Aluminium cases and cooling...

To celebrate a promotion at work, I'm going to finally get around be sorting out my computer, specifically the ugly generic case that's blighting my room. I've been looking around at some Lian Li cases for a while, and while they're very pretty, I was wondering if anyone knew of any evidence, quantifiable or anecdotal, regarding the supposed superior cooling abilities of aluminium cases. On virtually every website I visit, I read about hundreds of people carefully explaining how great these cases are, and how they significantly increase heat loss, but I've yet to read of anyone who can clearly demonstrate a measurable performance increase.

I've tinkered with overclocking in the past, and it's something that I will be attempting again soon now that I've got more free time... While I play a lot of graphically intense games that really push the processor, I use my computer primarily for music production. Because of this, noise is a BIG concern for me, and I don't really want to switch over to aluminium if it's going to mean a significant rise in background noise.

Apologies if this has been brought up before!

Aluminum cases do not cool pcs better than steel cases. Aluminum cases tend to resonate and vibrate more than steel cases.

If you're setting up a quiet pc, I would recommend the Antec Sonata.

if you move it alot, the lighter aluminum makes a difference, and of course it looks sharp, but it would be really hard to prove and real benefit in cooling as there isnt one. just my .02$

The only way I could possibly see aluminum giving a advantage in displacing heat in a case is if you had REALLY REALLY bad airflow and were totally relying on the case to radiate off all the internal heat of the case.

Your going to see a temp improvement anyway when you upgrade the case due to the manufacturer of a high end case paying attention to ventilation and airflow.

Still if you like the look of aluminum go for it, my only regret getting my Lian Li to replace my generic case was that I didn't do it sooner.

Agreed with the others, aluminium cases do not cool any better than steel from my experience. As you are interested in very quiet cases, then the Antec Sonata, as Giblet Plus! mentioned, would make a very nice choice. Also Lian Li makes the PC-6070 which is designed to be quiet as well, but from what I have heard, the Sonata is more silent.

I own a Lian-Li. At first I was totally against spending that much money for the case, but I must say after I bought one-I was totally impressed with it. I have also owned antec. Both VERY good brands in my book.

Lian Li price is way high for my liking, but after I saw newegg has a refurb one at $45 shipped, i hop at it quick and didn't regret it. The quality of this low end Lian Li is still as good as their high end. Not disappoint a bit

Alum cases might help a TINY bit with select areas of cooling. For example, they would probably help dissapate heat from a hard drive very slightly better than a steel case as the HD heat would propagate into the alum drive cage & into the case itself. Of course, this would probably be barely noticable in normal applications, if at all.

bonobo said:

I've been looking around at some Lian Li cases for a while, and while they're very pretty, I was wondering if anyone knew of any evidence, quantifiable or anecdotal, regarding the supposed superior cooling abilities of aluminium cases.

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It does make a difference: aluminum is much easier than steel to cut!

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If you want a cool, quiet case, ignore the material and choose one that uses 120mm fans all around.

I find the largest benefit to be ease of modding - cutting Al is much easier than 0.8mm steel. They do vibrate more, however, that's not an insurmountable problem. You can isolate the loose bits and secure them. I used a Lian-Li PC65 with my Prometeia for ease of modding and fit. Next computer I build will be another good old Antec.

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