@ the OP:
David, if you need help spec'ing out a DAW with "Silent PC", I'd be happy to steer you in the right direction.
Back in Nov 2002, the Pentium 4 (single core CPU) was released.
That was the first incarnation of Hyper-Threading.
Back then, Cubase (in particular) suffered from audio glitches if Hyper-Threading was enabled.
Fast forward 16 years... and it's a much different situation.
If you have a CPU with six physical cores (like the 8700k), open Sonar and look at the Performance Meter.
Notice that with Hyper-Threading enabled, there are twelve processing threads.
Now, disable Hyper-Threading... and have a look at Sonar's Performance Meter.
Note that there are now six processing threads.
Additional CPU cores (especially virtual) don't yield a 1:1 increase in processing speed.
IOW, Enabling Hyper-Threading won't anywhere near double the machine's performance.
BUT... unless your CPU is over-heating, there is *zero* value in disabling Hyper-Threading.
The only thing you achieve by doing so is lower performance.
You may not be running projects where the performance-hit is a factor, but you *are* limiting performance.
It's not opinion, it's physics of a modern CPU.