Antec SLK2650-BQE vs Arctic Cooling T1?

Enclosures and acoustic damping to help quiet them.

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Mccoyness
Posts: 19
Joined: Thu Dec 08, 2005 4:48 am
Location: UK

Antec SLK2650-BQE vs Arctic Cooling T1?

Post by Mccoyness » Thu Feb 23, 2006 7:06 am

A friend of mine runs an Athlon 1Ghz with a Radeon VIVO (7200?) and a WD800JB Caviar SE hdd. This system has stock coolers and is housed in an old cheap case with an old cheap and very noisy PSU.

At present the system meets their performance needs but is far too noisy. Any purchases should compliment future upgrades.

I have been looking at the following 2 cases as they are reasonably priced and come with a reasonable PSU:

Antec SLK2650-BQE with 350W Smartpower PSU - £50.92 inc

Arctic Cooling T1 Silentium with 350W Seasonic PSU - £53.98 inc

I am leaning towards the T1 as it comes with a Seasonic PSU, temp-controlled fans, and hdd suspension but I would appreciate any advice or low cost alternatives.

I was also considering replacing the stock CPU/VGA coolers with -
Thermaltake CL-P0071 SonicTower (passive) - £19.92 inc
Thermaltake CL-G0003 Fanless VGA Cooler - £12.87 inc

although i may decide to replace the graphics card with a cheap passive card like the Connect3d 9250 SE @ £18.99 inc

Once again any advice or experiences with the cases above would be a great help.

sanse
Posts: 399
Joined: Thu Dec 22, 2005 9:48 am
Location: Netherlands

Re: Antec SLK2650-BQE vs Arctic Cooling T1?

Post by sanse » Thu Feb 23, 2006 8:34 am

the t1 is a nice case with (very) good cooling, but it is not silent. at first just after switching on you think it is, but after everything warms up the psu-fans are a bit too noisy. the computer can easily be heard then from let's say 3 to 4 meters away. i am running my rig in a t2 and had to do 'something' to get these fans quiet. see my story under gallery.

on the other hand: silent is a bit relative term. maybe you find the t1 more than enough quiet. anyway it's a relatively small midtower. that's always nice.

diver
Posts: 327
Joined: Fri Dec 30, 2005 12:27 pm

Post by diver » Thu Feb 23, 2006 9:50 am

I have the 2650. It is a small case, about as small as a case for a full ATX Mobo can be.

The included exhaust fan can be easily wired to run at 5v and will be very quiet. The 350w PSU is very quiet without any modification. The 2nd fan (exhaust) on the PSU has yet to run around here.

If there is a negative, it is that the small case size and 5.25" drive mounting system make DIY suspending of the hard drives difficult. Right now I am using the CompUSA generic version of the Nexus DiskTwin to mount my hard drives in the 5.25" bays. These get rid of the seek noise and harmonics. The 120hz fundamental remains, but is attenuated. Novibes 3 is a possibility, but paying $60 pluis UPS for a pair of these does not get me excited.

Another advantage of moving the hard drives out of the 3.5" bays is more room if you want to run a long video card.

The bottom of the case is large enough to mount a pair of drives on foam or Sorbothane, if you want to go that route.

Christopher
Posts: 31
Joined: Sat Oct 22, 2005 7:55 am
Location: Sweden

Post by Christopher » Thu Feb 23, 2006 11:03 am

Given the two choices I'd go for the Antec SLK2650-BQE because the silentium is very awkward to work with. I know this because I own a silentium.

But If was to buy a chassi+psu today I would buy a Antec SLK3000B and a ss-version seasonic psu (oem if available). This combo seems to be a very good choice for a starting point to get a low noise computer setup at a low price. Take a look in the general gallery for examples of SLK3000B setups.


But in your situation, why you don't just replace the noisy psu you got now with a more quiet one?

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