Best silent case to choose from?

[alx81]

Hi
I am thinking of upgrading from my nanoxia deep silence 3 to

a. nanoxia deep silence 5 rev b
b. fractal 5
c. dark base 900

1. Will those cases be damping the noise better?
2. Which case is the most silent one from above or in general?
3. I did not find a page withe noise level comparison.. Anyone found such a page / source?

Thx in advance for the discussion
Alex

[edh]

All cases make exactly the same noise: none at all. Noise comes from the components you put in it. Noise dampening from a case is no longer something to talk about anymore unless you have really loud components and are trying to insulate them which is not as good as making the components quieter in the first place.

I'd need a very good reason to want to change a case on an existing system. Instead I would look at quietening down what is in it. What is the configuration of your system?

[Zenphic]

Are you planning on using a mechanical hard drive? If yes, go with the Be Quiet! because it looks to have the most vibration dampening for HDD.

Are you planning to have many case fans? If yes, go with the Fractal Design Define R5 because it looks like it has the least restrictive fan grills/air paths (less air turbulence noise).

[alx81]

Her you can find my current setup:
https://de.pcpartpicker.com/user/dalex00/saved/D8L4D3

Right now my goal is to decrease noise when surfing. (The noises when I play games are ok because I use headphones.)

I kinda find it hard to identify the component which is loudest now.

Best
Alex

[CA_Steve]

Welcome to SPCR.

The DS3 is a decent case and changing to a different one won't solve your idle noise issues.

Here's some questions and comments:

Five case fans? Probably only need 3 (two front, one rear):
- The stock case comes with 3 voltage controlled fans...however, you list 3 PWM fans...did you replace the stock fans or is the pcpartpicker list incorrect?
- Where are the two be quiet! fans mounted?
- How are you controlling the case fans?

Four HDDs (especially the 7200rpm one) can generate a lot of chatter.
- Consider reducing the number of rotating drives
- Consider whether you need the 7200rpm speed drive as you have an SSD for OS/Apps...
- Windows allows you to spin down idling drives. In Win10: Settings/System/Power and Sleep/Additional Power Settings/Set up a Custom Power Plan. After setting up the basic power plan Select Change Settings/Change Advanced Power Settings/Hard Disk/Turn off Hard Disk After xx minutes. I have mine spin down 2 minutes after boot.

Gfx card: This card has a passive idle mode. So, shouldn't be a noise source while web surfing. Note that EVGA cards at release had some thermal issues.

CPU Cooler: Probably not noticable with all the other stuff going on, but you should check the fan profile to make sure it's tuned for temp and noise at idle. Are you using the Fan Xpert utility? Are you overclocking/overvolting?

PSU: Probably not noticable with all the other stuff going on, but after you "drain the swamp" of all the other noise sources, you may find the power supply isn't that quiet at low loads. If so, consider replacing it with the be quiet! Straight Power 10 500CM if you'd like a modular cabled supply or even down to the 400W non-modular version to save some $'s.

[quest_for_silence]

Her you can find my current setup:
https://de.pcpartpicker.com/user/dalex00/saved/D8L4D3

Right now my goal is to decrease noise when surfing. (The noises when I play games are ok because I use headphones.)

I kinda find it hard to identify the component which is loudest now.

Best
Alex

If you wanna use lots of mechanical drives, you should take inspiration from the (now old) SPCR article on mid-tower home server: http://www.silentpcreview.com/Mid-Tower ... igurations

With reference to that, you can also take inspiration from the solutions proposed by NoiseMagic Gmbh.

Said that, I guess that using just 2 >6TB drives (<5900rpm) may be a better deal than running 4 smaller ones, noise-wise.

[alx81]

Five case fans? Probably only need 3 (two front, one rear):
- The stock case comes with 3 voltage controlled fans...however, you list 3 PWM fans...did you replace the stock fans or is the pcpartpicker list incorrect?
-> I have the 3 stock fans as follows:
-- 2 volltage controlled behind front (manual controlled)
--- Just realised the controller is broken and do not run at all. Seems this is resulting in high PSU fan spins which results in more noise.
- 1 PWM in the rear
- Where are the two be quiet! fans mounted?
-- 1 on CPU
-- 1 one on the button
- How are you controlling the case fans?
-- buttom, rear asus fan expert profile
-- cpu asus fan expert

- Consider whether you need the 7200rpm speed drive as you have an SSD for OS/Apps...
-- Those are for backups.
- Windows allows you to spin down idling drives. In Win10: Settings/System/Power and Sleep/Additional Power Settings/Set up a Custom Power Plan. After setting up the basic power plan Select Change Settings/Change Advanced Power Settings/Hard Disk/Turn off Hard Disk After xx minutes. I have mine spin down 2 minutes after boot.
-- good i dea will do it

Gfx card: This card has a passive idle mode. So, shouldn't be a noise source while web surfing. Note that EVGA cards at release had some thermal issues.
- yeha idle no spin

CPU Cooler: Probably not noticable with all the other stuff going on, but you should check the fan profile to make sure it's tuned for temp and noise at idle. Are you using the Fan Xpert utility? Are you overclocking/overvolting?
- OC and on low speed not noticable

PSU: Probably not noticable with all the other stuff going on, but after you "drain the swamp" of all the other noise sources, you may find the power supply isn't that quiet at low loads. If so, consider replacing it with the be quiet! Straight Power 10 500CM if you'd like a modular cabled supply or even down to the 400W non-modular version to save some $'s.
- Right now seems to be the source of noise. Will check again when the broken voltage controller is replaced for the stock front fans.
- Also hate that the psu fan can not be controlled via profile or manually.

[alx81]

With reference to that, you can also take inspiration from the solutions proposed by NoiseMagic Gmbh.

Hm strange they not offering any mayor brands i wonder if those offered fans all better than the silent wings 3 (which are awesome)?

[quest_for_silence]

i wonder if those offered fans all better than the silent wings 3 (which are awesome)?

No, they aren't: but the solutions you have to look at are those for hard drives (and cases, perhaps).

[alx81]

i wonder if those offered fans all better than the silent wings 3 (which are awesome)?

No, they aren't: but the solutions you have to look at are those for hard drives (and cases, perhaps).

Hm would be great if there exist fully overed hdd cases with one fan.
Something like but for 4 hdds to replace existing tower cases
https://www.quietpc.com/quietdrive

My front fans are fixed now and my PSU is now the loudest component.

Any recommendation for a really silent PSU with is future proof for the latest cpus?

[quest_for_silence]

Any recommendation for a really silent PSU with is future proof for the latest cpus?

You already got two good recommendations: you might add the more expensive Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro P11 550W/650W if you think to the latest 8-core/16-threads AMD Ryzen or any overclocked Intel HEDT (maybe paired with a 1070 SLI).

[gsilver]

Not on your list, but I'm pretty happy with my Fractal Design Core 500
It doesn't really have any damening material, but quite importantly to silence, it has enough space for a Heligon HE02, which is a 160mm heatsink designed to run passively.
I was a bit concerned with the temps when running passive, so I put a Prolimatech 140mm slim fan on it. The fan is a 300-1000 rpm model. Honestly, a 300rpm fan at idle is probably the best you can expect.

PSU is semi-passive, and the GPU is pretty good, too (running an Arctic Accelero Hybrid-II).


I'll get a SPL meter in a few days, but subjectively, it's quieter than ambient at idle (doesn't mean "silent" since I definitely hear it, but at least quieter than the noise out the window)