Antec P180 vs Akasa Mirage-62

[Ston]

Hi,

Looking to build a 3xs system and I am in a quandary over which case to use. Basically it needs to be sound insulated and therefore ultra quiet but also offering great cooling qualities.

Any suggestion over a Antec P180 (I believe it comes with sound insulation??) or the Mirage-62 with the additional AcoustiPack Deluxe (v2) Acoustic Material.

Both look like great options, just don't know what to go for.

Regards.

[Dreaming]

Well I may be slightly biased as I have an Antec P180. As for silence - it is VERY quiet, especially if you turn the fan speeds down (I have, with no effect on cpu temp, and just a 2*C rise in the northbridge which is passively cooled on my computer). As for cooling, CustomPC recommended it a while back as the best air cooled system, although some on here have said it's not so good as others.

http://www.custompc.co.uk/ - do a search for P180.

Really, I think it's a marmite case, I love mine but a lot of people hate the non-standard layout. The cooling is brilliant on mine with a scythe infinity that has an extra 120 fan (so I'm actually running 4 ), I'm considering going to passive cooling, but I'm a bit too alzy to open the case atm .

As for the Mirage-62, I couldn't say to be honest. But any questions specifically about the P180, throw them my way .

eta: with the P180, I hope you dont move it around much, weighs more than an african elephant. I have to lug it to my lanparties on the other side of campus

[GrahamGarside]

The P180 is the best suited case for a quiet system, the stock fans aren't great but are fairly quiet at their lowest setting. For near silence you'd want to swap them for nexus fans or something similar.

[Dreaming]

TBF Graham turning my stock fans down to the lowest and I can't hear them. I can hear a slight hum, I'm not sure what fan that is though, it's just airflow, but it's such a low 'tone' that its impossible to echolocate, lol. You wouldn't even notice it normally.

[GrahamGarside]

It's all subjective, I've just had my ears surringed and I'm incredibly sensitive to any noise at the moment

I've a sonata and I considered the single 120mm fan too loud even at 5V and I think other than the variable switch it's the same fan you find in other antec cases.

[Ston]

Hey, thanks for the info, although I am still leaning towards a Mirage with a load of sound insulation...

Decisions, decisions...

[zia]

i bought the mirage 62 recently for my new build it's a excellant quality case. it's black with polished aliminum rear and removal motherboard tray.load's space currently have the 8800 gtx installed and still leave 3/4 inch's between gpu and hard drive inclosure.i have 2 120mm notua fan's installed.the only thing i hear is my dvd drive which is really loud and zalman running at full pelt. only downside with akasa is the side panel are quite flimsy and they sometime resonate.

zia

[Girdag]

I'd recommend the Mirage, or maybe the Eclipse, which is identical apart from the door. They're far easier to work in than the Antec cases, and certainly have higher build quality. If you put good fans in them (the Sharkoon Silent Eagle range would be my recommendation), they're quiet and cool as anything.

[Breezey]

Mirage hands down

[Madafwo]

Eclipse + Fans + This =

[wja96]

The Mirage works fine with just the exhaust fan (assuming you don't have 4 HDD stacked one on top of each other) and if you use a Silent Eagle 1000 or a 5V AC Fan 12 as the extraction fan then you genuinely won't be able to hear it.

I would steer clear of the acoustic foam. It insulates heat as much as noise and, if you pick quiet components to start with (Samsung HDD are good, very quiet CPU cooler) then your machine should be very quiet indeed.

As has been mentioned - the optical drives will be noisy no matter what case you put them in. One possibility is to use slot-loading optical drives like the Pioneer DVR-K06 as these are also near-silent and perform at about half the rated speeds of normal full-sized drives.

[staffsMike]

I've got the Eclipse with ambers.. it runs very cool and quiet..I have the opptional side with fan and that produces a bit of vibration but thats the only real noise (and this is very quiet anyway)

[d3fiant]

eclipse with ambers here also, 3 of them, front back, and 1 on an Evo120 hsf, plus the akasa 21in1 card reader / fan controller. System is very quiet except for a noisy optical drive. Side panels can resonate if the thumbscrews arent tight. Cant knock this case, cooling is tops, very quiet, bloody massive inside, but also massive on the outside some wont like that.
I would avoid foam insulation unless u have noisey components, the stuff just ends up stinkin the pc out

[Mossy]

Mirage with Akasa Ambers is the way forward

Regards

[Lenny_Nero]

I have not long done a build with the Eclipse 62, I did not want the door as I do a lot of work with ODD's and they just get in the way, but its by far the best case I have worked with, and seems to have the best cooling from what I see and have read. Something the Antec did not have from what I read.

[Melbourne720]

As a P180 owner with friends with the eclipse/mirage, I'd say the P180 wins on sound insulation whereas the Eclipse/Mirage wins on build quality. I've swapped my case fans for Nexus ones, and it is very quiet.