Advice on a budget silent case

[bernardosgr]

Hi everyone,

I've recently built a system for a VM server with several cheap components I got from Germany (I'm from Portugal) and although everything is fine with it, the fact that I both "cheaped out" on the CPU fan (got a 3-pin silenx efz-100ha2) and on the case (used an old ATX case from ASUS which is missing 3 front-bay covers lol), got me to having to turn it off due to the noise it makes...

The fact is that the fan runs full-blast continuously and its anything but silent. Although cooling seems to be good (I got 2 120mm Arctic PWM fans), I can't undervolt it unless I have a resistor.

So now I decided to get a decent cooler and a decent case (all budget components) and I've narrowed it down to this (please keep in mind I read tons of posts and reviews about them, especially here):

CPU cooler:
- Arctic Alpine 64 GT Topblow Kühler - € 7,94
- Zalman Fan Mate 2 (not a cooler but perhaps an alternative) - € 4,86

Case:
- Fractal Design Core 1000 - € 37,11
- Zalman Z1 Midi Tower - € 26,71
- CoolerMaster N 300 - € 40,85
- Zalman Z12 - € 39,35
- Fractal Core 1300 - € 44,27
- Silverstone Kublai KL05 - € 62,36

I'd like to go as low as possible in terms of budget but I don't want to be in a bad spot again, due to a poorly weighted choice.

EDIT: I forgot to mention - the case will probably have to fit 3-4 HDDs and 1 SSD (from Zalman's site it seems to be possible).

Thanks a lot,
Bernardo

[xan_user]

Welcome to SPCR.

maybe just keep the case, grab a better fan or 2, use a Kotetsu cooler and a zalman fanmate to find the right speed.
the open bay covers can work in your favor, with the proper airflow. ....might be able to duct it straight to the PSU... you could cover the bays with painted wire mesh, if aesthetics are an issue. all for under $60 US.

EDIT: I forgot to mention - the case will probably have to fit 3-4 HDDs and 1 SSD (from Zalman's site it seems to be possible).

Keep in mind that once you build a proper "silent PC", new case or not, it will be those 3-4 HDD's that will make the most noise. -basically, if you need more than one HDD, there's no real need to go crazy making everything else dead silent...a soft whoosh of a fan is far more pleasant to me than HDD noise.

[Abula]

Out of what you posted, i would go with Fractal Design Core 1300.

[bernardosgr]

Out of what you posted, i would go with Fractal Design Core 1300.

I like that it has room for 2 120mm fans... The only thing bothering me is the price tag! My main issue is wether or not a 20€ difference to the Z1 (which, by the way looks really good) is worth it

Welcome to SPCR.

maybe just keep the case, grab a better fan or 2, use a Kotetsu cooler and a zalman fanmate to find the right speed.
the open bay covers can work in your favor, with the proper airflow. ....might be able to duct it straight to the PSU... you could cover the bays with painted wire mesh, if aesthetics are an issue. all for under $60 US.

EDIT: I forgot to mention - the case will probably have to fit 3-4 HDDs and 1 SSD (from Zalman's site it seems to be possible).

Keep in mind that once you build a proper "silent PC", new case or not, it will be those 3-4 HDD's that will make the most noise. -basically, if you need more than one HDD, there's no real need to go crazy making everything else dead silent...a soft whoosh of a fan is far more pleasant to me than HDD noise.

I'm aware that these HDDs will make considerable noise but I'll be standing about 4 to 5 meters away from the PC and, considering the noise they made, when inside their enclosure, didn't bother me at all, I'd say I'll be fine.
About the main idea of the case, I'm really considering the Zalman - it looks better, seems pretty well closed up, appears to have good airflow and it has space for both my fans and HDDs (which seem to be pretty easy to fit in).

I'm really price conscious but on this one I might be picking up both the cooler and the resistor (about 15€) which will leave me with 2 usable coolers.

Does this seem like a reasonable way to go?

[Cistron]

If you want to go super budget you might be able to just rig something up ghetto-style. Have you go pictures of your case? Perhaps replacing the fans is all you need.

[quest_for_silence]

Which are the mobo and CPU?

[xan_user]

I feel like its time to point out that cases dont make a system silent. its the components and guts that make it silent. this is especially true with budget cases.

repurposing and modding some old heavy beast of a box from dell or HP, will usually result in a quieter computer than any cheap new case.

please list your current PSU,CPU,GPU,MOBO,HDD's fans and case. also where the fans are located in the case. and please list your country in your profile, so we dont send you on wild goose chases for stuff you cant easily get there.

[bernardosgr]

Which are the mobo and CPU?

If you want to go super budget you might be able to just rig something up ghetto-style. Have you go pictures of your case? Perhaps replacing the fans is all you need.

I feel like its time to point out that cases dont make a system silent. its the components and guts that make it silent. this is especially true with budget cases.

repurposing and modding some old heavy beast of a box from dell or HP, will usually result in a quieter computer than any cheap new case.

please list your current PSU,CPU,GPU,MOBO,HDD's fans and case. also where the fans are located in the case. and please list your country in your profile, so we dont send you on wild goose chases for stuff you cant easily get there.

Hi guys,

I'm sorry that I didn't reply to this for so long, I do hate to throw things out there and not following-up after. I was away on vacation and really couldn't access my stuff.

But onto the matter at hand.. I got some pictures of the setup, here are the specs:

- Case - ASUS VENTO A9
- MB - ASRock 970M Pro3 AMD 970
- RAM - 16GB HyperX FURY rot DDR3-1600
- CPU - AMD FX Series FX-6300 6x 3.50GHz
- HDD - see below
- Graphics Card - old repurposed, fanless display card
- PSU - 300 Watt be quiet! System Power 7

- Fans - 2x Arctic Cooling F12 PWM fans
- CPU Cooler - SilenX Effizio EFZ-100HA2 Topblow

(I had initially embedded the images but it got huge)

http://i.imgur.com/EXTSxaO.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/HAo3JpH.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/ZaZvR1p.jpg

Now, the HDDs. I got these 3x1TB drives from old external drives:

- 1 TB Western Digital - model WD10EACS
- 1 TB Western Digital - model WD10EADS
- 1 TB Samsung - model HD103SI

http://i.imgur.com/0eh5RKI.jpg

I have to say that the only thing which is really bothering is the CPU cooler.. The 2 Arctic fans are pretty silent (they make just a soft, calm, continuous whoosh that really doesn't bother me) and the PSU is virtually inaudible.
That being said, I haven't plugged the HDDs in yet...

To sum it up, as you can see the case is pretty old and is missing the floppy bay cover and one DVD drive cover. Also it is a little flimsy (one of the feet seems to be a little troubled)

Thanks a lot for your help!!
Please shoot away
Bernardo

[quest_for_silence]

To sum it up, as you can see the case is pretty old and is missing the floppy bay cover and one DVD drive cover. Also it is a little flimsy (one of the feet seems to be a little troubled)

In my opinion none of the case you mentioned would be really better than your one: though they're aesthetically better, they use similar materials.

Set aside the CPU cooler the major noise issue will be the three HDDs: in my opinion you would need a case who let you to suspend them with elastic cords, like the Aerocool VS 9.

With reference to the CPU cooler, given the "light" mobo power circuitry, I'd use a top-blowing one, I guess the cheapest (in Portugal) being the Scythe Kama Cross, the proposed Arctic Alpine 64 GT can't handle an FX on load and it will be noisy under the pure ASRock BIOS control.

Eventually, with reference to that ASRock BIOS, if I recall correctly (I used to have a 970 Extreme 4) the ASRock board had some problem with PWM case fans (maybe a too high minimum speed? Or a fake PWM header? I am not able to recall, at the moment), so you might need a PWM splitter to hook up case fans to the CPU fan header.

[Cistron]

If you can't run the PWMs fan by PWM signal, then ... oooh ... well, they are pretty useless. The F12 comes as a voltage controlled version as well. Usually very cheap. Though you might be able to split the signal off the CPU fan header, which is usually PWM-enabled.

I'd cut out the exhaust grill, it seems pretty restrictive.

As for extra hard-drives, they could rest on some foam on the floor of the case. Just remove the lower part of the drive cage at the front.