Quiet case suggestions?

[MFord66215]

Gonna have to replace this POS case/power supply with something decent, and I'm looking for less noise while I'm at it. Diligent thread readers will know that we've put several coolermaster 690's out into production, and they're 'almost' silent.

Should I just go ahead and get another 690, or is there something even way better? Suggestions to include case and power supply please. And if you can keep the price reasonable, I'd appreciate it....I've never understood the concept of "disposable income".

Hosted system will be
Asus P5K
Q6600 air cool @ 3.6Ghz
4G Ram
500G Sata
Sata DVD/RW
8800 GTS 512

Lots of USB items, a momo wheel, stuff like that........

[YMAA]

Steel cases will usually be more quiet than their aluminum counterparts. P182 is a pretty quiet case, and not too expensive.

[Lionhardt]

P180

[ElMoIsEviL]

Lian-Li PC-K10B - Hybrid Aluminum Case makes use of a steel interior but Aluminum front panelling. Very quiet.

Lian-Li PC-A17B - Makes use of a silent top 140mm fan and two 120mm silent fans as well. Aluminum case.

Lian-Li PC-V1000BPLUSII - Beautiful case. Many options, hard drives on a lower compartment. Made of high quality sturdy aluminum. Uses quiet fans.

None of them come with a power supply. But I would recommend something like an OCZ GameXStream 700W PSU which can be had for around $100 USD (usually less).

[sirheck]

The antec sonatta iii comes with a decent psu and is pretty damn quiet.

[ElMoIsEviL]

sirheck.. takes a lot of guts to come out like that.. grats. But umm your flag is a little on the large side.

[orangegator]

If you're in the market for a psu, Buy.com has a killer deal on the Corsair TX 750W ATX 12V Power Supply for $75.44 shipped after a $20 rebate and 8%off coupon. It's got a 140mm fan, so I assume it's quiet.

[sirheck]

Originally Posted by ElMoIsEviL

sirheck.. takes a lot of guts to come out like that.. grats. But umm your flag is a little on the large side.

Uh its just a forum glitch, the admins are working on it as we speak.

[DaSickNinja]

Sure we are. *Goes back to rearanging his collection of lint*

I'm a big fan of the TJ series, and the 07 would probably fit the bill.

[JumpingJack]

If money is no object, I was very impressed with the Cosmos 1000 by Coolermaster ... built for quiet.

For an HTPC, I am using (and very impressed with) the Zalman HD-160 XT (the VDF version, not the LCD version -- the LCD version is too pricey).

Jack

[1Tanker]

I'm sure you're aware that the case itself is only half the equation... where noise is concerned. What fans you use will make or break your effort for relative silence. Your CPU HS's fan(s) and GPU HS(s) fans are the main offenders. If you're sticking purely with the included case fans... then the case will make more difference. To me, half the fun is ordering my own fans, and trying to achieve what i want through my choices... be it quiet or ultimate air-cooling. That strategy does add to the price though. I have the CM 690, and it's a great case for cooling.. but can be noisy(without careful consideration to fan noise), due to it's mesh front/top. The new CoolerMaster HAF 932 is supposed to be a fantastic case.

HAF 932 @ Newegg

932 Review @ TechwareLabs

Cooler Master HAF 932 Case Review :: Introduction :: Motherboards.org

Cooler Master HAF 932 Case Review | Hardware Secrets

As far as PSU's; You can't go wrong with a ~500w-700w unit from Corsair, PCP&Cooling or Silverstone. GL

[mpilchfamily]

Don't get a case with an included PSU.

One of the bestter PSU options that are nice and quiet are the Corsair PSUs.

As for the case the P182 is one of the more silent cases but tend to be a pain to work with. As a personal preferance i can't stand case doors but the door on the P182 is part of its silencing abilities helping to block the sound that would come from the intake fans. The case itself is made up of composit panels that are designed to be sound dampening.

But the key to a silent case is selecting silent parts. Even a well insulated case can be noisy if you have a lawn mower for a CPU and GPU cooler. I like my CM 690 but it is load as hell. only because of the 4 Yate Loon fans i have running in it.

Now i love howe quiet my Antec 900 is. With the fans set to low it still provides great airflow and near silent running. The loadest thing in that case is my HDD. Other then that it has stock CPU cooler and a fanless cooler on the 7300GT.

Stay away from PC P&C. They are great PSUs but there 80MM fans tend to make allot of noise.

[Violet_wind]

Passive everything should work better tho...

Would see more benefit...

The Antec p180 mini is a nice case...

Too bad its matx...

[MFord66215]

Thanks for the suggestions.

Call (product_research) %Antec %coolermaster %lian;

[MFord66215]

@Sirheck, the flag is fine - you can be whatever you want to be. My only question is: Where'd you get the boat?

[Clue69Less]

The Zalman HP power supplies are the way to go for a quiet rig. Take the holisitic approach and reduce noise at the sources as a first step. So if you're going with air cooling, go for quiet CPU and GPU coolers, then use quiet case fans. That will allow you more flexibility in the case choice to get other features you want rather than worrying too much about just the noise aspect. If it's still too noisy, consider noise dampening the interior of the case and maybe HD vibration damping.

Or do like I do and just crank de tunage.

[Clue69Less]

Originally Posted by DaSickNinja

Sure we are. *Goes back to rearanging his collection of lint*

It's a fuzzy job but somebody has to do it.

[Viperabyss]

To echo mpilch, usually silent parts are more important than selecting a slient case.

For example, I would recommend you to look into Scythe's S-Flex medium parts. They're extremely silent, even at full speed.

You can also look into passive cooled parts, like Violet_wind suggested.