What makes a Case , Silent ?

[MLG420SwagYolo]

what i read/learned so far:

 

Material of the case:

Steel cases because of their durability and sound proof qualities. 

Aluminium cases because lightweight and dont save heat as much as steel does.

 

Dampening foam: pro, less noise / con, it can get hotter inside the pc

 

Fans: maybe switch the fans to some good/silent ones (maybe noctua's), not stock ones in the case

 

PSU / Graphicscard: should be semipassive (idle no fans working only passive working, and on load, fans work)

 

i have a semipassive psu and graphicscard btw.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Questions:

 

1. Is Dampening foam actually working/worth it?

2. What else should i look for so the Case will be a silent one?

3. Can i actually see the steel density somewhere in the description when buying cases? (because i think more density/ less noise?)

4. What Fans (120mm) are currently the best for cooling/and being silent?

5. what's more silent, a big tower atx case or a midi tower atx case?

6. are there any easy and affordable modifications with which i can make the inside maybe a bit quieter other than dampening foam?

7. can less "garbage" like those hdd slideboxes inside the case, achieve less noise or more noise?

 

8. can you recommend me a case ( that has a "sightwindow" , can be silent with proper fans, looks good, maybe can hide the PSU, good cable management, and that fits a h100i corsair cpu cooler and is below 150€ and also has the "spots" for an ATX Board) ?

[sunil6512]

Or just pick up a pair of noise cancelling headphones and save yourself the trouble 

[nmil]

If you want to run silently, you want to fun you fans as slow as possible and have as little fans as possible. Having bigger fans means you can run them slower than smaller and achieve the same amount of cooling. So going with a 140 over a 120 would be better. Basically, try to eliminate as many moving parts as possible. Linus has a silent pc build log that you search up and I think it goes over all of the basics.

[MegaDave91]

Or just pick up a pair of noise cancelling headphones and save yourself the trouble 

Poor excuse for a little bit of effort to make a PC quiet. Not everyone wants to wear cans, believe it or not.

[Dobbsjr]

Or just pick up a pair of noise cancelling headphones and save yourself the trouble 

As Linus once said, "I'm not going to wear protective ear covering to use my computer. That's ridiculous!"

[manikyath]

My Questions:

 

1. Is Dampening foam actually working/worth it?

2. What else should i look for so the Case will be a silent one?

3. Can i actually see the steel density somewhere in the description when buying cases? (because i think more density/ less noise?)

4. What Fans (120mm) are currently the best for cooling/and being silent?

5. what's more silent, a big tower atx case or a midi tower atx case?

6. are there any easy and affordable modifications with which i can make the inside maybe a bit quieter other than dampening foam?

7. can less "garbage" like those hdd slideboxes inside the case, achieve less noise or more noise?

1: debatable if it actually "dampens" the sound, but what it sure as hell does is stop echoing inside your case. (my cheapo antec case is louder closed, than it is without sidepanels.)

2: more fan openings = more noise coming out. if the company behind the case is proud of it, thats usually a good thing as well.

3: the material of the case more so affects weigth than it does noise. good design is more important.

4: noctua fans are about as quiet you can go, but more quiet fans get more expensive REAL fast, with diminishing returns. my fractal fans are near dead silent, at about half the price of similar noctua fans.

5: the one you can cool with the least amount of fans / fan speed.

6: well.. believe it or not, regular kitchen tissues are VERY good for elliminating noise, and blocking out the echoing described before.

7: if less garbage means less air resistance, it'll mean more efficient cooling, resulting in less need for fans, so a more quiet system.

 

another piece of advice i'm gonna give for the silence freaks:

in a well padded case, intake fans are greatly more quiet than exhaust fans, so if you can cool your pc without exhaust fans, do it without exhaust fans.

[JebKerman]

1. Almost certainly

2. I don't think there's a formula, I'll explain in a mo

3. As far as i can see all cases use maybe 1mm thick steel, it's not going to make a difference

4. Noctuas (any of them)

5. Doesn't matter (enough)

6. Changing fan RPM

7. I doubt it makes a difference

 

Regarding 2, and it's related to 5:

Cases with very few holes are built to be quieter, however, the restrictive airflow meaning it's better for pressure optimized fans, which, on the flip-side creates more noise from air turbulence.

 

A case with lots of holes (at least in the front and back) you can use air flow fans at lower RPMs to achieve the same level of cooling with much less turbulence, but you can hear components like the HDD and GPU much more easily

[MegaDave91]

Your case can be as "silent" optimized as can be, but if you carelessly throw noisy hardware in it then you've defeated the purpose.

 

You can have a quiet PC whose case isn't "silent" optimized, too.