Hello, I have never built a PC before

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Hi folks!
I am new to all of this, so please go easy on me. I will not know many of the technical terms for things.

I was told
“To make things easier around here just include some extra info so we can tailor you better.” - well, here goes!

*Budget. How much are you willing to spend?* - **£750 to £1,500 depending on exactly how much performance I am getting per £**
*Where do you live (what country, don't post specific details), and what currency do you use?* - **Live in UK, so use GBP £**
*Is there a retailer you prefer?* - **not really**
*Do you need or already have peripherals? (this can add to costs)* - **I have a mouse. It is a wireless USB one.**
*What will you be using your Glorious computer for? Gaming? Rendering? Mix of both? Or is this a home media PC or Steam Box?* - **Mostly just word processing, some internet browsing (not streaming though), I will be using it for audio recording (with stuff like Allen And Heath ZED22FX, Presonus Studio 68C and similar). I use Audacity at the moment because Protools is a huge amount of money for what you actually get. One day I may start doing some youtube videos but that is not currently a requirement.**
*Do you overclock or want to get into overclocking?* - **I do not know what this means but if it makes it run hotter then I do not want to do it.**
*Do you plan on going for custom water-cooling now, or in the future?* - **Unlikely, as I want the PC to be as small and light as possible as it will sometimes have to travel with me**
*Operating System. Do you need a new one?* - **I hate Windows so the only way I'd have it is if it was one it's own individual SSD that I could remove entirely from the machine when I didn't specifically want to use Windows. I use Linux Mint at the moment but it is a bit more complicated than I understand, so I don't get the best out of it. I'd rather be a bit out of my depth on Mint than use Windows.**

If you don’t have peripherals -
What kind of keyboard do you prefer? Mechanical, scissor, membrane, etc. - I like traditional QWERTY layout (UK) and would like one that is wireless and backlit.
What type of mouse-grip do you have? Palm, claw, combination? - I already have a mouse. It is wireless. You plug a USB thing into the computer and it connects via that.
What kind of games do you play? (mmo vs fps, for button management) - I do not game
What size monitor are you looking for, and what resolution? Screen type (IPS, S-IPS, TN, etc.) ,hertz (60, 120, etc.) - I would like at least one monitor. It’d be nice to have two, one about 30" 16:9 or 32" 21:9 and maybe then one square one about 24", but I don’t count monitors as part of the build for budget purposes, as they would not travel with me when the computer has to. So they aren’t in the price.

I would like it to be as small and light as possible. When I looked on the PCPartpicker the smallest motherboards and cases I could find were miniITX, but I’d go smaller than that If I could.

So far the part list I put together looks like this:

I would put the OS and applications on the NVME SSD, the audio file storage and any video files would go on the other drive. If I ended up needing more storage than that I’d use 3.5" HDDs in a NAS, but that is not for this budget, that’d be way in the future.

Other practical things to consider are:
It must have WiFi and a proper LAN socket.
Bluetooth would be nice but is not essential.
Can I get a smaller case and / or smaller motherboard that PCPP doesn’t know about? I really would like it as small and light as possible (without becoming a laptop, that’s a separate project)
How quiet can I get it? I’d like it to be as close to silent as possible.
What cables do I need to join everything together, and who sells them?
Does that power supply have enough dedicated cables and plugs, or will some cables be “piggy backing” others? I don’t like that, it seems like bad practice to me.
What have I missed? I’m sure I’ve missed stuff. The electronics I usually work on uses valves and I get to play with the soldering iron. This is very different, I’m no PC builder, so if I have missed essentials or chosen bits that don’t work together please let me know.

If you have taken the time to read all this then I am already very grateful.
If you are kind enough to reply you will have my eternal thanks!

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Yes. You might have to, depending on how accurate UK PCPP is, as the P200A looks to be discontinued and is out of stock everywhere here. Lian Li A4-H2O and Fractal Terra are a couple widely available starting points.

There’s a lot of small boutique ITX cases I’m largely unfamiliar with as well, so I’ll leave it to others to make suggestions there. Usually mATX is lowest cost, ATX in the middle, and ITX most expensive, though, so you might want to price out multiple form factors. Sub-ITX is also not hard but typically means buying a comparatively highly integrated mini-PC.

I actually can’t think of a mobo which doesn’t have RJ45 Ethernet. Most mATX and ATX have either onboard WiFI or a 2230 M.2 for a card. ITX options may be more constrained.

Not that quiet with a 6000 series GPU. To get the build GPU unbound, look for quieter 7000 series (ASRock) or 40 series (PNY, MSI) and use an ATX airflow case like the Lancool II. There aren’t many good airflow options in mATX with a dGPU, so there’s some noise disadvantage. ITX incurs noise penalties pretty much everywhere (dGPU, CPU, PSU, and case fans).

AMD stock coolers are ok but almost nobody calls them quiet. Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 with the fans changed out (P12, P28, or similar) is about as quiet as AM4 gets. Won’t fit in most ITX cases, though, so lower build volume means taking something of a noise penalty for Peerless Assassin Mini, Peerless Assassin 90, or similar.

Most of them will included with the case and PSU. Motherboards often come with a couple SATA cables, so check the parts list. If not, you can get a SATA for the 970 EVO practically anywhere.

I’d strongly suggest not bothering with a SATA SSD, though, unless for some reason you want the drive to be an order of magnitude slower than necessary. Compare with the 4 TB WD Blue SN5000 in particular.

This varies with what manufacturers opt to include and that varies by wattage rating. Refer to the list of what it comes with (often on the product page, if not download the manual and look in there) and then diagram out what connects where for your build (it’s a good learning exercise for planning). It’s also wise to add up all the max component power draws on the major and minor rails in your build spreadsheet and check them against the supply’s ratings (PCPP’s calculator is one of the better ones but is still error prone and doesn’t break out the rails), along with tracking what cables are needed and how PCIe lanes are utilized.

Since you want quiet, also check your expected power draws against the supply’s Cybenetics noise map. If it doesn’t have a Cybentics report that’s a good indication to choose something else. The lower the efficiency (e.g. bronze) the louder the supply, plus you’ll take a noise penalty for SFX or SFX-L in ITX. In particular, if you want quiet, favor supplies with broad fan stop regions. Those will be at least upper end gold.

Personally, I like Corsair so would suggest RMx Shift as a reference option here. See HWBusters’ recommendations for other starting points.

There’s a range of other things but this post probably has plenty for a start. Since you want quiet, though, two more things I’ll mention here is planning to include an exhaust fan and considering changing out the stock case fans. Probably you’ll get a lot of replies about Noctua as they have a very strong marketing and branding presence. But Noctua kit’s also really overpriced. QuasarZone and HWCooling both have good on application fan reviews. To summarize, though, Arctic P12 (Max, non-ball bearing) and P14 (Max) are hard to beat in normal operation. There’s several other good options but they cost more, perhaps the most notable one here being Lian Li already mentioned P28.

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You might consider going AM5 with integrated graphics. You’d have a solid upgrade path.

Even the stock cooler will probably be quiet considering it doesn’t sound like you’ll be doing anything that will ask for much power. If you find it’s too noisy you can get a small AIO.

*updating the BIOS will probably be necessary to support the CPU.

If you’re interested in a cheap DAW try reaper. Not only is it cheap but the trial version isn’t limited in any way and it never expires… plus it’s actually a great DAW and supports linux.

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For word processing and what you’ve listed that’s massively overkill also building small footprint computers in general is very cost ineffective.

https://www.lenovo.com/gb/en/configurator/cto/index.html?bundleId=12E9CTO1WWGB2 is also overkill but will do the job just fine and decently priced. Add a 2.5" Hard Drive Bracket (10£) and a AX201 WIFI card. You might also want to add a second DP (DisplayPort) Port so you have two instead of one DP and HDMI. That ends up at 511£ incl VAT currently (on sale).

If you want 32Gb of RAM just grab one of these and pop-in afterwards.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BLTGMCB7 (on sale, 37£)

…and more storage
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09QVD9V7R (on sale, 138£ for 2TB a non craptastic NVME drive is a good deal)

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If you can ignore the cringe and/or memes, this is a good start:

It’s actually been updated earlier this year over the 2 yr old version posted previously.

HTH!

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