Sound-proof or buy a new case?

[drgoodspeak]

Hello.

I currently have a Lian-Li PC-P80B case and although the space and build quality is great, it seems to offer nothing in terms of sound proofing.

The biggest noise culprit is my ATI 3870X2 card, which is soon (tomorrow) to be replaced with a 4870X2 card. I've ramped down the case fans as much as possible, but the noise from this thing is ridiculous.

The P80 replaced an Antec P180 which offered great noise reduction.

So, my question is, do I go for another case (Budget not a problem, but will need to future proof for triple crossfire, so space important)? Or can I sound proof this one? I've seen the sound-proofing kits available from OCUK but I've no idea how effective they can be. I guess the issue with this case is that there are five fan inputs/outputs, so I'm sceptical of how much difference sound-proofing can make.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

[EsaT]

Or can I sound proof this one?

With whole front as one big hole only thing you can proof against is if side panels are rattling/vibrating. Most airborne sound leaks out any way no matter what you do unless you stuff whole case full of some acoustic foam.


And triple crossfire future proofs only profits of graphics card maker because when you could buy affordably three high end cards new generation cards are out and in games where extra GPU power would really help they probably don't anymore support all effects supported by game.
In fact only future proof multi GPU system would be that consisting from Intel's coming Larrabees because those can be simply programmed to do nearly any kind new effect.

 

[MidnightLamp]

the sound proofing stuff isnt going to do anything against noisy fans.
and im skeptical over any case giving a big difference over sound leakage.
theres just no way to get stuff quiet without it being quiet to start,
i got near silence by watercooling my 4870x2 and cpu and rigging every fan to a fan controller.

 

[EsaT]

Well done soundproofing can lower noise by five dBs so of course it won't make noisy PC quiet but with quieter parts (/lower speed idle cooling) that can help noticeably.

And plain blocking of direct noise escape path has notable effect. Door of Lian Li A71 lowers noise of intake fans "by couple hundred RPMs" and makes it impossible to hear full stroke seek noises of AAM disabled WD drives except from very close.