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Silent case

S

setekh

Limp Gawd
2FA
Joined
Dec 26, 2006
Messages
284
Hi fellas,

I'm looking for a silent PC case.

I suppose I'm an Antec fanboy (well, maybe I just really like their stuff), but if I was spending over €120 I'd get the P182 - no question about it.

This time, however, I'm not building the PC for myself, so I want to ask you guys - is there any other case under €100 that is close to the P182 as far as soundproofing is concerned?

Cheers :)
 
how silent are we talking about? a case like the p182 is a good start, but that will only be half the battle in a silent setup. case fans, cpu fan, hard drive mounting options, etc. are all often overlooked when people aim to build silent rigs.
 
For a budget go with the Coolermaster 690 which is a relatively cheap but good case. Get 4 low rpm 140mm fans (2 top and 2 side) and you can add low rpm 120mm fans in the front and rear, but the 4 140mm fans should be sufficient cooling (should be near silent). You may want to invest in a fan controller for the fans for even quieter operation.

For noise you also have to worry about GPU fans and CPU fans. Stock models can be noisy when running at full speed.

Power supplies can also be very noisy. Look for one with a controllable fan.
 
I think sound proofing is entirely up to the user.

That's where you start.
http://silentpcreview.com/


The main concern are fans and hard drives. 120mm fans are fairly quiet in themselves, so case fans aren't a big issue. Decent ones are almost always quiet.

Its the GPU (if applicable) and power supply for the most part.
CPU: If you're doing it for a friend, who doesn't want an overclock, rear exhaust/top intake should be sufficient enough to cool a passive U120 or Scythe Ninja.
GPU: If applicable: A Zalman solution, or going passive with case airflow doing the cooling.
PSU: A Seasonic or Seasonic-made PSU (Corsairs).

If your client finds hard drive noise "normal" you can pick a relatively quiet one. Dampening? Never found it really necessary if you're using rails/all 4 screws. If you want dead quiet, a 5400RPM 2.5" notebook drive is necessary.

*Does anybody else here find silent computers ... eerie? I was quite surprised (overheatoverheatoverheat) when my stock build made no noise at all.
 
exactly.. make sure to get a quality quiet PSU, suspend hard drive, minimize the number of fans (get passively cooled vid card), etc.
 
Even if you can find an old P150, I would stay away from it. Originally, I purchased a P150 for my quiet gaming computer. However, I found it too loud. The Antec Neo 430 power supply that comes with the case gets too loud too fast. I could hear it over my graphics card. I even created and air duct so the PSU could draw in fresh air from the front of the case, and it still ramped up too fast. Then there is the fact that that power supply doesn't always power on Asus boards properly. I replaced the P150 with a P180 and have been happy ever since.
 
thanks for all the tips!

when I mean silent...I mean dead silent :p

I haven't overlooked the fans (was thinking about reusing a pair of noiseblocker XL1), CPU cooler (7700-Cu) or the graphics card (on the market for a passive one!). hadn't really thought much about hard drives though...not too inclined to go 2.5'', so dampening might be useful..any tips here?

Oh, and about the PSU, I've also got a LC-Power 550W (GP, I suppose) I might reuse. Not a pretty good idea, now is it? :p I was looking at the Corsair HX520 or the Silverstone Strider 600W, but I'd really like to keep this on a (well, at least a reasonably low) budget..
 
this is what i came up and it works great so far. the case really has little to with noise. if you get any quality case with as little sheet metal as possible then you should be fine. from a case perspective the only noise is vibration. the case needs holes for cooling so any mechanical noise will leak no matter what you do. go for quiet parts and use foam if you are not satisfied.

DSCN0801.jpg


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you should look at the Coolermaster Cosmos 1000 or the Antec P182. both cases are extremely silent and have excellent build quality.
 
OpTioN said:
you should look at the Coolermaster Cosmos 1000 or the Antec P182. both cases are extremely silent and have excellent build quality.
Click to expand...
well, as cool as the cosmos is, being the keyword here 'budget', I think I'll have to pass :p
 
Tangent inc. said:
this is what i came up and it works great so far. the case really has little to with noise. if you get any quality case with as little sheet metal as possible then you should be fine. from a case perspective the only noise is vibration. the case needs holes for cooling so any mechanical noise will leak no matter what you do. go for quiet parts and use foam if you are not satisfied.
Click to expand...
mmm...what kind of foam did you use? thats a nice looking case you got there ;)
 
thanks setekh,

white half inch open cell sheet foam. this foam is pretty common for packaging but i lucked out in finding that it was also the density i was looking for. 1.25-1.5 is pretty good at muffling sound. i used spray adhesive from a locale hardware store to attach the foam. i wish i could have covered the entire cage but the vents on the bottom supply the only fresh air the hdd's see. next i have to swap out my fans.

i have two SILVERSTONE FM121 and while they have pretty impressive flow they are not very quiet.

as i commented before... building a quiet rig is 95% parts/planning and 5% the case you choose. the only noise a case will make is resonant vibration from moving parts. every passive cooling part you choose is one less fan vibrating your case. this is not simple by any means though. you really need to plan out your cooling when going passive because the flow needs to be more or less in a single direction. every passive component must be inline with the flow while not blocking any other parts in the process. in this you need to prepare for lower then typical flow as well. effectively you are cutting noise by limiting the number of fans while likely running them under spec. you will often need to go after market on just about every heat sink in your system. in low flow setups the voltage regulators, north bridge and while not as often, south bridge need coolers that are large enough to reach the same volume of fresh air at the reduced flow.

now there definitely are cases that have quiet minded builders in site. cases that have options for isolating drives and thermal zones i.e. antech, lian-li, chenbro(not as common anymore) are great places to start. just keep in mind... the less noise your system makes the more you will realize the hard disk chatter will make you crazy - hence the foam. 2.5" drives are very quiet but like you i am not willing to limit my storage options like that. one day when i start on a media server i may go with some 80gig 5400's in a raid 6 but i just started my research and part hunting so it may be many months before this becomes a reality.

when i get a camera i will post pics f the psu i have in the gallery. the one in the images is a cheap themaltake unit.
 
I agree with the above poster. I think that silentpc review and other sites become too obsessed with the case. The main thing is that the Antec cases give you a fairly quiet starting point.

You can make some other cases quiet you just need to be prepared to spend some dough. But your components still matter the most. You need an aftermarket video cooler, CPU cooler (with quiet fans), and you need quiet diskdrives and quiet case fans as well.

To quiet aluminum cases you might want to add dampening materials to quell vibrations and some other people like to add closed cell foam on top of that to squelch even more noise. Antec makes their cases out of metal so this isn't a problem.

Problem with Antec is not the design (which is often superior) it's their crappy taste. Sure some designs are BETTER then others but they still have decidedly low brow "value" oriented taste, IMHO.

I like the Lian-Li and Silverstone cases much better look wise.

Pete
 
Antec's SonataIII is fairly quiet, being that it only has room for 2x120mm fans. If you don't need big air cooling, it's a solid chassis, and looks great.
 
classic cooermaster... thats all i have to say. the atcs cases i still feel are perfect. they could have easily undated them with much work :D

as a few said. check spcr.com they have good info on components, despite whatever case bias may appear there.
 
I can run my computer fanless (even in summer) when I dont have the 8800GT inside (its new but will soon have a Accelero1 to get rid of the fan - but before that I had a fanless Sapphire). The E6600 makes hardly any heat and the Scythe Ninjab cools even with fan turned off (and my mobo even has a remote for that). I usually use a fanless card (of which there are many ) and run 2 x 20" fine. The only noise I generally hear is when the hard drives start up and that's minor to me. The new WD AAKS drives are quieter (especially the 750) than the others I had though the Hitachi's can be slightly quieter looking at benchies (but they do other stuff less well).

I do have 2 Scythe 17 dB fans installed in rear and in front for drives but I disconnect them
most of the time. The less openings in the case the less noise. I don't like "blow holes" up top. I don't have a sound proofed case but all I hear most of the time is the wind or the birds outside. I dont notice PC. Now that I had a 8800GT a couple weeks I am realizing
how lucky I was and hope to return to silent pc.
 
the only noise i get now is the hdd chatter i am only replacing the silverstone rebranded fans so i can put them to their intended use... high flow. i am thinking i will get some panaflo's and run them slow. may try those Noctua to see if they are any good.
 
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