The DS abbreviation in the name of Aerocool’s newest case stands for Dead Silence, and the enclosure's cooling solution is supposed to be consistent with that nomenclature. Its 200 mm front fan runs at a conservative 500 RPM, and its 120 mm rear fan spins at 900 RPM. And yet, Aerocool maintains that the DS' thermal capabilities are sufficient for gaming platforms based on microATX or mini-ITX form factors. In case the stock setup proves unable to cope with all of your high-end hardware, you also have the option to install additional fans, a 240 mm radiator, or a mesh cover for the case’s top. A two-chamber system that separates the hot components, such as the motherboard, processor, and graphics card, from the rest of the system provides unobstructed airflow.
Aerocool's DS is supposed to hit the market in a few days at a price point of $120 under $75, and you can already find it listed on the company's own site. From that, we know the case will be available in six different colors: black, black/red, black/orange, black/gold, black/white, and white. From there, you can opt for or against a side window, too.
Packaging and The Bundle
The Dead Silence chassis itself is not the only thing less gaudy than the company's usual fare. Its packaging is environmentally-friendly cardboard.
Aerocool's DS comes with everything from spacers to screws to nuts. There are enough small parts to fill every slot, bay, and fan space in the case, all sorted in their own plastic bags, which are clearly labeled. A piezo speaker, a bunch of ties, and a cable that adapts USB 3.0 to a motherboard's USB 2.0 header round out the enclosure's accessory bundle.
Finally, there’s an optional top cover that promises better cooling performance, so long as you're willing to break the case's nice clean sweeping aesthetic. We'll go into more detail on that shortly. Aerocool's illustrated installation manual is simple, but completely sufficient. It covers all of the chassis' most unique aspects.
Technical Specifications and Front Panel
| Manufacturer | Aerocool |
|---|---|
| Model Number | DS (Dead Silence) |
| Type | Cube |
| Dimensions (HxWxD) | 41.1 x 26.5 x 38.1 cm |
| Weight | 6.8 kg |
| Materials | Steel |
| Plastic with Soft-Touch Surface (Front Cover, Top Cover) | |
| Form Factor | microATX, mini-ITX |
| Drive Bays | 1 x 5.25" (external) |
| 1x 3.5" (external) | |
| 2 x 3.5" or 2.5" (internal) | |
| 2 x 2.5" (internal) | |
| Expansion Slots | 4 |
| Fans (Preinstalled) | 1 x 200 mm Front (500 RPM) |
| 1 x 120 mm Rear (900 RPM) | |
| Fans (Optional) | 2 x 120/140 mm Top |
| 1 x 120/140 mm Front (Instead of Preinstalled 200 mm Fan) | |
| 1 x 140 mm Rear (Instead of Preinstalled 120 mm Fan) | |
| Water Cooling (Optional) | 240 mm Radiator Top |
| 120/140 mm Radiator Rear | |
| CPU Cooler | Up to 19.0 cm |
| Graphics Card | Up to 25.0/32.0 cm (With or without Cage for External 3.5" Drive) |
| Power Supply Unit (PSU) | Up to 17.0 cm (Up to 19.0 cm Including Protruding Cables) |
| Cable Management | Case Design with Two Chambers, Cables Can Be Routed through Motherboard Tray Openings and Space between Motherboard Edges and Side Panels |
| Price | $120 |
The Dead Silence's front panel features everything that you would generally expect from a case like this. There’s a pair of USB 3.0 connectors (also usable as 2.0 with the included adapter) and a separate pair of USB 2.0 connectors, a power and a reset button, and two audio connectors that must be connected to the HD Audio headers on your motherboard. The front panel is split into two parts that are located on the left and right side of the case’s top. Each has its own highly polished plastic surface.
Aerocool's Dead Silence is a very robust chassis, thanks to its 0.8 mm-thick steel frame. The plastic covers also seem to be well-made; from our short time with them, it doesn't appear that they'll wear out after repeated assemblies. Other than the side and back panels, all of the other surfaces have a soft-touch finish. It's nice-feeling, and doesn't attract fingerprints (the loud orange color might have helped with that).
Visually, this is a good-looking chassis. Its exterior consists of simple, smooth surfaces. Some round transitions, and the break between the body of the case and its sides keep it from looking monotone. As we mentioned, Aerocool offers a number of different color combinations for those who feel that this specific representation is a bit too flashy. At a width of 26.5 cm, the Dead Silence is on the wide side, and, consequently, fits into the cube category when its other, relatively compact dimensions are taken into account. You'll find the DS fairly easy to transport, making it a viable option for LAN party gaming.
The only immediately apparent problem surfaces when it comes time to pop off those side panels. They’re held in place by beefy thumb screws that are easy to work with. However, the panels themselves don’t sport grips that'd help slide them off. This is especially problematic the first time you go to remove them; they're stuck on pretty securely.
The Dead Silence's basic design centers on a two-chamber approach. The top level houses the motherboard, with all of its heat-generating components plugged into it, while the bottom is reserved for the power supply and storage.
Armed with a 200 mm intake fan and 120 mm exhaust, the Dead Silence includes the accessories needed to keep enthusiast-class hardware cool in a purposely cramped space. The larger front fan promises a nice, wide airflow that should push air across most of the installed components. As mentioned, both fans spin slowly, and the benchmarks will show if they're powerful enough to keep up with a high-end gaming system. Both fans are compatible with three- and four-pin power connectors.
Since the case features smooth, unbroken surfaces, air enters via slits cut into the front cover's sides. You can see them in the shot below. These go almost all the way around the front, from one side of the top cover all the way to the bottom, over to the other side, and all the way up again to the top.
Unfortunately, the case doesn’t have a dust filter covering the front fan, even though there would have been enough space for it. We can only hope that fewer dust particles will enter, compared to cases with lots of mesh up front, due to the placement of those small slits.
The power supply's air intake does feature a dust filter, which can easily be accessed by pulling it out of the back of the case.
The Dead Silence can be optionally equipped for airflow through the case's top panel. Removing that cover reveals space to install two 120 or 140 mm fans.
In order for the optional fans to do their work, the Dead Silence's top cover is replaced with one that features openings and a dust filter. This option comes in handy as you start stepping up to hotter hardware that dissipates power inelegantly (AMD's Radeon HD 7990 and Nvidia's GeForce GTX 690 are good examples).
Water Cooling
You can also use the space below that optional mesh top to house a 240 mm radiator for water cooling. First, the 5.25” and 3.5” external drive cages, which are held in place by screws, need to be taken out. From there, you even have enough space for a radiator sandwiched by fans. And the motherboard is installed horizontally, not vertically, so you won't have to worry about potential clearance issues.
PSU Installation and Cable Routing
Four tall rubber feet decouple the PSU from the bottom of the case. There’s no such protection between the power supply and back of the case, but this really shouldn't be an issue.
There are 19 cm of space available for the PSU and its cables. The Cooler Master V700 we used is 17 cm-long. Factor in its modular cables, and we were looking at a tight fit. Removing the 3.5” drive cage wasn't an option, since the side closest to the power supply doubles as part of the motherboard tray.
Even in a small case like Aerocool's Dead Silence, cable management is possible. There are openings cut into the motherboard tray, as well as spaces between the edges of the tray and the side panels. You can use those cut-outs to route leads from the bottom level to the top.
Optical Drives and Hard Drives
There’s one bay each for externally-facing 5.25” and 3.5” drives. Remove the covers by pushing them out the front and secure your drives with screws.
The 3.5” drive cage has a nice touch in that the sledge slightly decouples storage devices from the sides. To install a hard drive, remove the sledge, push its sides apart, place your disk onto it, and push the sides back together. Smaller 2.5” drives work too; screw them onto the sledge from the bottom. They won't enjoy the same decoupling, but if they're SSDs, they don't need that anyway.
It’s worth noting that the hard drive sledges sit very tightly in place once you slide them back into the case with a drive installed.
There's another cage specifically for 2.5" drives next to the PSU. Installation requires four screws that are attached with decoupling rubber rings and slid into the cage. It's not as secure as the 3.5" drive cage, but still plenty sufficient for SSDs.
Motherboard, Graphics Card, and CPU Cooler
As with any other case, you need to screw some spacers into the tray before installing a motherboard. Aerocool gives you a small tool for this (though you might not need it, thanks to the Dead Silence's clean threads). Since the case's top cover is removable, all of the motherboard screws are easily accessible with a long screwdriver.
Aerocool's Dead Silence is compatible with CPU heat sinks up to 19 cm-tall thanks to the motherboard's horizontal position. In other words, we'd expect any modern cooler to fit in the small cube-shaped case.
Expansion card installation is tool-less. On the back of the case, a rail holds the four mesh slot covers in place. The rail, in turn, is held secured by a thumb screw.
Graphics cards up to 25 cm-long fit without any modifications. Wider cards might necessitate removing the 3.5” external drive cage, though.
Aerocool's Dead Silence is designed to offer ample cooling performance in its small package, so we chose the components to test its mettle accordingly. Given a handful of fairly modern parts, this setup should tell us whether the chassis with two slow-spinning fans works, or if it needs some supplementary help.
We're generating a couple of measurements: first with the closed top cover and then with the open mesh panel. Installing two optional fans would facilitate even better cooling performance, but we were more curious about what the case can do stock. Consequently, we stuck with the two stock fans.
| Gaming System | |
|---|---|
| Processor | Intel Core i5-2500K (Sandy Bridge) |
| CPU Cooler | Thermalright Macho HR-02 SE at Maximum RPM |
| Motherboard | Asus P8H61-M Pro |
| Memory | 1 x 4 GB G.Skill DDR3-1333 F3-1333C9S-4GNS |
| Graphics Card | HIS Radeon HD 7950 IceQ |
| Hard Drives | Intel SSD 330 180 GB (System Drive) |
| Samsung HD322GJ (Data Drive) | |
| Power Supply | Cooler Master V700, 700 W |
| Operating System | Windows 7 Home Premium, 64 Bit |
The HIS graphics card we're using is actually a best-case for Aerocool, since it exhausts waste heat out of its rear slot instead of circulating it through the case like so many other boards. Intel's SSD doesn't have a temperature sensor, leaving us with just the disk drive's sensor.
We load the system using a combination of Prime95 (Small FTTs) and MSI Kombustor (Fractal Flame), recording temperatures after 60 minutes.
Temperatures
The parts we picked for this build should get warm enough to push the DS' two slow-spinning fans, but not overwhelm them. Of course, if you're using a graphics card that dumps all of its heat back into your case, or a more enthusiast-oriented CPU, more cooling performance can be achieved by installing two optional fans in their places at the top of the case, or opting for a 240 mm closed-loop liquid cooler. Again, we're sticking with Aerocool's stock setup, though.
| Temperatures under Full Load | ||
|---|---|---|
| System Configuration | Top Cover Completely Closed | Top Cover with Mesh Opening |
| Ambient Temperature | 20.5 °C | 20.5 °C |
| CPU (Core i5-2500K) | 61.6 °C | 59.6 °C |
| GPU (Radeon HD 7950) | 69 °C | 69 °C |
| (Fan 56% = 2297 RPM) | (Fan 56% = 2283 RPM) | |
| Hard Drive | 28 °C | 28 °C |
As we were expecting, temperatures remain in an acceptable range, despite the slow case fans. HIS' Radeon HD 7950 maxes out at 69 degrees Celsius at a fan speed of 2300 RPM due to its self-contained cooling solution, which doesn't offload its job onto the chassis' airflow. Intel's Core i5-2500K at an average temperature of 61.6 degrees Celsius across its four cores. Using the mesh top panel instead of the closed one yields a small improvement to 59.6 degrees Celsius.
If you're considering using this sort of system in an ambient environment of more than 30 degrees Celsius, consider installing those fans under the case's top cover. Really, it's too bad that Aerocool doesn't include a fan controller, giving the option of a second, higher fan speed. There's also the option to optimize a bit under the hood for better breathing. The first idea that comes to mind is pulling the external drive cage if it's not needed.
Noise
Aerocool's Dead Silence tries to live up to its name by maintaining low fan speeds. This isn’t completely successful, though. The rear fan rumbles along quite noticeably. A higher-quality fan would have been a better value-add. The front fan manages to provide airflow inaudibly with a bit of help from the front cover that absorbs some of the noise; it can only be heard once the cover is removed.
This case isn't completely silent, but still manages to perform modestly in our acoustic measurements. Switching out the rear fan would result in a noticeable improvement, though 37.7 and 38.0 dB(A) are solid numbers.
In order to get a better idea of how our installed components affect noise, we took two more measurements. The first only included the stock case fans, while the second included the entire system under full load. The graphics card fan dominates the latter measurement.
| Noise | ||
|---|---|---|
| Case Fans Only | Whole System | |
| Front (50 cm) | 37.7 dB(A) | 42 dB(A) |
| Diagonal Left Top (50 cm) | 38.0 dB(A) | 41.2 dB(A) |
| Diagonal Right Top (50 cm) | 38.0 dB(A) | 41.2 dB(A) |
Aerocool's DS is a compact cube-shaped case that’s able to accommodate powerful gaming hardware, whether you use it in its stock form or add a couple of cooling fans. Its strengths include a nice-looking, lively design and good use of minimal space. Separating the interior into chambers, putting core components up top and everything else down below, helps keep the heat from certain parts from affecting others. In this way, very tall CPU coolers, long graphics cards, and even 240 mm radiators can fit.
The stock cooling solution consists of a 200 mm front fan and a 120 mm rear fan, both of which spin fairly slowly, but still manage to maintain reasonable temperatures. A stock closed top cover can be replaced with an optional mesh one to improve the Dead Silence's thermal performance (particularly if you then choose to utilize the two spaces for additional fans right underneath it).
Aerocool's DS is sturdily-built, relatively quiet, and covered in a nice soft-touch surface. Everything inside is easy to reach during installation, and cable routing (and hiding) works well too, in spite of the enclosure's small size.
There’s some room for improvement as well, though. We'd like to see the rear case fan replaced by something quieter. Aerocool could also have added a fan controller with two settings, the second of which would spin the fans faster, improving the stock configuration's cooling capabilities.
At the end of the day, Aerocool's Dead Silence is an attractive, well-designed, and versatile chassis with plenty of room for enthusiast-oriented hardware in a compact form factor. We liked its estimated price tag, but are less certain about the new MSRP of $120. The fact that it'll be available in so many color combinations is definitely nice, though. If you don't mind making some minor improvements (like replacing the rear case fan), you'll be happy with a small gaming machine based on this case.






































