Zalman zero noise case

[TheWesson]

Zero noise case:
Zalman TNN500A preview

No fans anywhere. Only noise is possibly a HD. Not watercooled. Heatpipes galore.

The CPU heatsink mounting? Case heatpipes are clamped into a screwed-together copper block (which clips onto the CPU as normally.)

Directron.com has it for $US 1199.

the wesson

 

[Tatuya]

Voodoo makes PCs with this case (saw a review in PC gamer) and yes they actually DO work. All that I've heard about them that sucks is that they are heavy as all hell, hence the rollers

ADDED: And they are expensive too! Way too expensive IMHO, rather go with some vapochill stuff for that much cash.

 

[Cerberus2k7]

Yeah, I saw that voodoo comp a while back but had no idea which case it was. Just about a month ago I suspected it to be a Zalman because they came out with that fanless PSU

 

[clocker2]

That loks like a real sweet setup with a few caveats.

If you add a second HDD ( and many of the folks with that kind of dosh would probably spring for a RAID array...)it doesn't get the same heatpipe cooler and noiseless mount as the first HDD does.

Secondly, in order for the case to be truly effective it couldn't be tucked into a cubby or other airless space...it would eventually heatsoak the surrounding air and enter a vicious cycle of overheating.

 

[TheWesson]

That loks like a real sweet setup with a few caveats.

If you add a second HDD ( and many of the folks with that kind of dosh would probably spring for a RAID array...)it doesn't get the same heatpipe cooler and noiseless mount as the first HDD does.

Secondly, in order for the case to be truly effective it couldn't be tucked into a cubby or other airless space...it would eventually heatsoak the surrounding air and enter a vicious cycle of overheating.

Yep. They also on the last page of the manual state that if you are overclocking your computer, please use a fan. They have a diagram of a room fan pointing at the heatsink on top of the case. <grin>

But the hard drive cooler is basically worthless since it doesn't connect to anything. All it does is give the drive a larger surface area and maybe remove hotspots.

Anyhow once you have hard drives in there the computer is no longer noiseless ... maybe they should've made a soundproofed enclosure heatpiped to the case.

the wesson

 

[The O.C]

The case is supposed to be completely silent EXCEPT for optical drives and harddrives.

Also the case should be kept away from any heaters and sunlight or it will absorb heat thus negating the dissipating effects of the case's design. The sunlight part is especially bad considering the case is black LOL.

 

[magick_man]

that case is pretty sweet as an idea but that thing is just so heavy and so expensive that i think they will be lucky to sell 3, well ok they might sell a couple more than that but i dont think many more.

~Magick_Man~

 

[t1mex]

im confused.... is this supposed to be new? because the date on that review says:
Date: 2001-11-19

 

[tekOC]

That is one sweet looking case, I wanna see some temps & results though.....

I wouldnt mind putting a huge electric fan next to the case even if I wasnt overclocking, those fans are silent anyways.

Good idea

 

[kidloco]

the only problem with these cases is the fact that it limits your choice of GFX card, acording to the latest issue of CUSTOMPC (which reveiws another new passive case) the quicks passivly cooled card is a 9600xt, which isnt really good enough for a system costing that much

 

[TheWesson]

im confused.... is this supposed to be new? because the date on that review says:
Date: 2001-11-19

Right-o.

It occurred to me to bring this up because I had never come across anyone selling it before. (I assume Directron isn't listing for sale anything they can't sell.)

So it's "new" for me in the sense of "now available in the US".

Might've been available in Europe for quite some time, for all I know. Euro types are more into human-friendly stuff like a low-noise case - it's part and parcel of being more green.

the wesson

 

[clocker2]

Although I have seen traces of this case for several months ( many sites in Germany for some reason...) I suspect that Zalman released "preproduction" info/models long before they were even sure they were going to produce this thing.

After all, the market for such a device, even assuming that it works well, is very limited.
Maybe they were just floating balloons to see if anyone had interest.
I would dearly love to see one in person ( I felt the same way about the Reserator, my local MicroCenter just got some and they are beautifully crafted, as are most Zalman products), although even were it as nice as it appears it would be a real stretch for me to spend $1100 on a case/cooling solution.

 

[mantrogo]

Still there's something to be said for having a dead quiet computer... re. the HDD 'coolers'. Got one for my S-ATA drive as these things run HOT. It's a pretty quiet drive anyway, but the other thing the Zalman heatpipe cooler does is to decouple the HDD from the case in terms of vibration almost entirely. V. v. quiet.

Re. the VGA issue - Zalman recommend that the stock single VGA heatpipe set they include in the case can be used with the 9700 and lower. For 9800+ their dual heatpipe set (which scandolously has to be bought as an extra!) will dissipate 50W per sec, so you're not really being much constrained!

They're also probably being pretty conservative. In theory a 9800 pro shouldn't be cooled with the old gold coloured Z80. Mine is, it's overclocked and doesn't produce any artefacts even when I've been really, really beastly to it. Just depends on case airflow - or in this instance air flow around the case...

Cheers

 

[fletch]

that case is pretty sweet as an idea but that thing is just so heavy and so expensive that i think they will be lucky to sell 3, well ok they might sell a couple more than that but i dont think many more.

Agreed - 55 pounds!