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Help with choice - Narrow (up to 225mm/8.85') Silent Case

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2016 10:18 am
by Auriok
Hello friends of silent electronics!

I wanted to pull the trigger on my first selfbuilt PC and my choice was the Fractal R5 because all of the good stuff I hear here.

Well gladly I measured my desks PC "cabin" which is only a bit less than 230mm/9' wide.
The Fractal R5 is 232mm/9.13' wide which means I can't use it.

Now I'm searching for a similar silent case.

I need:
- ATX Format
- dampened front door
- space for a 2nd front fan
- max. wide of 225mm/8.85'

I would like:
- dampened panels
- PWM fans
- 140mm/5,5' rear fan
- removable middle HDD trays/modular drive-bays

I don't want:
- Fancy LEDs
- Glass Panels



Any advice or experiences?

I came up with the following list of cases*:
  • Nanoxia Deep Silence 1
    Nanoxia Deep Silence 2
    Nanoxia Deep Silence 3

    Cooltek Antiphon

    Aerocool DS 200

    NZXT H440 v2

    Cooler Master Silencio 652S
    Cooler Master Silencio 550

    Corsair Carbide Series 330R
    Corsair Carbide Series 400Q (No PWM fans afaik)
I feel a little overwhelmed because all cases seem to be "okay" at least.

Could some of the veterans help me out?

*EDIT: Will try to add some links for each case today.

Re: Help with choice - Narrow (up to 225mm/8.85') Silent Cas

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2016 10:30 am
by lodestar
The Cooler Master Silencio 652S has been reviewed by SPCR. Although it does not meet your wish for a door you could consider the Silverstone Kulblai KL05B-Q which again has been reviewed by SPCR.

Re: Help with choice - Narrow (up to 225mm/8.85') Silent Cas

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2016 10:38 am
by CA_Steve
Auriok wrote:Well gladly I measured my desks PC "cabin" which is only a bit less than 230mm/9' wide.
Is this open in front in back?

Re: Help with choice - Narrow (up to 225mm/8.85') Silent Cas

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2016 10:57 am
by Auriok
CA_Steve wrote:
Auriok wrote:Well gladly I measured my desks PC "cabin" which is only a bit less than 230mm/9' wide.
Is this open in front in back?
Open in the Front and has a small board connecting left and right side panel which is ~ 220mm high from the ground.
It's probably not ideal but my current PC has a very cheap PSU and isn't making any problems so I guess it will suffice.

Re: Help with choice - Narrow (up to 225mm/8.85') Silent Cas

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2016 1:01 pm
by CA_Steve
Auriok wrote:It's probably not ideal but my current PC has a very cheap PSU and isn't making any problems so I guess it will suffice.
If the only opening is the front, there could be significant heat rise for your PC - leading to a louder PC. How much depends on what components are in the case.

Re: Help with choice - Narrow (up to 225mm/8.85') Silent Cas

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2016 3:22 pm
by Auriok
CA_Steve wrote:
Auriok wrote:It's probably not ideal but my current PC has a very cheap PSU and isn't making any problems so I guess it will suffice.
If the only opening is the front, there could be significant heat rise for your PC - leading to a louder PC. How much depends on what components are in the case.
No the case has considerable breathing room on the rear. I guess downward mounted PSU could suffer a little but the outlet fans on the top are completly free.

Re: Help with choice - Narrow (up to 225mm/8.85') Silent Cas

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2016 5:09 pm
by CA_Steve
Soooo, when I ask if it's open in the front and back and you say it's only open in the front..what you really mean is it's open in front and back. :)

Best cases will be those with front to rear airflow. If the PSU is on the bottom, it'll still be fine as it's bottom in and rear out.

Re: Help with choice - Narrow (up to 225mm/8.85') Silent Cas

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2016 5:41 pm
by Auriok
CA_Steve wrote:Soooo, when I ask if it's open in the front and back and you say it's only open in the front..what you really mean is it's open in front and back. :)

Best cases will be those with front to rear airflow. If the PSU is on the bottom, it'll still be fine as it's bottom in and rear out.
Yeah I worded it badly. Thanks for the reply!

I was thinking about buying the Corsair Carbide 330R but found a post of you CA_Steve mentioning that there are better cases.

@CA_Steve:
Which case of my list (or another fitting one) would you advise me to buy? In doubt I would prever higher cooling over less noise.

I was also thinking about the Aerocool DS 200 because the case lets really little sound outside according to some benchmarks but suffers from bad temperatures especially for the GPU. Could a second front intake fan put the Aerocool DS 200 on par with Carbide 330R etc.?

Re: Help with choice - Narrow (up to 225mm/8.85') Silent Cas

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2016 8:06 pm
by CA_Steve
What components are going inside? That'll determine how much you need to worry about airflow vs price/ergonomics/looks/etc.

Re: Help with choice - Narrow (up to 225mm/8.85') Silent Cas

Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2016 2:55 am
by Auriok
CA_Steve wrote:What components are going inside? That'll determine how much you need to worry about airflow vs price/ergonomics/looks/etc.
CPU: i7 6700k (I will probably undervolt)
CPU cooler: Noctua NH-D15
Mainboard: Asrock Exteme4 (not expensive + good fan controls)
Storage: 2x Samsung 850 Evo (250 GB + 500 GB)
RAM: G.Skill 3000 Hz TridentZ DDR4 2x 8GB
PSU: Dark Base Power Pro 11 550W or 650W
GPU: Probably a Sapphire RX 480 Nitro+. I also consider the Sapphire R9 Fury Nitro because it's currently available for 300€ and runs silent and is optimised against coilwhine. I understand that the Fury Nitro undermines the silent concept a little, but that's why I think good ventilation would be needed. And I would undervolt the Fury Nitro

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sap ... OC/29.html: Review with Noise Test of the precursor (32 db under Load)

Re: Help with choice - Narrow (up to 225mm/8.85') Silent Cas

Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2016 4:51 am
by quest_for_silence
IMVHO the placement of such a rig inside such a cabinet is PLAINLY wrong, heat & noise wise, whichever the case or the fans: therefore the choice of a closed front one (Define, Nanoxia, Silencio, it's all the same thing) is even worse.

Just my 2c.

Re: Help with choice - Narrow (up to 225mm/8.85') Silent Cas

Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2016 6:00 am
by Auriok
quest_for_silence wrote:IMVHO the placement of such a rig inside such a cabinet is PLAINLY wrong, heat & noise wise, whichever the case or the fans: therefore the choice of a closed front one (Define, Nanoxia, Silencio, it's all the same thing) is even worse.

Just my 2c.
It's my first PC build so I really appreciate the feedback.
Which case or which type of case would you advise me to use? From the benchmarks I read Nanoxia Deep Silence and Corsair Carbide 330R are very well ventilated and there were no pc-cases that had more than afew degrees less temperature.

Re: Help with choice - Narrow (up to 225mm/8.85') Silent Cas

Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2016 6:29 am
by quest_for_silence
To put a powerful rig inside a cramped cabinet you should reduce the thermal footprint: the GPU looks the key point, you should pick a GTX 1060 (120W TDP, 125-135W peak) instead of a 185-190W RX 480 (go figure the >250W Fury). Even the 6700K may be profitably replaced with an about 10°C cooler Core i5 6600K, if you don't need 8 computing threads.

Re: Help with choice - Narrow (up to 225mm/8.85') Silent Cas

Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2016 7:41 am
by CA_Steve
If the nook is wide open in front and in back, and the desk has space between it and a wall for the exhaust to freely flow, then it can be done. I agree with Luca in that you should try to minimize the heat load. So, a 150W gfx card is better than a 250+W one.

The Corsair 400Q could be a decent selection with no drive cages to block the airflow. If you go Asrock for the mobo, you'd want to go with PWM case fans. Two 140's or three 120's in the front and one 120mm in the back.

Re: Help with choice - Narrow (up to 225mm/8.85') Silent Cas

Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2016 12:15 pm
by atmartens
quest_for_silence wrote:pick a GTX 1060 (120W TDP, 125-135W peak) instead of a 185-190W RX 480
The RX 480 is not a 185-190W GPU. Where did you get that number from?

Re: Help with choice - Narrow (up to 225mm/8.85') Silent Cas

Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2016 2:00 pm
by quest_for_silence
atmartens wrote:
quest_for_silence wrote:pick a GTX 1060 (120W TDP, 125-135W peak) instead of a 185-190W RX 480
The RX 480 is not a 185-190W GPU. Where did you get that number from?
From the known debate about the RX 480 PCIe power draw: just for instance, that's what hardware.fr found with no OC and Witcher 3

Image

That "Uber" mode is a bios setting which remove the power and fan limits in order to mantain the stock turbo clock at 1266MHz: the card needed 192W (IIRC similar figures were recorded from PC Perspective); on the other hand the typical peak gaming draw of cards like the ASUS RX 480 Strix OC 8 GB is around 180W (albeit with 1310MHz turbo vs 1266MHz stock, so 44MHz more).