Helping Define The High-End Experience
Some of us remember how automotive reviewers panned the Lamborghini Countach for being hot, extremely noisy, hard-riding, and difficult to control. And yet teenagers often dreamed about how the car performed under ideal driving conditions. Meanwhile, automotive enthusiasts with the money to purchase a Lamborghini typically bought a different, more refined performance-oriented car.
More recently, Chris Angelini revealed similar problems in his article AMD Radeon HD 6990 4 GB Review: Antilles Makes (Too Much) Noise and went on to praise a competing product for being detuned to help mitigate those issues. Of course, the most efficient way to quiet a high-performance PC is by choosing a better case.
While many of our readers still get hit with those teenage dreams of ultimate performance as they click through the pages of high-end hardware reviews, more have already passed that phase where, after living with one or two unbearably noisy systems, they're willing to pay a little extra for a combination of slightly-reduced cooling performance with dramatically improved acoustic performance.
Not all of the cases in today’s comparison are specifically marketed towards noise-sensitive buyers though, as each company instead sent us the lowest-noise gaming cases they could find. That could be an issue when gaming boxes are asked to compete against acoustic foam-lined products, but we also know that design plays as much of a role as material in noise reduction. Before we jump to any conclusions, let’s take a closer look at the hardware each of these systems supports, and then see how easily some of that hardware can be installed.
(Ed.: In case you missed it, a couple of weeks back we posted an extensive picture story with these six enclosures in a number of compromising poses. If you'd like to see more angles of each chassis, check out In Pictures: Six Low-Noise Performance-Oriented Cases.)
| Antec Sonata IV | Bitfenix Colossus | Fractal Design Define XL | Lian Li PC-B25S | NZXT H2 Classic | SilverStone Raven RV02-E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dimensions | ||||||
| Height | 17.3" | 22.6" | 22.2" | 21.4" | 18.4" | 19.8" |
| Width | 8.1" | 9.6" | 9.2" | 8.3" | 8.4" | 8.3" |
| Depth | 18.9" | 23.2" | 22.5" | 19.6" | 20.6" | |
| Space Above Motherboard | 0.7" | 2.5" | 0.1" | 0.3" | 0.2" | 0.8" |
| Card Length | 11.2" | 13.2" | 13.2" | 11.6" | 12.2" | 12.2" |
| Weight | 20.2 lbs* | 34.5 lbs | 27.6 lbs | 17.0 lbs | 20.6 lbs | 20.0 lbs |
| Cooling | ||||||
| Intake Fans (alternatives) | None (None) | 1 x 230 mm (None) | 1 x 140 mm (2 x 140 mm + 1x 120 mm) | 2 x 120 mm (None) | 2 x 120 mm (None) | 3 x 180 mm (None) |
| Rear Fans (alternatives) | 1 x 120 mm (None) | None (1 x 140 mm, 1x 120 mm) | 1 x 140 mm (1 x 120 mm) | 1 x 120 mm (None) | 1 x 120 mm (None) | None (None) |
| Top Fans (alternatives) | None (None) | 1 x 230 mm (1 x 140 mm, 2 x 120 mm) | 1 x 180 mm (None) | 1 x 140 mm (None) | None (1 x 140 mm) | 1 x 120 mm (None) |
| Side Fans (alternatives) | None (None) | None (None) | None (1 x 140 mm, 1 x 120 mm) | None (None) | None (None) | None (None) |
| Drive Bays | ||||||
| 5.25" External | Three | Five | Four | Three | Three | Five |
| 3.5" External | None | 1 x Adapter | 1 x Adapter | 1 x Adapter | None | 1 x Adapter |
| 3.5" Internal | Four | Seven | Ten*** | Six | Eight | Five |
| 2.5" Internal | One | Seven** | Ten*** | None | Eight*** | One |
| Card Slots | Seven | Eight | Seven +1 | Eight | Seven | Seven |
| Price | $165** | $169 | $150 | $212 | $100 | $173 |
| *case only **with power supply ***shared on 3.5" tray | ||||||
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163161&cm_re=ft02_b-_-11-163-161-_-Product
Another big plus with the Fortress 2 is the inclusion of sound dampening foam on every panel, but to be entirely honest with you, due to the open nature of the case, I'm really not sure how much sound it's actually dampening.
Hell, yes! About time, pushing those extreme overclocks!
Marty, I'm sorry. But the only power source capable of generating 34.5 gigahertz of electricity is a bolt of lightning... (begin back to the future theme song!)
Didn't you watch the news? Astronomers sent a dwarf in a rocket to remove Pluto so it doesn't exist anymore.