NBH
Description
After my 4.5 year old PC started to develop a few issues like randomly rebooting and making some strange noises I decided to not waste money on it replacing components and invest in a new PC.
Requirements were it had to be small, my old PC was small so I was restricted by the size of shelf I had to place it on. It also had to be very quiet as it is in my living room. At idle I can't hear it running at all and at load it is very quiet. I was tempted to build a fanless PC but glad I went with this instead as it is practically silent during basic use like web browsing and watching videos.
I wanted to go for standard sized parts i.e. ATX PSU and mini ITX motherboard as my last PC used non standard size parts which was expensive and restrictive when replacing broken parts or trying to upgrade.
It is probably a bit over powered for what I do now but it was built for a few years to come.
This was my very first full PC build (previous PC was a barebones) so I was pretty happy with the outcome, everything worked and it booted first time.
I took the photos quickly I will add some better ones soon.
Part Reviews
CPU
I didn't necessarily want a k processor but this was only a few pounds more than the 6600 so I thought I might as well get it to match the Z170 over clocking chipset.
It has been running fine and is pretty cool and with fans on 50% and only just audible it gets to 64C.
CPU Cooler
I was looking at this cooler and the NH C14S but decided the latter was too big and I wasn't sure about the top down air flow in a case with fans which flow from front to back.
I wanted a fan cooler so this was the best Noctua one that would fit sue to the 140mm max. height.
It works well and is quiet although I haven't over clocked yet.
Motherboard
I looked at this motherboard and the B150 version but decided on this one as it wasn't that much more expensive.
So far it has been great, everything works and 3 fan headers so I can control CPU, front and rear fans independently. The audio output is loud and great quality, finally I can listen to music on my PC.
I find the built in fan control works well you just have to set it up right. Asus monitors the CPU temp through a different sensor, not the cores like some software so I just set the fans to ramp up at a lower temp as it generally sees the temp lower than the actual core temp.
Storage
This was taken from my old PC, I secure erased it and started again but its great, fast, silent and cool temperatures.
Storage
Also recycled from my old PC, bought to replace a HDD which was hot, noisy and causing vibration.
Case
I think this case is great, it fits standard size parts yet the case is small and easy to build in and has a clean look. This was my first ever PC build and I had no issues whatsoever with the case. I like the way the sides and top are accessible individually plus the vents have dust filters.
Power Supply
I got this PSU for the potential to add a GPU in the future. The ECO mode is great, no fan spinning under 25% load so most of the time the PSU is completely silent.
The modular cables are great for my case, only the required cables are plugged in instead of the mess of unused cables I had before.
Case Fan
I replaced the 200mm case fan with this Noctua fan so that I could control it via PWM so at idle it is at minimum rpm and silent.
Case Fan
I added these fans to the rear to exhaust any hot air and used the included splitter cable from one of the fans. I was expecting them to be noisier but they are very quiet.
It is possible to add a second fan onto my CPU cooler. If I did I doubt these fans would be required as the second CPU cooler fan would be very close to the rear of the case but I guess these help with general case air flow.
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