Silent workstation & gaming goodness

Hey all!

 I have been following the advise of people to others in this section for some time now and having done my own research over the last few months I feel that I am about ready to start purchasing my components. However, if you would be so kind, I would appreciate some feedback on the parts that I have chosen as this will be only my second self build and the first in over 5yrs.

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/dalesbred/saved/M9XV3C

I am currently living in the Netherlands and have a budget of about 1,700/1,750 euros. I will be upgrading my monitor to the Dell U2412M before christmas (to run alongside my current monitor - a 22inch LG 1680x1050), so have included it in the budget, the OS I have money set aside for as I can get it at a student discounted price. All other peripherals I already have.

My main aim is to make a really quiet pc for when I am working on projects for my MSc (the reason for choosing a psu & gpu with a cut out fan, the cpu cooler and the case fans), though I would like to try my hand at photo and video editing editing (no idea what software is used as of yet, only heard of photoshop for pictures).

The pc should be capable (or with ease) of playing games, such as Payday2, Dragon Age Inquisition, Witcher 3, GW2, WoW, modded Skyrim etc, at 60fps (or there abouts) on high settings. As I expect my time to game will be limited I would like to be able to enjoy it, hence I feel the need for the high settings.

I am not intending to overclock right away but would like to have the option available to me further down the line.

The gpu's I have been looking at are the Asus gtx 970 Strix and the Gigabyte gtx 970 G1 as both have great reviews and noise levels, although the Asus would prove to be silent whilst I am working. It is the Asus' temps whilst the fans aren't spinning that is sticking in my mind - will I have sufficient air flow to keep it passively cooled enough for long periods - or is this something that I shouldn't be worried about?

As for specifics I'd prefer to keep the Define R4 for its sound absorbtion, and other components should have this 'quietness' in mind.

Lastly will my choice of psu, corsair 650w, provide enough headroom for overclocking down the line, particularly on the amp front (+12V = 54A).

 Any help/advice is most welcome.

With as many fans as you show in the build  .. air flow will not be a problem

And the PSU ... I would bump up to 750w gold ... but then I like plenty of overhead

 

Ok , I have fought for silence , and this is what I can say , you build is great , but : 

-Get a higher wattage PSU , 850 W corsair RM . It would let you run at 0% fan most of the time ( I own a RM 1000, and with 2 290's , running at ~820w , it makes a bit of noise ) 

-The HDD will make a lot of noise , get laptop hdd's of ssd's .

 

This only applies if you REALLY want silence , otherwise , if things like a back hummm in your room doesn't bother you , keep it as it i .

Thanks for your comments, and to Ratzzz for his!

Taking this into consideration and upping to an 750w/850w psu would you consider the Corair's RM models to be the one to choose or would it be worth considering the EVGA SuperNova G2's? There is only a small difference in price and both seem to have good reviews.

haha yes, the airflow will not be a problem (was more the passive cooling of the strix that was on my mind) - wanted to replace the case stock fan with something good! ;)

Thanks for your comment - plenty of overhead sounds like the way to go! 

Corsair RM's , I have a RM series , and it's amazing .

Don't go for the Strix , it's not so good .

The gigabyte is the BEST , cools everything . A custom fan curve would make it almost silent .

Ok, you have convinced me - not that it took much as I was probably leaning that way anyhow...

But, and this might be a bit of a silly question, how would I go about making a custom fan curve for the gigabyte gtx 970? I had the thought to use fan xpert with the asus mobo and that it would allow me to control the fans on the asus card but probably not any other manufacturer's.

Your build looks great. Great motherboard, CPU, motherboard. Good choice in the SSD. The Samsungs are really fast. The 850w PSU has some overhead, but it's good overhead, not overkill. With the Noctuas, silence won't be a problem. That GPU might be out of stock, as it is in 'Murica

Thank you for your input Jody :) I guess it is a lot of headroom, but its better to have a little too much than too little to allow for upgrades down the line :)

To set fan curve :

Go into MSI afterburner ,

setting > fan curve > make a custom convex one , instead of the stock concave .