Quiet Gaming Cases, Part 1: Antec, Azza, And Cooler Master

By Thomas Soderstrom
published

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.

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...

Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.
44 Comments Comment from the forums
  • jrayx
    I like the Silencio 650 features, but the airflow is restricted in the front and bottom. And no one sells that case in my country.
    Reply
  • James296
    sweet, been looking for a quiet gaming case =)
    Reply
  • dthesleepless
    I'd like to see how the Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 compares in your testing.

    In my testing I found it to be the most efficient silent case I've ever had on my workbench.
    Reply
  • EzioAs
    Things I love about silence optimized case: Simple, elegant look. Nothing tacky and doesn't looks like it was made for some 12 years old

    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 .
    Reply
  • JOSHSKORN
    I'd like to see the Fractal Design Define R4 (and/or XL if it's not out of stock, which it currently is) reviewed and compared at some point. It's suppose to be a quiet case. Gaming, not sure about that one.
    Reply
  • There is also the Corsair 550D to look at for the quite gaming experience.
    Reply
  • killerclick
    As usual, Cooler Master is mediocre at best. What pathetic company, the only thing they seem to do good is marketing to budget-conscious consumers.
    Reply
  • EzioAs
    9540164 said:
    As usual, Cooler Master is mediocre at best. What pathetic company, the only thing they seem to do good is marketing to budget-conscious consumers.

    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
    Reply
  • mayankleoboy1
    ^ except for the high-end cooler master PSU's. They are quite decent, probably because Seasonic actually makes them.
    Reply
  • Crashman
    dthesleeplessI'd like to see how the Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 compares in your testing.In my testing I found it to be the most efficient silent case I've ever had on my workbench.JOSHSKORNI'd like to see the Fractal Design Define R4 (and/or XL if it's not out of stock, which it currently is) reviewed and compared at some point. It's suppose to be a quiet case. Gaming, not sure about that one.Perhaps you will...has anybody ever noticed the resemblance between those two?
    Reply