A fairly quite case and power supply (w/ front vents)?

Kevin Ar18 · Post by **Kevin Ar18** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 12:25 pm

I've been able to figure out what to get for all the other components in my system. However, when it comes to a case and power supply, I'm not sure where to go. There's no specifications on size and looks (like there is with the speed of components).

I don't want to make the case and power supply cost a lot of money. I was going for the range of $150 for each component, however I was hoping for <$100 for the case (or much less).

Some of the things I was looking for:
1) Price (always at odds with eveything else, I know)
2) Fairly quite. Absolutely no high pitched whine.
3) Front vents (for some reason I thought these might be beneficial to keep the system cool).
4) Ability to install rubber grommets for CD drives (not sure if this depends on case or not)

Preferences:
5) USB ports about midway up on the front (as long as they are not on the bottom where they can get dirty).

The Antec SLK3700 seemed to fit part of that description pretty well. It even added the rubber grommets which I desperately need for my loud CD-RW drive.
However, people have noted that the fan and the power supply on it are not very quiet. Also, the vents are supposedly not big enough on the front.

So, I am not sure where to go from here.

Perhaps there is some cheap case that I could combine with a quite power supply and fan? If so, what fan and power supply could I get? Also, could I still use rubber grommets for the CD drive if the case wasn't designed for them?

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 12:58 pm

Kevin Ar18 - WELCOME TO SPCR!!!

(btw, does the "Ar18" have anything to do with Armalite?)

You seem to be saying you'd go for up to $150 for each component? If so, that gives you a fairly large selection to choose from.

If it's $150 for both, you're still in the ballpark.

But first, about those grommet mounts for your noisy CDrom drive. Neither the SLK3700, or any other case that I'm aware of has grommet mounting for 5.25" drives. the few that have grommet mounting for any drives have them for 3.5" drives only. You may be able to kludge something up for cases that mount the 5.25" drives using drive rails because there's enough room between the mounting cage and the drive itself to do something with grommets. The problem is, most of the noisy drives that I've heard are noisy because of the disk rotation and the tray mechanism, not so much because vibrations are being transferred into the case. I'd thing about buying a quieter drive...

OK, so what about cases?

If you don't want to cut out fan grills I'd suggest looking at the 3700BQE instead of the 3700AMB. The BQE has fan grills that don't need to be modified and a stock PSU and case fan that are quieter than the ones that come with the AMB. You can always sell the PSU on ebay or the forums for $25-50 and use that money to buy a truely silent PSU (take a look at the Recommended PSUs article on the SPCR main site).

Kevin Ar18 · Post by **Kevin Ar18** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 1:45 pm

Ralf Hutter wrote:Kevin Ar18 - WELCOME TO SPCR!!!

(btw, does the "Ar18" have anything to do with Armalite?)

You seem to be saying you'd go for up to $150 for each component? If so, that gives you a fairly large selection to choose from.

If it's $150 for both, you're still in the ballpark.

But first, about those grommet mounts for your noisy CDrom drive. Neither the SLK3700, or any other case that I'm aware of has grommet mounting for 5.25" drives. the few that have grommet mounting for any drives have them for 3.5" drives only. You may be able to kludge something up for cases that mount the 5.25" drives using drive rails because there's enough room between the mounting cage and the drive itself to do something with grommets. The problem is, most of the noisy drives that I've heard are noisy because of the disk rotation and the tray mechanism, not so much because vibrations are being transferred into the case. I'd thing about buying a quieter drive...

OK, so what about cases?

If you don't want to cut out fan grills I'd suggest looking at the 3700BQE instead of the 3700AMB. The BQE has fan grills that don't need to be modified and a stock PSU and case fan that are quieter than the ones that come with the AMB. You can always sell the PSU on ebay or the forums for $25-50 and use that money to buy a truely silent PSU (take a look at the Recommended PSUs article on the SPCR main site).

Ah, so many questions to answer...

First off, it comes from the element Argon and it's atomic number: 18.
Why Argon is another story.

As for the $150, limit that was for each component in the upgrade, CPU, Motherboard, RAM, Case/Power.
Howevever, I was actually hoping not to go that high on the case and power supply. Over $100 is definitely too much. And I would prefer even less than that.

As for that link, I'm not sure I could go for black.

Right now, I'm looking at a configuration by endpcnoise.com here: http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/P4q ... bones.html

I guess I'll look into each individual part and see what I come up with.

BTW, thanks for your help.

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 1:58 pm

Kevin Ar18 wrote:As for that link, I'm not sure I could go for black.

OK, how about a beige version of the same case w/o the door for $39? You'll have to cut out the fan grills and chosoe a PSU.

Kevin Ar18 · Post by **Kevin Ar18** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 6:48 pm

Does a case need to be designed with grommets in mind to be able to use them?

BTW, what power supply would I couple with this case?

Also, is the noise on the Antec SLK3700 really that bad?

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 6:08 am

Kevin Ar18 wrote:Does a case need to be designed with grommets in mind to be able to use them?

For mounting drives, yes. You need a little extra width in the mounting cages to accomodate the extra width of the grommets. You could try and bend ou the existing cages but that would be pretty messy and may not work anyway

Kevin Ar18 wrote:BTW, what power supply would I couple with this case?

Choos one off the Recommended PSU's list

Kevin Ar18 wrote:Also, is the noise on the Antec SLK3700 really that bad?

The stock PSU isn't super-noisy but it's just a regular PSU, it's not designed to be quiet. It'll certainly be the noisiest thing in your system unless you have a very loud CPU HSF.

Joe DeFuria · Post by **Joe DeFuria** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 6:36 am

Ralf wrote:OK, how about a beige version of the same case w/o the door for $39? You'll have to cut out the fan grills and chosoe a PSU.

Lol...I recently ordered that exact case from directeon (expecting delivery today actually) to use for the new home of my 1.4 Tualtin. I'll be transplanting my stuff to that case which will be used for my Son's computer.

I don't think I'll be doing an work on the fan grills though...just going to run the rear fan at 5 V (may also replace the stock fan with an Evercool Aluminum), no inlet fan. One thing I'm not sure of that I just notices...is that it claims to be an "Intel AIR GUIDE" chassis...does this mean it actually has a side panel fan/opening? (I'm hoping not...otherwise, I'll have to cover it...)