Fast, quiet, powerful Gaming PC

Slinkington

Slinkington

Slinkington

Associate
Joined
22 Oct 2019
Posts
8
Hello all,

I'm terrible with computer hardware, so I'm looking for some advice on a pre-built or customisable PC retailer. I'm looking for something that'll let me play graphically intensive games, but also be as discrete as possible - Not a big fan of noisy fans or LED lighting. :)

The sorts of games I'd like to play at max settings:

- Shadow of the Tomb Raider
- Conan Exiles
- Red Dead Redemption 2

Other requirements:

- Quiet
- Fast

So to summarise, I'm looking for something that is powerful enough to play the latest games, but also run very quietly, and also be fairly fast to boot/load. I'm used to using iMacs and I hope I've not been spoilt by how silent they have been and quick to load. :p I'm not bothered about VR gaming and I don't expect to run these games at 4k resolution. I'd imagine the requirements of fast/quiet/powerful make it expensive, but throw me some suggestions if you can. :)

Thanks. :)
 

andicole0

andicole0

andicole0

Soldato
Joined
12 Sep 2005
Posts
6,493
Location
Grundisburgh
Quiet and fast usually means water cooled which means a decent budget will be required. The games you've listed will stretch most PCs especially at high detail levels. Most people seem happy with 1440p so 4k is not really required.
You won't get suggestions for other retailers here as it isn't allowed but OCUK will be able to satisfy your needs.
Andi.
 

Slinkington

Slinkington

Slinkington

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OP
Joined
22 Oct 2019
Posts
8
Thanks for the replies, sorry I forgot to say I'm mostly curious what sort of price it would cost. Let's say a budget of around £2000, but I'm also curious how expensive these can get and what would improve as the price goes up? Thanks. :]

Also I don't really understand Hertz. Similar to FPS..? I'm not sure what the standard is and what is considered 'good'. Do we still use 60hz monitors? I've not payed attention to this for about the last 15 years. :V
 

Angilion

Angilion

Angilion

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5 Dec 2003
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20,999
Location
Just to the left of my PC
Slinkington said:
Thanks for the replies, sorry I forgot to say I'm mostly curious what sort of price it would cost. Let's say a budget of around £2000, but I'm also curious how expensive these can get and what would improve as the price goes up? Thanks. :]
Click to expand...

You could probably spend £30,000 on something that was technically a PC (but would usually be called a workstation) if you really wanted to. Maybe more - I'm guessing a bit at that level. You can spend £5K on a single graphics card if you really want to. It would be ridiculous and completely unsuited for use as a gaming PC, but you could use it as one and you did ask for "how expensive these can get".

For gaming, improvements would be marginally useful above a certain cost. I'm out of date on hardware, but I'd be surprised if that cost is over £2K even with the eye-watering cost of PC hardware (especially graphics cards) today. At the high end, you can easily pay double for a performance improvement you won't notice in real use.

Also I don't really understand Hertz. Similar to FPS..? I'm not sure what the standard is and what is considered 'good'.
Click to expand...

Similar, but different :) Roughly, FPS is how many frames per second the computer can generate and Hz is how many image changes per second the monitor is capable of.

Do we still use 60hz monitors? I've not payed attention to this for about the last 15 years. :V
Click to expand...

Some people do, but nowadays good quality monitors are usually also capable of higher refresh rates. I'm using 75Hz because when I bought a new monitor there was a specific model that had a remarkable price/performance ratio and that was limited to 75Hz. For me, paying half the price for a large, responsive monitor with the resolution I wanted and good picture quality was better. Other people swear by 144Hz and wouldn't willingly go lower.

I see that water cooling has been suggested for noise levels and that does make sense, but you can get a modern aircooled PC down to imperceptable noise levels if you choose the parts appropriately. Mine is inaudible to me at a distance of about 1m (it's to the side of my desk, on the floor). After I built it, by far the loudest noise was the hard drive being kept in a ready state. Not in use - that was a bit louder. Just in a ready state. So I fitted SSDs instead :) Since you also specified "fairly fast to boot/load", you're going to want SSDs anyway. The difference in boot time is extreme. It's not so noticeable in loading games, but it's really noticeable in booting. From cold, by the time my monitor has come on I'm already at the desktop login screen and I'm using SATA SSDs, which are much slower than newer standards (but also much cheaper).

Admittedly, I had to shop around for a case wide enough to fit my CPU cooler in (it's ridiculously big) and it was rather expensive for an air cooler but the size and cost of the cooler and the fan on it mean that the fan can cool efficiently while spinning very slowly. Cheap, effective, quiet - pick 2 of 3 :) Right now, in a room that's currently 22C, my CPU (which is permanently at maximum boost speed) is at 29C with a fan speed of 490rpm. My system fan is at 770rpm, PSU fan is at 0 and graphics cards fans are at 0. The highest reported temp is 46C on the hottest part of the motherboard, which is well below anything to care about. If I lie on the floor and put my head next to my PC, I can hear the case fan whirring slightly. Of course the fans spin up during gaming, but even when I stress tested everything it was still quiet even to me and I'm fussy about noise. So I can confidently say that you can get a very quiet PC with air cooling. It's some fuss and some expense, but it's possible.
 
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