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 | ||||||