Question What is the quietest case you've ever used? with a tempered glass panel if possible!

[mossi]

Looking for potential candidates to upgrade my case to and I love quiet cases. I'm not about the airflow, I don't really believe in it as my case hardly has any as all the fans are down to the quietest setting yet everything is nice and cool! I'm all about the acoustics but I'd like to go RGB potentially and have a case with a tempered glass panel as well. Any suggestions?

 

[GarrettL]

PSU won't arrive until next week. It's the MSI Gungnir 100R case.

https://imgur.com/iRIWTif

View: https://imgur.com/iRIWTif

 

[Karadjgne]

Cases don't make noise. Fans do. A fan's job is to move air, even at their lowest rpm, they still move air, and that air is supplied by availability.

Silent cases do 2 things, baffle and stifle. In order not to hear the fans spin, acoustic baffles are used on the panels, that can include the front panel. By cutting off a major source of air, the case temps go up, or the fans must work harder, which means faster and noisier in order to keep temps down.

So the quietest cases are often the best airflow cases, where fan speeds are at a minimum, but additional baffling is added to the side panels to stop radiated harmonics treating the panels as drum heads and amplifying or passing on unwanted sound vibrations.

In other words, get the best airflow case, with metal sides and stick some foam or dynamat to the panel interiors.

 

[Aeacus]

In other words, get the best airflow case, with metal sides and stick some foam or dynamat to the panel interiors.

Another option is to go with fanless and use passive cooling, with open-air type PC case (e.g Thermaltake Core P3). There are fanless PSUs (e.g Seasonic PRIME Fanless TX), then there are fanless GPUs and Arctic also sells CPU cooler which is only a heatsink (Alpine 12 Passive). And also replacing all HDDs with SSDs.

Downside is, that can't go with high-end hardware, since passive cooling isn't that great and can't cool hot running hardware. But in terms of acoustics, it is the best option. Since without moving parts, there's 0 noise.

There are even fanless prebuilts,
link: https://silentpc.com/fanless-pcs/

 

[Geezer760]

Great PC case. It's the best i've found for my needs.

Spoiler: Pic too, because why not. (Click here to view.)

Skylake build. Specs and more pics in my sig.

That's a nice case, it reminds me of my Phanteks Enthoo Pro, I have that same mb MSI z170, and i5 6600k, from a 2016 build still up and running today, I sure do miss cases that have 5.25in bays, here's list of parts for my newest build in a Phanteks Eclipse P500A, it's great looking and quiet case lots of airflow and the only rgb is 2 light strips - https://pcpartpicker.com/user/YrOfDrgn64/saved/#view=rQqygs

 

[Aeacus]

That's a nice case, it reminds me of my Phanteks Enthoo Pro, I have that same mb MSI z170, and i5 6600k, from a 2016 build still up and running today, I sure do miss cases that have 5.25in bays, here's list of parts for my newest build in a Phanteks Eclipse P500A, it's great looking and quiet case lots of airflow and the only rgb is 2 light strips - https://pcpartpicker.com/user/YrOfDrgn64/saved/#view=rQqygs

I dislike solid front panel cases, since they hamper airflow and IMO, are tasteless as well. It's like PC has no "face". Also, 5.25" bay is very versatile and all kinds of neat hardware can be put into (like i have).

Btw, your build looks good.
Though, not to critique, but power cable extensions increase ripple. So, best to avoid extensions. But for good looks, better get compatible power cables set (e.g from CableMod, like i have). For your PSU, CableMod E-series is compatible one,
classic series: https://cablemod.com/product-category/classic-series/classic-kit/?filter_series=e-series-evga
pro series: https://cablemod.com/product-category/pro-series/pro-cable-kits/?filter_series=e-series-evga

I have classic series with all 3 of my PCs.

 

[sonofjesse]

So many good cases......

my two top favs right now are Lian LI Mesh III and Lian LI Air

Amazing layout, fan support, cooling etc.

 

[Geezer760]

I dislike solid front panel cases, since they hamper airflow and IMO, are tasteless as well. It's like PC has no "face". Also, 5.25" bay is very versatile and all kinds of neat hardware can be put into (like i have).

Btw, your build looks good.
Though, not to critique, but power cable extensions increase ripple. So, best to avoid extensions. But for good looks, better get compatible power cables set (e.g from CableMod, like i have). For your PSU, CableMod E-series is compatible one,
classic series: https://cablemod.com/product-category/classic-series/classic-kit/?filter_series=e-series-evga
pro series: https://cablemod.com/product-category/pro-series/pro-cable-kits/?filter_series=e-series-evga

I have classic series with all 3 of my PCs.

Thanks, I did look into CableMod cables but I was going for a Black & Silver/Gray color theme, and CableMod does not have that color scheme, Computer is running normal with these cables it's been over 2yrs, I've had no problems with these so far that I can tell, this is my first build out of many where I used Cable extentions, I did read up on the warnings of using them, but I've never heard of (ripple) in a psu.

 

[Karadjgne]

DC voltage in its purest form is a straight line at a specified amplitude , no deviations. AC voltage is a sine wave with + and - wave form to amplitude at a specified frequency.

In order for a psu to invert AC to DC, it adds phases, overlapping sine wave wave forms. So + amplitude has a small bounce, a ripple where one phase rises and falls and then gets intercepted by the rise of the next phase. Looking at the wave magnified, it's essentially a bunch of tiny rainbows that average around one amplitude level.

V=IxR. Voltage = impedence x resistance. When you add extensions, you raise the resistance in the wire, which lowers the amplitude dips, but the psu makes up the amperage difference on the highs in order to maintain the power output. So the 'rainbows' or ripple gets more noticeable as the amount of travel between highs and lows gets larger, even if the average remains the same.

Some really high quality and well designed platforms have extremely tight ripple, less than 10mv, many psus with lesser designs can hit as high as 50mv (atx 12v standard) and the uber cheapo Chinese knockoff psus can go far beyond that with little to no output filtering. Pc equipment is designed for DC voltage. You add too much of an AC ripple, it'll tear up the equipment, cause stability issues, create out of tolerance voltages etc.

It's like using an impact driver on engine bolts instead of a torque wrench. Sooner or later something is going to break.

 

[Aeacus]

Thanks, I did look into CableMod cables but I was going for a Black & Silver/Gray color theme, and CableMod does not have that color scheme

Sure they do. In this case, you need to use their configurator and custom select/make your power cables,
link: https://store.cablemod.com/configurator/

There, you can select individual colors for individual wires. Silver is also included as one color, among other colors.

 

[Geezer760]

Sure they do. In this case, you need to use their configurator and custom select/make your power cables,
link: https://store.cablemod.com/configurator/

There, you can select individual colors for individual wires. Silver is also included as one color, among other colors.

Very nice configurator, after I was done choosing which cables, colors, lenght, wire combs, total was $100.00, yeah too steep for my wallet just for a few wires, Thanks anyway though.

 

[Karadjgne]

Yeah it's steep. But. It's also just a pc. Many ppl have no desires at all for bling, rgb, uber neat wiring, color matching, themes etc. Some ppl are the opposite, and thats what you'll see at shows, on advertising etc, the ultimate bling where looks are more important than performance.

Most ppl fall in between, they like a little bling, but also want decent performance, so compromise is a necessity. In your case, you have a particular desire for the perfect look for the cables, so the price is what it is. If you don't want to pay that much, you'll have to compromise.

I didn't want to pay over $200 for my case, but I wanted that particular case, there were no substitutes that would accomplish my goals or satisfy my aesthetics demands, so I paid the price. But then again, there's less than a handful of ppl on the planet with 2x 240mm rads and a full custom loop inside a mITX case with only 12.7L, most mITX are @ 20L and still won't fit that loop.

 

[Aeacus]

Yeah it's steep.

I wouldn't call it steep, instead reasonable, since you can completely customize the cables to almost minute details.

What i'd call steep, is paying 100, 200, 300 bucks more just to get few more FPS (looking towards GPUs here). Might as well reduce in-game graphics a bit to get the FPS boost, for free.

Many ppl have no desires at all for bling, rgb, uber neat wiring, color matching, themes etc. Some ppl are the opposite, and thats what you'll see at shows, on advertising etc, the ultimate bling where looks are more important than performance.

CableMod is for enthusiast computing. Just like e.g fancy rims, underglow neons, wide bodykits etc are for ricers.
All these eyecandy tunings are expensive for normal people, while reasonable to enthusiasts within that subculture.

I didn't want to pay over $200 for my case, but I wanted that particular case, there were no substitutes that would accomplish my goals or satisfy my aesthetics demands, so I paid the price.

Ditto. Same with my Corsair 760T V2 Black case as well. Payed €198.40 just for a "big box".