Aluminium vs Steel Cases
- Thread starter Reldar
- Start date
Soldato
- Joined
- 18 Oct 2002
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- 12,269
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- England
Ive had both and yeah prefer steel cases all the way, just more solid and tough and more reliable. I had a lovely £160 Lian Li Alu case and found the panels flimsy and sound just leaked right out from it, had issues where the fans would vibrate also and so would the hdds so had to move it about....
With the steel case it was able to dampen the noise, and no such issues since its a solid design also my fractual R2 case is cooler and its solid steel also.
Yeah one could spent £20-30 and get a flimsy cheap steel case but generaly if your spending a good 60-80+ quid the alu equivelent is gonna cost more.
With the steel case it was able to dampen the noise, and no such issues since its a solid design also my fractual R2 case is cooler and its solid steel also.
Yeah one could spent £20-30 and get a flimsy cheap steel case but generaly if your spending a good 60-80+ quid the alu equivelent is gonna cost more.
Are you serious ? Quality has nothing to do with whether the case if made from steel or aluminium. You can get poor quality cases that are either steel or aluminium. And the same for good quality cases. It's just that steel is so much cheaper to produce. So obviously you are going to get manufacturers targeting the bottom end of the PC market with budget steel cases and rarely with aluminium ones (simply due to cost). Having said that, on the upper end of the market you have the Corsair 800D and 700D. Not aluminium except for the front panel and very very high quality. And in the midrange you have the 600T and again very high quality though made out of steel and plastic. Same can be said for the HAF-X if you like the looks. The list goes on.
I personally prefer the looks of an aluminium case and like the 800D/700D front aluminium panel. And while I prefer the fact an aluminium case is nice and light compared to steel - almost every aluminium case I have owned has had resonance issues resulting in me having to use mass dampning. If I was buying an aluminium case now, the ONLY one I'd consider if I had the money for it would be the new Lian Li V2120X, mainly because of the thick aluminium panels, sound dampning, and the efforts they have taken to ensure the panels don't resonate.
Why don't you then start listing steel cases which use thicker than 1mm sheet?
I haven't yet seen any advertisings, specs or anything about steel case which would use thicker material no matter how many times I've asked.
While steel weights thrice the alu it's still not good in stopping vibration because thin metal sheet is thin metal sheet regardless of what it's made of and as non-elastic material steel conducts vibration quite well.
Giving real vibration stopping ability with layer of vibration absorpting material or through extra rigidity makes it heavy with all capitals. (Antec P18x/19x already use alu-plastic-alu layer structure to keep weight of side panels reasonable)
If weight is an issue and budget isn't so limiting alu+bitumen gives lot better vibration resistance per weight.
Oh look..it's Esat. As soon as someone posts something in this forum about vibration or noise he shows up with his Antec plastic/bitumen/noise comments. Mate, I'm not going to list all the steel cases that have thicker panels then aluminium cases. And it's common bloody knowlege most steel panels are thicker then 1mm alum. You should know this. Stop trying to be obtuse
. And I think it's common knowledge too that thicker steel panels are better at drowning out noise. Of course it will depend on how the case is constructed as to whether steel or aluminium panels stop vibration effectively - because your right, a metal sheet regardless of construction and thickness can very often do nothing to help with vibration. I had an 800D whose sidepanel resonated a lot and that was a steel panel. I had a high end Lian Li that had no problems at all. But by and large lots of people have posted on these forums about how thin alum panels resonate. It's all over the place on SPCR about this. Steel panels don't tend to resonate as easily (which doesn't mean they never resonate), and have the advantage of being thicker. That's why some people prefer them. That's my experience and a lot of other peoples. So all I'm really saying is that a steel panel usually drowns out noise better because it's thicker, and from the cases I've tried - steel panels seem to be less prone to vibration. Yes, alum+bitumen can solve resonance issues but that's not what this thread is about. It's about alumin v steel cases not modding your aluminium panel with bitument or some other sound deadening tat.
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Well i finally managed to feel well enough to transfer my system from my tsunami dream (alu case) to my 700D (steel case) and noise difference is noticible. Yes the 700 weighs a ton more then the tsunami but then it also feels a damn site more sturdy and i have no more vibration problem that plauged me with the tsunami despite many hours of trying to eradicate the problem. End of the day it's personal choice for me right now it's steel all the way i am so impressed with the 700 but experience will be different for every single person.