Some Help, Cool and Quiet case

Trunks9486 · 10 Jun 2008 at 20:35

I will be building a PC for my brother this september and i would like to spare him the noise that i am going through right now... (Antec 900, suggestions to make this less noisy?).

Anyway, basically i want a nice big, cool and quiet case that doesnt cost TOO much. Up to 130-150 quid is fine if its worth it. The PC will be overclocked on air using a Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme and its going to house a single GPU only.

PSU i am considering the Zalmans, as they really seem to be good performers and quiet at the same time.

Monkey Puzzle · 10 Jun 2008 at 20:52

For the PSU the Enermax Modu 82 ones are supposed to be the quietest, closely followed by the Corsair ones or the Seasonic S12.

Diggsy · 10 Jun 2008 at 21:36

I have the Zalman ZM-850HP and it is indeed very quiet

Although, something to bear in mind is it's 50mm longer than standard. Awesome piece of kit though.

Trunks9486 · 10 Jun 2008 at 21:40

Any back up for that? The review that i read for the Zalman showed that it had a clear advantage over compeptitors due to the heatpipes...

http://bios.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM850-HP/5.html

Edit: Nice ^_^ Will that affect me? What case are you using and how noisy is your overall system? What about cooling capacity?

kinetic747 · 10 Jun 2008 at 21:41

My brother has just bought a Lian Li B25B and he also got a Be Quiet Dark Power Pro 550W modular psu. His system is almost silent apart from a slight hum. :cool:

Diggsy · 10 Jun 2008 at 22:08

Trunks9486 said:
Edit: Nice ^_^ Will that affect me? What case are you using and how noisy is your overall system? What about cooling capacity?

I'm using a **no laughing

** Jeantech Phong, which I have added a Scythe Kama Bay to, to help intake more fresh air. I also modded the side panel to allow me to fit 2 more 120mm fans just below the GFX card. My case is not the deepest by any stretch (480 or 490mm IIRC) so if it fits in there, it will fit almost any case.

I run an Abit IN9-32X MAX, and although it's not the best clocking board out there, you can't argue with the onboard fan control that Abit provide. That and an Akasa Fan Control Jnr help keep my system very quiet indeed.

For what it's worth I have the following fans installed...

FRONT - Akasa Amber 120mm @ 1,000RPM, Akasa Smoke 120mm @ 1,000RPM
SIDE - 2x Scythe 120mm @ 800RPM
REAR - 1x Akasa Amber 120mm @ 1,200RPM
INSIDE - 1x Sharkoon Silent Eagle @ 1,250RPM (on the TRUE), 2x Akasa 40mm @ 2,500RPM (on the chipsets) and an OCZ XTC Memory Cooler which has 2x 50mm *I think* @ 2,500RPM.

As you can see I have quite a lot of fans in there, yet to give you an idea of the noise levels, the loudest thing at the moment is the Akasa Amber fitted in my Kama Bay running at 1,000 RPM.

Other than that the only noise is a soft whoosh of the air passing through the case.

System noise really bugs me, and unless I put my ear right up to the case, it doesn't bother me at all. Yes you can hear the other fans, but they are in no way annoying or intrusive at all.

It definately also helps to have it below the desk rather than on it, as any noise is below ear level and much less intrusive.