Silent/Cool Case recommendations

[sted]

Hi. I built a media center using a micro atx case but am unhappy with heat (and to some extent noise). The PC is actually out of sight so am not bothered about looks - just want to find the quietest and coolest case for a reasonable price. Looking for under £150, either micro or standard atx (oh and will need at least 350w power if psu comes with it). Any suggestions?

[owain_thomas]

If appearance/size isn't an issue then I'd suggest just getting a cheap, big case. The choice of components you use will have a much bigger impact on the noise produced - you should be able to use silent components without overheating.

what components do you have so far? what case were you using which got so hot/noisy?

[branny]

Wht about a shuttle. I've built several 'monsters' and got hacked off with the noise. I now have a powerful Shuttle SN85 and it's virtually silent, even quiter than my Silverstone HTPC downstairs.

I will never go back to ATX now.

Cheers
B

[SeanT]

Some cheap big cases have problems with the panels resonating, at the end of my silent but powerful upgrade cycle (did I mention tiny budget) my next upgrade is gonna be a case that doesn't resonate

[FruitBat]

The guys at silentpcreview like big steel cases.
I think the Antecs were favourites. SLK3700-BQE was well liked. I think it's the aluminium cases that are worst for resonating.

Originally Posted by branny

Wht about a shuttle. I've built several 'monsters' and got hacked off with the noise. I now have a powerful Shuttle SN85 and it's virtually silent, even quiter than my Silverstone HTPC downstairs.

I will never go back to ATX now.

Cheers
B

Must be lucky i think as from my shuttle experience (2 myself and 1 my mate bought they was way too noisy even though they only had 1 fan and a PSU) i built my sister an Aopen cube which is quiter than all the shuttles i seen but still not as quiet as my near silent HCPC case

Case is not really important when it comes down to noise its more down to PSU, Hard drive, GFX card, and any case fans you install

I use a silverstone case and only have 2 fans running and its silent.

[Paul Shirley]

Originally Posted by betamac

Case is not really important when it comes down to noise its more down to PSU, Hard drive, GFX card, and any case fans you install

The case is extremely important after you've got every component quiet. After switching to a 12cm CPU fan my fairly thin PC side panel started noticeably resonating, something it didn't do with the higher rpm fan I replaced. Thicker, stiffer steel would probably fix it (instead of the carpet I'm planning to dampen the vibration with). For the same reason I switched down from 9.2 to 8cm case fans, too much resonance.

Personally I prefer a bigger case, gives much better options for cooling, 12cm fans make a massive difference, especially with oversize heatsinks. Tiny cases look nice but I spend more time hearing them than looking at the case.

[Stellavision]

I'd try and get a case with 12cm fans. Larger fans make less rpm which means less noise. I recently bought a Thermaltake Tsunami Dream Case for £70 which has two 12cm fans (which I replaced with even quieter ones) and is worth a look.

I've been on a quest for pc silence for a while now and I don't think I can get much better now. I'm using a 480W silent psu, Zalman gfx cooler and very quiet and extremely efficient Freezer 7 cpu cooler.

[sted]

thanks for all your replies guys - what do you reckon to these?
http://www.quietpc.com/uk/cases.php

[hancocaj]

check out:-

http://www.silentpcreview.com/section11.html

they have reviewed quite a few cases - a lot of people got the antec sonata and theres posts on the forums about modding it...Also in the forums is a list of cases which will take 12cm fans.

The guy who runs that site has also just co-developed a case with antec in the hope of making it the quietest yet its the P180 and there's links on that page....

if you want really quiet and paying money then:-

http://www.mcubed-tech.com/eng/hfx.htm

can give you a totally silent solution...

Originally Posted by Paul Shirley

The case is extremely important after you've got every component quiet. After switching to a 12cm CPU fan my fairly thin PC side panel started noticeably resonating, something it didn't do with the higher rpm fan I replaced. Thicker, stiffer steel would probably fix it (instead of the carpet I'm planning to dampen the vibration with). For the same reason I switched down from 9.2 to 8cm case fans, too much resonance.

Personally I prefer a bigger case, gives much better options for cooling, 12cm fans make a massive difference, especially with oversize heatsinks. Tiny cases look nice but I spend more time hearing them than looking at the case.

I have never seen a badly made case for £150 which is what he said he budget was, of course when i said case does not matter i did not mean any old £15 case from ebuyer will do but were talkiing about £150 here you wont find a badly made case for that kind of money

i think i paid £125 for my silverstone and its superb.

[RichKS]

I have the Shuttle "Zen" and it has a laptop style power brick. Hence it's PSU is totally silent. The CPU fan is ramped and mine never goes above it's quitest mode unless I'm doing something like image processing or similar (ie anything really processor intensive). Noisiest thing in it's the DVD drive.