Looking for the Quietest PC Case?

[holygamer]

I think my PC is fairly quiet but my mum insists she can hear my PC when she's sleeping in the next room even though my bedroom door is shut! I have perfect hearing and I can't hear anything when I'm in her room! The fans on my PC are virtually silent. I have 8 hard drives in my PC so I can only assume that's what she's hearing or it's the Power supply noise. I'm getting a fanless PSU so the only problem is quieting the hard drive noise.

Can anyone please suggest the quietest case possible with a link to a professional review. I do NOT want unnecessary vents where noise can escape. I need space for a 140mm fan on the back and a 230mm fan on the top or a radiator on the top with 2 fans on it. I do NOT need a fan on the front of my PC as the hard drives don't need to be cooled as they never get hotter than their tolerance.

I'm going to have up to 8 4TB hard drives + 2 SSDs so I need a large case. The SSDs will go behind the motherboard so I don't need rack space for those. I also have 2 optical drives.

Tool free hard drive installation is essential. Also when I remove the side panel of the case I like to have my hard drive SATA ports facing the side panel so I can easily connect/disconnect the cables.

[Ttaskmaster]

The trouble is many-fold...

It could be natural air intake that is causing the noise.
It could be PSU, GPU or CPU cooler.
It could be case vibration from any of these, possibly even transmitted through the furniture.
It could be reverb of the air bouncing around inside the case.

It could be the combined noise of individually whisper-quiet components.
It could simply be how the noise sounds to one individual over another.


I would think first to isolate the sound that is bothersome.
I'm guessing from teh 230mm fan, this is a BitFenix case?
Do you have PWM or are the fans on a constant setting, maybe via a fan controller?

[AGTDenton]

Ttaskmaster has hit the nail on the head.
I don't believe its possible for any review to state the quietest chassis going. The environment and internal components are never the same, what works well in one situation may not work as well in another.

If it turns out to be the hard drive vibrations you can get some rubber sound dampening for the screws.
Just a quick selection of choices:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0067LWL2...AA93HJ5SX4KMRB
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...odid=CA-324-LL
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pc-look-Rubb.../dp/B003U3TPK0

I suspect that if you cant hear the noise at present then getting a new case wont necessarily solve the issue, but if you do end up going for a whole new case, there's a large selection of pre noise dampened chassis over at OCUK if the ones built from manufacturer aren't what you're looking for.

[Ttaskmaster]

With all due respect, it could just be your mum...

Mine used to complain that I was playing my music too loud at night, despite wearing headphones and having it on the lowest setting - As in I could hear my own breathing over the music.

I caught her out once when she came complaining about my music, only to find the mains lead lying blatantly unplugged in the middle of the floor!

Turns out she just wanted me to go to bed.

[holygamer]

Yeah she wants me to go to bed as well. I'm 31...

I also wear headphones so the only thing she claims to hear is my PC. Think she genuinely hears the noise, god knows how. She should work for NASA or something...

[Ttaskmaster]

Yeah she wants me to go to bed as well. I'm 31...

I admit the mum thing was years ago and just an example... but it's always either the mother or the wife/girlfriend - They just don't understand that you CANNOT rest until you get this last mission done!!