Quiet but Powerful PC build for Football Manager Streaming

[Jdenson97]

Hi. I’m looking to by my first ever desktop after 5-6 years of owning and getting frustrated by gaming laptops. Ideally I’ll be running and streaming Football Manager so I’ll need an I7 to I9 processor to run as many leagues as possible without it impacting performance and a decent graphics card to run it without lag/stutter
More importantly however I want it to be as quiet as possible with fan noise. I’m autistic and hypersensitive to noise and have been frustrated by the amount of fan noise coming from my gaming laptop (ASUS ROG strix). Any recommendations would be brilliant as I’m lost with the amount of customisable options available.
Attached are some specs that PCS sent me to buy as well as some specs a similar streamer uses which I would like similar too.
Regards James

 

[TonyCarter]

If you want quiet, then you'll have to stay away from the i9 chips as they require a serious amount of cooling...and thus lots of fans running at relatively high speeds to stop it from overheating and throttling.

The current top gaming CPU is the AMD 7800x3D...which is quieter and more efficient than both the i9 and i7...but if you want more cores then the 7900 or 7950 may be a better bet.

I'll leave there for now, as I believe we have a couple of Football Manager fans on here that may be able to help with the specifics.

 

[AccidentalDenz]

I can't advise on specs as I'm not so good on that side of things, but I am aware that Football Manager has never really embraced multithreading, which is frustating as ingame performance is more down to single core performance despite the sheer amount of data involved. I'm sure someone who is more specs orientated would be able to advise with that in mind.

 

[AccidentalDenz]

Hey @SpyderTracks, not singling you out exactly, but wanted to bump this so you've at least seen this. Any thoughts on suitable specs?

 

[SpyderTracks]

I just wouldn't go with Intel for this use at all, you'll get a far quieter build with AMD if noise is paramount. Intel literally use about double the power for equivalent performance and so run far far hotter so fans have to run faster all the time

There wouldn't be any performance in any meaningful way by going with something like a 7900 which has higher single core frequencies than something like the 7800X3D

But all depends on the maximum budget and what make and model monitor it's being paired with

 

[Jdenson97]

Budget up to 2,500. 3k at an absolute push. Being paired with 2 of these 27 inch monitors .

Dell U2723QE UltraSharp 27 Inch 4K UHD (3840x2160) Monitor, 60Hz, IPS, 5ms, 98% DCI-P3, HDR400, 3x USB-C, 2x DisplayPort, HDMI, 5x USB, RJ45, 3 Year Warranty, Silver​

 

[Jdenson97]

Although if anyone’s got any different monitor recommendations I’d love to hear them. Basically need it to be height/tilt adjustable and have a decent number of ports.

 

[SpyderTracks]

So this is the build I'd suggest, this is without compromise. The case is large, need to make you aware of that, the standard Fractal Define is just not capable of keeping this tier of components adequately supplied with air. This case is far better from that perspective at this level

The CPU is the best performing single core speed AMD processor, plus has the benefit of 16 full fat cores, whereas Intel are only 8 full fat and the rest efficiency cores, so I think overall, you'll get better performance and at lesser volumes from this build

But it runs SUBSTANTIALLY cooler than the Intel equivalent, and uses far far less power, so fans run slower, hence less noise produced by both the case and the cooler.

Case
FRACTAL DEFINE 7 XL BLACK QUIET TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X 16 Core CPU (4.5GHz-5.7GHz/80MB CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING X670E-PLUS WIFI (AM5, DDR5, PCIe 5.0, Wi-Fi 6E)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
16GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 4080 - HDMI, DP, LHR
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 6500MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 6500MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1200W RMx SHIFT SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR iCUE H150i ELITE CAPELLIX XT RGB High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
ONBOARD 2.5Gbe LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00003]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
48 HOUR INSURED PALLET DELIVERY TO UK (MON-FRI, INC. HIGHLANDS & ISLANDS)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 4 to 6 working days
Price: £2,966.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/guPhJ2afqg/

 

[SpyderTracks]

For the monitors, the ones you'd selected are not really gaming monitors and so don't benefit from variable refresh rate or high refresh rate. With the new FM rendered scenes, and the way the game is progressing, I would say it's worth having proper gaming monitors rather than standard. I think it would be a better "future proofed" purchase

Football Manager 2025 has been confirmed to be on a full new render engine under Unity, and I have absolutely no doubt that higher refresh rates will become more the norm.

The Future of Football Manager

This blog is one that I have been looking forward to writing and we’re delighted to finally be able to update you all on the future direction of Football Manager. I’m going to talk about FM23, FM24, and in a first for us as a studio, look a bit further ahead beyond the next iteration of the game...

www.footballmanager.com

The two I'd look out for would be (they're both currently on very competitive Black Friday deals)

LG UltraGear 27GR93U​

Gigabyte M28U​

Have one of those as a primary, 2 if you wanted, but you may find one of the ones you listed above as a secondary would be ample (as the secondary won't require high refresh rate)

 

[SpyderTracks]

Just with respect to the Fractal 7 XL, I realise you may have light sensitivity, so RGB may be a no-no. If it is the case that that case is too large for your space, I would drop it down to the Corsair 5000D, while that does have a window, you can disable the cooler and case lights to have them fully off, you would get the motherboard notification lights though.

The other option would be sending in your own case, if you chose to do this, I would strongly suggest the be Quiet Silent Base 802, it's the same price as the Fractal XL, but it's really specialised for exactly this kind of use and has some of the best noise damping on the market. You may see this as the same as the normal Fractal Define 7, the difference is the Fractal has closed front and side and so limits airflow, that's how it minimises the sound. The beQuiet though has mesh front panel so still allows far more airflow WHILE keeping sound down with both exceptional fan design, and a crazy amount of damping material internally. This is the case that a lot of engineers use in sound studios for exactly this reason.

be quiet! Silent Base 802 Review: The Anti-2020 Chassis For Silence Enthusiasts

It’s been a long time since we’ve seen this much acoustic padding.

www.tomshardware.com

https://www.watercoolinguk.co.uk/p/be-quiet!-Silent-Base-802-Midi-Tower-black_74464.html?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAjfyqBhAsEiwA-UdzJMV-3kYm4ey1_Xhy5Ydedmd9CiJZnHdSak7IEtux_jsi9DGeNiAXthoCu4gQAvD_BwE

If this did suit you, you just select "have my own case" in the configurator, put the order through and it will give you precise instructions. Then you just order this case from wherever you want and have the delivery address straight to PCS with your name and PCS order number on it, and they'll build everything into it.

 

[Jdenson97]

Although if anyone’s got any different monitor recommendations I’d love to hear them. Basically need it to be height/tilt adjustable and have a decent number of ports.

So this is the build I'd suggest, this is without compromise. The case is large, need to make you aware of that, the standard Fractal Define is just not capable of keeping this tier of components adequately supplied with air. This case is far better from that perspective at this level

The CPU is the best performing single core speed AMD processor, plus has the benefit of 16 full fat cores, whereas Intel are only 8 full fat and the rest efficiency cores, so I think overall, you'll get better performance and at lesser volumes from this build

But it runs SUBSTANTIALLY cooler than the Intel equivalent, and uses far far less power, so fans run slower, hence less noise produced by both the case and the cooler.

Case
FRACTAL DEFINE 7 XL BLACK QUIET TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X 16 Core CPU (4.5GHz-5.7GHz/80MB CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING X670E-PLUS WIFI (AM5, DDR5, PCIe 5.0, Wi-Fi 6E)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
16GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 4080 - HDMI, DP, LHR
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 6500MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 6500MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1200W RMx SHIFT SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR iCUE H150i ELITE CAPELLIX XT RGB High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
ONBOARD 2.5Gbe LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00003]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
48 HOUR INSURED PALLET DELIVERY TO UK (MON-FRI, INC. HIGHLANDS & ISLANDS)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 4 to 6 working days
Price: £2,966.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/guPhJ2afqg/

Regarding graphics card if I’m getting an AMD machine should I be going for an AMD graphics card over the Nvidia card. Looks slightly cheaper. If the Nvidia card is better obviously I’d go for that

 

[SpyderTracks]

Regarding graphics card if I’m getting an AMD machine should I be going for an AMD graphics card over the Nvidia card. Looks slightly cheaper. If the Nvidia card is better obviously I’d go for that

AMD is cheaper and has more raw tssselation power. Downsides are the drivers aren't as polished so you may have to triubleshoot driver crashes and roll backs more frequently.

NVIDIA are more expensive but have better ray tracing and DLSS performance

So totally depends on your proficiency and required graphics