Quiet Cases: Do We Have A Winner Yet?
Most of our comparisons have a value spin, but we’re constantly looking for better ways to define value. After all, a simple chart comparing performance to price doesn’t always make the grade when parts fall to pieces. Fortunately, we didn’t encounter any quality-related issues today. In fact, the least expensive case in today’s review finishes mid-pack in our acoustic efficiency test.
Azza's Silentium 920 is clearly the cheapest case, evidenced by its thin panels and scarcity of ports. And yet, the chassis is solid enough to faithfully hold our parts and well-featured enough to have dust covers on both the intake fan and difficult-to-reach power supply vent. It's worth at least half as much as Cooler Master's Silencio 650, and is supposed to cost slightly less than that.
The Silencio 650 has loads of extra features that make it worth almost twice as much as Azza's submission. Its thick sturdy panels, superior selection of ports, handy drive selector switch, and integrated flash media reader are a few such extras. The solid aluminum drive door is particularly pleasing to find on a gaming-oriented enclosure. However, slight issues like the single 2.5” drive limit keep it from winning our hearts.
Antec’s P280 does nearly everything right, except that it is barely quiet enough to fall within our noise limits. We have a tough time awarding products that barely pass our qualifiers. Thus, while the P280 tops our current list of quiet gaming cases, we’re applauding its performance in passing as we continue our search for the perfect quiet gaming case tomorrow...
