Quiet Case?

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Pacwageo

Weaksauce
Joined
Sep 20, 2007
Messages
103
Hello everyone,

I was looking around the forums here and for the life of me could not find a posting for quiet cases. The Antec 900 I have right now is pretty damn loud and for my new build I was hoping to get something that made a lot less noise.

My new machine will be an i7 with a gtx470 vid card and the works... so the case I choose needs to also be efficient enough to run those components. Still wavering on the vid card at this point though.

Any suggestions for a super quiet case?
 
silentpcreview.com

my p180 is probably the quietest case I've ever worked with :)
 
lt_shiro said:
easiest way to reduce noise is too get quiet fans.
Click to expand...

Good point... I suppose I could even keep my old nine hundred if I got better fans for it... I'm assuming you have experience with quiet fans. What do you suggest?
 
I'd rather spend the money on a fan controller if you have a wealth (more than three) of fans to replace. Fan noise is directly proportionate to speed and even the most unsophisticated fan can be turned down low enough to run silent. The type of motor the fan uses is also very important to noise generated as this is where most of the "whirring" noise comes from when running at high RPMs. If you want a truly quiet case you're going to want something that is completely enclosed that has as little holes as possible for less noise to leak out. Cases like the P series from Antec and Fractal Design are great and affordable cases that follow this concept. If you can afford it and stomach the looks, the PC-B25S from Lian Li is a purpose built case for silence. The PC-B10 is also another great alternative.

Also, more often than not the OEM GPU cooler is the culprit for most of the air noise in your computer. Should also consider an aftermarket solution if this is true. :)
 
fochkoph said:
I'd rather spend the money on a fan controller if you have a wealth (more than three) of fans to replace. Fan noise is directly proportionate to speed and even the most unsophisticated fan can be turned down low enough to run silent. The type of motor the fan uses is also very important to noise generated as this is where most of the "whirring" noise comes from when running at high RPMs. If you want a truly quiet case you're going to want something that is completely enclosed that has as little holes as possible for less noise to leak out. Cases like the P series from Antec and Fractal Design are great and affordable cases that follow this concept. If you can afford it and stomach the looks, the PC-B25S from Lian Li is a purpose built case for silence. The PC-B10 is also another great alternative.

Also, more often than not the OEM GPU cooler is the culprit for most of the air noise in your computer. Should also consider an aftermarket solution if this is true. :)
Click to expand...

lt_shiro said:
what fochkoph say

fan controller and gpu aftermarket hsf or go water.
Click to expand...

Any recommendations on a good fan controller? I don't need anything fancy; just something quality that gets the job done.
 
there no such thing is a silent case... either you use water cooling or low rpm fan and noise reduction screws.
 
Like 86 5.0L mentioned, definitely check out silentpcreview.com for more info on quiet computing.

Pacwageo said:
My new machine will be an i7 with a gtx470 vid card and the works... so the case I choose needs to also be efficient enough to run those components. Still wavering on the vid card at this point though.

Any suggestions for a super quiet case?
Click to expand...

When asking for a case recommendation, it helps a lot if you can first:
  • budget
  • must-have requirements (the case must have kickass dust filters, or room for x hdds, or a 6" cpu heatsink/ 2x120mm radiator/etc)
  • preferred optionals (I'd love if the case came in blue or had a built-in fan controller)
  • known parts being used in the build (xyz mobo, 3 hdds, tri-SLI/Xfire etc)
  • exclusions (no steel cases, no blingy chassis with windows etc)

Your Antec 900 is pretty decent with one major and one minor problem. The major caveat is that the frontal drive bay area leaks noise like crazy, even the tiny clicks of hdds make a beeline towards your ears. Some cases like Silverstone's ft02/rv02 can solve this problem by burrying most of the noise deep inside the chassis. The second problem with the Antec 900 is what lt_shiro touched on: the stock fans. Almost all stock case fans are garbage, but luckily the aftermarket options are awesome and there are a LOT of great choices. For case fans, I'm partial to the Scythe Gentle Typhoons. If you want more info on fans, check out the testing done by this guy on youtube.


lt_shiro said:
easiest way to reduce noise is too get quiet fans.
Click to expand...

You skipped a step there. The easiest way to reduce noise is to not make any to begin with. Pick quiet components, THEN go through the steps of picking up fan controllers, low rpm fans etc.

86 5.0L said:
silentpcreview.com

my p180 is probably the quietest case I've ever worked with :)
Click to expand...

p180s are somewhat dated these days in terms of cooling prowess. They also don't do well when running a system with large, hot, gpus and multiple hdds. Given the OP is considering a GTX 470 and an i7, the p180 is probably a poor choice unless doing something like undervolting an i7 860 or running a single hard drive.

hvale2k5 said:
there no such thing is a silent case... either you use water cooling or low rpm fan and noise reduction screws.
Click to expand...

There was a time when watercooling was THE choice for quiet computing, but those days are over. Except when going for high OCs, aircooling matches watercooling and does it for a lot less $$$.
 
The RV and FT02 cases from silverstone are really quiet while providing superb air cooling.
 
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