Best compromise for "silent" case?

[ottawahacker]

I'm searching for a silent case - I don't need a transparent side panel. I found couple ideas:

• Corsair Carbide 275Q
• Antec P7 ~ lowest price but seems to have poor airflow ~ 
• Antec P101
• Cooler Master Silencio S600

I have a AMD Ryzen 7 3800X and a GTX 1660, nothing crazy but so far in all reviews, it seems that the "silent" models end up having an air flow worse than regular cases and end up running hotter. Any recommendations for a compromise?

[homeap5]

"Hotter" usually means 1 degree difference. Don't worry about it.

 

Get BeQuiet Silent Base 600.

[Stahlmann]

Ironically "silence-optimized" cases are not the best way to make a quiet system.

 

In most cases you get better noise AND thermal performance by going with an airflow-optimized case so you can just reduce fan speeds while your components also have great temps. I have a CoolerMaster H500 completely kitted out with Noctua fans. You can't go quieter with any silence-optimized case, as you need some fan speed (and noise) to overcome the little air vents they have and not have your components stuck in an oven.

 

24 minutes ago, homeap5 said:

"Hotter" usually means 1 degree difference. Don't worry about it.

 

Get BeQuiet Silent Base 600.

"Hotter" can usually also make a difference of 20°C. Just have a look at the case reviews from GamersNexus. The best noise-performing cases are always the airflow cases with slower fans. If you have a CPU running at 75°C, another 20°C from a bad case with no airflow can make the difference between thermal-throttling and not throttling.

 

Good cases to base a silent build with air cooling on are for example:

beQuiet PureBase 500DX

Phanteks P300A, P400A, P500A

Fractal Meshify C, Meshify S2

CoolerMaster H500, H500M Mesh, H500P Mesh, TD 500

LianLi Lancool II Mesh

 

Just go for good airflow, big heatsinks and slow fans. This is the way to get a truly unaudible (silent) system like i did and still have good temps too.

[homeap5]

14 minutes ago, Stahlmann98 said:

"Hotter" can usually also make a difference of 20°C.

I have a radiator mounted on one of the walls in the room. If it were as you write, in winter I would have a temperature difference of about 20 degrees between one end of the room and the other (I have no fans in my room). It's now how air works, really.

 

I also made some tests and I never seen anything like 20 degrees difference. Just good radiator on CPU and good GPU with silent fans make 95% of work here. Not 8 rgb fans that mix air.

 

Not so many years ago people using single small fans in their cases (and we're talking about computers with hot CPUs like Prescott with stock cooler) and cases itself was really crappy. But hey - apparently the air worked different then and now it's more lazy.

[Stahlmann]

10 minutes ago, homeap5 said:

I have a radiator mounted on one of the walls in the room. If it were as you write, in winter I would have a temperature difference of about 20 degrees between one end of the room and the other (I have no fans in my room). It's now how air works, really.

 

I also made some tests and I never seen anything like 20 degrees difference. Just good radiator on CPU and good GPU with silent fans make 95% of work here. Not 8 rgb fans that mix air.

 

Not so many years ago people using single small fans in their cases (and we're talking about computers with hot CPUs like Prescott with stock cooler) and cases itself was really crappy. But hey - apparently the air worked different then and now it's more lazy.

I'm not talking about the temp difference between the front and the back of the case. I'm talking temp difference compered between different cases.

 

A CPU or GPU can't be compared to a room radiator. A case needs airflow. A radiator has to heat up, PC components have to cool down. High-power components need ACTIVE cooling. These are not my opinions, they're facts backed up by trustworthy reviewers + my own experience.

 

These are just 2 examples, where airflow-cases are better noise performers than silence-cases:

I could search up at least 20 more videos, reviews or tests to back this up further...

[suedseefrucht]

I am happy with my fractal design define R6. 

You can see my build in my profile. It's really hard to hear. 

 

Some silent cases only have small intake holes with bad airflow. 

The define r6 has bigger gaps on both sides so in my opinion it's a good compromise. 

 

[homeap5]

34 minutes ago, Stahlmann98 said:

(...) they're facts backed up by trustworthy reviewers + my own experience.

Internet is full of trustworthy reviewers that recommend crap or spread myths. I'm just talking about my experience.

Do you tried to, for example, disconnect in your case few fans and check temperature difference? Again - I'm not talking about comparsion of two different cases, but one good pc case with 4 fans connected vs single fan. I made lot of that tests and, except noise level, temperatures was basically the same.

 

And yes, I can compare room to pc case - air works the same in both. More than that - it's the same air!

 

Small question - If one fan is blowing air into your pc case and there isn't another fan to let the air out, does your pc case swell?

[Stahlmann]

13 minutes ago, homeap5 said:

Internet is full of trustworthy reviewers that recommend crap or spread myths. I'm just talking about my experience.

Do you tried to, for example, disconnect in your case few fans and check temperature difference? Again - I'm not talking about comparsion of two different cases, but one good pc case with 4 fans connected vs single fan. I made lot of that tests and, except noise level, temperatures was basically the same.

 

And yes, I can compare room to pc case - air works the same in both. More than that - it's the same air!

 

Small question - If one fan is blowing air into your pc case and there isn't another fan to let the air out, does your pc case swell?

So you didn't even look at the videos i posted. If you move more air throught a heatsink, the heatsink will move more heat away from your components. This is how a heatsink works. IF you restict your airflow, your temps will be worse compared to any open-airflow setup. If you can't understand these basic physics i can't help you any further. Again, i'm not talking about any "Myths". I'm talking about facts backed up by proof. I really hope i don't have to explain to you that the earth is actually round and the government is not implanting mind-control-chips through vaccines...

 

You couldn't even contain a single source for your knowledge or proof in your post and gone straight to getting personal.

That's not a good way to make a point and be taken seriously...

 

If i unplug half my case fans, the temps rise, simple as that. I don't want to spam-post OP with this useless discussion that leads nowhere, because you obviously don't know much about your PC or how cooling a PC actually works. Maybe you just have so low-powered parts where it doesn't need much cooling to begin with.

 

Have a nice day, if you even believe days aren't "myths".

[homeap5]

Sure, my oc i7 8700k or Ryzen 5 3600 are low powered. :) And of course personal experience doesn't mean anything - videos are more important.

 

I don't say that there is no difference at all, I'm saying that it's not worth to made a helicopter from your pc for saving few degrees.

[Mateyyy]

2 hours ago, Stahlmann98 said:

Ironically "silence-optimized" cases are not the best way to make a quiet system.

 

In most cases you get better noise AND thermal performance by going with an airflow-optimized case so you can just reduce fan speeds while your components also have great temps. I have a CoolerMaster H500 completely kitted out with Noctua fans. You can't go quieter with any silence-optimized case, as you need some fan speed (and noise) to overcome the little air vents they have and not have your components stuck in an oven.

^ pretty much this. On a solid front panel case you need to run those front fans at way higher speeds to get even close to the same airflow you'd get through a mesh front panel, so you end up with both worse airflow and worse noise.

The noise dampening can be useful with more high pitched sounds though, like coil whine, but it doesn't fully get rid of it, not even close.

[Mark Kaine]

My case, even though ironically I get told often that's not possible, is very silent and keeps all components very cool. 

 

I'm actually convinced mounting a psu in the bottom (what all "cool" cases do nowadays) is the worst thing you can do. 

 

I had a nzxt case for a week or so,  it was *loud* it was hot,  it was extremely thin metal and flimsy... 

 

 

My case is the exact opposite and the sturdiness alone helps a lot to suppress vibrations and noise,  I'm sure.  If I remove the glass front my PC is suddenly actually pretty loud... 

 

Btw min / max  temps :

cpu 28C, gpu 28C (depending on ambient temps obviously) /

cpu 63C, gpu 59C 

 

under normal conditions,  gaming, benchmarks like 3dmark,  video editing, etc, nothing crazy like "fumark" obviously... 

 

 

 

PS: I know this is a controversial "opinion" but I think my temps are proving my point so if someone thinks I'm wrong,  please post your temps as per above... 

 

otherwise,  my case isn't 100% silent,  but it's pretty quite for sure and I'm doubtful there are actually *silent* cases for PCs under load (aka gaming etc) or are there? 

[suedseefrucht]

Now that we talk about good cases I would like to know what is important for a case.

I've been thinking about that for some time.

The best airflow for cooling would be with no case at all, right? No costs for a case and no airflow resistance.

 

But we need a case to protect our components from dust and physical damage, to keep annoying noise inside and maybe to give our system a good look. So airflow is not the only important thing.

 

Now what is the best compromise? 
In my opinion a mesh top would let in too much dust. But a mesh front could be helpful. Sound dampening plates reduce annoying noises so I like them. How loud the system will be will depend on the fans too.

What's your opinion about that?

[ottawahacker]

On 8/21/2020 at 2:21 AM, Stahlmann98 said:

"Hotter" can usually also make a difference of 20°C. Just have a look at the case reviews from GamersNexus. The best noise-performing cases are always the airflow cases with slower fans. If you have a CPU running at 75°C, another 20°C from a bad case with no airflow can make the difference between thermal-throttling and not throttling.

 

Good cases to base a silent build with air cooling on are for example:

beQuiet PureBase 500DX

Phanteks P300A, P400A, P500A

Fractal Meshify C, Meshify S2

CoolerMaster H500, H500M Mesh, H500P Mesh, TD 500

LianLi Lancool II Mesh

Thank you - this is exactly what I was looking for. I will trade my corsair for a Fractal Meshify and save my $$$ for some Noctua fans. It is counter intuitive that more fans = less noise but it does make sense that high quality fans deliver less noise even high CPU/GPU usage.

[Deli]

9 hours ago, ottawahacker said:

Thank you - this is exactly what I was looking for. I will trade my corsair for a Fractal Meshify and save my $$$ for some Noctua fans. It is counter intuitive that more fans = less noise but it does make sense that high quality fans deliver less noise even high CPU/GPU usage.

Something people forget is fan noise doesn't increase with fan speed in a linear way. Usually, fans run very quiet until a certain rpm point. Then the noise starts to pick up, and increases exponentially. So running many fans at lower rpm is actually much quieter than running one or two fans at higher speed. The key for a quiet PC is to run many fans at low speed with good air flow paths.