First build planning: Silent ITX mainly for audio and gaming

Hi to the community !

After having hackintoshed my laptop, I consider to build a desktop workstation with macOS as primary OS for working on audio ( music making). I was on Mac in the early 2010' then switched to Windows, but now I tasted again macOS on my laptop I realize how much I feel more comfortable on macOS for working on audio (as well as other minor tasks such as video editing and light programming).

I'm looking for something :

  • As small as possible (do not take to much place and easy to move from one place to another)
  • Silent when making audio only (I dont care if the main noise source is the GPU)
  • Dual boot with Windows for gaming (a bit of AAA and e-sport but mostly indy scene)
  • On a 1500-to-1800€ budget
  • Easily upgradable (especially CPU/GPU/RAM)
  • As a monitor: 1440p 144Hz (or 75Hz with FreeSync) with 100% sRGB colorspace for work and everyday comfort. I dont care playing games at 1080 60Hz if the GPU cannot handle 1440p or 144fp.

After a lot of reading on this sub, on Silent PC Review, and using UserBenchmarking I came up with the following configuration. I wrote some explanations about my choices in the most-right column.

PCPartPicker Part List

Type Item Price Comments/Explanation
CPU Intel - Core i7-8700 3.2 GHz 6-Core Processor €318.44 @ Amazon France I prefer i7 8700 over i5 9600K because of higher amount of threads and still high turbo clock rate
CPU Cooler Noctua - NH-D14 64.95 CFM CPU Cooler €74.90 @ Amazon France Maybe a bit oversized for the i7 8700, but it's very quiet and could handle future
Motherboard Gigabyte - Z390 I AORUS PRO WIFI Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard €189.78 @ Amazon France Wifi just in case I need it one day (if so I will replace the included card with a macOS compatible one)
Memory Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory €100.89 @ Alternate For my current usage 16GB is OK.
Storage Western Digital - Blue 500 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive €64.90 @ Amazon France for Windows and games
Storage ADATA - XPG SX8200 Pro 512 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive €95.89 @ Alternate for macOS system an apps
Storage Western Digital - Blue 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive €142.89 @ Alternate working storage for Mac OS (may be shared with Windows)
Video Card MSI - Radeon RX VEGA 56 8 GB Air Boost 8G OC Video Card €249.89 @ TopAchat maybe too much power for my current needs (I'm ok with my laptop GTX1060 non Max-Q but I easily push it to 90-100% of use when gaming or video editing/export)
Case Fractal Design - Define Nano S Mini ITX Desktop Case €72.98 @ Cdiscount Still hesitating between Fractal Design Define Nano S and BitFenix Prodigy Mini ITX. Would love something smaller but it means higher temps and louder fans.
Power Supply Corsair - RMx (2018) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply €96.90 @ Amazon France also oversized but again it's very quiet and could handle future CPU/GPU upgrade
Case Fan Noctua - NF-S12A PWM 120mm Fan €17.99 @ Amazon France
Monitor Acer - Nitro VG240YU 23.8" 2560x1440 75 Hz Monitor €238.90 @ LDLC Absolutly no idea if it worth it or not. Seems very hard to find 1440p with high refresh rate under 27". It's one of the only items I saw that match my needs and it's cheap. So why not ?
Other Cherry Strait 3.0 Black €44.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
Total €1708.35
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-05-08 15:35 CEST+0200

Thanks for reading !

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