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Quietest case...

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onlinebacon

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Joined
Aug 14, 2007
For £50 :)

Does anyone know which is the most quiet case for around £50, not too much more, I am on a really tough budget.

It will be going into my room so it's gonna have to be as quiet as possible, and hopefully have a PSU :)

Hope i'm not asking for too much :D

BTW £50 is around $100 USD :)

Thanks
 
Check out the Thermaltake Soprano..They're about $60 and you can remove the stock fans with some really good quite fans and you'll be set. It depends on what you're running..A high end + overclocking will need some pretty good $$$ fans to provide better airflow + lower noise.
 
Oh thanks, erm I don't think I'll be overclocking, I'm going to need to keep this machine as stable as possible as I'll be doing all my college work on it :)

The machine is probably going to be an x2 6000+, and have a x800xt graphics card, I'm not really going to be doing much gaming on it, it's more for compiling programs and stuff because I use FreeBSD and Linux on it :).
 
JamesXP said:


Good choices i second them.

You cant really get a quiet case lol its more the fans inside making the noise.

It all depends on what your personal quietness/performance ratio is.

Mine motto is "i dont case how friggin loud it is as long as its cold" lol. so about 1:500

I presume yours is more quitness oriented so just get some quiet case fans.
 
Heh i thought you could get cases with like, acoustic padding n stuff ( even though I know thats wayyyy out of my price range)

Cool, thanks for the advice guys :)

I shall take a looksee at that Asus Case I was linked to and the PSU too :)

Thanks
 
^^^
You can, but the benefits of this are debatable. With a hefty steel case you'll likely not need acoustic padding, but with aluminum I could see myself using it as alum. cases are less successful at absorbing hard drive vibration (which can lead to increased noise) in my experience. I read an article at some point that certain types of acoustic matting can raise case temps as well by adding an insulation layer. As I've never used it or seen much of a need to do so I can't confirm this. Hypothetically, if you were going to go that route and had the cash SPCR would be a good resource to browse.




The 4x 80mm fan mounts with that case could be somewhat noisy depending on which fans you use. The side vent over the cpu would be nice for cooling though, and it does have a 120mm exhaust mount. While bigger fans (sometimes - not counting Deltas here) = less noise, if you pick and choose decent fans it could work. Additionally, you can cut out any restrictive fan grills with a dremel or circular drill attachment (do this while the mobo and such are outside of the case because of possible metal fragments) and replace them with the less restrictive metal stovetop-ones as it'll make your fans run easier and significantly quieter. Good psu choice as well.

For the fans, if you can get a decent fan controller like a sunbeam rheobus (avoid vantec if possible), then you could turn them down when your system is idle for less ambient noise in your room.


Another thing you can do is get a cpu cooler with a 92mm or 120mm fan (pref. replaceable if you want one that's more quiet), or at least replace the stock cpu fan if necessary. The stock setup may be fine for you (not used to AMD cpus), but most stock HSF's ramp up the fans with additional heat and that can get noisy. If you can afford it, sometimes it can help to get aftermarket videocard coolers (V1 Ultras are 12-15 $USD at this point - not sure if you can find them in the UK or not) with decent 92mm fans if you can mod them in for more quiet/better performance.


I'm not a noise nazi myself, but high-pitched fans gunning at 100% all day drive me nuts after awhile.



Final note: The fewer LEDs you have the happier you'll be. Bright lights in close-quarters are never fun, especially if you have a roommate. On the plus side, if you have a girlfriend LEDs can help them get around in the dark to go to the bathroom late at night rather than running into a desk or chair (at which point they'll probably yell at you).
 
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