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Ten years since my last PC build - Help me spec a quiet mATX rig
My current computer is finally old enough that we need something new. Something nice. Something that doesn't run modded Xcom 2 at sub 15fps. But the long gap in my knowledge has left me wondering in a state where I don't even know enough anymore to make educated decisions on a new PC build.
Here's what I do know:
- I want a microATX board
- I want a quiet and smaller case
- I want to keep my current Geforce 3060
- My Budget is roughly 1k, but flexible
Past that, my knowledge is now pretty much out of date. Is AMD currently better? Is Noctua still a good and quiet fan? How fast does ram really need to be? Are things pretty standard priced, or do I need to wait for Microcenter to have a sale?
Thanks for your help, appreciate you!
Is there a reason you want to limit yourself to microATX?
There are some great ITX boards and cases (which can still fit a full size GPU)
Yes, I think AMD CPUs are generally better and provide better value.
Absolutely! I am not a big fan of their blocky colors, but if I am shoving them inside a case, they're def quieter and perform as advertised on the tin.
If you're going to be getting the latest gen CPUs, you'll be getting DDR5 RAM, which should be plenty fast for XCOM2 :)
AMD also does support ECC in their desktop line (depending on the motherboard), I personally value ECC RAM more than trying to squeeze out every ounce of performance!
If you do have a microcenter close by, I would try to use them as they typically have better prices and nice deals frequently.
Try putting together a build on pcpartpicker and folks will be able to provide better suggestions too!
I currently have a mini-itx (micro?) board, and I'm just tired of injuring myself when trying to put a new part in. I'm not stuck on the board size at all, I just prefer small.
Fractal Era, maybe? The whole outer shell comes off if you need to get at the internals, which helps a lot compared to digging around in a tiny case that's still closed on three sides.
Looks-wise I prefer the Terra, which does also come apart pretty easily, but that's getting a fair way into practicality tradeoffs kind of small rather than just reasonably compact like the Era.
[Edit] Also yes AMD, yes Noctua (they even have a second iteration of some of their fans now, with minor but hard-won engineering improvements), and RAM speed is pretty well into diminishing returns given that the pricing sweet spot seems to be around 5600-6400 MHz anyway. Just do yourself a favour and get 2x32GB - AM5 boards complain if you try to use four DIMMs, but you will absolutely appreciate having 64GB total and just not having to worry about headroom.
Terra and Era (2) are ITX cases.
Era 1 however iirc either fits mATX or ATX PSUs.
I may consider an AIO but I’m not 100% sure if these tend to be quieter or not than air coolers, I have an Era 2 and they sometimes go airplane mode when compiling Vulkan shaders on Steam or when something stresses out the CPU, but I also have a higher ambient temp than most people here so eh.
Yeah, it’s good to point out they’re ITX specifically. From what I see the mATX space doesn’t seem to get as much love as either ITX or full size ATX - I was thinking something like the Era with a shell that comes off entirely might actually be easier to work with than a bigger mATX case that only opens on one side.
Silverstone, Lian Li, and Jonsbo do some solid mATX options, but I’m not sure if they’d be easier to build in than what OP currently has.
OP if you currently have Noctua hardware, they may send you a modern mounting kit for free.
I've been using https://www.logicalincrements.com/ for many years and recommend it whenever someone is looking to build a new PC. I'm not sure I can answer any of your questions confidently, but hopefully this helps set you on the right track.
That’s a cool site, I hadn’t come across it before!
I will say some of the recommendations look a bit dated to me, which could be tricky to spot if you don’t already know what you’re looking for.
I get the impression maybe they’ve been incrementally updating the individual parts in each tier for a bit too long without actually overhauling the builds as a whole. I see a decent number of fairly slow SSDs, significantly too little RAM at every tier, spinning disks used for capacities that really aren’t worth the trade off anymore, things like that.
The build suggestions in https://pcpartpicker.com/guide/ are a lot closer to the parts lists I’d currently be looking at, in case it’s helpful to have a point of comparison.
That website claims up and down that they're not to be taken at face value and to do your own research. Which, truth be told, is good advise.
But they've been so useful for so long I often just take their advise at face value anyway.
What you're looking for should be doable in a $1k budget.
As a fellow XCOM 2 enjoyer, I recall running that just fine on an old GeForce 1080, so I'd imagine your 3060 should handle it fine.
In the desktop market: Yes, with the exception of idle power draw (if that matters).
They are. Fans in general have come a ways over the last several years - I currently have a case full of Corsairs I'm relatively happy with, and before that Phanteks that were good for their time. But Noctua is a good default if you want to avoid the mental overhead of product research.
I'd just look at what your processor can support and go from there. For the current and previous gen AMD Ryzen processors, that looks like DDR5-5600 and 5200, respectively.
I would be hard-pressed to recommend anyone spend more money to get something sooner, if they have the luxury of time. 🙂
That said, it looks like there is still some Ryzen 7000 availability. They're still very capable chips today. Plus, they use the same socket as the current Ryzen 9000 series, so affordable motherboards shouldn't be hard to come by. Could be a way to save a bit of money if you don't need to be on the bleeding edge.
For what it’s worth, all the way up to DDR5 8200 is supported on Ryzen 9000. I can’t see a lot of good reasons for it - it’s twice the price and with almost any normal workload the difference between that and 5600 is going to be imperceptible - but it is out there.
True, though it's my understanding that anything above 5600 is venturing into overclock territory. I became an old man that yells at clouds by the time I built my current PC, so I just stuck with factory clocks.
At the risk of getting too far into the weeds here, it's kinda-sorta-technically true to say EXPO/XMP are overclocking, but in practice they're the speeds you see printed on the box and the speed you get if you select the manufacturer's default memory profile in the BIOS. It's less of the old school twiddling around with voltage offsets and clock multipliers, more "this is the speed the memory is designed for, and the one it displays in the menu, but not officially rubber stamped by the standards body".
JEDEC speeds (the "official", definitely-not-overclocking-in-any-sense-of-the-word profiles) do actually go up to 8800 now as well, but I don't think that's actually available to buy. I think there's JEDEC DDR5 7200 available, but I might be misremembering.
I too would prefer to be yelling at clouds sometimes, but my work keeps me very up to date with the minutiae of these things...
Thanks for sharing - that's actually really interesting. My previous build was when XMP was just starting to become a thing, and I didn't realize during my most recent that it had essentially become standard.
I do agree with your original reply, though. Going that fast is unlikely accomplish much other than lighting money on fire.