personally ... (and I speak as someone who has not built a custom rig in a while (but used to a lot)...) I would look to optimize cooling over all else: "quiet"

personally ... (and I speak as someone who has not built a custom rig in a while (but used to a lot)...) I would look to optimize cooling over all else: "quiet" air-cooled is highly possible with quality heat sinks, paste, and fans But if you want as quiet as possible, liquid cooling will [almost] always beat air cooling The problem with liquid-cooling is ensuring you can upgrade whatever you have "liquid cooled" if you want/need later