New case advice required.

ancientmariner

ancientmariner

ancientmariner

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Afternoon,

Currently using a white corsair 600t to house my system. I run sli under air and have just bought 2 gtx780's to replace my 580 sli setup. I love the 600t in some ways and hate it in others. Total dust magnet is the first issue and noise is the second. I like to keep my gpu's under 70 and have found using the 4 case fans on the side to replace the window achieves this.

As my system is on my desk, close to my head, I am starting to grow weary of the noise caused by 4 gpu fans, 4 120mm side fans, 1 front 220mm and a top exhaust 220mm ontop of the h80 cpu cooler fans.

Ideally i would like to keep the hd drives and psu behind the main board similar to the Corsair Carbide 540 setup, this would allow much greater use of airflow i think and would be nice to go back to a window instead of a side panel with fans.

Would the Corsair Carbide 540 be a good case for sli or is the 600t doing a better job for cooling etc? Is there any other cases i should look at that are renowned for sli setups?

Thnx
 
I think the 540 is the best choice. Its a great case for setups like that.

Another option is the 750D though that has the HDD's in the conventional manner.

Other cases which may be worth considering are the CM storm and HAF cases aswell as the NZXT phantoms, though i don't personally like the look of any of them..

I'd go for the 540 or 750D
 
Silverstone ft02 is what you want btw which style coolers do the 780's have ? if leaf blowers then there's no quieting that apart from changing the coolers on the cards.
 
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The 780's are the windforce ghz edtions..3 fans dumping heat into the case. The noise from the gpu isnt bad by itself and the 780's should be quiter than the 580's but I would like to go back to a window case if possible and still maintain adequate cooling. Will check out those recommendations now though..thanks for the replies so far.
 
Something like a nzxt switch 810 might be better in terms of less noise yet retaining a lot of space.

I don't think many of the cases mentioned will be a major downgrade in noise levels over the 600t though, probably the ft02 would be but not by much as it's the 6 gpu fans and h80 fans making most of the noise.Btw did you ever mod your 600t I read that the front grill can cause noise on that case and snipping it out can cure that.

Not knocking the Corsair 540 but how quiet can it be the entire front and top are exposed ? just not sold on it although I do like it.I just think it's a worse design than the silverstone raven rv03 which has hard drives round the back and active cooling as well as separate psu compartment.

If you want quieter i'd consider changing from the h80 to one of the big air heatsinks that use 140mm + fans and maybe consider a quiet designed case the balance is hard as you have 2 gpus.The silverstone ft02 hasn't been bested since it's release in terms of performance looks and quality for an air cooling case in my view.

Corsair 750D
Switch 810
Silverstone FT02

Three I'd say in the sub £200 region worth changing from a 600t to.
 
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Thanks for the reply. Am concerned about the noise with the 540D too, I cant honestly see much of a reduction for the kind of setup i run, might be wrong though. The nzxt switch 810 looks really nice, but my eye has been drawn to the Phanteks Enthoo Primo Full Tower Case..although out of stock. Am tempted to wait until stock is in and maybe pick it up..looks stunning.
 
Just realised i forgot to reply to your other question. No, not modded the 600t at all. The only noise issue i ever got was from the window when things started heating up in the case..creaks and pops when heating up and cooling down. Was tiresome very quickly, so i am hoping whatever case i settle on will not repeat it.
 
If it's a mid-tower you're looking for then I'd recommend either the BitFenix Ghost, BitFenix Shinobi or any Corsair cases. Little tip though, if cable management is a big deal for you then stay away from the Cooler Master Elite series cases
 
Which 600t do you have ? it has a massive open grill on the side panel instead of a window ? if so simply changing that or covering up will reduce noise loads.

If it's the 600t with no grill on the side panel then you could easily go from the 600t to the 750D and not see any major difference in temps or noise but just having no side fans or grill will make a big difference. I just think air cooled dual card setups are always going to require noise to stay cool.

Personally I'd stick with the 600t but change out the stock cooling to better fans and and not run with side fans just cable tie a quality high cfm low noise 140mm+ fan between the hard drive cages or ideally just the one hdd cage down the bottom like in this pic he also cut his front grill out I think.
23igw2x.jpg


The 750 has a completely exposed top too so wouldn't be a major difference to the 600t if anything 2x120 or 2x 140 in the top would be noisier than the stock 600t top fan.
Maybe consider a silent designed case like the corsair 550D but like I said dual cards are always going to be noisy ish on air.

I reckon if you swapped to a large heatsink air cooler and changed the front fan to better fan and top and removed side fans you'd lose more noise than simply swapping to a new case unless it's a quiet designed case like the corsair 550D but is that capable of keeping 2x780's cool enough with all it's silence designs in use.

Being under 70c on the cards will rely more on the actual coolers on the cards especially the top card which run hotter than the bottom one as they are working harder and drawing heat from the bottom card.If you want a quiet high end dual card rig you really need to watercool at least the cards I don't think whisper quiet and low temps on dual high end card air cooled rigs is even possible.What temps do you get if you remove the side fans and block over the holes ?

I am sat here with a raven rv03 with 2x air pens at low setting a noctua nhd14 with 2x thermalright ty140 fans at 5v and one top 120 mm noctua silent fan at 5v and gigabyte 6970 triple fanned windforce which never goes above 50% fan speed .

BUT I wouldn't call it whisper quiet at all ! I can definitely hear it and I have most of the best rated fans for low noise going which is why I think maybe you are suffering from the well known 600t front grill noise issue maybe ? just shows everyones levels of noise tolerance is so different maybe your 600t is queiter than mine ?
 
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