New Gaming Build Advice

[Thax13]

Hi there,

After posting in the DAN case forums, going back and forth between many case choices (and cancelling a few orders), I decided on the Ncase M1. I’m looking to make a beastly gaming build to drive my new Alienware ultra widescreen monitor (3440 x 1440 resolution @ 120Hz).

The issue i’m struggling with is trying to keep a system like this quiet. I know it can’t be silent, but my current gaming rig sounds like a jet engine and I just can’t take listening to it anymore. With that in mind, here is my proposed parts list:

CPU: i7-9700k
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U9S (using Grizzly Kryonaut Thermal Grease Paste)
Motherboard: ASUS ROG STRIX Z390-I Gaming
PSU: Corsair SF600 (Platinum rated, not gold)
GPU: MSI RTX 2080 Duke (OC probably, I love MSI)
RAM: G.SKILL TridentZ RGB (32GB, 3200)
Drives: A couple of samsung m2 drives. I don’t think they should figure into this much.

So, as stated, I’m looking to make this relatively quiet, or at least reasonably quiet. I’ve been reading about setting up some Noctua fans around the case to help, so I’d definitely be into doing that.

I’m also on the fence about overclocking. I know its a bit of a waste to get this setup and not overclock, but I can live with stock settings for now and play with overclocking later.

Is this even possible? Should I downgrade the CPU? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[rfarmer]

I would recommend checking out @Nanook build log, he starts with the Ghost S1 but from this post on he switches to the Ncase M1. He has a 9900k and a RTX 2080 and he has experimented with several different cooling options, should give you an idea of what to expect. He is also a good guy to ask because he has done more cooling set ups in the M1 than anyone else I have seen.

 

[Wyd4]

Hey Mate,
I previously had my ncase air cooled and had I not over invested in watercooling now, I would so so happily go back.
I experimented with a number of Noctua CPU coolers and an Accellero III GPU cooler.

From a noise perspective I found the best combo the C14s and the Accellero with 2 120mm fans on exhaust in the bottom and a 92mm on the rear of the case.
Not far behind from a noise perspective was the U9S on the CPU, same for GPU.

This was using an 8700k and GTX1080ti, and unless I wanted temps to be super cool it was very quiet under load playing games and the like. The only thing I had to watch for was making sure that I had the fans in the bottom high enough to drag air across the GPU, as cooling the die alone isnt enough obviously, even if if the die temps are great.

The ncase is a great case that you can build in with minimal compromises.

Since then I have gone a little crazy and have a full loop in the ncase with a 240mm rad in the bottom, 92mm rad in the rear and a 480mm rad under my desk with my 1080ti @ 202X mhz and 8700k @ 5.2ghz, but really the benefit in performance certainly doesnt compare well the the $$ spent on watercooling haha.

 

[teodoro]

if you're primarily worried about gaming thermals, aren't unrealistic with preferred temperatures, and are willing to play with fan curves I'm sure you'll be fine. I have an 8700k (not delidded) and windforce oc 2080 in my m1. my cpu is "overclocked" to 4.7 all core with a mild (1.152V at load) undervolt. my benchmark is 6 threads of small fft non-avx prime95 alongside unigine heaven.

with a dual fan u9s (1400rpm) intake from the rear, side a12x25 exhaust (1100rpm), and two bottom intake a12x25 + ~40-50% gpu fan curve, cpu was at 83C and gpu at 78C. the bottom intake fans were the loudest component, but the overall noise level was completely unnoticeable behind headphones and on par with louder ambient noise.

i briefly tested with an accelero 3 1080ti. u9s exhausting to rear (1400rpm), side intake (1100rpm), bottom exhaust (1300rpm) which saw 73C cpu and 80C gpu. i also know that the vrm/memory on the gpu was dandy with room to spare as this was an evga card with the icx sensors. i think running the bottom as intake would have let me tone down those fans for the same/better temps at the cost of cpu thermals.

right now i'm back to the windforce oc cooler with bottom intake fans, but changed to a c14. i haven't finished this setup yet, but even with just a single a12x25 mounted below the c14 as exhaust (so pushing warm air from motherboard to case side) i'm looking at ~83C cpu/81C gpu with ~1100rpm cpu fan, 900rpm rear exhaust (a9x14), 800 rpm bottom intake, 50% gpu fans. my hottest core flutters between 13-16C away from TjMAX and my gpu is hitting power limits rather than thermal ones. this is also still an extreme scenario vs my normal gaming usage, about 20W greater cpu power draw and constant utilization of both cpu/gpu. in battlefield v my temperatures don't change much (mid-to-high 70s for both), but my fans will run 200-400rpm lower. i am planning to try out the accelero on the 2080 and play more with fan curves.

running my c14 setup i'm actually hitting the point where my sf450's fan is a large contributor to system fan noise, about as much as my gpu. i'm going to try the sf750 (way overkill for the wattage) and see if that keeps the fan spinning lower or else try swapping the fan for a noctua.

to reiterate, i think you'll be fine. i'm betting you could get marginally quieter performance with a c14s + a12x25 on bottom/a12x15 on top vs. a u9s. i haven't used the a14 fan on a radiator before and find those fans get loud at "low" (800+) rpm. i would probably advocate a dual fan u9s first and looking for something more exotic only if you find it doesn't meet your needs...or whenever the mood strikes to tinker. noise is super subjective and dependent on ambient environment but the m1 gives you a lot of options to find something that works for you.

i wholeheartedly recommend splurging on the a12x25 fan, though.

 

[Thax13]

Thank you so much for the responses, I very much appreciate it.

There's quite a bit of material to look through, so I'm trying to get through it all. Thanks a lot for pointing me in the direction of Nanook's build log.

I may end up downgrading from the i7-9700k, but I'm not sure how much that will help, and how it will affect gaming performance.

Thanks again all, I appreciate the help. I hope I can make this work.

 

[Nanook]

I would recommend staying with the 9700K if you can afford it. It’s a fantastic gaming CPU. Even if you’re not manually ocerxlocking, your Z390i will automatically overclock your CPU by default. It actually takes more effort to go into BIOS/UEFI to change the settings back to “Intel Fail Safe”, or to use Intel XTU to set your power limit to 95w in order to run the CPU at “stock” speeds. At 95w TDP, the U9S will handle the workload / heat easily and quietly.

 

[Thax13]

Hi Nanook,

Thanks for the reply!

So if i run the 9700k at stock speeds, you think it should be fine? Should I be following your fan setup in the rest of the case, or should I be doing something else since I'm using a different motherboard? Also, I'm thinking of using the MSI RTX 2080 Duke OC along with the other components I outlined in my first post. What are your thoughts?

Thanks again.

 

[Nanook]

Hi Nanook,

Thanks for the reply!

So if i run the 9700k at stock speeds, you think it should be fine? Should I be following your fan setup in the rest of the case, or should I be doing something else since I'm using a different motherboard? Also, I'm thinking of using the MSI RTX 2080 Duke OC along with the other components I outlined in my first post. What are your thoughts?

Thanks again.

I think you should be fine with stock CPU settings. As for your graphics card, it has great reviews for its quiet nature. I think you’ll be happy with it. It is a long card though, so fitting it into the M1 may require some patience. The long front end of the card may have to be fed through the M1 chassis before fitting the card into the PCIe slot and rear expansion slots.
I do recommend that you spring for two bottom fans as intakes to blow / duct air directly to the graphics card. It will help prevent the graphics card from recirculating warm air in the bottom chamber. The A12x25 are the best 120mm fans avaliable. I’m not sure if they will make contact with your MSI Duke fans though. It doesn’t bother me, but some folks go for A12x15 fans to leave a small amount of room between the fan and graphics cards. Either way, as a heads up, the bottom fans may create turbulence and may be the main source of noise. If you are able to test the gpu in the M1 with and without the bottom fans (any pair of spare 120s you may already have from your current “jet engine” build), you can gauge for yourself the temperature vs noise compromise. If the bottom fans help, you could spring for the more expensive Noctuas.

If you’re using vented side panel, you could have a rear intake (NF-A9 mounted directly on rear), another NF-A9 on the U9S on the ram side, pulling air through the fin stack. You could also opt for a fan mounted on the front half of the side bracket exhausting air from both the U9S and the video card. This fan can be any quiet fan pointed out the side - the A12x25 works great and matches the rest of the system.

 

[Thax13]

This was absolutely awesome, thank you!

I've heard a lot of good things about the Duke as well, that's why I had my eye on it. I also saw the MSI RTX 2080 Ventus (non OC), but there are like zero reviews on it, so I'm not sure about performance and thermals/noise. It's actually smaller than the Duke, so maybe I should be looking at that?

As a side note, I had already ordered the DAN case (after I cancelled my louqe ghost s1 order - was too worried about shpping and some quality control issues they were having). I didn't cancel my DAN case in time, so it's on the way. If I can't ship it back, I've got to figure out what to do with it.

Regardless, I've already ordered my M1. Too bad it says it'll shipping at the end of February on the website.

Once again, thanks so much Nanook and everyone that's replied to the thread. You guys are top notch. =)

 

[Nanook]

From what I’ve read, the Ventus replaces the Armor line. Ventus is supposed to be quieter than the Founders Edition.

 

[gotcha43]

Regardless, I've already ordered my M1. Too bad it says it'll shipping at the end of February on the website.

Too Bad, I also ordered Last weekend, a Little too late. Silver is available, but Black seems to be Sold out Since about two Weeks.

Really looking forward and excited.

 

[Thax13]

Hey folks,

Was mulling through all of the information. Just wanted to pick your brains about a few things.

What do you think about the Asus Rog STRIX z390-i vs. the Asrock Z390 Phantom Gaming ITX? I'll be using the i7-9700k and I'm not all that concerned with overclocking for now. If I choose to later, I can play with that as long as I can still keep the system cool and quiet under load. (Note: the Asrock board seems to be sold out everywhere right now, so I hope that's not a problem. I'm in Canada, so we tend to be a little starved for parts).

I was going to take Nanook's adivce and have 2 Noctua A12x25 fans on the bottom, a rear intake Noctua NF-A9 and another NF-A9 on the Noctua U9S (on the ram side), and possibly another A12x25 on the front half of the side bracket.
That's a total of 5 fans. Am I going to need something like a corsair commander pro to run all of that? Does it just plug into the internal USB headers and run power from that? I'm assuming you'll also use the corsair link sofware to monitor everyhing?

Finally, a question about RAM. I have 32 GB of the g-skill trident rgb ram, 3200 speed. Will this be okay for this system, or do I need to be looking at something else?

Sorry for all of the questions again, but I'm really getting into the details and planning before my case finally comes (in like March, ughhh!!!). I really hope the MSI RTX 2080 Duke OC fits in the M1, lol.

Thanks!

 

[teodoro]

Everyone seems to rate the asrock as better for VRMs, and the Asus as overpriced. I like my z370 asrock just fine, the BIOS is straightforward and I don’t run into any ornamental heatsink issues that seem chronic with the asus boards.

Re: fans, you can use splitters. Noctua fans come with splitters and extensions. You’d plug the two bottom fans into one header with a splitter, plug both a9’s into the cpu fan header, and the side fan into the remaining port. You can power 3 fans on one header with two splitters (e.g. your three 120mm), but at some point you don’t want to exceed the amperage of a single header (don’t use 5 splitters on one header).

 

[jtmsrl]

Im making a similar setup, AsRock Z390 phantom gaming + i7 9700k + EVGA RTX 2070 XC Gaming and im planning on using the Noc NH U9S with a Noc A9 fan as intake at the back AND replacing EVGA stock cooler for an Arctic Accelero III with 2x Noc F12 fans as exhaust, plus a Noc P12 1700 as exhaust on the side (or intake).

The build you are talking about looks great but Im a little cornered on having 3 exhaust fans (120mm side + 2x120mm bottom) and just 1 intake (90mm back) in my build cause of the accelero iii (better performance having 2 exhaust)

Are you leaving your RTX default cooler?

 

[Thax13]

Im making a similar setup, AsRock Z390 phantom gaming + i7 9700k + EVGA RTX 2070 XC Gaming and im planning on using the Noc NH U9S with a Noc A9 fan as intake at the back AND replacing EVGA stock cooler for an Arctic Accelero III with 2x Noc F12 fans as exhaust, plus a Noc P12 1700 as exhaust on the side (or intake).

The build you are talking about looks great but Im a little cornered on having 3 exhaust fans (120mm side + 2x120mm bottom) and just 1 intake (90mm back) in my build cause of the accelero iii (better performance having 2 exhaust)

Are you leaving your RTX default cooler?

Hey, I'm actually using the 2 bottom fans as intake to pull air into the GPU (as per Nanook's advice).

I'm not sure about the GPU though. I want to pull the trigger on the MSI RTX 2080 Duke OC, but I'm still not 100% sure if it will fit into the case. Since I'll probably be getting the case in March (by the time it ships), I didn't want to pick it up too early. Howerver, the prices fluctuate so much that every time I see it for a decent price, I feel like I need to get it because it could shoot up in price the very next day.

As a side note, I see that the new MSI RTX 2070 Aero cards are available. I was looking at this one a while back, but I think its a blower style card. Not sure if this version of the 2070 could power the ultra widescreen monitor at higher settings. Plus it might be pretty noisy.

 

[rfarmer]

If it was me I would go ahead and get the Duke. You are close to max length but well within spec on height and depth. Might take a bit of maneuvering to get it in place but should fit with no problem.

 

[Thax13]

If it was me I would go ahead and get the Duke. You are close to max length but well within spec on height and depth. Might take a bit of maneuvering to get it in place but should fit with no problem.

Thanks for the input! I think I may go ahead and do it. The price just went up $50 from yesterday when I was looking at it, lol. Figues. I'll keep my eye on it though.

 

[Nanook]

Thanks for the input! I think I may go ahead and do it. The price just went up $50 from yesterday when I was looking at it, lol. Figues. I'll keep my eye on it though.

Good luck with finding a good price! It's great that you are (seem to be) patient with your build.

 

[Thax13]

Soooo, just an update.

My Ncase arrived this week. I started putting together my build last night, using the Asrock Phantom Gaming z390 motherboard. I'm having a small problem though. When I turn on the power, all of the fans start spinning, my corsair sf600 platinum psu fan spins for a second and stops (I think its supposed to do that, since it goes silent until the fan is needed when it heats up). I see all of the rgb lights come on, but nothing happens. No post, no anything. I've tried pulling the battery out, resetting the CMOS, but nothing has worked. I even pulled out the graphics card and stipped almost everything. Anyone have this problem?

As a side note, the MSI RTX 2080 8GB OC Duke card fits *just barely*. It actually sticks out the end and into the front panel, but doesn't impede any of the clips from locking the font panel.

Any advice here would be appreciated.

 

[Thax13]

So, um filing this one under the "You're a damned idiot" file...the gskill trident RGB 3200 16g memory module isn't supported by this ASRock board. Tried updating to the latest BIOS but no dice. I luckily had the same RAM on my living room system, but the 8GB version and it worked. Sooooo, that was a huge waste of time and money.

Any suggestions on 32G of ram for this board? Thanks.