recommend me a quiet case

[pdug175]

I'm looking at spending ~£100 on a case (and PSU) for use in a silent system. There are two decent soundproofed cases around at the moment one by antec and anoter by lian-li but neither really appeal to me. Now is it worth me waiting for more soundproofed cases to be released or can anyone suggest anything in particular?

You see in the past I have only ever used cheapo generic paper thin cases. And am wondering if there are any cases which are well built and bulky that will furthur deaden noise from my PC - much like the 'silent cases' that are taking off.

[Austin]

You can muck around adding sound proof insulation and such but it's generally pretty pointless. You could check out the SFF boxes like a Shuttle or MSI's Mega. The main thing about your case would be ventilation ... either you want...

LOTS so you could mount quite a few case fans set on quiet or a couple of larger case fans as they shift more air more quietly.

OR

LITTLE as air holes obviously release the noise.

As for the PSU I'd rec something by Antec or Enermax which possess a fan speed controller. I wouldn't rec modding PSU fans yourself (yikes).

Think very carefully about what to put in a quiet PC (sorry if this is deeper than you wanted). TbredB XP1700+ DLT3C 1.50v run VERY cool and yet are still pretty fast and you can o/c easily to find the sweet spot. You could always undervolt it further as they tend to hit 2.0ghz (XP2400+) at 1.50v! For HSF the Volcano11 or something better (ie much more pricey) as on a low setting it should be very quiet ... Zalman Flower is a great choice too esp the all Copper one. For the mobo only the NB should be relevant, that can be the noisiest thing in the case so be sure to get or mod it to a passive solution. Gfx card ... if you don't want to game too much Rad9000/9200 are good choices with GF-FX5200 also an option. Just be sure they are passive as these all can be (and usually are). If you wanted ore perf you could look to a GF4TI4200 which you could underclock or passively cool (with specialised kit). For HD I'd suggest even a Segate may be too loud, the Maxtors are probably best as they can be set via sw to run in ultra quiet mode ... even a 7200rpm one should be silent then. CD/DVD tend to be noisy upon reading, IIRC the LiteOn DVD drives are one of the ones which spin down very quickly if demands are low (like reading a DVD). HTH!

[Knoxville]

If you find a case you like and think its too flimsy go into halfords and buy some i.c.e sound deadening material, it'll increase heat but it'll deaden noise aswell.

Other than that go for quieter fans (papst/noiseblockers) or even 7v/5v mod them.

[fondie]

io've never tried any myself so i can't claim as to their effectiveness but :-

http://www.quietpc.com/uk/cases.php

http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/product.p...45b2ea430a90cb

http://www.pcsilent.de/en/products/pcsilentcase.asp

http://www.pcsilent.de/en/products/pcssc03.asp

none of them come with psu's though, so :-

http://www.pcsilent.de/en/products/q...pplies_300.asp

http://www.pcsilent.de/en/products/q...pplies_400.asp

and

http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/product.php?subcat=7

have some quiet ones.

[pdug175]

Computer wise I'm pretty much sorted for a quiet rig, silent drive, rheobus, passive graphics card and northbridge. low rate noise fans. At night the PC is VERY quiet when I only have the CPU fan and PSU fan running. Yet still a tiny bit too loud.


- sure it runs a bit toasty but well within limits

I'm just thinking of what can be done next, as Im selling this current rig to my friend. I like the idea of the computers own little cupboard but finding one in the catalogues is a bit tricky. That should reduce noise somewhat.

[bledd]

a case does not make a pc quiet (in basic terms), its largely the fans + moving parts inside the case.

a case with soundproofing generally going to be quieter than one without tho.

quiet fans such as the "silent YS tech 80mm fans" will give out less noise -can buy them here

[pdug175]

I prefer the standard YS-TECH which give me greater fexibility when used with my rheobus.

In short im just after a decent well built case with a built of manlyness to it


I recommended someone a cheiftec case yesterday, although I have never had one of these, they have a front panel that will cut out a small slice of db and look great for the price. There are so many cases... its hard to choose.