Thoughts on LAN box upgrade

[Platinum]

So I am looking at upgrading (pretty much replacing) my media / lan box and need some advice on the Watercooling element and general input on the build, this will end up being a long term project over a few months whilst I buy up the hardware.

Aim is to have the best system I can for myself (Thats important as it may not be the best for you)

So hardware I plan to keep :

Silverstone 450w SFX PSU
AMD R9 270 GPU (good balance of power draw and performance, runs most things at the 1080p res my small lan monitor has and can mine)
8gb Corsair ULV 1600MHz ram

New hardware I plan to buy :

New Silverstone SG05 chassis, old one is battered to hell now and I really want the new model with the black powercoated interior and its pretty cheap now with no PSU

Maximus VII Impact Motherboard, dedicated sound card, M2 SSD support and uprated power delivery, perfect ITX mobo.

Intel Xeon E3-1230 V3, the odd choice here, I dont want to OC this machine, and its got all the features of a core i7, decent clock speed and is quite a bit cheaper.

Small M2 based SSD for the OS

512gb Crucial MX100 SSD for Steam


Watercooling wise I want to fit the thickest 120mm rad I can in the front of the case and watercool not only the CPU but the GPU as well, I think it can be done but I have yet to see anyone do it to the standard I would want (mild OCD) which would include using the stiffer tubing you can get that required a heat gun to bend it, and keeping the optical drive mound and the 2.5" drive bay under it, again I think it can be done with the rad angled right and maybe a little modding.

Aims for this is to have a great fast 8 thread lan box thats silent.

Thoughts?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The parts look good although the motherboard seems OTT,and TBH I would rather get cheaper motherboard and use an external DAC or output directly to a receiver.

You also really don't need to water cool the CPU - a decent air cooler would be fine(although one of the AIO ones might fit too) and the Xeon E3 CPUs cannot be overclocked anyway.

Edit!!

I would prioritise cooling over quietness in a SFF box,especially when working with parts made for much larger mATX and ATX desktops.

[Platinum]

The parts look good although the motherboard seems OTT,and TBH I would rather get cheaper motherboard and use an external DAC or output directly to a receiver.

You also really don't need to water cool the CPU - a decent air cooler would be fine and the Xeon E3 CPUs cannot be overclocked anyway.

Currently the machine has one of the best air coolers I can get in there and the GPU has 2 fans and its noticable under load hence looking at water, and its something I have been looking at doing for a while.

External receiver is a option but its a additional cost where as the card on that board will be fine and is a great upgrade to standard onboard audio, and I would like to keep it all internal.

The board has everything I need and more, I haven't yet seen another board that ticks all the boxes.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Currently the machine has one of the best air coolers I can get in there and the GPU has 2 fans and its noticable under load hence looking at water, and its something I have been looking at doing for a while.

External receiver is a option but its a additional cost where as the card on that board will be fine and is a great upgrade to standard onboard audio, and I would like to keep it all internal.

The board has everything I need and more, I haven't yet seen another board that ticks all the boxes.

What is the current CPU in the box?

The Haswell CPUs consume far less power than say a Core i7 920 for example.

If you really want better sound characteristics,you need to look at the case too. The SG05 is small and also has many perforations,meaning for a quiet build it really is not the ideal case IMHO.

Try looking for something with better cooling for example.

Have you considered this for example:

http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=484

There is also the Antec ISK600 and Fractal Node 304. The latter is meant to have decent cooling too.

For instance I have this case:

http://www.cubitek.com/products/mini-series/mini-cube

I don't think it is perfect but I have a 120MM AIO cooler shoehorned as an exhaust and a 120MM intake fan. I even added soundproofing. However,my main issue is the noise of the graphics card under load.

Regarding the sound card -you can get a Beresford DAC and amp for like £80 to £100 secondhand which is a better than any of the sound cards out there ATM,plus can be re-used between machines and can drive all sorts of headphines.

Something like a £60 B85 mini-ITX motherboard would be fine with the Xeon E3 1230 V3 and you still have PCI-E 3.0 too.

[satrow]

I have a feeling that keeping it quiet might be tricky with an 80mm fan cooling a PSU running around 50% output.