The pursuit of performance often dictates that we simply live with a loud PC. Enthusiasts sometimes feel forced to choose between reasonable acoustics and the ventilation needed to overclock. Today, we evaluate three cases that promise to deliver both.
Much of the noise that emanates from a modern gaming PC is attributable to high-end graphics cards. Modern GPUs employ two types of coolers: centrifugal and axial. Centrifugal coolers, also known as blowers, use an impeller to push air out through an exhaust at the back of the card. Meanwhile, axial-flow fans have blades that blow directly toward the card, where it exits around the sides of the heat sink and into the case itself.
If all of that is too much for you, just know that both solutions have their advantages and downsides. Blowers are noisy, and they aren't as effective as axial coolers. Axial fans tend to operate more quietly, but pollute the inside of your chassis with their heated air.
Single-radial GPU Cooler
Triple-axial GPU Cooler
As an overclocker, I’m dubious of graphics cards with axial coolers, since they typically have a really bad effect on the ambient temperature of most enclosures. You never want a high-end graphics card to sabotage your CPU overclock, after all.
Yes, you can use water cooling to make the whole axial versus centrifugal debate a moot point. But now you're talking about spending more money, too. There's another way to approach this conundrum, and it often gets overlooked: simply choose a better case.

We expect most cases to have vents for warm air, but we expect quiet enclosures not to have them on their side panels, right next to a noisy graphics card. The concept here is simple: reflected noise is usually less obtrusive than direct noise, and noise-dampening materials help enhance this effect. They also help minimize panel vibration and alter resonant frequencies, often to the point where they're no longer noticed. Those are the features we want to see from a gaming-oriented chassis that its vendor considers quiet.
The table below lists the dimensions, optional cooling capacity, maximum number of drives, and sound-dampening materials for the three cases we're testing today. In the days that follow, we'll be going in-depth on six more enclosures before figuring out which one does its job the best.
| Antec P280 | Azza Silentium 920 | Cooler Master Silencio 650 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dimensions | |||
| Height | 20.6" | 18.2" | 18.8" |
| Width | 9.1" | 8.8" | 8.2" |
| Depth | 22.3" | 20.5" | 21.0" |
| Space Above Motherboard | 1.3" | 0.8" | 1.3" |
| Card Length | 13.8" | 12.3" | 11.5" - 17.0"** |
| Weight | 21.7 Pounds | 15.8 Pounds | 23.0 Pounds |
| Cooling | |||
| Front Fans (alternatives) | 2 x 120 mm (None) | 1 x 120 mm (None) | 2 x 120 mm (1 x 140 mm) |
| Rear Fans (alternatives) | 1 x 120 mm (None) | 1 x 120 mm (None) | 1 x 120 mm (None) |
| Top Fans (alternatives) | 2 x 120 mm (None) | None (None) | None (1 x 140/120 mm) |
| Left Side (alternatives) | None (None) | None (None) | None (None) |
| Right Side (alternatives) | None (None) | None (None) | None (None) |
| Drive Bays | |||
| 5.25" External | Three | Four | Three |
| 3.5" External | None | One | None |
| 3.5" Internal | Six | Five | Seven |
| 2.5" Internal | Six* +2 | Five* | One*** |
| Card Slots | Nine | Seven | Seven |
| Noise Dampening | |||
| Sides | Polycarbonate | Foam | Foam |
| Top | None | Foam | Foam |
| Front | Foam | Cloth | Cast Aluminum |
| Price | $120 | $80 | $160 |
| *Shared on 3.5" tray **Slots 1-6 w/o Center Cage ***By Adapter on 3.5" External Backplane | |||
Most of the common noise-reducing techniques can be found across the three samples in today’s test, including thicker material to block the noise (Cooler Master’s cast drive door), reflection-weakening foam (Azza’s top and side panels), and vibration-dampening weighted film (Antec’s polycarbonate layer). Before we test the effectiveness of these techniques, we’d first like to show you a few of the features that we think make each of these cases a viable contender in our competition.
- Creating A Quiet Case: More Than One Way To Skin A Cat
- Antec P280
- Inside Antec's P280
- More P280 Features
- Building With Antec's P280
- Azza Silentium 920
- Inside Azza's Silentium 920
- More Silentium 920 Features
- Building With Azza’s Silentium 920
- Cooler Master Silencio 650
- Inside Cooler Master's Silencio 650
- More Silencio 650 Features
- Building With Cooler Master's Silencio 650
- Test Settings
- Heat, Noise, And Heat Versus Noise
- Quiet Cases: Do We Have A Winner Yet?
In my testing I found it to be the most efficient silent case I've ever had on my workbench.
Things I hate about silence optimized case: Usually doesn't cool well (poor airflow) and isn't really that much quieter compared to non silence optimized case
It 's really hard to find the right balance but I'm loving the Antec P280. Exterior and interior looks good and seems spacious enough. Price isn't so bad either.
Any chance you could review the Nanoxia Deep Silence 1? Heard a lot of good things about it .
I disagree. A lot of their chassis are good (HAF, Elite). I like their storm stryker/trooper. Most of their peripherals have great quality and reasonable price compared to something like Razer. Their coolers are also great as well (Hyper 212/212+/212 EVO). I just find their power supply unit to be the 2nd grade components, almost all of them I wouldn't use or recommend to other people
SSD is totaly silent, but HDD can make quite a bit of noise, and is still a basic part of every PC today.
You guys seem to have forgotten something.
Their products are great when compared to box coolers and cheap no-name cases, but inferior to Corsair, Noctua, Scythe, Antec and the like. Hyper 212? Junk - even Tom's thinks so. Why buy fourth best? Find me one roundup of anything where Cooler Master comes out on top in performance or acoustics.
Look at the price. The Hyper 212+ is not even remotely close to the price of top air coolers however it offers extremely good value and the link you provided is enough evidence. I'll also vouch for it since I have one and I'm using it to cool my 3570K running at 4.5GHz fully stable with cpu voltage of 1.18V and max temps of 78 degrees on the hottest core. I paid $30 for it and I can get my cpu to 4.5GHz, fully satisfied.
Corsair do have great cases (no doubt here) but look at the total number of cases they have and the price point. Cooler master have everything from $30 to $300+ case.
Look, this is not a debate on whoever makes the best products. We don't need one company dominating the other. If we do, we get fewer alternatives and high prices. Let's say you're right and let's take a look at the SSD market. Based on what I've found out so far is Samsung has the highest performing consumer SSD, the 840 Pro (if I'm wrong, consider this a hypothetical situation). However, does that make other SSDs like the crucial M4 or OCZ vertex 4 irrelevant? If the M4 and vertex 4 had lower prices and better price per GB than the 840 Pro, wouldn't it be a better deal for someone who's not looking for the best and/or is not willing to pay the premium?
To conclude, there's nothing wrong with Cooler Master not taking the performance crown, value is not simply performance/aesthetics/size, it's more of how much you can get for the price you pay.
Yeah, but who wants to save $15 on a CPU cooler they buy once in two years, especially if the CPU it cools costs 15 times as much?
And you said "great quality and reasonable price", it's more like "mediocre quality and reasonable price". Great quality would come up on top, being in the bottom half in most comparisons is not great quality, unless compared with a box cooler, in which case the price would be beyond unreasonable.
And you said "great quality and reasonable price", it's more like "mediocre quality and reasonable price". Great quality would come up on top, being in the bottom half in most comparisons is not great quality, unless compared with a box cooler, in which case the price would be beyond unreasonable.
Some people just aren't enthusiast
My $250 Lian Li was nice and all aluminum but its overall design and features paled in comparison to my Antec p280.
I added 1 120mm fan to the front of my Antec and will admit it is not exactly "silent" but it is not what I would consider noisy either and I am more than willing to live with it since I have easily overclocked my 3770k to 4.5 ghz with a cheap $25 3 heat pipe cooler.