Silent case with good cable management

se_vietboi · 30 Mar 2015 at 02:09

My current Antec 902 case is ass. The NZXT H440 seems like a good choice but it's airflow isn't great resulting in higher temperatures therefore I shall upgrade my CPU cooler from a Hyper 212+ to a Corsair H100i.

But then it'll be louder.. So get x2 Noctua NF-F12 to replace stock H100i fans?

How would you guys go about with this? And what about replacing the H440 stock fans? Or is there an alternative case which is simular but offers better ventilation?

Budget for case and fans around £200.

SilverStone Rep · 30 Mar 2015 at 03:55

Check out the FT05 as another alternative. There is a recent article from SilentPCReview.com showing FT05 as a quieter and cooler choice to the case you were considering. However, its relatively compact size means it isn't as good for cable management. But I hope you don't hinge your choice on something that only had to be done once in a long while!

Legend · 30 Mar 2015 at 11:02

Well if you want good cable management I'd stay away from the H440. There is so little space in the back, it's a real pain to sort. You can do it, but expect a headache and much swearing. Add to that you need to upgrade the fans to have the H440 cool well, it takes away from the silence aspect as it's only really silent when running with low speed fans that aren't pushing much air. I had one myself so I'm speaking from personal experience. Great looking case though.

You can make any case virtually silent with the right components, and even add some sound deadening foam if required, so I would focus on getting the best all round case and not focus so much on the silence aspect... I've learnt this myself over time.

You can't really go wrong with any of the Phanteks cases IMO in terms of overall quality, cable management etc. If you can't stand looking at blank front optical bays (which may be why you wanted the H440), you may want to look at something like the Cooltek W2... that's what I'm using now and I love it.

se_vietboi · 30 Mar 2015 at 15:22

Yeah ultimately the H440's stylish looks won over me (was about to get the 750D but opted for midi-size) in the end so I got that along with x3 Corsair SP120 Quiet Series for front intake, x1 Corsair AF140 Quiet Series for rear intake and mounting H100i + x2 Noctua NF-F12 at the top. I believe this will give a good balance of noise and temp although I do expect it to be slightly hot but that's something I'm willing to compromise.

I run a single GPU setup with x1 SSD and x1 HDD so there aren't many cables to manage and I'm aware of the side panel dampening material which limits the space available. Hopefully this will be good!

stulid · 30 Mar 2015 at 15:54

Antec P280, Bequiet Base 800, Corsair 550D.

C64 · 30 Mar 2015 at 17:10

Silence and cool temps don't really go together unless watercooling.

I'd go with a silverstone case with the 180mm air pen fans it's the best of both worlds quietish but can still acheive great overclocks and cooling.

You bought the h100i yet ? I'd rather get a big heatsink with 2x 140mm fans

Ayahuasca · 30 Mar 2015 at 17:20

Tempted to upgrade to an FT02 myself from my 500r, only thing is I have a H110 cooler and no where to fit it as the FT02 is designed around air cooling.

Did want a 540 air but the stock fans aren't meant to push anywhere near as much air through the case as the Air Penatrators on the Silverstone do.

se_vietboi · 31 Mar 2015 at 08:56

C64 said:
Silence and cool temps don't really go together unless watercooling.

I'd go with a silverstone case with the 180mm air pen fans it's the best of both worlds quietish but can still acheive great overclocks and cooling.

You bought the h100i yet ? I'd rather get a big heatsink with 2x 140mm fans

Yes I got the following items:

YOUR BASKET
1 x NZXT H440 Midi - Tower Case - White £89.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060009-WW) £89.99
1 x Corsair SP120 Quiet Series High Pressure Low Noise - Dual Pack (CO-9050006-WW) £22
2 x Noctua NF-F12 PWM 120mm Focused Flow PWM Cooling Fan £15.98 (£31.96)
1 x Corsair AF140 Quiet Series Low Noise High Airflow - Single Pack (CO-9050009-WW) £14.99
1 x Corsair SP120 Quiet Series High Pressure Low Noise - Single Pack (CO-9050005-WW) £11.99
Total : £275.02 (includes shipping : £11.75).

I went for the H100i as I wanted a cleaner look from the panel window as well as better outright performance compared to air coolers. It may not be the best value or quietest but that's what the NF-F12 fans are for and installing large heatsinks has never been fun to me! The Corsair fans I had to get elsewhere as they are out of stock in OCUK.

C64 · 31 Mar 2015 at 20:44

I'd get the corsair 750D because you need plenty of room for that 240 rad

se_vietboi · 2 Apr 2015 at 09:52

Alright I'm done. It took 6 hours for some reason but it's finally over. The build looks really clean and it performs better than my Antec 902 in both noise and temperature although that's not an accurate comparison since they used different CPU coolers.

3770k @ 4.5GHZ 1.3v I'm getting 75c stressing on Prime95. All case fans are connected with the included low voltage adapter so they're running slow and quiet but not silent. The H100i is running on auto and inaudible.

My GPU has also dropped 2-3c at idle. I'll fire up some games when I get back from work tonight for further testing but so far I'm happy with the results