Quiet cases
- Thread starter Disdain
- Start date
Soldato
Nexus Breeze
Lian Li S80
AC Silentium T1 or T2
Antec Solo
Antec Sonata II
Antec P150
Antec P180
All are sold primarily on their 'quiet' design features.
If you start out with quiet components then the case is irrelevant. Noxidjkram@hotm has a Coolermaster Wavemaster that is absolutely silent because it has no fans in it whatsoever. It is entirely passively cooled so it is silent.
All of the above cases are weak and strong in different areas and cost hugely varying amounts of money, but none of them will silence noisy computer components, just muffle the noise a bit.
Lian Li S80
AC Silentium T1 or T2
Antec Solo
Antec Sonata II
Antec P150
Antec P180
All are sold primarily on their 'quiet' design features.
If you start out with quiet components then the case is irrelevant. Noxidjkram@hotm has a Coolermaster Wavemaster that is absolutely silent because it has no fans in it whatsoever. It is entirely passively cooled so it is silent.
All of the above cases are weak and strong in different areas and cost hugely varying amounts of money, but none of them will silence noisy computer components, just muffle the noise a bit.
you could do worse than check out Yewens comments, and see what you think.
Lian Li S80b case review:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17596975
http://www.yewen.co.uk/
As was said, you first need to look at every noise producing component you have. A quiet case will only ever be a sticking plaster.
Lian Li S80b case review:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17596975
http://www.yewen.co.uk/
As was said, you first need to look at every noise producing component you have. A quiet case will only ever be a sticking plaster.
Yeah I have a coolermaster wave master, and never realised how much effort it takes to getting it silent, i'm getting there still not there.
I replaced my cpu cooler with a arctic cooler freezer 64 pro thinking it would be silent, at first it did seem to be but once I got rid of the other noisy components this became the loudest!
Now I have managed to get this silent as I've set it in the bios to run at 1000 rpm rather than the normal 2500.
I also replaced the stock case fans with some silenx ones, I got rid of my stock cooler for my x1800xt with a vf900 running at a low fan speed.
I've also replaced the northbridge cooler with a fanless zalman, new design one (required me to cut some parts off it).
I'm now putting my hard drives in SilentMaxx enclosures and replacing my X-Pro 460W psu with a Seasonic S12 600W.
Thats what it takes to silence a case! I might be buying some other stuff, like sound dampening material.
I replaced my cpu cooler with a arctic cooler freezer 64 pro thinking it would be silent, at first it did seem to be but once I got rid of the other noisy components this became the loudest!
Now I have managed to get this silent as I've set it in the bios to run at 1000 rpm rather than the normal 2500.
I also replaced the stock case fans with some silenx ones, I got rid of my stock cooler for my x1800xt with a vf900 running at a low fan speed.
I've also replaced the northbridge cooler with a fanless zalman, new design one (required me to cut some parts off it).
I'm now putting my hard drives in SilentMaxx enclosures and replacing my X-Pro 460W psu with a Seasonic S12 600W.
Thats what it takes to silence a case! I might be buying some other stuff, like sound dampening material.
bitslice said:
Not a review, giving it a week or so to decide what I think of the case.
Since putting that up I have found that I hate the noise the stock fans make, and that they are only slightly better than ADDA fans, so will have to spend around £60 on fans to get my desired configuration.
Its quiet at stock 12v, but not what I want.
Oh and don't bother with sound dampening material. Do a search, you will see nobody likes it and its a pain to remove. All it will do is turn your case into a oven, meaning you need faster fans, and then the padding does not dampen anything, making the PC louder.
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Cheers for that lol saved me the trouble and the cash.Yewen said:Oh and don't bother with sound dampening material. Do a search, you will see nobody likes it and its a pain to remove. All it will do is turn your case into a oven, meaning you need faster fans, and then the padding does not dampen anything, making the PC louder.
Yewen said:
...as good as, most sites only rattle off a few pics, we're all more interested in what you have to say anyway.
Yewen said:
umm, kinda wish manufacters would just supply the holes, the first job is always seems to be bin the stock fans. Lian are better than most though.
Yewen said:
...unless you are one of the two people it works for
I'm still collecting test gear to look into the whole problem, will hopefully have something to post at some point, even if it's my error.
Oh it does work for some people, on some rigs, sometimes.
But for most people it does not work at all.
If its a steel case it may work better, I do not know, all I know is I wont touch the stuff with a bargepole from my ATCs and single PC60 experience of 5deg temperature drops after its removal.
But for most people it does not work at all.
If its a steel case it may work better, I do not know, all I know is I wont touch the stuff with a bargepole from my ATCs and single PC60 experience of 5deg temperature drops after its removal.
Associate
the thick side pannels on my P180 impressed me.
when they go on they genuinely muffel the sound a lot.
can make the diff between pretty quiet and REALLY quiet.
when they go on they genuinely muffel the sound a lot.
can make the diff between pretty quiet and REALLY quiet.
Yewen said:
Paxmate got rid of a lot of resonance problems that were making my Lian Li sound like a bee-hive. It doesn't increase temperatures, because it doesn't obstuct airflow, and it noticably changed the perceived pitch of fans from an annoying whine to a lower 'whoosh'.
Room-within-a-room sound isolation (like the S80) is a far better approach, but for less than a tenner I think it was worth it.
Depends how you cool your cases aswell, I for one do not worry about high 40deg case temps if the PC is silent.
The padding just does not do enough to warrant its application, you can acheive the same results with bluetac for the resonation, and the whoosh sound is the only thing I have ever noticed for the padding.
The room within a room aproach as you say is better, but it is by no means perfect as my PC is making noise at the moment (stock fans at 12v) so it is by no means the ultimate solution.
S80 to me does very little for noise, muffles the hard drive and fan noise.
The only thing I would say it beats any other case I have used at is CDrom noise. A huge reduction in that, but I never minded that noise as it had a purpose and was occasional.
Sound dampening is a waste of time really, if used on it own. It has to compliment a quiet system in it, then it can get rid of that last db and put it out of your hearing range, but for silencing a delta, not a chance in hell!
The padding just does not do enough to warrant its application, you can acheive the same results with bluetac for the resonation, and the whoosh sound is the only thing I have ever noticed for the padding.
The room within a room aproach as you say is better, but it is by no means perfect as my PC is making noise at the moment (stock fans at 12v) so it is by no means the ultimate solution.
S80 to me does very little for noise, muffles the hard drive and fan noise.
The only thing I would say it beats any other case I have used at is CDrom noise. A huge reduction in that, but I never minded that noise as it had a purpose and was occasional.
Sound dampening is a waste of time really, if used on it own. It has to compliment a quiet system in it, then it can get rid of that last db and put it out of your hearing range, but for silencing a delta, not a chance in hell!
Yewen said:
I think it's effect fairly minimal on current case designs due to the poor airflow path. Likewise the S80 is a step forward but limited by not isolating the second chamber (resonant devices still have a path to the outer case)
I also think ducting (mentioned in a recent thread) is key to fixing the airflow.
Sorry "disdain", the thread has gone off at a tangent slightly
Not really. The paxmate that I'm using hasn't affected temperatures at all. There's no reason it should - the chassis provides virtually no heat dissipation, sticking something to it isn't going to change that unless it blocks airflow.Yewen said:
I'd rather not have lumps of blutack stuck around my case to stop the panels vibrating. The padding adds mass to the aluminium panels and stops them resonating, it also ensures a tighter fit, making up for the shortcomings in PC7 build quality
There is no ultimate solution for noise reduction. Techniques have to be combined. Isolation (Room-within-a-room), insulation (such as paxmate) and dampening (such as rubber mounts) must be used together to form the basis of a good noise reduction approach. As you say, individual reductions do less to help on their own than when combined with other techniques.
Fans will always be a problem because fan noise isolation methods are expensive and bulky, and completely infeasible for PC chassis applications, the best we as enthusiasts can do is reduce resonsances and motor noise (beyond actually reducing the rpm). Padding helps for both of these, not a great deal, but £10's worth.
It would take a lot to silence a delta fan, as far as I'm concerned the only people that use them are benchers/testers and people who don't understand effective cooling.
Soldato
mosfet said:
I use them. I prefer YS-tech though. As for not understanding effective cooling - I understand that 200cfm means they're noisy but they are very effective at cooling.
No-one putting in a good word for the Arctic Cooling Silentium case?
I've got one - quietest case I've ever heard, rig in the signature runs fine off the custom 350W PSU, only thing it probably cant handle is another graphics card in there - but I dont have any equipment to test how much wattage is actually being used.
Quieter in winter, cos the fans at the top rear (where most PSU's are) are temperature controlled
I've got one - quietest case I've ever heard, rig in the signature runs fine off the custom 350W PSU, only thing it probably cant handle is another graphics card in there - but I dont have any equipment to test how much wattage is actually being used.
Quieter in winter, cos the fans at the top rear (where most PSU's are) are temperature controlled
AC have made a good start with the Silentium cases, shame they couldn't have developed them further - less plastic, better PSUs, more HDD silencers and better facias.
For a new basic home PC system, for my parents or family I'd definitely consider it.
For a new basic home PC system, for my parents or family I'd definitely consider it.
They are not ideal cases if your opening and changing components a lot, they just are not built to withstand it.
But if your building a rig for someone, and it wont be opened up ever again then they are superb, one of the better cases to use for other peoples rigs.
But if your building a rig for someone, and it wont be opened up ever again then they are superb, one of the better cases to use for other peoples rigs.