Do I need a graphics card/soundcard these days for audio/filmphile?

[garroa]

Hi all,
Planning on the below build for a PC to replace a "media centre" pc I spec'd from here about 7 years ago.
The main requirement is as quiet as possible, in budget that I'd like to keep under a grand, as it will sit in the living room with my TV/Hifi.
The next is to send my hard drives of HD music and films to a 4k tv (probably watching youtube as well) and the music via USB to the DAC channels on my amp. I've read that the onboard processing on the i5 is more than adequate these day but would like confirmation if possible.
I've spec'd an upgraded power supply/cooler for both noise and I plan to add a blue-ray player and my own hdds

Case
FRACTAL DEFINE 7 BLACK QUIET MID-TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 Six Core Processor i5-12400 (Up to 4.4GHz) 18MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME B760-PLUS D4 (LGA1700, DDR4, PCIe 5.0)
Memory (RAM)
16GB PCS PRO DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
INTEGRATED GRAPHICS ACCELERATOR (GPU)
Graphics Card Support Bracket
NONE (BRACKET INCLUDED AS STANDARD ON 4070 Ti / RX 7700 XT AND ABOVE)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (3500 MB/R, 3100 MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W RM SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Get a discount code for 20% off select peripherals at Corsair.com
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
DeepCool AK400 Performance CPU Cooler ZERO DARK
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6E AX210 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS

Price: £797.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-home-office-pc-V/BSTgv7Mu!M/

 

[sck451]

I'd be looking at a system like this one. AMD is a better option than Intel for this kind of build.

Case
FRACTAL DEFINE 7 BLACK QUIET MID-TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 5700G Eight Core CPU with Radeon™ Graphics (3.8GHz-4.6GHz/20MB CACHE/AM4) Very strong CPU - eight cores rather than the 12400's six, and much, much more powerful onboard graphics
Motherboard
GIGABYTE B550M DS3H (mATX, DDR4, AM4, PCIe 4.0) Perfectly adequate motherboard - will four SATA data ports be sufficient for your HDDs?
Memory (RAM)
16GB PCS PRO DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
INTEGRATED GRAPHICS ACCELERATOR (GPU)
Graphics Card Support Bracket
NONE (BRACKET INCLUDED AS STANDARD ON 4070 Ti / RX 7700 XT AND ABOVE)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB SOLIDIGM P41+ GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR, 1625MB/sW) Much better than the no-name PCS one
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W RM SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
DeepCool AK400 Performance CPU Cooler ZERO DARK
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6E AX210 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence If you already have a PC that you're retiring, you could transfer the Windows licence and save £100 here
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 5 to 7 working days
Price: £780.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/FyCaDqhS!m/

 

[garroa]

That's brilliant , thank you very much.
As this build is mATX would it fit in the

FRACTAL TERRA MINI ITX CASE? which would fit the aesthetics of my AV set up​

I could look at external (nas?) for storage and usb the blue ray player.
Would this affect cooling and noise though?

 

[SpyderTracks]

That's brilliant , thank you very much.
As this build is mATX would it fit in the

FRACTAL TERRA MINI ITX CASE? which would fit the aesthetics of my AV set up​

I could look at external (nas?) for storage and usb the blue ray player.
Would this affect cooling and noise though?

It’s not a mATX, it’s a full size ATX build

 

[garroa]

Right oh!
Idiot in a hurry, I misread.
Thank you both

 

[sck451]

Well the system I suggested has an mATX motherboard so it would fit in an mATX case. However the Terra is an ITX case, so it certainly would not fit. Also, it doesn't fit (as far as I know) any hard drives at all.

The Define 7 is a massive case. Are you sure it's what you want? How many hard drives do you have to put in?

 

[garroa]

I picked it on the sound damping.
The reason I'm moving on from my very old now PC is the noise. It's coming close to drowning out the TV at this point so that was the priority for the case.
Right now I have a 3tb HDD thats red lining with mostly music and a few films as I've been building the collection since napster.
I'm looking to expand and digitise my blue rays as I watch them (dont entirely trust streaming services) so I will be looking to add more.
I'm looking into whether HDD or SSD is going to be more stable long-term as storage so I haven't added any to the build.

 

[sck451]

I picked it on the sound damping.
The reason I'm moving on from my very old now PC is the noise. It's coming close to drowning out the TV at this point so that was the priority for the case.
Right now I have a 3tb HDD thats red lining with mostly music and a few films as I've been building the collection since napster.
I'm looking to expand and digitise my blue rays as I watch them (dont entirely trust streaming services) so I will be looking to add more.
I'm looking into whether HDD or SSD is going to be more stable long-term as storage so I haven't added any to the build.

There won't actually be much sound to damp. Sound (mostly) comes from fans, which deal with heat, which this system has very little of. I think you need to get your needs sorted before you start thinking about specs. Because the Terra is a mobility scooter and the Define 7 is a massive gas-guzzling SUV, to make a car analogy: they do very different things and are massively different in appearance, functionality and, above all, size.

Sounds to me like you need at least two hard drives in your PC: your current one and another that's at least 4TB, maybe 6TB. That rules the Terra out. Adding a blu-ray player as well would rule the majority of cases out. You have the options of a USB blu-ray drive, which is a perfectly adequate option. Or there is the Fractal Pop series of cases, which do have 5.25" bays for an optical drive; the standard case takes two HDDs and the XL one takes four. There is a Silent range that would probably be the suitable one in terms of sound and aesthetics.

In terms of HDD vs SSD, both have their place. The SSD advantage is speed and size. The HDD advantage is price and raw capacity. In either case, you need to have a backup: HDDs are probably less prone to spontaneous failure, but neither is so reliable that you can avoid having a backup. For media storage, HDDs are the obvious way to go.

So I'd basically suggest you decide clearly what you need and we can plan a system for you around that!

 

[garroa]

The question over the storage was what was holding me back from adding gazzilions of ssd. I did understand the high stability of HDD but was worried about "old tech". I will go the HDD route.
My current blue-ray is USB but just fancied building one in (I'm handy with a screwdriver but not the technology.
The Terra case was because id seen it before and I just thought it would look really nice in the AV system like an old power amp, but the priority is noise and AV performance + some future proofing.