No side window - Amazing airflow/silent - suggestions please.

markiejt · 15 Jan 2023 at 08:19

Hi All, I am looking for suggestions for a air cooled case with no side window or atleast nothing that stands out with RGB etc.

Currently I have a custom loop in an 011 dynamic, which was great at time, but honestly I have kind of moved past the water cooled/RGB stage of my life and all that comes with it.

Ideally I am looking for just a closed side panel that I can throw an air-cooler cpu and large GPU (4090) and put it under my desk.

The factual torrent (full-size) looked good, but seems there is no stock anywhere for this. This seems to be the same for a number of cases Lian Li 216 etc.

As it would be under the desk size is not an issue, so my question is what are the best suggestions for a quiet air-cooled case now? I am happy to add more fans than come out of box etc. Is the be quiet the best bet?

fryups · 15 Jan 2023 at 09:01

Fractal Meshify 2 has closed sides version . Loads of space inside and I can fit 3 140mm fans in the front, and 140mm extract in top back and 120mm in rear. Keeps super cool. Having just gone through this Be quiet and noc fans super expensive, I went for Arctic P14 pwm, I'm happy with them, pretty quiet with fan curve. I'm sure there's other fans that are quieter but 4 times the price...

Perhaps looks at the meshify 2 compact as well. Smaller and cheaper. Prob just as good airflow.

markiejt · 15 Jan 2023 at 09:25

fryups said:
Fractal Meshify 2 has closed sides version . Loads of space inside and I can fit 3 140mm fans in the front, and 140mm extract in top back and 120mm in rear. Keeps super cool. Having just gone through this Be quiet and noc fans super expensive, I went for Arctic P14 pwm, I'm happy with them, pretty quiet with fan curve. I'm sure there's other fans that are quieter but 4 times the price...

Perhaps looks at the meshify 2 compact as well. Smaller and cheaper. Prob just as good airflow.

Cool, I'll take a look at reviews of that

markiejt · 15 Jan 2023 at 09:34

fryups said:
Fractal Meshify 2 has closed sides version . Loads of space inside and I can fit 3 140mm fans in the front, and 140mm extract in top back and 120mm in rear. Keeps super cool. Having just gone through this Be quiet and noc fans super expensive, I went for Arctic P14 pwm, I'm happy with them, pretty quiet with fan curve. I'm sure there's other fans that are quieter but 4 times the price...

Perhaps looks at the meshify 2 compact as well. Smaller and cheaper. Prob just as good airflow.

Cool, I'll take

markiejt · 15 Jan 2023 at 09:35

I guess another option is the lancool 3, but that has a window

Glanza · 15 Jan 2023 at 12:13

The Fractal North can come with a mesh side panel.

markiejt · 15 Jan 2023 at 13:45

Glanza said:
The Fractal North can come with a mesh side panel.

Really like the look of that also, but it seems like it isn't sold anywhere. Seems a bit of a theme... All the cases I have seen in reviews over last few months seem to have at best had paper launches. Like the torrent, 216 & North

Raz · 15 Jan 2023 at 13:48

markiejt said:
Hi All, I am looking for suggestions for a air cooled case with no side window or atleast nothing that stands out with RGB etc.

Currently I have a custom loop in an 011 dynamic, which was great at time, but honestly I have kind of moved past the water cooled/RGB stage of my life and all that comes with it.

Ideally I am looking for just a closed side panel that I can throw an air-cooler cpu and large GPU (4090) and put it under my desk.

The factual torrent (full-size) looked good, but seems there is no stock anywhere for this. This seems to be the same for a number of cases Lian Li 216 etc.

As it would be under the desk size is not an issue, so my question is what are the best suggestions for a quiet air-cooled case now? I am happy to add more fans than come out of box etc. Is the be quiet the best bet?

I've just picked up a Phantom P600s and it's an amazing case. Have got a 5800x3d with D15 cooler and now a 4090 and airflow is pretty good and overall temps are great.

Good sturdy case that came with 3 240mm fans.

markiejt · 15 Jan 2023 at 13:54

Raz said:
I've just picked up a Phantom P600s and it's an amazing case. Have got a 5800x3d with D15 cooler and now a 4090 and airflow is pretty good and overall temps are great.

Good sturdy case that came with 3 240mm fans.

Sounds similar to what I'm planning just with intel ..

Can I ask what the noise levels are like with the setup. This is my biggest concern moving from water cooled where I had fans just set at 800rpm constant from boot up, so never noticed them. Do the fans spin up on your config?

Raz · 15 Jan 2023 at 14:17

markiejt said:
Sounds similar to what I'm planning just with intel ..

Can I ask what the noise levels are like with the setup. This is my biggest concern moving from water cooled where I had fans just set at 800rpm constant from boot up, so never noticed them. Do the fans spin up on your config?

They do but it's not as loud as it was with my old fractal case. I've got both CPU fans running, with the GPU fans at default. YMMV but for me it's definitely cooler and quieter.

I've got a slight undervolt on the GPU and on the 5800x3d I've used PBO tuner to set it at -30 with negligible impact on performance.

So far I've played CP2077 and RE Village on mostly max or ultra settings and it's not been an issue. But you may find it slightly noisy if coming from ultra quiet cooling.

Glanza · 15 Jan 2023 at 15:16

markiejt said:
Really like the look of that also, but it seems like it isn't sold anywhere. Seems a bit of a theme... All the cases I have seen in reviews over last few months seem to have at best had paper launches. Like the torrent, 216 & North

It's only just launched, waiting for stock to land. You'd have to preorder it if your not in a rush.

markiejt · 15 Jan 2023 at 15:39

Glanza said:
It's only just launched, waiting for stock to land. You'd have to preorder it if your not in a rush.

Yeah, but even on pre order there doesn't seem to be a date. Don't want to preorder something that could take months

steveliddle · 15 Jan 2023 at 16:50

used to love water cooling and had a case from https://www.bequiet.com/en/case
then the water cooler at the top of the case for the gpu leaked gloop that passed thru the graphics card and onto the power supply
ended up with removing the gpu cooler and putting back the stock cooler, but with loads of paste, typing this or playing films can hardly hear it
cpu cooler is a set of blades with a push/pull side fans.

no window as not into rgb and the case sits to the left of me on the floor

Raz · 15 Jan 2023 at 17:04

markiejt said:
Yeah, but even on pre order there doesn't seem to be a date. Don't want to preorder something that could take months

I looked at it also, supposedly it's meant to be out end January but I couldn't wait as my wife took my old case.

smallstool · 15 Jan 2023 at 17:31

I'm waiting for the Lian Li Lancool 216 to arrive on our shores - all the reviews I've seen have been very positive.

sparkymark75 · 16 Jan 2023 at 00:59

markiejt said:
Hi All, I am looking for suggestions for a air cooled case with no side window or atleast nothing that stands out with RGB etc.

Currently I have a custom loop in an 011 dynamic, which was great at time, but honestly I have kind of moved past the water cooled/RGB stage of my life and all that comes with it.

Ideally I am looking for just a closed side panel that I can throw an air-cooler cpu and large GPU (4090) and put it under my desk.

The factual torrent (full-size) looked good, but seems there is no stock anywhere for this. This seems to be the same for a number of cases Lian Li 216 etc.

As it would be under the desk size is not an issue, so my question is what are the best suggestions for a quiet air-cooled case now? I am happy to add more fans than come out of box etc. Is the be quiet the best bet?

I was at the same place a couple of months back. Tired of water cooling and all the maintenance. I’ve done a 180 and now have an entirely air cooled system in a Fractal Torrent Compact with a solid side panel. I was surprised at how quiet it is.

Blackjack Davy · 16 Jan 2023 at 02:31

Raz said:
They do but it's not as loud as it was with my old fractal case. I've got both CPU fans running, with the GPU fans at default. YMMV but for me it's definitely cooler and quieter.

I've got a slight undervolt on the GPU and on the 5800x3d I've used PBO tuner to set it at -30 with negligible impact on performance.

So far I've played CP2077 and RE Village on mostly max or ultra settings and it's not been an issue. But you may find it slightly noisy if coming from ultra quiet cooling.

I've one too the p600s has sound damping one of the issues with cases with mesh side panels etc is you can hear every rattle and hum of everything inside theres zero deadening. I've got 4 fans on teh case they're controlled by cpu temperature (BIOS) so only ramp up during gaming etc but its not excessisve (Silent profile, performance etc are noisy)

Drumroll · 19 Jan 2023 at 18:39

Fractal torrent solid panels. Don’t even need any extra fan. Slap a NH-D15, NHD15S or some very efficient DeepCool AK620 and forget. I would recommend controlling the bottom fans separately from the front fans, as the bottom fans are more sensible to speed and noise and don’t need to run at any considerable rpm until the GPU is under load. The front fans, when you find the balance between noise and airflow that pleases you, pretty much leave and forget. I remember leaving them at a constant 35 or 40% and the airflow was more than enough.

sparkymark75 · 19 Jan 2023 at 18:43

I have a couple of 140mm Noctuas in the bottom of my Torrent Compact. I just keep them on 20% to feed air to the 4090 FE. The only issue with the FE in this case is the hot air from it are fed into the path of the CPU. Since switching out my 6900 XT for the 4090, my CPU temps have went up avg 3-5c.

I have a BeQuiet Dark Rock Pro 4 on my CPU. The front fans only go up to 50% when the CPU gets into the 60s. It’s still super quiet. The FE fans at 30% are the purest thing in my case.

Drumroll · 19 Jan 2023 at 20:05

sparkymark75 said:
I have a couple of 140mm Noctuas in the bottom of my Torrent Compact. I just keep them on 20% to feed air to the 4090 FE. The only issue with the FE in this case is the hot air from it are fed into the path of the CPU. Since switching out my 6900 XT for the 4090, my CPU temps have went up avg 3-5c.

I have a BeQuiet Dark Rock Pro 4 on my CPU. The front fans only go up to 50% when the CPU gets into the 60s. It’s still super quiet. The FE fans at 30% are the purest thing in my case.

the main issue with those cards that exhaust at the top, which seems like majority of high end now. My Suprim 3080 does not, which explain sometimes why some orientation works better when for other people, and their top exhausting GPUs, doesn’t.
Your fan speeds are very reasonable.
When I was using the regular big boy Torrent, the supplied bottom fans were poor, improved when I used some 10mm spacers, but the noise profile wasn’t for my liking. I was really tempered by the compact, but maximum GPU won’t cut for me (338mm Suprim, very long GPU).