairly large cooler and thus a fairly large case. You can't passively cool a cpu in a tiny case, unless you use something like this: http://www.silentpcreview.com/Streacom_FC8_Evo or to stay with the NUC platform: http://www.techpowerup.com/181183/Streacom-Shows-Off-Upcoming-NUC-Case.html and then you're still limited to low tdp models. Anyway, these cases work with an external power brick so you won't need a psu.

 

[evalon]

Hi again,

@coffeejunkee: Thanks so much for your suggestions. They sent me off in the desired direction and I've decided on an Intel DQ77KB MB with external PSU (YES!) and either an i3 or i5 processor with low power consumption.

BTW: For those interested in a passively cooled mini-ITX solution this might be interesting:

http://www.ebay.de/itm/360619099846?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

Now I just need to find a suitable SSD around 128 GB and some good RAM.

Might I ask those of you who read this thread for advice on an SSD (write speed & reliability important) and possibly RAM? According to the Intel product brief the RAM should be:

- 240 pin DIMM Types
• DDR3 1600 /1333 SDRAM
• Non-ECC Memory

Maybe this is self-explanatory but might there be a "better" solution in choice of RAM?

Thanks for reading & maybe replying ;-)

Jesper

 

[coffeejunkee]

Not that much choice in msata ssd's. Either Crucial M4 or Plextor M5.

For ram, I'd get some Kingston or Crucial stuff, that usually works on Intel mobos. I seriously doubt you'll notice any difference between 1333 and 1600.

 

[evalon]

Hey

Thanks for the suggestions .. I wonder though if the DQ77 board needs mSATA SSDs ? In the product brief for the board it mentions SATA but not mSATA ... And in a review of the Akasa Euler on silentpcreview they use a normal SSD with this very board ... So my guess would be that it can work with SATA SSDs ...

Anyway, thanks for replying & I'll look out for Kingston and Crucial RAM.

Greetings,

Jesper

 

[coffeejunkee]

Yeah, you're right, I'm confused with another Intel board. At a glance it looked like msata slots but in fact it are mini pci-e slots.

Regular Crucial M4 and Plextor M5 are good too. Also Samsung 840/840 pro and OCZ Vector. But are you sure you need 250MB/s write? It's quite high...