What to replace HAF 922 with ?

[Flanno]

So I built the rig in my sig only 2 weeks ago. I like the look of the HAF 922, improvement over 932 I reckon. And it cools very well, especially as I have added the optional CM red led 200mm fan to the side. And the fans are all quiet as run off mobo and spin around 500rpm. My cpu cooler is also quiet...a couple of Akasa Apaches running in pwm mode, and my GPU's are quiet. The problem is, because of all the meshing..top of case, front of case, side of case, I can basically hear all the components. As quiet as they are, it's annoying. Should have got a case with less openings and I can't very well stick the HAF on the ground as I don't want to be cleaning it out very week.

With that in mind I am looking for a case which cools as well, but isn't as open. And it has to cool the gpu's well.

After reading lots of reviews, I can only come up with 3 cases which fit my requirement.

1. Antec P193....has sound deadening doors but also side fan for cooling gpu's. That side fan makes it look very ugly though and I don't like doors.

2. Coolermaster 840....can add 2 120mm fans to front HD cages to cool GPU's and hoping this case would match the HAF in cooling peformance. Side panels are very thin though. Worried about resonance. Reviews indicate it's geared as a negative airflow case so not as good as cooling gpu's as the HAF.

3. Silverstone Raven RV02...seems to be the quietest of the bunch with an innovative approach to cooling, and I guess I could loose one of my HD's as it will only take 3, plus as SSD around the side. And I'm sure I could fit the H50. Worried about cable management though, and while I know 5870's will just fit, I doubt the upcoming 5890 or Fermi will. So upgradabiliy could be an issue. Plus I hate side windows. And to top it all off, with only the H50 exhausting air in push/pull I wonder if this enough to get the hot air out of the case.

Any thoughts ?

 

[fonetech]

932
why would you want to replace such an uber case with that tat

 

[Flanno]

I think you miss the point

 

[EsaT]

Antec P193 would definitely have the best noise blocking and vibration resisting overall construction with its design and multilayer panels. But depending on positioning of the case that side fan could
allow noise of graphics card (+CPU cooler) escape nearly directly toward you and depending on exact position of CPU socket it can easily conflict with big boxy HSFs. (140mm clearance directly under the fan)

ATCS 840 has rather solid front and no side leaks (increasing acoustic opacity of solid panels is easy) but top is nearly completely open and front up leak direction isn't exaxtly desirable. Also those plasticky trays might not effectively decouple HDD vibration.

Raven RV02 again has front sector well covered, no doubt good intake airflow to components and some plastics covering top but as you concluded might get small if graphics cards expand to fill 31cm max length of PCI(e) cards and in HDD department it really can't afford to call itself as high end case.

an uber case

It's not an case but frame holding noise leaks on their places.

I recently replaced 8800GTS 512 with HD5870 and while ATI did marvelous job with its idle consumption (PC's idle consumption dropped ~25W after change) fan isn't exactly as marvelous and could be running at still lower speed in desktop use so good thing that I got rid of Stacker STC-T01 with "only" open front and went to "acoustically worser material" made Lian Li with silencing capability given by lot better design.

 

[Flanno]

Thanks mate. Currently I use a corsair h50 for cpu cooling so no problem with it fitting in the p193. Also my current case it on table to the left of me, so side fan not directly in line with my ears . Hmm...its the 193 or the 840. Leaning towards the P193 for now. Of course I could just buy one of those lian li pc stands and throw the case on it on the ground. Shouldn't pick up too much dust as new carpet just went down. Might be cheapest solution. I'm not after a silent case, just a case where I don't hear everything.

 

[EsaT]

could just buy one of those lian li pc stands and throw the case on it on the ground

As air is rather transparent for sound better to move it to floor on other side of the wall or box it "inside" table.


I myself would have considered Antec's preceeding model P190 really seriously if it had lacked price rising lame dual PSU configuration... but still it was simply too small and had to look elsewhere for bigger case with good silencing friendly features.

 

[Flanno]

That's what I was thinking. I am going to move it off of pc table and position it on low tv stand on the left which is about 2 feet away from where I sit.

 

[EsaT]

I am going to move it off of pc table and position it on low tv stand on the left which is about 2 feet away from where I sit.

Not enough to muffle anything alone unless there's something solid/acoustically opaque stuff around case/between case and you. (also preventing reflections from close by surfaces)
Distance needs to increase lot more than "reach of cables" for it to have good effect to perceived noise level.

 

[Flanno]

I am not after silence really. Been there and done that when I was fanactial about this kind of thing, but the Xbox 360 has learned me good I've moved the case to a different room now and it's now boxed in, under a heavy wooden table sitting ontop of a makeshift stand covered by a thick heavy rubber matt. Spent the day making that In fact this room is full of heavy bookshelves and this table is part of it. So I think there is enough sound deadening going on. I can still hear the case of course. No getting around it's open design. But all I hear is airflow. It's not anywhere near as annoying as having it on top of a table. Don't know how people can handle that. And it's good enough for me. Now to watch and see if dust builds up. Hopefully wont be too bad as the case is biased towards positive airflow with intakes and 1 outtake.