Quiet Gaming Cases, Part 3: Lian Li, Nanoxia, And SilverStone
Part three of our quest for quiet gaming brings us three final enclosures from Lian Li, Nanoxia, and SilverStone. Have we finally found the perfect product to silence a noisy graphics card? We’ll find out by comparing all nine contenders in today's piece.
Building With The Fortress 2 USB 3.0
To show off its ultimate FT02S-USB3.0 configuration, SilverStone sent us four cloth-covered SATA cables, four hot-swap SAS-compliant backplane connectors, and a four-in-one SATA power connector, all separately boxed. While this is probably how we’d want our Fortress 2 equipped as well, we’re not sure we’d spend the extra $100 for the parts.
While the extras sure are nice, we tested the case in its stock trim, with only the single original SATA connector installed.
The FT02S-USB3.0 adds a USB 3.0-to-2.0 adapter to the original Fortress 2’s kit. The original kit’s 3.5” tray to 2.5” drive adapter is also included, though no longer needed since the updated drive trays all have 2.5” mounting holes.
Each of the five 3.5” drive trays have 2.5” mounting holes on the bottom and 3.5” mounts (with noise-dampening grommets) on the side.
Even without an eighth slot, there wasn’t enough room in the FT02S-USB3.0’s top 5.25" bay for connectors on the back of our optical drive. Instead, we had to use the second 5.25” bay. In fact, the space between the back of our optical drive and the motherboard is so tight, that a few of our single-slot cards won’t even fit into the seventh slot.
With cable ends hidden beneath the top panel and exiting the rear together in a tidy bundle, the FT02S-USB3.0 creates one of the cleanest builds we’ve ever seen.
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Newegg e-mailed me saying that the Nanoxia DS1 ETA is 1/3010447762 said:Where to buy the Silencio 650 or the Nanoxia Deep Silence ? -
abbadon_34 I never ceased to amazed by these beastly cases from Silverstone. Before I die I hope to toss down $300 for some monster.Reply -
johnsonjohnson e56imfgNewegg e-mailed me saying that the Nanoxia DS1 ETA is 1/30Reply
Thanks for that; I was wondering when it would arrive. -
My brother has the older FT02B with the red inside and I have the P280. I'm super happy to see how these cases performedReply
He is running dual AMD 5850's with axial fans and a Corsair H50 water cooler cooling an AMD 8150, it's very quiet even at full fan.
In my P280 I have a OC Intel i7-3770k with an Antec 920 water cooler and 2 scythe 2k rpm fans, with the scythe at full power and the 920 on aggressive thermal settings it keeps he 4.7ghz oc under 50 deg c under almost all loads while not being excessively loud. -
Onus The Define R4 appears to be lacking a HDD activity LED; baffling. Those who don't like it wouldn't have to use it, but what about those who do?Reply
It would be interesting to repeat the tests with an axially-cooled graphics card. After all, that style of cooler would be the choice of someone building for low noise. Of particular interest would be the resulting temperature differences, especially of the Silverstone.
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1369ic I ordered an R4 yesterday before finding these articles and was happy to see it get the approved award. Now it wins a recommended buy award and UPS tells me it's on the truck to be delivered today. First time in my life I've had such luck. I am replacing an aging Antec P180, and almost got the 280, but went with the R4 because I liked the look better -- and it's currently $80 with free shipping on Newegg.Reply -
cknobman As nice as the Fractal R4 is I still would go with my Antec P280 case especially considering after discounts I picked it up for only $80.Reply
Toms, thanks for doing this series it was really nice to see the time and in depth detail put into this. I will be bookmarking these for reference on my future builds. -
Au_equus 1369icI ordered an R4 yesterday before finding these articles and was happy to see it get the approved award. Now it wins a recommended buy award and UPS tells me it's on the truck to be delivered today. First time in my life I've had such luck. I am replacing an aging Antec P180, and almost got the 280, but went with the R4 because I liked the look better -- and it's currently $80 with free shipping on Newegg.Half finished building with it last night. Once you get th R4, you can tell that a lot of thought went into building this case. I'm still a novice when it comes to cable management, but FD makes it real easy. For $80, IMO, you're getting a steal.Reply -
tripkick Is there any chance that you could review the NZXT H2 in the future? I was hoping to see it on your review list and how it compares to the R4. I am looking to upgrade my old Antec P180 and wondered how those two cases stack up against the P180 and its newer version P183.Reply