Cheers for responding fast. I would like a bit of headroom so I'll check out the 7400K, thanks for the tip. If I go down this route my minimum psu size according to the calculator is 130w, recommended is 180w. I should still get away with a 160W picoPSU but could you suggest a quiet 200Wish PSU jus...

Streaming in HD and playback of full HD content (with 3D) should work, 4K is out. More demanding emulators like Dolphin won't run either. The system should be ok for the workload you describe, but there is no headroom. If you want more you'll have to replace the MB and CPU. And even steaming HD con...

That APU might struggle in HTPC use depending on what you watch. I'd go with a AMD 7400K or 7600.

That was a bit disappointing. Hope you guys can take a look at the Eisberg 240L, the production rights just returned to Alphacool, so they're able to sell it for under 90€ in Europe. For a expandable full copper 240 kit that some value.

Hi! I wanted to share my concept of a Steambox that I made some time ago. The idea was to make a AV sized(43cm) wide case that would be able to support a decent low-profile CPU cooler, a high end GPU, and a boat-load of 2.5" HDDs. 3.5" HDDs would make the case too high, and they're louder and hotter...

EKWB makes quality products. The EK-DCP 2.2 pump is able to be run quietly, especially if undervolted and decoupled. Their radiators have low FPI, so they're well suited to low fan speeds. Their blocks are so good that it doesn't make any difference. And their pricing is fair, at least in Europe. So...

Without knowing what parts are available to the builder you're thinking on using, giving exact advice becomes difficult.

The only part that produces noise outside of the normal in a water-cooling loop is the pump. Make sure that you get a quiet pump, and you've got what you need to build a silent water-cooling set-up. After that, the only thing that matters is choosing silent fans focused on static pressure, and enoug...

To be 100% clear, a good water-cooling loop will not sacrifice noise, it will simply not be able to improve over a good air-cooling set-up at idle, because a good air-cooling set-up is inaudible at idle. Both a good air-cooled and a good water-cooled system will be inaudible when idling. If you want...

The only aspects where water-cooling has even an theoretical possibility of being quieter than a good air set-up are CPUs with raised voltages, and high-end GPUs. And that's only under load. GPU fan noise under load is the common problem of the two, because it isn't really possible to have a high-en...

You mean the the rectangular holes in the door? It may not look like a big difference in terms of cooling performance, but it is. For the same reason, no decent case maker uses the old school fan vents anymore. You need fast spinning fans for that, it's just inefficient. However, if you don't inten...

Doesn't smaller vents also block more noise? AFAIK, smaller vents block the airflow much more than they block noise. Just look at basically any case that's considered quiet, there's usually more vents provided than needed. My reasoning was that something like the Antec P182 doesn't have much bigger...

It looks nice, but I think you need much more air intakes for those components, at least if you want it to be reasonably quiet. Another design has the whole front perforated like the old Mac Pro, but I really wanted a clear front. I didn't really know how big the vents should be without testing, so...

Not sure why you'd need quite so many drive bays, but a nice idea. Anyhow, while it's not mATX, the Rosewill MX2 is aesthetically close if you're looking for a case along those lines: http://techreport.com/news/25924/latest-rosewill-cases-are-slick-aluminum-clad The Legacy U3 is mATX if you could d...

Hi! This is my first post after many years of lurking. I've been doodling case designs for quite a while now, and yesterd after I saw the new Silverstone FT05, I finally felt inspired enough to do a composite of my fantasy design in Photoshop, and then share it with the lovely people here who might ...