Question Silent PC bulid: Cases and case fans

[interstellar3]

Hi guys,
I'm looking to build a PC that is as close to Silent as it can
get with fans. And in this thread i want to focus on The Case and on Case fans (understanding that other components are and important factor)
I'm actually building a photo and semi gaming editing machine.


What medium sized Case has:

1. Good airflow
2. Is suitable for silent pc build
3. Can have its default fans replaced
4. Without a lot of lighting.

I was thinking Fractal r6 or BeQuiet?

What fans should I replace the case fans with for lower noise?
I'm thinking 140mm is better than 80mm or 120mm, I'm thinking PWM ( the case or motherboard i find will then need to have this too)

Options:
Noctua NF-AF14 FLX
BeQuiet! Silent Wings 3 140mm
BeQuiet! Silent Wings 3 140mm High Speed Edition
Arctic F14 PWM
Corsair ML140 Pro

 

[Lutfij]

I'd pick the R6 because the Be Quiet does have some heat recycling and build up issues. 140mm would mean more air being pushed at the same rotation when compared to an 120mm fan. You should look into NoiseBlocker fans but in your shortlist,, I'd pick the Silent Wings 3. The R6 will have a fan hub at the back of the motherboard tray.

 

[interstellar3]

I'd pick the R6 because the Be Quiet does have some heat recycling and build up issues. 140mm would mean more air being pushed at the same rotation when compared to an 120mm fan. You should look into NoiseBlocker fans but in your shortlist,, I'd pick the Silent Wings 3. The R6 will have a fan hub at the back of the motherboard tray.

I'm feeling good about the Fractal deign r6 so I'm glad you mentioned that.

So i will only get 140mm (and not 1200mm). Noiseblocker look really good! So i could put two 140mm noise blockers in front of case sucking air into case, then two 1400mm on top sucking air up and out of the case and maybe two 140mm silentwings 3 in back of case sucking air out of case?

Are you thinking: NOISEBLOCKER NB-eLoop Fan B14-3 - 140mm?

Regarding Air-flow direction
In front air comes in,
In back air goes out
On top Does air go in or out?
In bottom i will suck air in (which makes me think in top it should come out? )

EDIT: I would definately like all my fans to be PWM and connect them to fan hub

 

[mamasan2000]

Hot air travels upwards, you don't want to push hot air into the case again.

 

[jsmithepa]

For your "must be silent at all costs" somebody built a smallish cube case, Streacom DB4 (the whole case is a big heatsink), all passive cooling, look-Ma-no-fan, with GPU (probably a low end but am not sure) rig over on youtube. To find out whether he was successful, u will have to watch the video.

Here is that DB4 gaming VIDEO.
and another more normal looking Passively cooled gaming tower.

 

[Dlaing]

Good brands:

1. Nautca
2. Be Quiet!
3. Corasair
4. Cooler Master

 

[Karadjgne]

The R6 has removable panels on the top. I'd leave those in place and just stick a 140mm exhaust on the rear. My R5 is almost identical and those panels do make a noise difference. Adding fans to the top slots can make a slight improvement in gpu temps, but overall airflow isn't hindered much enough to worry about.

Another great airflow case thats dark is the Meshify C. It'll mount 3x120mm in front, which won't require high rpm (more noise) to push a decent amount of cfm, relying on a single 120mm exhaust in rear. It's also rigged silent.

 

[interstellar3]

The R6 has removable panels on the top. I'd leave those in place and just stick a 140mm exhaust on the rear. My R5 is almost identical and those panels do make a noise difference. Adding fans to the top slots can make a slight improvement in gpu temps, but overall airflow isn't hindered much enough to worry about.

Another great airflow case thats dark is the Meshify C. It'll mount 3x120mm in front, which won't require high rpm (more noise) to push a decent amount of cfm, relying on a single 120mm exhaust in rear. It's also rigged silent.

So you wouldn't change any of the front fans or top fans ? The fans that come with Fractal R6 are fedinately louder than the ones they could be replaced with. The 120mm must be noisy so I'm would replace them with 140mm

 

[interstellar3]

The Fractal R6 only has three 4-pin connectors in Fan hub for PWM - the six 3 pin connectors make fans run at 100% which makes no sense Fractal!
so I will need to get two splitters, then I have 5 PWM connectors from the fan hub that i can connect all my case fans to. Then i connect the case fan hub to a 4-pin connector on the motherboard i find so I can control all 5 fans at once from my motherboards PWM software (such as Fan Expert + )

The question for me remains: What is the smartest choice in fans and should i leave some fans out?

So far I'm convinsed of getting
NOISEBLOCKER NB-eLoop Fan B14-3 - 140mm: bit expensive but great reviews! (thank you Lutfij)
And Some 140mm Silent Wing 140mm

Regarding Air-flow direction
In front air comes in,
In back air goes out
On top Does air goes out (thank you mamasan2000)
In bottom i will suck air in

 

[j121]

nanoxia Deep silence 3 could be a option for you, from what i hear more quite than fractal.

fans noctua nf-s12b redux max 700 rpm 3 pin is quiet, noctua nf-s 12b 400-1200 rpm work to.

 

[Karadjgne]

The S series will move a ton of air, somewhat quietly, but the problems with that series is its fan curve. It's design is to move air at high rpm. Once you drop rpm, those fans lose what little static pressure they have and move a bunch less air. That's OK in a relatively small volume case, but in a large volume case such as the R6, the Ax25 series will move a lot more air at lower rpm, much higher static pressure. The S series is 's much better off as an exhaust at high rpm.

And the redux models weren't an improvement over the originals, if anything they are louder and don't perform quite as well.

Ppl want silent builds, that's easy to accomplish. What's hard is getting silent under heavy loads, because ppl tend to forget that the cpu/gpu will invariably make most of the noise. Removing the top panels on the R6 will get slightly better temps (unimportant) but under heavy loads that's nothing but a hole for sound to escape. You'll hear the cpu/gpu fans over every other case fan. No more silent build.

 

[Countess_C]

Two 140 mm fans in the front and one in the back should be enough. The honeycomb grill in the back can cause turbulence noise, but you can cut it out and replace it with one of these round wire grills: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71Bnl7s4WAL._SY355_.jpg

The difference can be more than 2 dB, and you will also get a better airflow with a wire grill. https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Effects-of-Grill-Patterns-on-Fan-Performance-Noise-107/