evercase, silentmaxx st-11, lin-lian or cooler master?

adoyle · Post by **adoyle** » Fri Jun 27, 2003 4:36 pm

which is the best for quietness and airflow...

1) evercase--the one recommended
2) silentmaxx st-11 tower -- w/ acoustic baffling
3) the new silent lin-lian case
4) any coolermaster type

any other one i didn't include?

thx
alan

GamingGod · Post by **GamingGod** » Fri Jun 27, 2003 5:24 pm

It depends on what you want to put in the case? Is this for gaming or just office apps? A hot videocard and high speed processor will need more airflow to keep cool. The Lian Li 6070 case is really expensive. The Evercase is nice and cheap too, but only has one 80mm exhaust. Also check out the antec sonata and 3700slk which use 120mm fans which can push alot of air and still be undervolted to near silence.

Dr.CrackEnHore · Post by **Dr.CrackEnHore** » Fri Jun 27, 2003 5:27 pm

Coolermaster for sure, not even a question in my books.

Post by **MikeC** » Fri Jun 27, 2003 6:04 pm

The problem with most cases is that they're vent-impaired. In other words, the airflow potential is always hindered by nasty impedances in the path. AFAIK, this holds true for the coolermasters and lian lis. IMO, the Evercase has the best intake vent design, bar none, but as GG pointed out, is restricted to one 80mm exhaust, which is limiting if you have a hot system.

The SLK3700 & its close relatives are viable options for hot systems because they have 120mm fan vents both front & rear, BUT the restrictive metal grill has to be cut away, and some work on the plastic bezel also has to be done to achieve really low impedance airflow.

The st-11 tower has 2 80mm vent holes in & out but the metalwork needs to be cut away, esp. in the front which is very restrictive.

If you want a case that you don't have to hardly work on at all, see the Coolcases D8000 used in Katana's Mean Machine. No acoustic damping, tho -- god for an actoustipack kit...

What to say? The perfect silent case has yet to be made -- commercially.

adoyle · Post by **adoyle** » Fri Jun 27, 2003 6:11 pm

is the evercase too restrictive for a 2.8 ghz p4 w/ high powered graphics card?

thx
alan

techiecool · Post by **techiecool** » Fri Jun 27, 2003 6:16 pm

seeing as no case is built perfect (for silence). then what is the lesser of the evils (based on stock cases)...sonata, 3700, evercase, etc...?

Edit: i think the D8000 case shouldn't be considered since that is not what i would consider 'stock'.

GamingGod · Post by **GamingGod** » Sat Jun 28, 2003 5:03 am

Its a trade off. The evercase has only one 80mm exhaust, hotter systems may need this single fan turned up higher to compensate. The sonata has a fairly restrictive plastic front bezel. And the 3700 needs the metal cut away from the fans *which in my opinion isnt that bad, and is easy to do* A redesigned antec dragon case could be quite good also, if they just did something about that direct path for sound to escape out the front, possibly by copying from the evercase.

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Sat Jun 28, 2003 6:30 am

Hello:

techiecool wrote:seeing as no case is built perfect (for silence). then what is the lesser of the evils (based on stock cases)...sonata, 3700, evercase, etc...?

The Evercase is the best stock case, IMO. It has excellent air flow without modification, it has relatively quiet hard drive mounting (using the metal "fingers") or you can get grommets and shoulder bolts a get very quiet hard drives. For reference, a Cuda' IV works great on the "fingers" and a Western Digital is passable on the grommets, with only a faint whining audible. I'm using my two Evercases with the Fortron/Source 300watt PS w/ 120mm fan, and this goes a long way to moving enough air for cool running.

I have an NMB 18CFM/18dBA intake and exhaust, and both my Athlon XP 2100+ are overclocked to 1.985gHz (stock is 1.73gHz). I have an Alpha PAL8045 on one and a SVC GC68 on the other (until I get a replacement standoff for my other Alpha...) and when the room temps got up in the 90's (F -- approx. 34C!) , the GC68/NMB stayed below 58C, and the Alpha was around 52C. Not too bad, really. For a similar machine (Barton 2500+) with an Alpha in a Compucase CI-6A21 with cut-out grills and two Enermax 120mm fans, the CPU temperature stayed in the low 40's. All this is with 100% CPU load...

So the 120mm fans can improve things by 8-10C, but the Evercase with very quiet 80mm case fans and a Fortron 120mm can hold it's own with a realtively hot CPU/really cheap HS on a very hot day!

adoyle · Post by **adoyle** » Sat Jun 28, 2003 7:21 am

neil, will i be ok with 1 exhuast fan and a p4 2.8 ghz and high powered graphics card like geforce fx?

alan

Dr.CrackEnHore · Post by **Dr.CrackEnHore** » Sat Jun 28, 2003 8:06 am

The Coolermaster ATC-110,111 and 710 are all very unrestricted. Intake has a straight shot right into the case.

GamingGod · Post by **GamingGod** » Sat Jun 28, 2003 8:50 am

A 2.8 and a gffx is going to put out alot of heat. You might be all right with just 1 80mm fan, but you might have to run it at the full 12v. If you had a case with a 120mm exhaust you could run it at 5v and still have more airflow than a 80mm fan at 12v. The 3700slk is an excelent case if you need that extra bit of airflow. If you said you just surf the internet and rarely play games then I would definately go with a evercase and an undervolted panaflo 80L1A.

adoyle · Post by **adoyle** » Sat Jun 28, 2003 10:30 am

thanks, the pc is going to be for 3d graphics work. I think i'll have to go with another case after hearing what you are saying. i've ruled out the evercase. Now i'm thinking of either the pre-modded acousticase which is based on the atec slk or the coolermaster atc series. However, i'm concerned about wheter or not the coolermaster is good for quiet pc use or not. It is not in the recommended section. Any thoughts?

thx
alan

GamingGod · Post by **GamingGod** » Sat Jun 28, 2003 10:37 am

The only cooler master case I would get is the 710 which is just a antec/cheiftec/enermax/chemning dragon clone, but with a metal front bezel as apposed to the plastic one. The problem with this case is that the part in front of the hardrive is very open and allows sound to escape very easily. I havent seen the acousticase but the slk3700 is a really nice case, its the one ill be getting. If the evercase was redesigned to include another 80mm fan, or just a 120mm fan for exhaust then it would be a REALLY great case.

Dr.CrackEnHore · Post by **Dr.CrackEnHore** » Sat Jun 28, 2003 10:54 am

If the front intakes are restricted and don't let noise escape then they are hampering airflow. Having a good intake of cool air makes all the difference you can exhaust all of the air you want but it has to be replaced by new cooler air.

The biggest factor in cooling the components inside your case is the ambient temperature and how close you can get the inside of you case to that temperature.

adoyle · Post by **adoyle** » Sat Jun 28, 2003 11:11 am

so your saying that even though it lets noise out, its still quiet and cool?

Dr.CrackEnHore · Post by **Dr.CrackEnHore** » Sat Jun 28, 2003 12:15 pm

A case can only do so much it still comes down to what is inside it. No one makes a case that is really good for quiet computing. The ones that say they make quiet case are pretty much lying right to your face.

The most important factors are solid construction and acceptable airflow. The next steps are yours to take such as insulating the case and possibly moutning hard drives in some sort of enclosure like a NoVibes. Then your worry about a passive VGA cooler and a passive northbridge cooler and then try to compromise on what kind of cpu cooler to use.

The case is basically a building platform so why not go with someting that looks pretty and is built well.

adoyle · Post by **adoyle** » Sat Jun 28, 2003 1:35 pm

thanks..only problem is, i'm doing 3d graphics work, so i need a powerful graphics card.. i probably would need a fan on that passive heatsink..

o

GamingGod · Post by **GamingGod** » Sat Jun 28, 2003 1:38 pm

The zm80a only needs slight airflow over it (like an undervolted 80mm fan) to perform as good or better than the stock graphic card heatsink.

techiecool · Post by **techiecool** » Sat Jun 28, 2003 1:47 pm

GamingGod, what if i said that sure i surf the net but also do some heavy duty programming and database work. do i need as much airflow as adoyle (graphics processing) or something less? as you can imagine, i programming for hours at a time and want quiet while i do so.

Post by **MikeC** » Sat Jun 28, 2003 2:23 pm

Assuming decent case airflow, a 6-8 volt Panaflo L on a zalman-style bracket over the zm80 hs/VGA should cool it fine while being very very quiet.

evercase, silentmaxx st-11, lin-lian or cooler master?

evercase, silentmaxx st-11, lin-lian or cooler master?

The Evercase is best Stock case