Impossible Dream?

[EnzoSmithers]

morning all,

soon I will be ordering a ivy i7 and motherboard with the aim of overclocking it to a reasonable level. This will produce heat that needs to be cooled.

Currently, I have a Coolermaster 690II case that I dislike strongly. It has a lot of holes in it, is very noisy, it creaks and makes odd noises occasionally and i am sick of it, so with my new parts I want a new case.

I want something that looks nice, is quiet, but will keep my overclocked parts cool while I game/edit/watch tv etc.

Is this impossible? I have read reviews of the Fractal R4 and the Corsair 550D and they both fit most of the bill but appear to be quite poor from a cooling perspective.

If I have something that will cool substantially, it will, I am sure, be loud.

I do not have the money to invest in bespoke watercooling, I currently use an Antec Kuhler 620 cooler but could replace that with something similar if not up to the job with the new parts.

Anyone got any advice, opinions, thoughts reccomendations etc?

 

[BluSky]

The key to quiet air cooling is large, low rpm fans. I don't know what you personally would consider a good looking case or what size case you are looking for. You also haven't said how much you are willing to spend which makes it difficult to recommend something.

Just curious though, have you looked at OCUK's range of silent cases? (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=2180&catid=2195). Most of them should cool well enough for an ivybridge oc and they have additional noise dampening to help keep things quiet.

 

[EnzoSmithers]

Apologies I had not. Case budget - approx £100-120 tops. Additional cooling, maybe 70ish, again all very fluid, depends entirely how much overtime I come out with on Sept 25th.

I will have a look at those now, their not something I had considered previously.

Case size wise, i am limited to a standard MIDI size, think CM690II size, plus maybe an inch or two on top. I have a hung computer holder from underneath my ikea desk and it is only so big.

thanks for your input

 

[michaelp]

The key to quiet air cooling is large, low rpm fans. I don't know what you personally would consider a good looking case or what size case you are looking for. You also haven't said how much you are willing to spend which makes it difficult to recommend something.

Just curious though, have you looked at OCUK's range of silent cases? (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=2180&catid=2195). Most of them should cool well enough for an ivybridge oc and they have additional noise dampening to help keep things quiet.

Looks like there's a lot here to fulfil your needs

 

[Something Else]

what i prefer to do is get a case with good airflow and then use quiet parts inside such as low noise pwm fans, custom cooled gpus and larger low rpm fans.

if you stick with air cooling then get a large heatsink for the cpu. the larger area will keep the cpu cool with a lower fan speed.