Is Lian Li PC-B10 silent?

lemoncola · Post by **lemoncola** » Thu Aug 06, 2009 6:09 am

Hi Guys,

Hi guys,

Im in the market of a new silent case. My main requirements are silent, and be able to fit a long graphic card like GTX 260. My list atm is Lian Li PC B10 and Antec P183. (was looking at Antec Solo but it dropped off my list due to can't fit GTX 260).

My question is, is the Lian Li case just as quiet as the P183?

I do like the Lian Li aluminium case cos of the lightness. Or should i just stick wif P183?

Can some owners of this Lian Li case, share some views?

*i want to able to sleep and hardly hear my computer running. i have a small room.

Thanks

echn111 · Post by **echn111** » Thu Aug 06, 2009 12:11 pm

I don't have these two cases, but I have had Lian Li and Antec cases. So to answer your question whether the Lian Li is as quiet as the P183: probably not if you're comparing an unmodifed Lian Li to an unmodified Antec.

For a start, a nice heavy cheap steel case with some plastic is likely to be more quiet than a more expensive and lighter aluminum case. And I've found that the sound proofing of Antec cases to be more effective.

But that isn't a realistic scenario for most people into quiet computing. You will have to make adjustments to any case to make it as quiet as possible, and with the appropriate adjustments, a system built around the Lian-Li case will easily be more quiet than one in an unmodified Antec.

mjw21a · Post by **mjw21a** » Thu Aug 06, 2009 4:36 pm

Aluminum tends to have a negative impact when it comes to noise, although they are nicer to carry around. Much lighter.

JamieG · Post by **JamieG** » Fri Aug 07, 2009 12:39 am

Having a brief look at the Lian Li PC-B10, it may need a little work but it definitely has some potential.

You will probably need to either undervolt or replace the stock fans that come with it, as well as soft-mounting them.

My biggest concern about that case would be the sideways mounting of the HDD cage and the very restrictive holes in that HDD cage that would block a lot of the front 140mm fan's airflow.

As the case is made from aluminium, you may need to dampen some of the vibrations as well.

For building a quiet gaming system in the PC-B10, I would:
- undervolt the stock fans (or swap them out and undervolt your new quiet fans) and soft mount them
- remove the HDD cage (you might have to drill out the rivets holding it in place)
- suspend any HDDs you want to use in front of the middle 120mm fan
- apply some mass damping material to any part of the chassis not covered by the stock sound-proofing mats, to reduce case vibration from the aluminium case material
- add further sound proofing material over the mass damping material and inside the front case door

lemoncola · Post by **lemoncola** » Fri Aug 07, 2009 6:17 am

Guys,

I just bought this case. It is absolutely beautiful. The design and of course the quality of the aluminum. The looks of this case blows the P183. Before i didnt want to spend that much money on this Lian Li case. Now i understand why ppl say Lian Li case is such a good quality case. For those who never own a Lian Li case (me previously), i guarantee you wont regret how much money you spent on the case. It's worth it.

I wouldnt really say its really silent when out of the box.

My next job is to silent this case more. The stock fan is not quiet. Im going to swap to Noctua fans for the back and front. Not sure about the 140mm fan yet.

When you say soft mount the fans, do u mean those screws for the fan that looks like rubber or plastic to absorb noise?

also suspending the hd seems like bit complicated to do. i dont have any tools like dremel/ power drill. is it easy to do it yourself? can someone give me some advice?

thanks

echn111 · Post by **echn111** » Fri Aug 07, 2009 10:13 am

Good for you. I like Lian Li cases too, but don't expect them to be that quiet without some work. I also got rid of the stock fans - both the Antec and Lian Li stock fans are not as quiet as they can be. Check out the link in my sig for two ways of softmounting fans in a Lian Li case - one using the silicone screws and the other using a silicone fan cover and regular screws. For the HD suspension you just need elastic bands for the DIY approach, or some sort of 3rd party suspension, or just lay it on a block of foam. There are a number of better posts on this topic somewhere on this forum if you search for them.

ntavlas · Post by **ntavlas** » Fri Aug 07, 2009 5:02 pm

The are many Lian Li`s appropriate for a quiet build, with few vents at the front/sides and decent disk drive mounting sytems.

My experience with their earlier cases were so and so, but they have improved a lot since then. My last two cases never had problems with rattling even before any modifications. The panels fit more snugly plus there is some dampening where they join the main chassis.

You would still want to add some mass to the panels to block frequencies that acoustic foam can`t.

Also, I find their fans to be quite good actually. Others have a different opinion apparently, perhaps it`s sample variance or maybe their fans were a different model? The fans on my pc-60, a recent model were very smooth at stock speeds, possibly inaudible with a bit of undervolting.

lemoncola · Post by **lemoncola** » Sat Aug 08, 2009 4:07 am

what is mass? is it those sound dampening foams found in this case and Antec solo to block sounds?

ntavlas · Post by **ntavlas** » Sat Aug 08, 2009 4:14 am

Mass as in weight. It`s often reffered to as mass loading, adding sheets of a heavy material to the case panels, usually bituminous sheets or vinyl tiles. Foam is also useful but it can`t effectively absorb lower frequencies so it`s complementary to mass loading.

echn111 · Post by **echn111** » Sat Aug 08, 2009 5:39 am

About the hard drive suspension, you may wish to just consider hard drive enclosures. They are more expensive than DIY suspension (i.e. rubber bands or foam), but are quite effective (especially with modern HDDs) against both hard drive vibrational noise as well as normal hard drive sounds which the suspension method does nothing for.

lemoncola · Post by **lemoncola** » Sat Aug 08, 2009 6:21 am

does this idea work?

you know the foam that in the motherboard box when you buy a new motherboard, can you just sticky tape it around 1 harddrive and just placed it on the 5.25" drive cage. So no screwing at all (loose). will that eliminated the vibration? cos this is very easy to do. LOL

echn111 · Post by **echn111** » Sat Aug 08, 2009 7:12 am

That hard foam, the type of foam that makes a noise if you hit your case with it right? If so, doubt it. You need something softer.

mbf · Post by **mbf** » Sat Aug 08, 2009 7:45 am

Sorry to slightly hi-jack this thread, but Lian-Li AND silence afficionados seem to be posting here.

My question is simple: How would I go about silencing this?

Reply by PM would be nice so as not to "polute" this thread further.

sampo · Post by **sampo** » Sun Nov 08, 2009 2:53 am

I was looking for compact atx case and this came up. What's the point of not having separate air intake for PSU? Would the intake really improve performance as the hot components are going to be located well above the psu?

ntavlas · Post by **ntavlas** » Sun Nov 08, 2009 3:44 am

For any one wondering how to silence a Lian Li, you might want to look at the workstation in my signature. It might be useful to Lemoncola too as his B10 has the same internal layout as the PC-60 I modded.

Basically it`s a collection of the usual mods often found here: big heatsinks, slow fans, clean interior along with extensive use of sound dampening materials. I also removed the drive cage and suspended my hdd. If you only use one drive, you might find my method useful.

By the way, I would not worry too much about soft mounting any fans. It won`t do any harm of course, but I could not feel any vibrations when touching a number of good quality undervolted fans.

Edit in order to reply to Sampo: I agree about the psu intake, I ended up cutting an intake myself. Lian Li have actually corrected this in some later models, including revisions of this chassis. Even without a separate intake, a bottom mounted psu is still an improvement as it won`t suck in the warm air rising to the top of the case.

steppinwolf · Post by **steppinwolf** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 1:59 pm

Glad to see someone out there has a Lian Li PC-B10! I'm very close to buying this case, but I wish it had filters for intake vents and a hole on the bottom for the PSU intake. This is one of the things I like about the Fractal Design Define R2, but don't know if I can wait until its available in the US. So, for the PC-B10 or PC-60 did you guys basically mount the PSU upside down? I'm planning for a modular PS such as Corsair 650HX or SeaSonic X650.

ntavlas, is there a newer rev. of the PC-B10 with bottom hole for the PSU? I couldn't find anything on Lian Li site.

ntavlas · Post by **ntavlas** » Wed Dec 09, 2009 3:34 am

Unfortunately no, only pc-60fN benefits from the added psu intake, N being the letter that marks the later revision. I wouldn`t worry too much about it though, even without it the psu should run nicely cool.

I would place the psu with the fan at the bottom because the perforated pci slot covers might cause the air exhausted by the psu to be recycled.

signaltonoise · Post by **signaltonoise** » Wed Dec 09, 2009 9:53 am

The Lian Li PC-60FN looks like a very nice case.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JZlpysowzY

Good choice for a silent PC?

steppinwolf · Post by **steppinwolf** » Thu Dec 10, 2009 7:14 am

ntavlas wrote:Unfortunately no, only pc-60fN benefits from the added psu intake, N being the letter that marks the later revision. I wouldn`t worry too much about it though, even without it the psu should run nicely cool.

I would place the psu with the fan at the bottom because the perforated pci slot covers might cause the air exhausted by the psu to be recycled.

Okay, so there must be sufficient air space under the PSU mount... Thanks. Better than pulling warmer air down from the top of the case.

signaltonoise wrote:The Lian Li PC-60FN looks like a very nice case.

Upgraded tool-less features, front intake filters and bottom vent do look nice. But I love the PC-B10 front bezel and what appears to be thicker aluminum walls (one reason for higher cost I guess). Maybe a PC-B10N will come out right after I purchase. Can't seem to find a way to contact anyone at Lian Li...

mbf · Post by **mbf** » Mon Dec 14, 2009 1:30 pm

I contacted Lian Li about the missing dust filters and also the cheap feet (unlike the originally shown "hifi-type" feet) on the PC-B10. I was told that all these things were rectified in models manufactured after August 2009.

Hope that helps.

By the way, I actually find the PC-P50 very intriguing as well.

steppinwolf · Post by **steppinwolf** » Tue Dec 15, 2009 6:02 pm

mbf wrote:I contacted Lian Li about the missing dust filters and also the cheap feet (unlike the originally shown "hifi-type" feet) on the PC-B10. I was told that all these things were rectified in models manufactured after August 2009.

mbf, thanks I finally ordered the B10 yesterday, but didn't see your post until just now. For a couple seconds I thought, "good news!", but actually I have no idea if my case will be from post August 09 stock (ordered from FrozenCPU). Fingers crossed!

calt · Post by **calt** » Sun Jan 10, 2010 10:00 am

lemoncola wrote:I just bought this case....

I'm also on the brink of buying this case. I'm planning to install an AMD 965, a Noctua NH-D14 (160mm big-ass tower cooler) and some other Noctua fans, but no gfx card. Did you get this silent enough?

dddp · Post by **dddp** » Mon Mar 01, 2010 5:41 am

bought the latest version of this case, waiting on delivery

it seems to be quite different to the ones in this thread

http://www.lian-li.com/v2/en/product/pr ... s_index=66

am pretty sure the front 120mm fan will be disconnected - the 140mm should be just fine - putting in a new W7 instal, if it isn't quite enough, it will be made quieter lol

rogerano · Post by **rogerano** » Wed Jul 07, 2010 7:10 pm

Sorry if this is a bit old. Just wanted to relate my B10B experience.

I bought a B10B recently. Concur that it is a lovely case (as usual; I have 5 lian li aluminium cases and they've all been fantastic to work with). It is pretty much the exact unit from the link in the post above.

Mine does not have any venting below the power supply. I've mounted my PSU with fan facing down. I have not noticed any issues; there seems to be adequate airflow exiting the rear PSU vent. I'm not sure I would notice issues if there were any, though.

There was no filter for the front 120mm fan. But I can't see this being an issue, since there are no filters anywhere else. Filtering one fan when the rest of the intake system is unfiltered seems a bit like trying to fend off rain with a cocktail umbrella.

The stock fans are not quiet. They are not loud. It is not a silent case out-of-the-box, but it has potential. The two 120mm fans are soft mounted with rubber grommets and secured by normal case-fan screws. The 140mm fan is not soft mounted.

I replaced all fans with Scythe and Fractal Design units (low RPM units, not undervolted). The 140mm Fractal fan came with rubber mounting pins which I used to soft mount it. The fan replacements have quietened the case down significantly, to the point where I am pretty happy. I could live with the case as is. But I'm not going to

I suspect most noise now comes from the stock Intel CPU cooler (running at 70% speed) but I will replace that with a Xigmatek HDT S1283 / Scythe PWM combo tomorrow and see what we see.

The bottom HDD tray is not riveted; it is secured from the bottom with four screws, and secured from the front with two screws. You need to remove the front panel (7 screws) to access the front HDD tray screws and also to remove the front 140mm fan.

The toolless 5.25" mounting system is inadequate. It does not secure an optical drive properly and allows significant vibration.

The toolless HDD mounts are actually quite nice. I like them a lot. The rubber dampening seems to work very well.

Future mods:
I will probably remove the bottom HDD tray entirely so that the 600RPM 140mm has no internal impedance. I will remount the HDD at the very top of the case or right in-front of the front 120mm fan.
I will figure out some way of mounting the optical drive so that there isn't any vibration transfered to the case.

I would recommend this case to pretty much anybody, but I'd recommend Lian Li cases over pretty much anything else anyway. The quality is simply that good.

P.S. Random trivia: I've been around aluminium most of my life. One thing you have to be careful of with any aluminium case is over-tightening the screws. Tighten them but don't be a brute; it isn't easy but it is possible to strip the threads from the aluminium holes. The screws themselves will be fine, but the screw hole will never allow the screw to tighten again (just keeps turning).

sxr71 · Post by **sxr71** » Fri Oct 29, 2010 5:40 pm

I own this case and to me this case is quiet. I have 8 WDC Greenpower drives in there and I don't hear any clicks or whine. The fans need to be controlled with a controller or MB based silent fan solution (Asus EPU for example). I actually use my i5 655K with a large heatsink and no fan. It's been very quiet for my server build. Sure if you put your ear behind it, it will have a quiet whoosh. But sitting 4-5 feet away it is inaudible as I see it.

I realize the foam on the side is too thin to really muffle noise but it alleviates the typical aluminum trait of being noisy. Also the front door muffles the front fans quite well. Again this isn't a gaming build nor have I overclocked it. No GPUs inside. So with that usage it is very quiet. I suppose it could be modded to be even more quiet but for what I use it for it does quite well.

Is Lian Li PC-B10 silent?

Is Lian Li PC-B10 silent?

Re: Is Lian Li PC-B10 silent?