A Silent PC Case

xera

xera

Expert Member
Joined
Jun 15, 2007
Messages
2,304
Reaction score
142
Location
Home is where the heart is
Hey all, I'm looking for a silent pc case. I really cannot bear the fan noises and hdd resonating noises, which drives me crazy when I'm not drowning it out with music.

I have already heard of the cosmos 1000, and Antec SOLO...

The cosmos is a bit pricey though.

Does anybody else know of any silent pc cases?!

I would like it to be as silent as possible. How silent are they really? Are they the kind of silent that you can hear, or the kind of silent that you can't hear? :erm:
 
Silence Options

Hi Xera

The battle for case silence has always been a give and take situation as I see it & depends how you look at it?

What's causing the noise and how can you combat it?

Quick case study:
I had the same issues at one stage and identified all issues and best actions to take on:

Noisy Graphics cards: Clear out that dust and service its fans, Install fan control software to tone down the fan when its not needed... Next graphics card purchase, try go for "fanless" product if available

Noisy Power Suply: Simply put, if you need a big power suply, its going to have big cooling.. Its the closest noise polutant to the outside of the case and its wind direction pulls is racket out the back of the case.. Do as done with your graphics card OR look at options of swapping out the fan in the powersuply for a "Silent Low db fan" (very worth while!!).. Note though, you may loose your warranty for tinkering there, its a choice to be made..

Noisy CPU fan: This should not be the case, cpu fans are top of there range these days, service as with graphics card else look at silent cooling aftermarket fan options

Noisy Hard Drives: If they are making a racket as it is, perhaps consider replacing them, they have their life spans as it is.
Resonating noises: Well, start your pc up on top of your table and keep a skrewdriver handy, somewhere in your case you have metal or such that is vibrating and moaning on certain vibration frequencies... when you hear it, apply pressure to the case at different places untill you trace the noise and modify to be silent etc..

The trueth of the matter holds, your case will always need open air ways front and back to keep it securities cool and running like a dream, this is true no matter what case you may use under normal operation. I'm not implying to stay away from buying a "silenct case", they do assist to a certain degree, but invest some time in countering the noise polutants in your case first and you may just find you need to take a look at the case lights to see if your computer is on over listening to its heart beat :)

Good luck
Mike
 
You can try looking for a Cooler Master Sileo case with sound dampening foam/panels.

Otherwise you can also get your own sound dampening foam to use in any case. I guess it's important to look for a case with as few holes/openings as possible; of course "mesh" is a no-no. Also invest in silent fan kits, usually includes a low RPM fan with rubber "nuts" and silicone mounting pins.
 
First off what case do you have, and what would your budget be for a new one?

One thing you must realise with air cooling is that (on a medium to high gamig rig) it will never be silent, just really quiet. Also 90% of the time, you need to swap out the case fans to get this right, which can add quite a bit to the cost of the rig. And even then, you can have the most silent fan in the world, put it in your case and it makes a racket because the mesh in front of your fan is poorly designed and the air flowing over it is making a noise

@M.taylor... :confused:
Fanless GPU is usless if any semi decent gaming is to be done
Havent ever had a noisy PSU... ever. Then again I dont buy carp PSUs
Noisy CPU, this is what causes the most noise (exlc case fans). They are most certainly not anywhere close to silent, especially stock coolers which are noisy as all hell
Noisy HDD does not need to be replaced!?!? Just get some rubber grommets and the noise goes away. Unless its the dreaded tick-tick-tick noise of course
 
As Mike has pointed out, there are reasons for the noise ... an sound-insulated case may help, but ultimately it is a process.

Spend some time on http://www.silentpcreview.com/ on the how-to: you'll be amazed at the results.
 
- Remove fan grilles which tend to cause the fan-blades to generate a whooshing sound. Replace them with circular wire grilles which work better whilst still prtecting your fingers and pets :)

- If possible, use bigger fans. Larger fans don't need to spin as fast to move as much air as smaller models. Slower motors are generally quieter. This applies to case fans, CPU, gfx and mobo coolers.

- Your HDD's should not cause overly noticeable resonating noise. This is usually a sign of an older model, or some kind of interaction with the other motors inside the case. You can try isolating the drives from the case using either rubber grommets, or even suspending the drives with rubber (thinner climbing rope works well and is readily available)

- Ensure that your case's internal airflow is clear by tidying up any wiring which can be hampering the airflow past the CPU and graphics, as well as the exhausting of warm air. Cooler internals means slower fans
 
Search the forums.. I know gnome did a silent pc build with some sound dampening material etc... Or just give him a pm..?
 
I found my Coolmaster HAF case's big fans seemed to be nice and quiet, big size = low rpm = no noise.
Only irritating thing though, is the fans are so silent that I can hear the tick clutter tick of my harddrives, which is even more annoying. Distractingly so.
(2 x WD sata 6gb/s cavilar black 650GB ... dunno if those drives are just overly noisy)
 
Last edited:
Noise control is all about the cooling you employ. Passively cooled systems are the ideal - a TRUE or so on your cpu and a low profile fanless gfx card will go a long way to decreasing system noise. You will obviously sacrifice a bit on heat but as long as you stay within safe thresholds you should be fine. People who want quiet PC's tend to want to use them as HTPCs as well, so the size is a factor to consider. The Solo is always a good option. There was another one i came across recently.... let me see. Silverstone FT03? I'm not sure tbh.
 
Liab Li A05NB, my case is very quite with with stock fans, with better fans and a fan controller im sure i could get it to be dead silent
 
Have you considered liquid cooling? Not the dinky mickey-mouse kits they have at retail shops, but the power/hobbyist systems from say Danger Den, Swiftech, Koolance, EK, D-Tek and the like?
 
Water cooling doesn't necessarily mean quiet operation. The pump makes a hum, even when submerged in water like mine. Plus you need to cool the radiator. Depending on your radiator size and fin density coupled with the cooling your rig needs you may require high speed fans which usually means more noise.

My setup at the moment is relatively quiet, replace my case fans with thermalright x-silent 140mm (they amazing!) and rad fans are also quiet they the same ones that come on the cm hyper 212.
 
NP - your pump prob isnt the quietest one to begin with, and iirc you havent mounted that bay res on any sort of rubber so some vibrations are expected. If you want a quiet pump you mount it on a sort of rubber sandwich to eliminate the vibrations. And yes, radiator choice is important. You want a max of 15FPI (fins per inch) for quiet operation. Do those thermalrights push any air though? Remember seeing reviews and although very very quiet, they dont push much air. I'm looking to simply undervolt some 140 yate loons (hoping to run them at 5-7V)
 
Ya not to phased about the pump, just mounted using the std cm692 clips, but it's basically wedged in there. It's a tight fit, I don't even need the clips to keep it there..
I have the x-silent fans as exhaust on the top of my case (rad on the bottom pulling in air) So they just helping expel the excess heat.

They do move quite alot considering how quiet they are but nothing compared to the 120 yates I have.. (now removed from my case)
The yates were way to loud even using the asus epu system which drops their rpms. Plus if I put my pc in silent mode (with that epu) they never got enough volts and would just turn off (using mobo fan headers) which was fail...
 
Thanks for all the replies all!

My current case is the Coolermaster CM-590. What's nice about it, is the 4 hdd's in the hdd bay are mounted on rubbers.
Problem is, this is actually the case of my old pc, and when I got a new pc I just ripped the old one out, and put the new one in. So I need a new case anyway, as I would like to occasionally use my old pc too.

Budget... well, cheaper than cosmos 1000 if possible. That thing is pricey. Under 1k would be ideal, but doubt I could get one for that.

I have considered water cooling, but I don't know much about it. I would want something silent then, otherwise it defeats the object of "silence".
I also need to get a new CPU fan. I am still using the stock SB fan at the moment. So I could possibly get water cooling there instead of a fan...
What silent water cooler or fan cooler would you guys recommend? I would like to do a bit of OC'ing with it too..

My PSU and GPU (when not gaming) fans seem to be pretty quiet.
I did use a piece of wood to try and find resonating noises a while ago, and did conclude that some of the hdd's are louder than the others. I shifted them all around, and it doesn't seem to be humming that much anymore. I have also put it on rubbers on a wooden stand i made (so there's about 10cm clearance underneath), and it is under a table at the moment, which seems to be dampening the noise a bit.
 
True Archer, a fanless gpu does come at that price, its down to the wager of what performance your looking for for sure..

However considering that the psu box is quite small and needs to pack a whole lot of odd capacitors, its sometimes a luck of the draw to picking one that doesnt have its odd whistles, what powersuply are you using? I'm asuming the psu fan is closer to the rear vent than the inner case as seems to be the quieter option for a lot of the new power suplies I've seen on good brands? I have a 50/50 Gigabyte 850W in mine, its ok, does the job, even as a "silence" edition, I still rate its the noisiest thing in my case & just wish it came with fan vs temp automation, will do some serious shopping around for the next one.

As for cpu, depends what you have, I'm up to a nice quad core on a standard 775 socket motherboard still, yet when the cpu isnt under load and running cooler than my 6pack case, I often see the fan turn itself off on occasion when its not needed :) Sure when I checker the re-build app development button, that all goes balls up lol, win some loose some yeah lol

Believe it or not, I still have a 120gb ide hard-drive around here somewhere as a doc backup external I keep in the back of my safe, while it still runs well surprising by its age, its bearings have that distinct jet engine humm while its spinning its motors senseless rofl! All in all, if a PC is kept up to spec & parts upgraded on a fairly regular basis, I wouldnt have that prop but none the less, I've managed to find a use for the old clunker after all

Cheers for now
 
Not sure if this has been mentioned....but BIGGER fans have less noise.
I've hot an HAF932, with just the three HUGE cooling fans, I can hardly hear the box.
GFX card wise, the GTX570 is super silent
And Corsair Hydro H70 (with silent fans @ 900rpm rather than full speed)
Thats my setup and it's quieter than all the other PC's in my house!
 
Hi, My setup is kinda up-to-date.

PSU: Corsair HX750
CPU: Intel i7-2600K
GPU: MSI 6970

so yip, would like to get a bigger fan for the cpu, along with a new case. My CM590 has a small & tall grill thing in front. Is that a bad thing?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X