Silence is golden...

Levirginien · 20 Jan 2011 at 15:10

Based on the fact that silence, good air circulation and good cable management are my main priority, which case will you recommend to house the system in my sig?
Had to return the Corsair 800D I ordered as, to my surprise, it was hotter than my Old Antec900...

EniGmA1981 · 20 Jan 2011 at 15:22

Fractal cases have sound proofing throughout the case... so one of those might be good, not sure about airflow though... Or the Silverstone FT02 maybe?

Cookeh · 20 Jan 2011 at 15:26

FT02 is supposed to be the best air cooling case around - give that a look.

Fractal cases are, as Enigma mentioned very quiet.

Venares · 20 Jan 2011 at 15:35

Defiantly check out the FT02.

NathWraith · 20 Jan 2011 at 15:37

Levirginien said:
Had to return the Corsair 800D I ordered as, to my surprise, it was hotter than my Old Antec900...

Not very suprising. It is average at best for aircooling. Watercooling is where it excels the most.

Gangster · 20 Jan 2011 at 16:01

avoid Fractal cases mine was incredibly warm.

mjones1 · 20 Jan 2011 at 16:15

Looking at your sig you have a gtx 285 which can be pretty loud, you could replace it the cooler and change your case fans.

Chanc3 · 20 Jan 2011 at 16:23

+1 for Fractal here. I've got an R2 and with a couple of extra fans its a very cool and silent case.

LiamJ · 20 Jan 2011 at 16:40

With air cooling, your going to have to work very hard to find a case that excels at both keeping noise down, whilst keeping very good airflow. Obviously your fan choice contributes, but it's still often a compromise.

Levirginien · 20 Jan 2011 at 17:14

mjones1 said:
Looking at your sig you have a gtx 285 which can be pretty loud, you could replace it the cooler and change your case fans.

The GTX 280 is just OTT as I hardly play any games these days...So I kept it at stock speeds with the fan at 40%...So no sound at all

Levirginien · 20 Jan 2011 at 17:19

LiamJ said:
With air cooling, your going to have to work very hard to find a case that excels at both keeping noise down, whilst keeping very good airflow. Obviously your fan choice contributes, but it's still often a compromise.

would a H50 or H70 be a good compromise in terms of sound as I would not expect any substantial gain in terms of temperature compared to my current Zalman cooler?

Tealc · 20 Jan 2011 at 17:33

Levirginien said:
would a H50 or H70 be a good compromise in terms of sound as I would not expect any substantial gain in terms of temperature compared to my current Zalman cooler?

No it wouldn't. Those sealed water cooling solutions are pretty noisy, especially the 2 x 2000rpm H70. They look quite good but because they are single radiatored the fans need to spin that much faster to cope. I also think a lot of people swap the fans on their H50 so the costs just rack up.

Levirginien · 5 Feb 2011 at 13:16

Fractal design define xl or NZXT phantom?

Apem · 5 Feb 2011 at 13:21

Tealc said:
No it wouldn't. Those sealed water cooling solutions are pretty noisy, especially the 2 x 2000rpm H70. They look quite good but because they are single radiatored the fans need to spin that much faster to cope. I also think a lot of people swap the fans on their H50 so the costs just rack up.

Doesnt cost much to stick some decent fans on the H50/70 like the Apaches

mrteabag · 5 Feb 2011 at 13:21

Choice of components is also important for silence.

Levirginien · 5 Feb 2011 at 13:35

mrteabag said:
Choice of components is also important for silence.

I totally agree with that...But I am just after a case that would give me a bit more space and perform either in par or better than my current Antec 900

Marvin · 5 Feb 2011 at 16:21

Absolutely FT-02. I replaced watercooling with the FT02 air cooled, and when doing work or web browsing it's silent. The CPU is 'passively' cooled with an HR02 and the 6970 doesn't really go over about 70C when gaming with the stock fan profile, and at 900/1375MHz.

It's best to get a decent fan controller with it (I use a Lamptron Touch), but it's absolutely the best all round air cooled case (HAF X is marginally cooler, but much louder/uglier).

Levirginien · 5 Feb 2011 at 16:31

Marvin said:
Absolutely FT-02. I replaced watercooling with the FT02 air cooled, and when doing work or web browsing it's silent. The CPU is 'passively' cooled with an HR02 and the 6970 doesn't really go over about 70C when gaming with the stock fan profile, and at 900/1375MHz.

It's best to get a decent fan controller with it (I use a Lamptron Touch), but it's absolutely the best all round air cooled case (HAF X is marginally cooler, but much louder/uglier).

Thanks Marvin...If you don't mind me asking, how do connect all your cables (monitor, back usb devices, keyboard etc) as that section seems to be covered? :confused:

Marvin · 6 Feb 2011 at 00:35

There's a 'tunnel' basically. The top is removable and the cables all run out the back through a hole - it's pretty neat actually and solves that cable mess that you often see.

Taking a look at these should give you the idea.

Levirginien · 6 Feb 2011 at 02:58

Marvin said:
There's a 'tunnel' basically. The top is removable and the cables all run out the back through a hole - it's pretty neat actually and solves that cable mess that you often see.

Taking a look at these should give you the idea.

Very clever indeed...Cheers!