Quiet SFF?

[LstBrunnenG]

Most of the popular SFF cases I see have 65 or 80 mm fans. Are there any good cases with larger, quieter fans? Or will I have to resort to water cooling if I want a quiet SFF?

 

[sleepeeg3]

You aren't required to use the 80mm fans...

The Antec NSK1300 is probably the quietest cuboid case by far. Thick plastic panels, steel contruction and 120mm fan PSU. You can do watercooling in several, but the thin aluminum or plexi panel construction on most tends to create some noise, due to vibration and poor insulation.

Another one that looks really promising is the RAIDMAX ICEBERG. Thick aluminum panels and 120mm fans. Cuts out the metal-on-metal hard drive bays of the MicroFly/X-Qpack cases.

Now that I ditched the Raptors, the noisiest component in my system is my PSU and overall, it's not bad.

 

[BassTek]

The Antec NSK3480 has a 120mm fan and two optional spots for 92mm fans. It also has silicon mounts for the HDD to reduce vibrations. The entire NSK line is designed for low noise, so if you find a shape/size in the series that you like it should be pretty quiet.

 

[zero2dash]

The Antec NSK3480 has a 120mm fan and two optional spots for 92mm fans. It also has silicon mounts for the HDD to reduce vibrations. The entire NSK line is designed for low noise, so if you find a shape/size in the series that you like it should be pretty quiet.

Yeah I just ordered an NSK3480 yesterday from Directron for $79 (great deal); I can't wait to get it. Originally I was going to get an SG03 but the quirks that it had really turned me off. I'm looking forward to building in the NSK3480 though; looks like it fits most large/tower aftermarket HSF which is exactly what I need.

 

[LstBrunnenG]

Only 350W PSU though?

 

[S_T]

here you go:

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1304592

 

[LstBrunnenG]

Eh, that's pushing the boundaries of what I consider a SFF.

The more I see, the more I'm tempted to just re-use my P180.

 

[BassTek]

Only 350W PSU though?

It's replaceable with standard size power supplies, so you're free to add whatever you like and sell the 380w. It's an earthwatts 80+ power supply so it's pretty good quality, quiet and great for a spare system.

 

[S_T]

Eh, that's pushing the boundaries of what I consider a SFF.

The more I see, the more I'm tempted to just re-use my P180.

Curious, what do you consider an SFF? If you look through the SFF section, there's a wide range of definition for it...

 

[LstBrunnenG]

Something the size of a FragBox or a Shuttle.

 

[Womble548]

This surely has to be possible in an SGO1 - I have one atm and the cpu is cooled with an 520hx and thats really quiet. You can get a passive accelero for the graphics and 3x 80mm nexus fans (and piossibly a fan controller to slow em down a bit)

 

[Tremeloes]

i think it´s not a question of cases. if you use good components you will get many cases real quiet even with 80/90mm fans. important is the right airflow in the case so you can get the hot air out of it.

 

[AA Man]

I don't work for shuttle, but if you want a quiet easy to build system, then shuttle is the way to go, I have raptors in my gaming shuttle making it noisy but besides that and my vid card, the case is very quiet, even my other shuttle would be quiet if the voltage controller for the fan would work, I bought the case on ebay :/ , but besides the Ice fan that wont run less then full speed, its quiet.. lol The cases are a little pricey, but a lot of the work is already done, and performance hasn't let me down yet

Also I run a 350w PSU in my SD31P, with an PCI-E x1800x installed, and 3 Hdds, and have no problems. it should be more then enough power, and better at the end of the month when your looking at the power bill....

The A Man

 

[sleepeeg3]

The problem with Shuttles as quiet systems has always been the PSU fan. The ones with the 350w+ version with the 60(?)mm fan should be better, but I think Shuttle has stated they are still rated at 32dBa, which is moderate noise.

 

[Steeeeve]

The Qmicra 2 has 120mm fans. That is pretty quiet.

 

[devn9ll]

The problem with Shuttles as quiet systems has always been the PSU fan. The ones with the 350w+ version with the 60(?)mm fan should be better, but I think Shuttle has stated they are still rated at 32dBa, which is moderate noise.

That's only true with the stock PSU. You can completely eliminate the noise from the PSU by buying the Shuttle PC62 external PSU brick. I did this and my Shuttle became significatly quieter. Once you do this, the only source of noise will be the ICE fan and the hard drives. Replace the ICE fan with something like a Nexus and replace the hard drive with a SSD, and you will have a Shuttle that is almost dead silent and is quieter than just about any other SFF on the market.

 

[Vengance_01]

My Antec P180 mini is a great case and can be very silent. Its quite a bit larger then most SFF cases, but cooling is much better.

 

[sleepeeg3]

That's only true with the stock PSU. You can completely eliminate the noise from the PSU by buying the Shuttle PC62 external PSU brick. I did this and my Shuttle became significatly quieter. Once you do this, the only source of noise will be the ICE fan and the hard drives. Replace the ICE fan with something like a Nexus and replace the hard drive with a SSD, and you will have a Shuttle that is almost dead silent and is quieter than just about any other SFF on the market.

You could also possibly do an Opus 320w DC/DC power supply with an adapter. That would give you a bit more power.

 

[Harlz]

The SG03 I built for my wife is pretty quiet. 2 x 120mm fans on the front of the case and another 120mm fan on the power supply (ST50) which draws air through the passive CPU cooler (NT06lite over e8500). When I build mine it should ideally be a little bit quieter due to better fans (Noctua) and a 135mm fan on the power supply (ST85), but you can really barely hear the thing.