As I am looking at antec cases and cooler master cases, which of these cooler master cases would be the quietest and which would be the best for cooling after already putting in the quietest fans and heatsinks?
For my system:
core i7 920
asus p6t deluxe 2
geforce gtx 285
1-2 hard drives
1 optical drive
I have a HAF that sits on my desktop next to me. I hear fan noise but it is a low, smooth fan noise - not a high pitch whine like smaller fans can generate. I love the cooling it puts out - fantastic airflow. If you had this case under your desk then I doubt you would hear it at all most of the time.
The case is only one component in a quiet system and it is generally not the most important in terms of building a quiet computer unless it is made of relatively thick; at least 1.0mm or more. I believe my Silverstone Crown CW02 is made of 2.0mm thick aluminum. That's roughly 1/8".
What's more important are the components going into the case. I built my HTPC to quiet as possible from distance of about 4 feet. My "quiet" HTPC has the following components:
1. E6600 CPU cooled with a Tuniq Tower with a quiet 120mm Scythe fan (can't remember the model number).
2. Two 1TB Western Digital Green hard drives - these are for storage and since they basically run at 5400rpm they create less noise at the cost of some performance.
3. Seasonic S12 500w PSu - Seasonic makes high quality energy efficient PSUs that are very quiet.
4. Passively cooled 9600GT - Cooled by an Accelero S2 fan that came with the card. Since it does not have a fan it makes no noise. It even runs pretty cool when OC'ed to 725MHz Core / 950MHz Mem. The temp maxes out at 49C.
Regarding #4, yes it is not a hard core gaming card, but it suits my needs. For a gamer the GPU will likely be the loudest component so a possible solution is an aftermarket cooling setup like the Accelero S1 rev2 (you'll need to see if it is compatible with your desired GPU) and a quiet 120mm fan (like Noctua, Scythe, Nexus, etc) wire tied to the heat sink. I'm sure Thermalright and Zalman have large heatsink and fan solutions too that's relatively quiet
Other components that are in the PC which scavanged from previous system:
5. Soundblaster Audigy 2 (no fan = no noise)
6. Two 160GB IDE hard drives.
7. DVD burner
For cooling hard drives which adds a tiny bit of noise:
8. Two 92mm low RPM fans
I think the rear exhaust fan that came with the case is starting to create more noise than I like so I need to check it and replace with a 120mm quiet Noctua fan.
Message edited by jaguarskx on 05-15-2009 at 02:26:48 AM
------------------------------Q9450 |Corsair XMS 4GB DDR 800 | ABit IP35 Pro | HD 5850 | Audigy 2 | Seasonic S12 550 | Cooler Master Centurion 532 | NEC LCD2690WUXi and Planar PX2611w | WinXP
Peace on Earth by means of the destruction of all life on Earth.
Reply to jaguarskx
Thanks for the responses! I will look into the HAF 922. I don't need the computer to be silent, I just want to eliminate whine noise and not have large whoosh sounds from fans.
I intend to make all the components as quiet as I can (though that will be difficult with such a hot cpu and potentially noisy geforce gtx card) and then on top of that, to find a case that will assist in maintaining that. That means no flimsy aluminum cases, cases that don't assist in deading hard drive noise, or cases with holes everywhere to let out extra sound.
The loudest things in my case are the fans for my 2 GTX 285s and my blue ray drive when it spins up. I have sometimes felt to make sure I could feel air moving the case fans are so quiet compared to conventional fans.