Quiet Computer Case

I'll most likely be building myself a new computer when I move off to College, and if there's one thing I hate the most about my computer at home is how it manages to sound like a fucking jet engine, idle or under load. Seeing as how I'll probably have a roommate, and sleep near my computer, having a computer that's as silent as possible is a priority for me, and will be a great breath of fresh air from the crappy one I have at home.

I don't really know too much about cases - but I've looked at the Antec P183, which seems to be pretty nice and has sound dampening panels (and filters! Any experience with how well that works). One downside however from a review seems to be that the top fan is oddly mounted, and causes more noise than the other fans, but I don't really know how noticeable that'd be, cause as I said, I don't have too much experience with this stuff. I also looked at the Antec P150 (solo?) which seems to have a special way of mounting harddrives that reduces vibrations, but the white color looks ugly as hell :lol:.

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Also - would anyone be able to recommend me a decent brand for video cards? Every ATI card I buy seems to scream like no other when it comes to noise output from the fan. A card like the 5770 seems pretty decent, but anything near that price range would be fine.

Your first step is to determine the hardware that will populate the case and then see what kind of cooling it needs.
You can assemble/run the system laying on a tabletop, no case required.

Once running, you assess the noise from the stock heatsinks and upgrade/replace as desired. Larger, slower fans are quieter and aftermarket heatsinks generally use them.

Once you have all that settled, you know how large the enclosure (case) needs to be.

A solid state drive for the OS will remove heat/noise from the equation, leaving your (presumably) mechanical storage drives to spin up only when needed.

Manufacturers like to cram fans willy-nilly into the case whether they're useful or not and you can selectively unplug them till you find a suitable balance between noise and performance.

You can also do some research and replace the fans that came with the case to better parts...not all fans are equal and there's a surprising difference in sound quality vs. airflow, some being much better than others.
S-flex is a brand I've had good luck with.

Basically, the better you mitigate noise at the source, the less you'll have to worry about the case doing it for you.

Thanks, clocker. I've been pondering a similar setup and this will give me a good starting point.

Any specific systems you have now that you would like to show off, give us a price/parts list? That would be a big help there, too.

My system is too old and too weird to be of much use.
Detale is far more current than I in what's available/good these days...I'm still on s775.

Thanks for the advice clocker.

From the gist of your post you're suggesting that the individual parts themselves - and the heatsink/fans they use will contribute far more to the noise level of the system than the case, correct? Do you have any kind of Video card/CPU/case fans that you would personally recommend?

Also - I have a general knowledge of how parts go together but don't really have the confidence to say that I am anything but a beginner. Should I be toying with the screws, thermal paste, etc. needed to take apart/together heatsinks on a CPU or video card? I don't want to accidentally screw anything up and have a couple hundred bucks go down the drain.

Too bad you don't live in Canada you could have a computer built to your exact specifications at minimal cost ($50) and they really do nice work.

http://pc.ncix.com/pcbuilder/


They ship to the US but I think the warrant is voided then and you can't pay by credit card.

Firstly as with all builds we would need your budget. Are you getting new parts or using what you have an wanting to add to it? If using existing parts what are you working with? Where do you live? Honestly building a computer isn't really hard and I'm sure we can coach you through it if you have a question. I have been wanting to write a "how to" on the subject for some time and get it stickied. Maybe this will be the motivation needed.

IMHO it's usually all about the fans. Like Clocker said larger fans usually will drop the noise down quite a bit. You can see what DB rating they have but beware as manufacturers sometimes flat out lie.

Scyth S-flex fans are a good choice, another good one I have found and cheap are yate loon fans. The scyth's are better but you will pay for it (as with most things). The case, well it's a personal thing. I haven't used any of the cases you mentioned, but I water cool (another silent but more expensive option) so I don't pay much attention to case acoustics.

As far as the video requirements what card do you currently have? mostly the better the card the hotter it will run needing the fan to run at a higher speed and so it's louder. With either ATI or Nvidia cards you can usually run an app to control the fan or even get an aftermarket cooler (again not that hard to install) with larger and more quite fans (as Clocker said).

Basically it's all down to how much you want to spend.

Well for my main budget I'm probably looking toward around $1000 USD, give or take a bit. I could probably reuse my mouse, keyboard, and maybe my monitor/hard drives if need be, but best case scenario would be to reuse as little as possible as we still need a working computer at home. However, if I could squeeze out a decent bit of extra performance from the money I'd save from reusing parts I could most certainly consider it.

And for additional fans that I purchase, is there a way to control fan speeds through software of some sort? Or do I need buy (separately or included?) fans that come with fan controls of some sort?

You could buy a fan controller but honestly I've never had any luck with them. Some folks swear by them but I'm not one of them. IMO just get some decent fans like the scythe. I have also read some great things about Enermax "cluster" series fans but again they are pricey.

Now to be clear, you want a whole new rig or just to quiet your existing setup?

What will the computer mainly be used for?

If you live near NYC I'd be willing to help you build it ;)

Would you consider Water cooling?

Edit:new list below :)

Is there anyway to control fans without a fan controller? Like through some internal software?

Yes, a whole new rig (with a reluctant possibility of reusing a couple pieces of equipment).

Mostly gaming/work for college.

I live in NY state but 6 hours away from NYC :lol:

Water cooling looks...very scary. I've never tried it before and I'm afraid with one loose screw or something I'll fry my whole system. Not sure I want to delve into that.

I edited check that. Like crazy gaming or moderate?

Oops I have to edit that list I left the wrong Mobo in there.

quantity of item 1
http://c1.neweggimages.com/ProductIm...129-154-38.jpg
Antec Performance One P180 Silver cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail Item #: N82E16811129154Return Policy: Limited Replacement Only Return Policy
-$20.00 Instant
$149.99$129.99 select item 2 quantity of item 2
http://c1.neweggimages.com/ProductIm...136-319-03.jpg
Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive Item #: N82E16822136319Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
$74.99 select item 3 quantity of item 3
http://c1.neweggimages.com/ProductIm...25-294-Z01.jpg
GIGABYTE GV-N26SO-896I GeForce GTX 260 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card - Retail Item #: N82E16814125294Return Policy: Limited Replacement Only Return Policy
$219.99 select item 4 quantity of item 4
http://c1.neweggimages.com/ProductIm...139-006-13.jpg
CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power ... - Retail Item #: N82E16817139006Return Policy: Standard Return Policy -$30.00 Instant
$20.00 Mail-in Rebate Card17-139-006 $139.99$109.99 select item 5 quantity of item 5
http://c1.neweggimages.com/ProductIm...231-277-02.jpg
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL - Retail Item #: N82E16820231277Return Policy: Memory Standard Return Policy
$105.99 select item 6 quantity of item 6
http://c1.neweggimages.com/ProductIm...128-425-07.jpg
GIGABYTE GA-P55-USB3 LGA 1156 Intel P55 USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail Item #: N82E16813128425Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
$119.99 select item 7 quantity of item 7
http://c1.neweggimages.com/ProductIm...115-215-02.jpg
Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80605I5750 - Retail Item #: N82E16819115215Return Policy: CPU Replacement Only Return Policy
$199.99 select item 8 quantity of item 8
http://c1.neweggimages.com/ProductIm...185-004-06.jpg
Scythe S-FLEX SFF21D 120mm Case Fan - Retail Item #: N82E16835185004Return Policy: Standard Return Policy

$19.99 select item 9 quantity of item 9
http://c1.neweggimages.com/ProductIm...242-001-02.jpg
Prolimatech Megahalems Rev.B CPU Cooler - Retail Item #: N82E16835242001Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
-$5.00 Instant
$69.99$64.99 Subtotal: $1,045.91

wow nice read.I was looking for the same thing and after much reading and cost optimisation I settled upon
1.Zebronics Antibiotic(case) : 47$
2.Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 : 156$
3.APC UPS RS 1000 (1 hour backup) : 148$

Those were the items I needed.

coolermaster have the best quiet cases cheap

CoolerMaster 690 costs 100$.hmmm

Thanks detale! Very nice system for the price, didn't think I'd be able to squeeze that much out of it considering the extra fans and heatsinks, along with a half decent case. I'll definitely be using this type of setup for my build.

Couple of questions though:

Is the CPU cooler you linked to fanless? How much of an effect does that have on cpu temps?

Do you think that CPU cooler and the one system fan (Scythe), along with the stock cooler on the GPU, will be enough for cooling the system if I don't do any overclocking? Also, can I control the Scythe's fan speed in anyway (or do I need to?). Edit: Also one little tidbit, I just realized that you can install the fan two ways :lol:. To blow air in or out. Which would be more recommended (or in what situation is one better than the other).

I've read somewhere that people think that the 1156 socket is starting to phase out, and won't be as future proof as other sockets (1366?). Is there any merit to that? A lot of the 1366 mobo's seem a lot more expensive.

Thanks!

Oh and AdyBeats:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AbyBeats

2.Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 : 156$

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HD 4850 for 156$? Where are you getting your prices from? It can be easily had for under a hundred bucks. One example here:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102824

Sapphire HD4850 for 80$ (After rebate, $95 before rebate)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rart

Is the CPU cooler you linked to fanless? How much of an effect does that have on cpu temps?

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I am not Detale- nor do I play him on TV- but I'll speak up anyway.
That heatsink is designed to be used with fans.
Under the guise of providing the enduser with "options", they don't provide the fan(s) but do suggest some speed ranges to look for.
Sheesh.
For $64 you'd think they could have sprung for at least one fan in the package...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rart

Do you think that CPU cooler and the one system fan (Scythe), along with the stock cooler on the GPU, will be enough for cooling the system if I don't do any overclocking? Also, can I control the Scythe's fan speed in anyway (or do I need to?). Edit: Also one little tidbit, I just realized that you can install the fan two ways :lol:. To blow air in or out. Which would be more recommended (or in what situation is one better than the other).

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Only way to tell is try it.

You can control the fan speed either by undervolting, a fan controller or- maybe- in your BIOS.
The Scythe is so quiet you probably won't need to worry about it.

In or out?
Again, only way to tell is try various configs till you get it right.



That was my Detale impression.
Thank you, I'll be here all week.

Firstly you are way to well spoken and eloquent to impersonate me, not to mention that whole post hadn't a single smiley in it. Other than that, bravo C ;)

I SO agree about the cooler with no fan. At very least throw a crappy one in there. As C said the only real way is to try it and see, but my guess (and it is only that, a guess) is you should be fine depending on the ambient temps. I mean do you plan on it being in a sweltering room at all? Ambient temps (room temp) have a huge effect on cooling in general.

Fanless? My personal opinion is that it will work fine (again a guess) I recently built my brother a simple rig using a Q6600 quad core and cooling it with a Scythe Mini Ninja with no fans to keep the noise down. The Megahalems is supposed to be a FAR superior cooler so odds are it will be fine as well. I want to note it didn't come with a fan when I bought it over a year ago. I don't have the temps on hand but I remember it was working fine running Prime for an hour or so. In fairness I had 2 120mm intake fans and a 140mm exhaust in this oddball case (if you knew my brother you would know this case fits him to a tee) and the LCD screen.

You may be able to control the fans using speedfan if they are plugged into the fan headers on your Mobo. Honestly though I dont think 2 S-flex fans will be much noise at all, shit get 3, I doubt they will make any considerable noise at all. Clocker initially suggested them to me way back when and for the most part when looking for a quiet build I go for these first ;)

1156 being phased out? Well I can't say I haven't heard that one before but I haven't seen any sure evidence of this. Could it be? Sure, any socket can be phased out. I think that that if you look at how far ahead hardware is you will see software will not catch up for years. it will serve you well for a good while. My understanding it that 1366 is for the enthusiast and 1156 is for the gen-pop.

Dude I like you, so I want to let you know to forget you ever heard the term "future proof" as its a farce. No matter what you get it will not be the latest greatest thing for more than 15 min, BELIEVE ME I've tried :P

All of my advice I believe to be sound, but Clocker hit it on the head by saying You need to try it and see. Hell I'm even going to suggest try the stock fans first. They are variable speed so set em on low and try that before you open the others. It can't hurt.

I would also suggest that the top and rear fans blow out and install a 3rd in that "mid section" on the bottom blowing towards the rear. Hope that makes sense

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rart

HD 4850 for 156$? Where are you getting your prices from? It can be easily had for under a hundred bucks. One example here:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102824

Sapphire HD4850 for 80$ (After rebate, $95 before rebate)

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wow thanks for that.I live in India and had those prices fixed with the local vendor.Never ever bought things online after a disaster with ebay :P.I think I will have to search more.tnx

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Detale

Dude I like you, so I want to let you know to forget you ever heard the term "future proof" as its a farce. No matter what you get it will not be the latest greatest thing for more than 15 min, BELIEVE ME I've tried

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true true

By the way, I'm not sure if this is too obvious, but... check out www.silentpcreview.com for what I consider the most authoritative place for reviews & discussions of quiet PC hardware. Check out their "Recommended" pages (links on the left).

Hey Detale, The Meghalem you linked to - in addition to a fan attached to it, would be nearing 1 kg in weight!

Would that cause some unnecessary stress on my motherboard/parts after being mounted for prolonged periods of time?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rart

Hey Detale, The Meghalem you linked to - in addition to a fan attached to it, would be nearing 1 kg in weight!

Would that cause some unnecessary stress on my motherboard/parts after being mounted for prolonged periods of time?

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Probably not, especially if the case is not frequently moved.

I know it sounds "weighty" but the thing is designed to be installed there bud ;)

I spent $20 on a cheapo case of very flimsy aluminum, and then at the local Home Depo, bought some corkboard and glued it to the sides and bottom and part of the top (the powersupply was close so I had to remove that part). I had to be careful where I placed the board so it didn't interfear with opening and closing the side panels. But when it was done it was not only nice and quite but also less flimsy. I just wish that cheapo case had a better card mounting mechanism or the regular screw in would have been better. I also had to sand inside the case to remove the razor sharp edges. but that was easy.

Look, its on sale for $18

Code:

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http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0257843

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I didn't use it for a gaming case, just for my music keyboards and DAW so I don't play around inside much. Once the audio card and extra USB was installed thats that. Reusing a powersupply, memory, sound card and optical drive I was able to put together a fairly powerful PC for around $300 because I'm using onboard video (I do have a card to use now [ATI HD 4650 512mb] but I haven't got around to it and don't really know if its necessary.

OH! I forgot, the excess cork board came in handy to make gaskets for my fans to make them vibration free, and much quieter as well. there wasn't enough room to get cork next to the hard drives or I would have done that too. It really is the quietest PC I have at the moment (I don't want my microphones picking up fan noise). The case is a piece of junk but serves its purpose well.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Appzalien

The case is a piece of junk but serves its purpose well I made it usable.

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Fixed.

Curious on what you think of this detale:

What if I slapped one of these into my case, mounted the Megalahem onto my CPU w/o a fan, and didn't install any case fans? How would that work for silencing :shifty:.

Would the higher temps from passively cooling be detrimental to my temps?

Even if I don't go completely passive, the HD4850 passive does seem rather attractive considering the GPU normally is one of the biggest sources of noise.

Well for silencing it would be great but it would be awful for you temps. I had a passively cooled Asus 3650 for my old HTPC and it ran OK but the temps were borderline unacceptable. Passively cooled is okay, but it's not meant for gaming. Also it's planing on your case having good airflow to work well. You still need some air moving around in there at very least for your ram or you may get odd restarts and such. Instead of spending $130 on a new card you could get an aftermarket vid card cooler for half that amount bud. What card do you have again?

Mostly just thinking out loud. I haven't actually purchased anything yet, will most likely buy my parts ~mid summer.

I was thinking of getting this 5770 as I heard from reviews on sites and from the previously linked SPCR that it can run very silently for a stock cooler.

I'm open on any suggestions you have for aftermarket coolers for GPU's though if they work well, anyway to silence the GPU would be great.

Are GPU heatsinks significantly more difficult to replace though? I know CPU's are pretty simple with a little screw in over the motherboard, but I'm worried that I might break something wrenching off a GPU cooler (again, I'm very new to this stuff, you probably have magnitudes of more experience than I do). You also have to replace memory heatsinks? Or are they already put on a stock cooler?

I've only done it a few times myself, but thus far it's been pretty straight forward. A few screws here and there, thermal paste and voila! I had gotten a little crazy and decided to "super-void" my warranty and make a custon air/water cooler for my GTX 260 here Honestly it works well and i only have the fan running at 20% and it keeps the ram chips cool :) She looks like this ATM though
http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/9...gpu6001451.jpg

Vid card coolers can be a bit tricky to remove because they cover so many components- not just the GPU itself but typically all the RAM chips as well.
You're removing a lot of thermal tape at one time.

Not difficult, just be aware and prepared.

have you looked at netbooks?
Unless you are into gaming, they are probably all you need!
Quiter than the quietest desktop; then cheap and portable to boot!

:sad1:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BlueMax

have you looked at netbooks?
Unless you are into gaming, they are probably all you need!
Quiter than the quietest desktop; then cheap and portable to boot!

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Yea there will most definitely be a focus on gaming, so netbooks are little out of the question.

Detale: I noticed that some (non PWM?) fans have been rated on certain forums to be able to "handle" PWM well, and then there are also fans that seemed to be specifically labeled as "PWM" fans, such as these.

What are the differences between a normal fan and one labeled as PWM such as the one previously mentioned? Does it mean that normal fans will only utilize PWM on places such as the CPU mobo socket with temp sensors, and that the PWM fans will work as PWM fans no matter where its plugged in (ie it has its own temp sensor, and could be used as a case fan with variable speeds)?

Bit late on this, and i have just skimmed posts to this point, but i have a Q9550 and was running at stock speeds (2.83ghz) with the intel fan, my temps were in the 80c bracket and it sounded like a tank (coolermaster striker storm case)

I thought sod this last week, bought myself some arctic silver 5 thermal paste, and a coolermaster V8 CPU cooler, remounted the CPU, put the arctic silver on, installed the V8 and got temps of 40c at stock, i have it OC now to 3.6ghz and its still low 50c so i could push it a bit more if i wanted to.

and the best part is, it is ultra quiet, when the monitor goes to sleep, I keep thinking its crashed it is that quiet lol

Morale of the story.

Even with a good case, if you have a crap fan it will still sound loud.
With a good cooler, maybe even with a crap case, it will have no sound.

(problem is the V8 is huge, so you need a wide case for it to actually fit, but it fits into the sniper storm with no modificaions at all)

it does fit 775 and AMD 2 and 3 processors as well as the newer intel mobos.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-055-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-194-_-Product

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rart

I'm open on any suggestions you have for aftermarket coolers for GPU's though if they work well, anyway to silence the GPU would be great.

Are GPU heatsinks significantly more difficult to replace though? I know CPU's are pretty simple with a little screw in over the motherboard, but I'm worried that I might break something wrenching off a GPU cooler (again, I'm very new to this stuff, you probably have magnitudes of more experience than I do). You also have to replace memory heatsinks? Or are they already put on a stock cooler?

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by clocker

Vid card coolers can be a bit tricky to remove because they cover so many components- not just the GPU itself but typically all the RAM chips as well.
You're removing a lot of thermal tape at one time.

Not difficult, just be aware and prepared.

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I wish I dared do this.

My 4870x2 has a terrible stock fan, its intermittently loud and generally useless so the card runs crazy hot with it.... I'd just love to put one of these on it - http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=1616

I just haven't been able to bring myself to risk mucking it up. The issues aren't anything I can't live with, but a broken card would be a serious pain.

Tricky? MAybe but not impossible. Just really give yourself the time and environment to do it . What I will recommend to people who aren't really technically inclined. Is before you remove any screws draw a diagram of the project, in this case the vid card on a piece of paper noting where the screws you plan on removing go, then when you remove each screw place it on the appropriate spot on your diagram. From what I have seen though there are usually 1 or 2 types of screws on a vid card so it doesn't matter in my experience where they go back. When there are 2 or 4 screws inside where the fan is they are usually different, but not always.

Honestly Clocker is doing the responsible thing and saying it's tricky, This guy has been rebuilding a bad ass car for a year and a half now, so I doubt removing 8-15 screws is tricky for him. Not to mention he taught me everything I know about water cooling.

Now it's not that hard I'm sure there are even tutorial videos on youtube for each card. Like i said just give yourself ample time and a clean quiet place to do it with the proper tools and voila