Silent PC case and PSU?
- Thread starter sunnyg
- Start date
Sorry, but I think you're going to be horribly disappointed.
A computer case, sitting with no components in it, is absolutely silent. It's what you put in it you need to optimise for silence.
And cheap and quiet are poor bedfellows I'm afraid.
Do you have a specification in mind?
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"Silent" costs a fortune. "Very quiet" is much cheaper. How much do you want to spend?
Whatever you do you should end up 7v-modding your 120 mm fans.
Whatever you do you should end up 7v-modding your 120 mm fans.
Soldato
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just go passive 
What are you going to do with this system? £600 isn't a lot if you want to play games, but it's plenty iof you just want internet browsing. Does that £600 have to include the OS? Do you have any parts currently you could re-use?
Thanks thats pointing me in the right direction
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What will be your use for your machine ?
Ninja
Ninja
Soldato
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A silent psu (aka fanless) are silly expensive - got one myself, so stick with a quiet one - used the enermax and Zalman below personally - and the corsair is well respected.
The Enermax 82+pro 385w (not available at OcUK) Corsair VX 450W, or the Zalman ZM500-HP
Case - almost every case can be made quiet with the right hardware and simple mods.
steel cases make good silent pc's or high end aluminum ones if you have the budget.
Aim for a very simple airflow path with no 'pocket' if possable.
Block vents that might shortcut airpaths (rear vents when just using a psu fan are the most obvious)
HHD - SDD are not really in budget so bungee mod your Seagate (usually enought, but an encloure also helps - silentmaxx/GPU/Mcubed especially is using only psu fan)
CPU - low voltage duel core - E5200 is a great little chip - even oc'ed it runs nice and cool at around 1v
Cooling - Thermalright HR-01plus, Scythe ninja or go the whole hog and get a secondhand Zalman Reserator (1v2 1plus or 2)
Mobo - Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3 (b-grade) or the asus above. You'll need to swap the nb heatsink to Zalman ZM-NBF47, Noctua NC-U6 or thermalright HR-05 if just using the PSU fan - if you include a single case fan at 7v (or 5v) then only get one of these if oc'ing
Fan - one 120mm at 7v or lower. (not up to speed on what's best as i don't use them anymore)
Leads - cable tidying is a must with low airflow cases
visit SPCR - silentpcreview.com for loads of extra reading
The Enermax 82+pro 385w (not available at OcUK) Corsair VX 450W, or the Zalman ZM500-HP
Case - almost every case can be made quiet with the right hardware and simple mods.
steel cases make good silent pc's or high end aluminum ones if you have the budget.
Aim for a very simple airflow path with no 'pocket' if possable.
Block vents that might shortcut airpaths (rear vents when just using a psu fan are the most obvious)
HHD - SDD are not really in budget so bungee mod your Seagate (usually enought, but an encloure also helps - silentmaxx/GPU/Mcubed especially is using only psu fan)
CPU - low voltage duel core - E5200 is a great little chip - even oc'ed it runs nice and cool at around 1v
Cooling - Thermalright HR-01plus, Scythe ninja or go the whole hog and get a secondhand Zalman Reserator (1v2 1plus or 2)
Mobo - Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3 (b-grade) or the asus above. You'll need to swap the nb heatsink to Zalman ZM-NBF47, Noctua NC-U6 or thermalright HR-05 if just using the PSU fan - if you include a single case fan at 7v (or 5v) then only get one of these if oc'ing
Fan - one 120mm at 7v or lower. (not up to speed on what's best as i don't use them anymore)
Leads - cable tidying is a must with low airflow cases
visit SPCR - silentpcreview.com for loads of extra reading
Last edited:
Soldato
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Silent cases - aka passive heatsink cases.
Come complete with psu, and all cooling devices - heatsinks (cpu/gpu/NB), cooled HDD enclosures etc, etc
Zalman TNT 300 (£400) or 500 (very hard to find)
Mappit - A4F - (£600+ full system-low spec)
Mcubed - various HTPC shapes (£600+ buy the time you add all the borg heatpipe stuff)
Hush - various HTPC shapes (£1000+ full system)
Niveus Media - if you need to ask the price you can't afford it
I'm sure there are more, just can't think of any atm
Come complete with psu, and all cooling devices - heatsinks (cpu/gpu/NB), cooled HDD enclosures etc, etc
Zalman TNT 300 (£400) or 500 (very hard to find)
Mappit - A4F - (£600+ full system-low spec)
Mcubed - various HTPC shapes (£600+ buy the time you add all the borg heatpipe stuff)
Hush - various HTPC shapes (£1000+ full system)
Niveus Media - if you need to ask the price you can't afford it
I'm sure there are more, just can't think of any atm
Last edited:
- I had one of these, it really struggled with even a 530 Pentium at stock speeds
Nice, but they still quote 25dB continuous, so it's not silent.
Soldato
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Oops should have said it was the Rainer edition
system is passive but still have a fan in the external power brick
which is where the <25dB comes from.You can't make Rolls-Royce out of Lada by sticking signs to it and neither can you make quiet case out of leaky, noisy one.
Only way for it to not be noisy is putting only silent components into it.
Soldato
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Its all true what people say its whats inside the case that counts !
Im trying too currently go "green" and get parts that arent as excessive or required, ie I dont require a mobo with SLI/Crossfire, im gonna stick with WD Green hdds which dont get hot and require almost half the amount of power as most other drives they even downclock too 5400rpm speeds ! make good storage/download drives.
Even the new DFI mini ATX X58 board looks good and other mini/micro boards look like they use very little power.
SSD is a good option as well, but again all these are expensive....
Im currently considering why not just get a giant case and no fans?
Or just one giant Case which sections off all components with plenty of space like the new lian li case @ ocuk... and even then leave the side panel off..... might get dusty but then no need for noisy fans since ultimately passive is the way too go.
Lots of theorys but dunno if my ideas would pan out well !
Im trying too currently go "green" and get parts that arent as excessive or required, ie I dont require a mobo with SLI/Crossfire, im gonna stick with WD Green hdds which dont get hot and require almost half the amount of power as most other drives they even downclock too 5400rpm speeds ! make good storage/download drives.
Even the new DFI mini ATX X58 board looks good and other mini/micro boards look like they use very little power.
SSD is a good option as well, but again all these are expensive....
Im currently considering why not just get a giant case and no fans?
Or just one giant Case which sections off all components with plenty of space like the new lian li case @ ocuk... and even then leave the side panel off..... might get dusty but then no need for noisy fans since ultimately passive is the way too go.
Lots of theorys but dunno if my ideas would pan out well !