Best Silent Case?

[szvwxcszxc]

With soundproofing or whatever to be as quiet as possible? Will also have h100 or h80 for processor cooling.

Some options:

Silencio Soundproofed PC Case

NZXT H2 HUSH Silent Midtower

Fractal Design Define R4

Cubitek ATX ICE Quiet Case

Zalman MS1000-H2 Case

Nexus Prominent 5

Antec Black P183

Antec Sonata IV

Which would you choose?

-

 

[lehtv]

Define R4. H100 can be tight, depends on motherboard

 

[szvwxcszxc]

--

 

[szvwxcszxc]

Define R4. H100 can be tight, depends on motherboard

Ok, anything better than Fractal R4? Willing to spend $150 or even $200 for a good product.
UPDATE: updated post with some choices

 

[AustinInDallas]

http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=242

 

[szvwxcszxc]

http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=242

Nice! But discontinued, can't buy it anywhere

 

[kleinkinstein]

Only cause you live at Egg and Zon.



Another useless post.

If you don't want to help the guy out, stay out of his thread.




esquared
Anandtech Forum Director

 

[AustinInDallas]

Nice! But discontinued, can't buy it anywhere

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16811163201?
http://www.amazon.com/Silverstone-FT02B-USB3-0-Aluminum-Uni-Body-Computer/dp/B008J0ZPE4

?

 

[splat_ed]

Have you looked at http://www.silentpcreview.com/
They've got a ton of info. But what parts are you intending on chucking in these? It's a balancing act between power, noise and cost.
I've got an Fractal Design Array R2 (mini-itx, HTPC) which is completely silent when coupled with a fanless solution. Also an Antec P183 coupled with their CPX size power supplies. This can be very quiet but it's my main gaming rig so does whir up in intense sessions...

 

[lehtv]

Ok, anything better than Fractal R4? Willing to spend $150 or even $200 for a good product.

In my opinion, no. There aren't cases specifically designed for silent operation in the $150-200 range, apart from watercooling.

The silverstone case is not silent.

You can improve the R4 further by replacing the two stock fans with 3-4 high quality third party fans and downvolting to such low RPM that they will be completely silent.

 

[blastingcap]

OP is there a reason why it has to be silent? If so, lehtv already covered it. Good fans, run slowly enough, won't have too much sound. Otherwise the cheaper way to go is to get headphones.

 

[lehtv]

OP is there a reason why it has to be silent? If so, lehtv already covered it. Good fans, run slowly enough, won't have too much sound. Otherwise the cheaper way to go is to get headphones.

Active noise cancelling headphones with six 2000RPM fans = best of both worlds

 

[szvwxcszxc]

Active noise cancelling headphones with a six 2000RPM fans = best of both worlds

One thousand 10,000RPM fans in another room (or house) and best of both worlds

 

[lehtv]

10,000 RPM... Jesus. I don't think they make any of those. The highest I've seen are 6000 RPM Deltas

 

[MoInSTL]

I love my R4, but there are a few reviews out there now for the BitFenx Ghost that looks interesting.

http://www.bitfenix.com/global/en/products/chassis/ghost

 

[szvwxcszxc]

10,000 RPM... Jesus. I don't think they make any of those. The highest I've seen are 6000 RPM Deltas

I don't know if they do; i was just kidding, obviously no one has one thousand fans in a case

 

[lehtv]

Yeah I thought you were totally serious.

 

[piasabird]

Just remove the video cards.

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us...rboards/next-unit-computing-introduction.html

No hard drive. Just ssd + Mobile Chipset. Probably cant play many games.

 

[Aikouka]

I recently had this debate with myself when deciding to beef up the downstairs HTPC. (Let's just say that the HD4000 did not have Blast Processing™ when playing Sonic Generations at 1080p on low settings! )

I ended up choosing between the Fractal R4 and the Corsair 550D, and I went with the latter. It was a rather tough choice, but the 550D was slightly cheaper, and slightly quieter. The only thing that I preferred about the R4 is that it looks slightly better. I don't like the whole silver control panel setup on the 550D -- too much contrast with the black case.

I actually forgot about the Ghost. :hmm:

EDIT:

I want to note one thing that I don't know if you'll see in reviews for the 550D. Corsair does not provide longer screws for use with their own coolers in conjunction with the rubber grommets. You either remove them or jerry rig something up. I chose the latter approach. I used a Scythe fan that doesn't use a long tube between the fan holes, and I screwed the fan to the radiator using the case's ODD screws. Finally, I used the standard grommet-built screws to screw the fan in. It's as tight as it would be using the long screws and I get to say that I used all the quieting features! :thumbsup:

 

[runestone]

Quote:
Originally Posted by lehtv
10,000 RPM... Jesus. I don't think they make any of those. The highest I've seen are 6000 RPM Deltas
I don't know if they do; i was just kidding, obviously no one has one thousand fans in a case

,,,if they did, it would probably be only a bit louder than the Delta I had in a former AMD rig- I thought the case would break into a hover at any moment.

 

[birthdaymonkey]

That Nanoxia that AT reviewed sounds really promising.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6479/nanoxia-deep-silence-1-case-review-you-asked-for-it-you-got-it

I wonder when it's going to become available in North America.

 

[CAlbertson]

Yes, it is best to get a silent case. But any old case you have can be made silent. For example use passive (no fan) CPU cooling and the largest diameter, slowest turning fans you can find. Then glue on sound deadening foam to all the large sheet metal parts. Pasive cooling and LARGE diameter fans are the key

But the #1 thing I did that works 100% is to place the computer in a closet. Place it on a top shelf and screw some ceiling tiles to the walls/ceiling near the computer to absorb reflected noise then shut the closet door. Use the above ideas first, passive cooing and so on but the closet door does wonders

Or simply buy a MacBook "air". Those are dead silent right out of the box. (You can place your ear on the case and still it is silent. They cost less then you think. You pay about $1,000 but after a couple years they sell used for about $700. So $300 out of pocket gets you a dead silent computer. Put all your files on a NAS and plug in a 30" LCD monitor if you need a big screen. Your cost is the purchase minus the resale. Look on Craigslist for resale values.

I'm using a system sort of like this, a big NAS for about 1TB of photos and 300GB of music and loads of other stuff and then a small notebook (Macbook pro, Sony, Tosiba, the "Air" and Kindle. The NAS server in the closet is dead-on silent as are the Apple branded products. The Sony and Tosiba have semi-loud fans that some times run.

When building your silent computer you can learn a little from the MacBooks what they did is to use a solid aluminum case. If you open that computer there is no heat sink. The case itself is a one big aluminum heat sink as it is milled from a block of metal. They have basically made the CPU heat sink into the shape of a notebook computer case. You can't do that but you CAN use an aluminum case that has no exterior paint and place it on a couple strips of wood so air can flow under it, in other words use the case as a heat sink so you don't need to run the fans so hard. Don't polish the case, Apple's sand-blasted texture is what you want if you can get it.

 

[VitaX]

I'd recommend the Silverstone FT02. Has done excellent for me thus far and is quiet when the fans are down on low speed.

 

[szvwxcszxc]

I would never buy a POS mac because I'm not a moron.

But you're right - putting it in the closet really solves the noise issue instantly! That's what I did on day 1 after building my gaming/performance PC.

My other PC I used passive cooling by using a fanless PSU, fanless graphics card, removing fans from the system, and using a massive heatsink with ultra-quiet fan for the CPU, and also a SSD and no actual hard drives within the PC (additional storage is directly to the NAS); all encased within a soundproofed case actively designed to buffer sound. Quiet as a mouse (actually, the mouse clicking is much louder than the PC ).

Links to both builds are in my sig.

 

[007ELmO]

I'm building a cabinet for my PCs, I wonder if you guys can help me there (on keeping it both cool, and silent). Reason being is it won't be very far away from my LAN area (they are adjacent to each other). I wonder if the cabinet would be as silent as your closet, depending how close your closet is.

I could start with a good silent PC case for reach, there should be 4 in total.