I'm thinking of getting a P180....

stu.artd

stu.artd

stu.artd

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I've built a new PC recently in a Lian Li PC777 case. I had wanted it to be reasonably quiet so went for a quiet CPU cooler and quiet graphics card and now the hard drives (when reading/writing) are the loudest part of the system. Although I like the design of the case and the room it gives internally the mesh panel on the side of the PC777 does nothing to dampen the noise level and I'm considering changing to a P180 as I really need to do something to stop the HD noise as it's annoying me.

The spec I'd be putting in it would be

Seasonic 600W PSU
Gigabyte DS4
Core Duo E6600/Arctic Freezer 7 Pro
IceQ3 X1900XT
X-Fi
DVDRW
5 x HD's. The loud HD's are a Raptor 150GB and a 320GB Seagate 7200.10, obviously the raptor is the louder of the two. The 12cm fan in the PC777 does a good job of keeping the HD's relatively cool.

Can people with a P180 give me their opinions/concerns regarding this case and any issues they'd expect with the hardware I'd be using ?
 
The p180 is an ok case. The tripple paneling and door helps noise a tiny bit, but IMO is not the best way to stop noise. You'd be much better off doing like im doing at the moment, and build your rig in a big case.(Im using a LianLi v2000) And place all the harddrives in silencing caddies in the 5 1/4" bays. The ones im using are the Smartdrive 2002c(Very expensive but really do work great.) Also with a big case like the v2000, you can fit loads of watercooling internally for the ultimate silent rig.
 
Thanks for the suggestion, I just wasn't sure how good the drive enclosures were these days - particularly with the 10K raptor. My PC777 has free 5.25" bays I can use for the 2 loudest drives, that way I could keep the case I like the look of the most as well as quieten the noisy drives.

/edit
The raptor I have is the window model, I'm thinking that it shouldn't be mounted in an enclosure in case any pressure is applied to the top of the drive ?
 
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The clear top should be fine. Its made from polycarbonate which is extremely strong. As you say, some inferior enclosures arn't recommended for 10K rpm drives, even if they state so. The Silentmaxx should be fine. The Smartdrive 2002c however is great. Its been tested with 15k rpm drives, and infact made the temps on my drive drop by a couple of degrees.
 
Just wondering, this is pretty interesting. Im building a server in the next few weeks which will run in my bedroom so it needs to be as silent as possible and will house atleast 3 hard drives. Do these Smartdrive 2002c's really make a difference? Can you still hear the hard drives run? Removed - no competitors

Thanks
 
First thing is I can tell you where I got it from, as this would be mentioning a competitor, so google is your friend on that im afraid. Yeah the smartdrives really do make a difference. I could still hear the first drive I tested, but that was also my most noisy harddrive; An old 27Gb Fujitsu that rattled like something mad. It is far louder than my 36Gb raptor. As I said, I could still hear it, but only just. Probably about 1/3-1/4 of the sound to when I used a bungee mod on it. The other newer drives however I can't hear at all, and thats with the machine on 24/7 in my room. I do warn you though, the Smartdrive 2002c is expensive, but deffinately worth it IMO. Shame I need 5 in total. :(
 
As I'm still not 100% about using a full enclosure I've decided to order a Scythe HD Stabilizer that should let me mount the raptor in a 5.25" bay and stop vibration related noise. It was pretty cheap at £10 delivered so if it doesn't do much I'll look at something else.
 
I'd seen the bungee mod on another site but to be honest I just didn't like the look of it. I don't have any plastic clips or "bungee cord" anyway, lol.
 
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