"Open-style" cases: looking for advices or recomme

Enclosures and acoustic damping to help quiet them.

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quest_for_silence
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"Open-style" cases: looking for advices or recomme

Post by quest_for_silence » Tue Oct 02, 2007 4:53 am

I'm looking for an "open" style cases, such as Nexus Caterpillar or Antec Nine Hundred (I know Nexus one maybe it's not so "open").

Can anyone make any advice or recommendation on such "open" cases?

May, according to you, they be suitable for "silent" builds?

Luca

Eagle156
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Post by Eagle156 » Tue Oct 02, 2007 10:17 am

Lian Li PC A16

Alex
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Post by Alex » Tue Oct 02, 2007 10:30 am

CM 690 (CoolerMaster) is very "open".
Obviously the noise will easily leak out of such a case.
Whence this is not SPCR (silence) recommended compared to Antec P182 for instance.
Open cases are for overclockers and gamers or people that are mainly concerned about temperatures (thus normally not primarily silence).

thejamppa
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Post by thejamppa » Tue Oct 02, 2007 11:15 am

Thermaltake Armor and Armor Jr and Thermaltake Matrix VD3000-series also belong that group but I slightly doubt their quietness...

quest_for_silence
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Post by quest_for_silence » Thu Oct 04, 2007 12:00 am

Anyone have ever dealt with these somewhat unusual cases? iCase QH-01.
Even information (if in case) on these other iCase S901 are welcomed.

Luca

MoJo
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Post by MoJo » Thu Oct 04, 2007 10:33 am

The S901 looks very interesting. Full 5.25" bays for HDD suspending. Only a single front 120mm fan but maybe you could add a Kama Bay or something. And of course, massive 25cm side intake fan. A bit low (would be nice to catch the CPU as well as the GPU) but no doubt quietly moves a lot of air.

One other thing to note, apparently you can't move the front fan.

It's low price makes it an interesting contender though. If only the Nine Hundred at a side 200mm fan as well as the top one. Three front 120mm intakes should help though.

Luca, what sort of system are you trying to cool?

rpsgc
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Post by rpsgc » Thu Oct 04, 2007 11:52 am

quest_for_silence wrote:Anyone have ever dealt with these somewhat unusual cases? iCase QH-01.
Even information (if in case) on these other iCase S901 are welcomed.

Luca
Oh my! Deja vu! :lol:

ronrem
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Post by ronrem » Tue Oct 09, 2007 12:54 pm

about the most OPEN I know of is sold under the brand "Ark" at Newegg. Had beed sold as V-Tech.

Most of it is perfed mesh backed by a paper type filter material. The look is a bit like the Power Mac of a few years ago. They go for a bit over $50--with a low quality PSU.

Could be an interesting mod project. Maybe if you put a 200 mm Antec fan into the top,skipped any front fans,worked with VERY low noise stuff inside-like the new Sempron Sparta cpu. I'd also seriously consider eSATA for the HDD.

Reviews say some of the stuff-like the tool-less PCI slots are too weak-and the included fans-PSU are poor grade-but the basic case is good. This won't keep noise INSIDE but you get a lot of ventilation. It being a low $ item...I'd feel good about hacking away to mod one into something good.

CraiginNJ
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Open Case Antec Nine Hundred

Post by CraiginNJ » Tue Oct 09, 2007 2:33 pm

FWIW, I have an Antec Nine Hundred. I'm impressed by the cooling from the 3 120mm and 1 200mm fans at slow speed.

Since I mainly use a notebook PC now, I set up the case as a spare backup machine with an old 3.06GHz Northwood HT P4 on a highly integrated Asus motherboard. Same Zalman 7000cu HS/fan as I used with an older board, but my CPU temperatures appear to have dropped from 50C+ to just 25-35C. I can even go for 8 minutes with the CPU fan disabled before reaching 60C. The CPU is even cooler than the motherboard!

I've tried to prove there's some kind of error, but the sensors seem about right. The integrated board eliminated the need for any add-in boards (don't even need a graphic card), which might have helped. The other difference is this CPU+motherboard gets benchmarks only 5/7 as good as people have reported with other motherboards and similar Northwood P4's -- so maybe it runs slower and therefore cooler.

I'm guessing the excessive airflow though the case has been a great help, and I can probably run it with just a good passive HS and even quieter (lower airflow) case fans. I just have to find a passive HS that fits, as the small motherboard is too crowded around the base of the CPU to allow for the Scythe Ninja I bought. (Plenty of height; crowded base.)

PS -- My HD is already encased in a SmartDrive, so I'm hoping there isn't much noise penalty to the open case as long as I get slow low-airflow fans and passive cooling. Even a sealed case would have intake/exhaust fan noise, this shouldn't be so bad. Won't know for sure until I replace the 120mm fans with Nexus' and get a passive HS for the CPU.

PS2 - I added some modder's mesh behind the plastic side-window. It seemed the right thing to do to block RFI/EMI, and it blends in wonderfully with the similar hole-y mesh this case has.

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