Quiet Case

[andrew]

Hey all,

I'm looking for an atx case that will be quiet enough to go under the xbox's and the TV. Basically i'm going to get a tower and lay it on its side, two reasons behind this are its cheaper than these HTPC's and the hardware will be easier to fit and i'll get more in a case.

Can anyone recommend anything suitable ? Sub £70 excluding PSU. or around a ton with

I've seen a cheap and cheerful effort on aria.co.uk which i'll probably go for unless anyone has any better ideas, thanks in advance


edit: OR I could stop been a tight sod and buy a HTPC case.... but I really wanted atx for upgradability etc....

Any thoughts appreciated

[Nellyboy]

IMO its not the case that will make the noise its the components inside. There are a few psu's fanless and graphics cards too. Just pick the components that are quietest with a decent case that looks the part.



<a href="http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/Kus ... es_96.html" target="_blank">Pretty</a> cases here.

[andrew]

Hey m8,
Thanks for the link, much appreciated

You're right about component selection. Serious effort/research needed though of which I cba hence why I was going to get a quiet full size atx as mostly stuff *should* fit and be easy doors.


I've bought a new table/stand (glass from ikea..... yep cheap git I know) but she looks the part with the 2 xbox's on at the moment.... crying out for some more technology

If I eventually get round to sorting this i'll post the details up !

[Myocardial Infarction]

I grabbed a HTPC case off nelly, it was a lian li PC-V800 which has holes all over it, accepts ATX form factor and is well thgouth out inside but slightly larger than the mAtx designs. I wouldn't classify it as a quiet case as such. But I have selected a few very quiet components and the result is a mostly silent pc.

Now this case isn't perfect for a quiet case as the PSU sits at the front, with normal rear exhaust pointing forward therefore you can't put a totally fanless psu into it and needed a bit of thought.

Now my susgestions would be something like a Gigabyte P35 DS3R mobo, Core 2 Duo/quad 6600 or maybe one of the new duo 84/500 processors, if it fits then scythe ninja HSF or something similarly rated in some reviews if you need it a bit smaller (as ninja is quite tall) corsair/seasonic 450 ish W power supplies, WD Greenpower Hdd's or if you want really quiet then go for laptop drives, any DDR2 6400 ram (at least 2Gb) and if it's only for watching movies/tv/iplayer etc then I'd grab something like an ATI 3850 maybe go for the new 4xxx series equivalent if you really want (If you want to game aswell I'd choose something with a bit more grunt though so let us know).

You should try and get a case that allows for 120mm fans as these move alot more air and factor in some sort of fan controller to let you set the noise level and airflow. Soft mount anything that you can such as hard drives or if you really want silent then I'd suggest the 2.5/3.5 Hdd's in silentdrive enclosures. I'd also suggest you test the graphics cards HSF before buying an aftermarket cooler but you may need to get an aftermarket replacement such as the accelero(sp)

I'll try and list my current spec when I have a bit more time but that gives you a good start to pricing up some kit.

[andrew]

Wow thanks for that reply myo, very informative
Just back from a few days away so i'll have a looksie on the web now for bits and bobs. I've measured the table/unit the computer will go on and I think i'm going to struggle with any HTPC.... so I can see me using a regular case but with quiet internals throughout !

[andrew]

Ok had a poke around on Aria, I've already got a spare 775 3ghz p4 so that should work ok with that little lot....me hopes.......

Not sure whether its worth getting the Radeon versus the onboard Integrated NVIDIA® GeForce 7100/nForce 630i chipset off the motherboard. Any thoughts welcome on that front remember this is just a media box but i'll probably put unreal tournament and quake 3 on it for giggles

I also realise i'm missing some dvd drive... that can be sorted with anything just need HD/bluray/whatever all much of a muchness surely ! Also i'll get some quiet 120mm fans and some other bits and bobs to finish the job off.

Any input welcomed, thanks in advance !

[Hippy]

I've got a silverstone Lascala LC-02 case, Like said before, it's not the case that's quiet, it's the componants.

It came with a 240w psu which is almost silent, i put in 2 low noise 50mm fans because it was overheating, a low noise cpu heatsink and a silent graphics card.
Sounds like it should be fairly noisy but it's not, just a faint whisp of air and the buzz of hard drives.

I paid £120 about 4 years ago and have never had need to upgrade, it looks great too



It takes a slim laptop dvd drive, regular hdd's or slim ones, a regular ATX mobo and comes with the appropriate riser cards (one PCI-E, one PCI in my case)
The only downside i can see really is that it only has 2 available slots, but this shouldn't matter if you choose your componants well.
I just have an HD GFX card and a dual Digital tuner.
What more do you need?
Looks the business too!

[Hippy]

On the onboard gfx front, you will probably find it a bit of a bottleneck, even with current HD gfx chips, the trouble is, they're all shared memory.

If you're running vista, i'd go for an ATI HD ready card, silent if possible, connect via component RGB, not HDMI

Concentrate your mobo on having a decent audio chip with the correct connectors (Digital, dolby, DTS etc.), but having on board gfx, even basic ones is a good idea just for diagnosing problems, it took me ages to set up my card in HD through component properly so to start with i just connected a monitor to the on board gfx and then tried configuring the HD card, saved loads of cable switching.

[Hippy]

Also, just seen that mobo you're looking at only has a 7100gs.
I currently have one a 7300gs Seperate card and i can honestly say it's not really fast enough for vista, it struggles at 720p with the gui, and running HD movies is a painful experience. It will be much worse with a slower card and it being on board too.
I looked at the same on board card and after seeing my friends one fun, i changed my mind

[andrew]

Can you recommend a mobo then please Hippy ?

Thanks for your input m8, much appreciated !

[Hippy]

Well after reading it properly, you're looking at an HD gfx card too which is fine, all i'm saying is the gfx chip on the mobo isn't important, so getting an HD one will just mean less other features of the board.
I wouldn't have a clue what a good mobo is now, and i'm an AMD man anyway

The mobo you've listed though doesn't have proper HD Audio, you really want something with SPDIF and 7.1 sound so you can connect it to a DTS amp

Something like this:
<a href="http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=507033" target="_blank">http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebP ... =507033</a>

Although this throws up the biggest problem i had in choosing a board to go in my case, because the case only has 2 slots available, it means the top slot MUST be your PCI-E x16 socket, and the second one MUST be a normal PCI socket (for me anyway because PCI-E dual digital tuners are expensive), That did cause some problems, but i found one eventually.

I would definitely advise not getting a low profile case unless you're confident you can get the kit to fit in it.
The size is nice, though.

Check out the silverstone range.

<a href="http://www.silverstonetek.com" target="_blank">www.silverstonetek.com</a>