I built this to replace a small form factor Shuttle PC with a Q6600 that I used for software development, web surfing, running a ham radio station, and whatever else came my way. Although the old system was running fine I had just obtained a larger monitor through a corporate "recognition points" scheme and it was time for an upgrade.

One thing the Shuttle was not was quiet. It often ran 24/7 and sometimes got on my nerves. The new PC had to be close to silent in normal operation.

Although the current PC was an Intel chip the previous was an Athlon. I decided to go with an AMD Ryzen 1700 for this build. I am not planning to overclock it and using a 65W TDP processor would make it more likely that I would achieve my noise level goals.

The new PC had to fit where the old one was. It also had to support a PCI card because I had one which I used on a development project that would be expensive to replace with a PCIE card. This ruled out miniITX but Gigabyte made a microATX board that met the requirements. I started collecting parts over time as I found them on sale.

The case was the biggest problem. I looked at a lot of microATX cases. The smallest one that looked possible was the SG10. I was concerned about whether it would be noisy. And I didn't like having a fan on top - often there is prototype hardware or documents sitting on top of the old computer. That space is valuable!

I looked at various builds with the SG10 and I found some by Puget Systems. They have lots of photos and there's even a three hour video showing how they build a very quiet PC into an SG10. They use CPUs which have a higher TDP than mine and more power-hungry graphics cards so it looked like it would work. I didn't figure I would be able to match their noise level but it would be good enough. And they covered the top fan opening!

The GTX 1060 was a compromise between power and performance. The MSI board is rated the quietest of the bunch on several websites. In normal operation the fans never run. I got a deal on the X+ version, otherwise I would have bought the regular Gaming card.

The Seasonic power supply was chosen because it is about the most efficient available. More efficiency means less heat which means less need for a fan running. In normal operation the fan does not run.

The Puget Systems build removes all of the case fans and replaces the rear fan with a Noctua. And they use a Noctua cooler. I did the same.

The top fan is replaced by a piece of acoustic material. This is a 7" x 7" piece of AcoustiPack foam stuck on a similar size piece of 3mm (1/8") polycarbonate sheet. I used the original fan as a template to drill the holes. The spacers are 1/2" diameter and 1" long plastic and the bolts are 6-32 x 1 1/2", all obtained from the computer parts department of the local Lowes hardware store. I glued the spacers onto the polycarbonate sheet and it was just high enough that the acoustic foam pressed gently against the top of the case when it was closed. If it was too high I would have filed the spacers shorter, two low and I would have added washers.

The DVD drive I used is not actually the part number listed - mine had a different dash number and was intended for a Dell laptop. I picked it up NOS on eBay. It is the same size and uses the same special cable and it fit perfectly.

The motherboard has two extra USB 2.0 headers which will support four USB ports. I bought a PCI slot cover with USB wiring on eBay. I sometimes develop USB hardware and at times the old PC had all eight ports tied up. Now I have 14 available.

The disks and Windows 10 Pro all came from the old PC. Eventually I will install an NVME disk.

The only tricky part of the build was finding a place for all of the too-long cables. The power supply is large and there isn't much space next to it. But since I don't have a full compliment of disks I was able to use that space. I'm sure someone with more experience could have done a nicer job. But there are no windows in this case so it doesn't have to look pretty.

The SGI monitor was also used on the old PC. It had been long ago converted to DVI. Having two monitors is nice for software development - I can run the development environment on one monitor and watch the results on the other. I should have done this years ago!

I'm running the fans at the default settings. When nothing else is going on in the room I can barely hear it if I listen carefully. I can probably tweak it for even quieter operation but as-is it has met my goal.

And in case you are wondering the cat insisted on inspecting the motherboard. She really wasn't much help. But don't tell her that!