How To Select The Right Case

The Sounds Of Silence - Air Flow & Fans

The sound of silence is becoming more of an impossibly dream in this day and age. Hotter CPUs and GPUs are only the start of the heat problems of the typical case. If you are an overclocker, the amount of heat generated can be even higher.

The goal is to move the heat off these products and push the heat out of the case. The problem is that more of the typical computer’s parts are requiring more fans to get their jobs done. More fans, of course, equals more noise.

The 1 GHz Pentium III Asus CUSL2-C Black Pearl Special Edition motherboard that is housed in this Antec SX1030 case uses the Antec PP-352X power supply. The power supply wasn’t the only thing that was upgraded. The owner made a valid attempt to improve the airflow using four Vantec Stealth fans (two in the front and two in the back), as well as going to the extreme of using rounded IDE cables. In terms of achieving better air flow, there is still room for improvement, but it is still better than many of the cases that we have seen. At least it is quieter than many of the cases that we have seen.

In the vast majority of configurations, you have at least four fans in your system. Depending on the types of fans chosen at the time of purchase, these can be either high speed or low speed fans. Of course, low speed fans move less air than higher speed fans, but they also make a lot less noise.