Fast but quiet PC spec - advice wanted please

FionaB

New member
Hello,

I would like some thoughts please about a suitable desktop spec as I need to replace my PC and am looking for something that will suit a variety of needs.

Although I am retired I take on graphic design projects occasionally and spend about 5-6 hours a day at the computer so am looking for a fast but very quiet multi-tasking PC for the usual web browsing and home office purposes as well as graphic design/publisher work and gaming. The PC needs to be able to handle a number of programmes being open at the same time (say 6 or 7) and manage large-ish documents and extensive copying between programmes with ease, it must be able to process databases and provide an enjoyable gaming experience for old and young! These would include card games and games that sync online.

I use graphics software including Photoshop for photo retouching and Inkscape for illustration/graphic design work so need good image rendering with files that can get quite large so a good graphics card is essential. I would also like the computer to be able to play games nice and smoothly - the experience with my current configuration isn't very good, even with simple card games, but I'm not sure if my monitor (Dell U2311H, 57-75Hz, 8ms response) is as much to blame for that so I am considering replacing it or adding a second monitor such as the Acer XF270HUA or Asus PB287Q which have faster refresh rates and response times.

I do have quite a lot of software and some large data files so imagine 500GB SSD and 2TB storage would be best but the technology has changed since I bought my last PC and I'm not knowledgeable about hardware so am not sure which is the most suitable processor for the variety of uses the PC will be put to. I require at least 4 USB ports as I need to use a wired mouse and keyboard, a Fitbit sync and an external HD for backup. I am wondering if it would be possible to move the Blu-Ray drive and card reader from my old PC rather than buy new ones as I don't use them very often but it would be good to have them.

I do want my new PC to be quiet - when I turn off my existing computer it is a big relief when the noise of it stops so I've chosen some slightly more expensive units that say quiet by them! My budget is flexible - up to about £1600. I am wondering if the spec below seems a good bet or if there's an AMD Ryzen configuration that might be better value or more suitable?
Thanks for any help you can provide.

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Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
Good post, lots of useful info.

the experience with my current configuration isn't very good, even with simple card games, but I'm not sure if my monitor (Dell U2311H, 57-75Hz, 8ms response) is as much to blame
Depends if you're talking about ghosting (down to a slow response time on the monitor), stutter (struggling PC) or lag (poor connection / network issues).

Of course you can buy the new PC and see how you find it on the existing monitor before deciding whether to replace, though ideally you'll want to have a sense of what monitor you'll end up with so you can ensure the system and monitor pair well for gaming performance, without overspending for a monitor you don't end up getting.

What kind of games will be played on it going forward? All sorts and not just card games?

There's a case for getting a new monitor anyway - even if your current monitor's performance is fine for casual gaming, a higher resolution monitor would be great for productivity, image editing, and gaming.

Acer XF270HUA or Asus PB287Q
These are very different monitors. One is a 1440p 144hz IPS monitor, the other is 4k TN. What sort of budget do you have for a new monitor? Will help suggest options based on your uses as above.

You should be able to put your old bluray drive in. Possibly not the memory card reader too as the case only has 1 5.25" bay. You could always have a USB one sat on top of the case.

A faster SSD could be in order, given the database uses and photo editing.

For maximising quiet as far as you can, the RMx PSU - it's semi passive and can cool itself without using its fan at all depending on the load.

An AMD spec could indeed offer better value, and performance for some of your uses.

e.g.

Case
FRACTAL DEFINE R6 BLACK QUIET MID-TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Eight Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.4GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)

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Get 3 Months of XBOX Game Pass for PC w/ select AMD Ryzen CPUs

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Motherboard
ASUS® TUF X470-PLUS GAMING (DDR4, 6Gb/s, CrossFireX) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1660 Ti - HDMI, DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)

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DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Noctua NH-U14S Ultra Quiet Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
WIRELESS 802.11 AC1200 867Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365 (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 12 to 14 working days
Price: £1,480.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/4Qb2QuBGap/

Possibly with an RTX 2060 Super if there will be somewhat demanding gaming on a 1440p monitor, which still falls within £1600 (just).
 
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FionaB

New member
Thanks for your comments, very useful to have another opinion, the quieter PSU sounds worth the upgrade and possibly the faster SSD too. I'm just not sure about the benefits of the Intel over the AMD or vice versa.

Regarding the games experience and my monitor, the movement with card games played on my PC tend to judder across the screen, and lag, but this PC was not configured to play games at all so it could be that it's only designed for office work. I sometimes plug my Surface Pro 3 (i7) into the monitor for my godchildren to play Rise of Nations - I bought it on Microsoft's games site and play via an Xbox account and all sorts of odd things happen on screen, the action will start to lag and then stutter after a while and it gets impossible to play, a black grid appears sometimes but disappears when you zoom in and out again, so I don't know if that's the monitor or if even the Surface Pro isn't powerful enough. I'm presuming that wouldn't happen with either of these new specs but if I need a new monitor I'd be willing to spend up to about £500. I picked those monitors from reviews as I want something with accurate colour rendition for graphics (which is why I bought the Dell), but also can handle the movement for games which I understood needs a faster Hz and response rate than the Dell. The Acer is reviewed as a good all-rounder. Thanks again for any advice you can offer.
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
The spec of your current monitor isn't why your games start out sort-of okay, get gradually worse, and then display black lines. And the PC hardware (surface Pro anyway) should be enough for Rise of Nations.

But as it's a 2010 model, and upgrade is probably in order anyway. Something with a higher resolution, more recent panel, and adaptive sync (freesync / gsync).

Games don't need a faster refresh rate. Especially not card games and strategy titles from the early 2000s. Other games can absolutely benefit a lot, especially fast paced shooters. Even more laid back RPGs or even just using the desktop can feel smoother. But it's not necessary and I wouldn't recommend someone buy a £500 1440p 144hz IPS gaming monitor with adaptive sync to play casual card games, the odd retro title, and not much else.

You can get excellent 1440p 60/75hz IPS monitors that are fine for gaming in the £200-300 range.

You will want an IPS panel for your uses. A few suggestions from £200-£500. As I've been shopping for something similar recently:

LG 27GL850-B (£470, 27", 1440p, 144hz, IPS, freesync / gsync compatible)
Gigabyte AORUS AD27QD (£530, 27", 1440p, 144hz, IPS, freesync / gsync compatible)

Acer Nitro VG271UP (~£360, 1440p, 144hz, IPS, freesync) (has more or less superseded the VG270UP)

iiyama XUB2792QSU-B1 (£275, 27", 1440p, 60/75hz, IPS, freesync)
AOC Q3279VWFD8 (£195, 31.5", 1440p, 60/75hz, IPS, freesync)

The Acer XF270HUA is an older model and quite hard to obtain these days. Or at least hard to obtain for anywhere I'd even entertain the idea of buying it from. The Acer Predator XB271HU, ASUS PG279Q, AOC AGON AG271QG, ViewSonic XG2703-GS etc are now the old guard of 1440p, 144hz, IPS gsync monitors. They were/are all well known for QC issues, and many people receive units with excessive backlight bleed and/or dead pixels. I tried 2 of the Acer and 1 of the AOC AGONs before giving up and returning them due to various faults. One Acer had I think 20-22 dead/stuck pixels by the time I stopped counting. You can always try your luck on what is known as the 'panel lottery' though.

I actually ended up with the AOC Q3279VWFD8, as something of an interim upgrade. The iiyama blew my mind, until I saw the stuck pixel(s) and excessive bleed on the unit I had. I'd have tried another if I hadn't ended up with the AOC Q3279VWFD8 for £165 on offer and decided to stick with it.

Don't buy a £500 gaming monitor if it's really just for card games and retro titles. But if other, more 'mainstream' games will be played, consider the LG or Gigabyte.
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
I'm just not sure about the benefits of the Intel over the AMD or vice versa.

The AMD build is cheaper. I specced up an equivalent Intel build (i.e. your build with the changes I mentioned to be in line with the AMD one I posted) and the 9700k etc is £70 more

The 3700x is very competitive against the 9700k even in things like photoshop where Intel has traditionally had the edge - the 3000 series CPUs closed down the gap to next to nothing:
AMD Ryzen 3rd generation 5 3600 Photoshop Performance Benchmark


With even the 3600 nipping at the 9700k's heels.

For gaming at this kind of budget range, you're not going to see a difference either.

The 3700x has multi-threading (SMT), unlike the 9700k which lacks hyperthreading, so would usually have the edge for working with databases, rendering etc.

So having seen it's £70 odd cheaper, I'd go with the R7 3700x build.
 

FionaB

New member
The spec of your current monitor isn't why your games start out sort-of okay, get gradually worse, and then display black lines. And the PC hardware (surface Pro anyway) should be enough for Rise of Nations.

But as it's a 2010 model, and upgrade is probably in order anyway. Something with a higher resolution, more recent panel, and adaptive sync (freesync / gsync).

Games don't need a faster refresh rate. Especially not card games and strategy titles from the early 2000s.

Thanks for this info, it sounds as if there's some other problem then if neither the card games play perfectly on my Windows 7 PC or Rise of Nations on the Surface Pro, what would be causing the juddering issues then? RoN has to be played online so I imagine good wifi connection is important - the internet works well where I live and I can easily watch i-player etc - so I don't think it's that. I need to get a new PC now but want to be sure the games I've already got will play properly, otherwise this spec might be more than I need. :confused:
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
There are lots of possible reasons your old PC might perform poorly in games.

Disable wifi and plug the PC into the router with a wired connection. That rules out wireless as an issue.

The quickest way to rule out a load of potential causes (bad windows install, bad drivers, bad settings) is to perform a clean installation of Windows, deleting all old partitions in the process. Let Windows update as needed, and install any drivers it finds. If any other drivers are needed, get those manually from the manufacturer website; don't use driver updater software.

Install only steam and the game you have problems with (freshly downloaded). See what happens.

If your games are online and you think the connection is an issue, run a popular benchmark utility e.g. something off 3dmark or even Unigine Heaven (or Valley depending how old your stuff is).

You can compare the results of your system to results other people got online. e.g. Let's say your PC is old and has a GTS 450 1GB - you could google results for that in Heaven and see if yours is the same ballpark.

Monitor temperatures on the CPU and GPU e.g. with Realtemp

You'd want to do something similar with your new PC too (benchmark and check temps) just to be sure everything's as it should be post-shipping.
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
As for the new PC, let's ignore gaming. A spec of this budget is valid for Photoshop and your work uses, should be a huge upgrade over the kind of hardware you have certainly in the Surface Pro, and so shouldn't be wasted money. And it definitely should be quiet.

Turning back to gaming, it should also breeze through the games you mention, and would perform very well in demanding AAA titles.

If online games had performance issues on the new PC, you could troubleshoot that with your ISP, plus any additional advice from people here.
 
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