What's the quietest case I can get for <$150?

Enclosures and acoustic damping to help quiet them.

Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Devonavar

Post Reply
KiddCabbage
Posts: 18
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2015 11:48 pm

What's the quietest case I can get for <$150?

Post by KiddCabbage » Mon May 18, 2015 2:10 am

Hey guys,

This is a PC for my live audio capture room, so I want this case to be as quiet as I can get it without breaking the bank. It's got to be a big enough case, though to fit my Noctua NH-L12 and my EVGA GTX960 (both are kind of big).

Looks are unimportant, cooling is only important to me insofar as to reduce fan speeds for noise. The most important thing is that this thing be damned quiet.

Was considering the be quiet Silent Base 800 because on paper, it looks to be perfect, but SPCR's review of it left something to be desired. :(

It need not include a PSU, as I've already got a very quiet one.

quest_for_silence
Posts: 5275
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:12 am
Location: ITALY

Re: What's the quietest case I can get for <$150?

Post by quest_for_silence » Mon May 18, 2015 5:00 am

KiddCabbage wrote:The most important thing is that this thing be damned quiet.

Broadly speaking, there are no such things as a damned quiet case.

KiddCabbage wrote:It need not include a PSU, as I've already got a very quiet one.

This is SPCR testbed.

CA_Steve
Moderator
Posts: 7650
Joined: Thu Oct 06, 2005 4:36 am
Location: St. Louis, MO

Re: What's the quietest case I can get for <$150?

Post by CA_Steve » Mon May 18, 2015 9:02 am

Welcome back.

Glad I did a thread search - don't have to ask repetitive questions :)

The R5 is a great case for your uses. Your ancient P35 mobo is also partly to blame for your noise issues as it'll have primitive fan control. So, install Speedfan and see if it supports fan control for your motherboard. It does for the P5K3 Deluxe variant. If it does, you'll have much greater control over the fans than you do with the Asus BIOS control or their s/w utility suite - including having the case fans be off until temps raise to a set point.

KiddCabbage
Posts: 18
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2015 11:48 pm

Re: What's the quietest case I can get for <$150?

Post by KiddCabbage » Mon May 18, 2015 12:08 pm

I'm actually getting this case along with the rest of my computer parts for a new rig. Like I said earlier in the thread, I replaced that previously-posted-about graphics card with a semi-passive GTX960. It's great, I don't think it's turned on once while I was doing audio stuff.

I'll be upgrading my mobo to either a Z-97 or a Z-97 Pro. I'm thinking the Pro looks like it has more features when it comes to quieting the mobo. So my current ancient mobo won't be of issue. :) I'll check out the R5.

CA_Steve
Moderator
Posts: 7650
Joined: Thu Oct 06, 2005 4:36 am
Location: St. Louis, MO

Re: What's the quietest case I can get for <$150?

Post by CA_Steve » Mon May 18, 2015 2:02 pm

KiddCabbage wrote:I'll be upgrading my mobo to either a Z-97 or a Z-97 Pro. I'm thinking the Pro looks like it has more features when it comes to quieting the mobo.
If these are Asus mobo's, they all use the same s/w for fan control.

quest_for_silence
Posts: 5275
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:12 am
Location: ITALY

Re: What's the quietest case I can get for <$150?

Post by quest_for_silence » Mon May 18, 2015 2:24 pm

KiddCabbage wrote:I'm thinking the Pro looks like it has more features when it comes to quieting the mobo.

AFAIK it has just more fan headers (2+4). More economical options do the same but with less fans: for instance either the ASUS H97 Pro Gamer (2+3), or the ASUS H97 Plus (1+2: not to mention some ASRocks).

KiddCabbage
Posts: 18
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2015 11:48 pm

Re: What's the quietest case I can get for <$150?

Post by KiddCabbage » Mon May 18, 2015 2:54 pm

Oh, good to know. There was a Z97-A in a Newegg combo that will save me a handful of dollars.

KiddCabbage
Posts: 18
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2015 11:48 pm

Re: What's the quietest case I can get for <$150?

Post by KiddCabbage » Mon May 18, 2015 3:10 pm

Here's the total upgrade kit I put together (I have plenty of HDDs, a be quiet Dark Power Pro 550, an EVGA GTX960, and a Noctua NH-L12 I'm combining this with).

https://secure.newegg.com/WishList/MySa ... D=32865307

I'm ready to check out, but I figure I might as well pass this by you guys since I'm not as confident about PC components as most people on this forum.

Lemme know what you think. Like I mentioned, I'm going for absolutely as quiet as possible... though I'm sure that's a given since we're on SPCR. :)

CA_Steve
Moderator
Posts: 7650
Joined: Thu Oct 06, 2005 4:36 am
Location: St. Louis, MO

Re: What's the quietest case I can get for <$150?

Post by CA_Steve » Mon May 18, 2015 4:12 pm

I don't have access to this list.


CA_Steve
Moderator
Posts: 7650
Joined: Thu Oct 06, 2005 4:36 am
Location: St. Louis, MO

Re: What's the quietest case I can get for <$150?

Post by CA_Steve » Mon May 18, 2015 8:09 pm

RAM: Be aware of the Noctua's clearance issues. Also, do you really need 16GB (lots of VSTs for instance)? Also, Haswell's sweet spot is between 1600 and 1866 speeds. Anything past that is really not worth it....and the tall heatspreader thing is generally just window dressing. There's are lots of decent 1.35V 1600 CAS 9 and 1.5V 1866 CAS 9 Ram modules out there. I like the G.Skill Ares, Crucial Ballistix Sport,

CPU: Do record LOTS of audio tracks? Because, they don't require a lot of horsepower. The i5 is the sweet spot for gaming, as well...

SSD: Don't know much about the Mushkin part. I lean toward Samsung and Crucial.

KiddCabbage
Posts: 18
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2015 11:48 pm

Re: What's the quietest case I can get for <$150?

Post by KiddCabbage » Mon May 18, 2015 8:29 pm

CA_Steve wrote:RAM: Be aware of the Noctua's clearance issues. Also, do you really need 16GB (lots of VSTs for instance)? Also, Haswell's sweet spot is between 1600 and 1866 speeds. Anything past that is really not worth it....and the tall heatspreader thing is generally just window dressing. There's are lots of decent 1.35V 1600 CAS 9 and 1.5V 1866 CAS 9 Ram modules out there. I like the G.Skill Ares, Crucial Ballistix Sport,

CPU: Do record LOTS of audio tracks? Because, they don't require a lot of horsepower. The i5 is the sweet spot for gaming, as well...

SSD: Don't know much about the Mushkin part. I lean toward Samsung and Crucial.

Yeah, this Noctua is pretty big, actually. I've gotta double check if the case will fit it...

And actually, I've got 32gb of ram on there (2x2x8gb). And I'd say that's a pretty good thing for my music. I use a *lot* of MIDI instruments, not as much on live recording, and these MIDI instruments can get huuuuge. My current 8gb ram can't even run my full orchestra currently. I looked into the lower speed ram, but it looks like this 2400 ram is only about $10 more expensive per pair than the 1600 I had in my cart before. For that price, I figure if it's a slight improvement it could help?

As for the i7, yeah, I'm going to be pushing this baby hard. It's not the playback or recording of audio tracks that uses CPU power, it's the DSP that goes on the track afterwards. My orchestra is currently using 7 instances of convolution reverb and it just destroys my current Q6600.

As for the SSD, the only reason I chose that is because it's in a bundle with the CPU and mobo, so it saves me like $30. If SSDs are fudgy, though, I can easily go back to the Samsung EVO I was looking at before...

quest_for_silence
Posts: 5275
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:12 am
Location: ITALY

Re: What's the quietest case I can get for <$150?

Post by quest_for_silence » Tue May 19, 2015 12:30 am

KiddCabbage wrote:Yeah, this Noctua is pretty big, actually. I've gotta double check if the case will fit it...
Steve is not referring to the case, but to the RAM (and mobo):

Image
Image
Image

KiddCabbage
Posts: 18
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2015 11:48 pm

Re: What's the quietest case I can get for <$150?

Post by KiddCabbage » Tue May 19, 2015 12:43 am

Oh yikes. It turns, though, so surely there is a way to orient it that doesn't block off ram slots on a Z97?

KiddCabbage
Posts: 18
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2015 11:48 pm

Re: What's the quietest case I can get for <$150?

Post by KiddCabbage » Tue May 19, 2015 12:49 am

Checking Noctua's mobo compatibility list, it looks like I should be fine with a Z97-A.

http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=comp ... A1150_Asus

Vicotnik
*Lifetime Patron*
Posts: 1831
Joined: Thu Feb 13, 2003 6:53 am
Location: Sweden

Re: What's the quietest case I can get for <$150?

Post by Vicotnik » Tue May 19, 2015 12:56 am

Or, you could just go with the best.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820148655

That nice Noctua cooler next to a pair of "Team Xtreme".. Hurts the eyes, and the mind as well.

KiddCabbage
Posts: 18
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2015 11:48 pm

Re: What's the quietest case I can get for <$150?

Post by KiddCabbage » Tue May 19, 2015 1:04 am

What does that ram have that the Team Xtreme doesn't, aside from a lower profile?

Vicotnik
*Lifetime Patron*
Posts: 1831
Joined: Thu Feb 13, 2003 6:53 am
Location: Sweden

Re: What's the quietest case I can get for <$150?

Post by Vicotnik » Tue May 19, 2015 1:14 am

The timing is 8-8-8-24 and the voltage is 1.35v. Compare that to Team Xtreme 10-12-12-31 and 1.65v.

The Team Xtreme sticks are factory overclocked in order to reach a higher clock rate. Like CA_Steve points out: "Haswell's sweet spot is between 1600 and 1866" so what's the use of 2400? Will those lousy timings hurt performance? I don't know. 1.65v is not very sexy either and will make them run hotter. Not hot enough to warrant those huge heatsinks though. The purpose of those is to fcuk with your Noctua.

I'd take slightly overclocked Crucial Ballistix over those Team Xtreme sticks any day. A motherboard with overclocking options will give you total control over voltage and timings. 1600MHz, 8-8-8-24 and 1.35v is not a bad starting point. If you want more than 1600MHz I'm sure that wont be a problem.

KiddCabbage
Posts: 18
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2015 11:48 pm

Re: What's the quietest case I can get for <$150?

Post by KiddCabbage » Tue May 19, 2015 1:19 am

Vicotnik wrote:The purpose of those is to fcuk with your Noctua.

Hahah, alright I'm sold. I'll swap out the ram for the ones you posted. :)

Will that Z97-A have the OC options you're talking about?

Thanks for the info.

quest_for_silence
Posts: 5275
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:12 am
Location: ITALY

Re: What's the quietest case I can get for <$150?

Post by quest_for_silence » Tue May 19, 2015 2:32 am

KiddCabbage wrote:Will that Z97-A have the OC options you're talking about?

It does, but IMO overclocking RAM is rather pointless.

When you ("royal" or "generic" you) talk of "sweetspot", you mean that the although noteworthy RAM performance increase does not affect the overall rig performance that much, so that going with faster RAM in daily use doesn't worth the hassles, mainly with reference to money and heat: set aside money, broadly speaking overclocking RAM using higher voltages leads towards heating up the CPU IMC, so leads towards reducing quietness, along with stability and reliability (the increased heating over low voltage ones happens using also any 1.6/1.65V RAM).

If you want to squeeze the latest little bit of performances going for those somewhat pointless high speed RAM, while clearing any possible compatibility issue with the Noctua NH-L12 mechanics, look for the standard height G.Skill Ares DIMMs, available in 2400MHz and 2133MHz flavours.

CA_Steve
Moderator
Posts: 7650
Joined: Thu Oct 06, 2005 4:36 am
Location: St. Louis, MO

Re: What's the quietest case I can get for <$150?

Post by CA_Steve » Tue May 19, 2015 7:36 am

KiddCabbage wrote:Yeah, this Noctua is pretty big, actually. I've gotta double check if the case will fit it...

And actually, I've got 32gb of ram on there (2x2x8gb). And I'd say that's a pretty good thing for my music. I use a *lot* of MIDI instruments, not as much on live recording, and these MIDI instruments can get huuuuge. My current 8gb ram can't even run my full orchestra currently. I looked into the lower speed ram, but it looks like this 2400 ram is only about $10 more expensive per pair than the 1600 I had in my cart before. For that price, I figure if it's a slight improvement it could help?

As for the i7, yeah, I'm going to be pushing this baby hard. It's not the playback or recording of audio tracks that uses CPU power, it's the DSP that goes on the track afterwards. My orchestra is currently using 7 instances of convolution reverb and it just destroys my current Q6600.
Oky doke. Just wanted to make sure you weren't overspending for little benefit. :)

My last niggling concern is whether the Noctua will be up to the task. When SPCR updated the small heatsink test platform in 2012 with a 95W Sandybridge i5-2400, you could see how shallow the temp vs dB curve got. While the fans are wonderfully quiet, their airflow + the relatively small fin area of the heatsink led to a difference of only 3C from 12 to 20dB. The smaller Haswell die plus the use of thermal paste instead of solder for the IHS plus the i7 runs hotter than an i5...might...be tad too much for L12. You could give it a shot and see how it works...or if you think you might need all 4 RAM slots down the road, you could bail on the Noctua and spend ~$40 for a great tower cooler instead (Scythe Kotetsu).

KiddCabbage
Posts: 18
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2015 11:48 pm

Re: What's the quietest case I can get for <$150?

Post by KiddCabbage » Tue May 19, 2015 10:57 am

Ah so higher speed ram may inadvertently make my system louder? That's not what I want at all. I may have to just go for the 1600 then...

Steve, if I were to try the L12 on this new system, how would I be able to measurably test whether it's "up to the job of heating while keeping quiet?" Seems like a kind of abstract thing for me to figure out.

CA_Steve
Moderator
Posts: 7650
Joined: Thu Oct 06, 2005 4:36 am
Location: St. Louis, MO

Re: What's the quietest case I can get for <$150?

Post by CA_Steve » Tue May 19, 2015 11:40 am

KiddCabbage wrote:Ah so higher speed ram may inadvertently make my system louder? That's not what I want at all. I may have to just go for the 1600 then...
Well, 16GB of 1.65V RAM running at 1.2GHz will use more power than 1.5V RAM running at 0.8GHz..that adds up to a couple of watts..so...yeah it'll add some heat but not enough to make your fans run faster... The primary argument is it's a waste of money as it adds no perceivable benefit...and a couple of watts is still a couple of watts :)
KiddCabbage wrote:Steve, if I were to try the L12 on this new system, how would I be able to measurably test whether it's "up to the job of heating while keeping quiet?" Seems like a kind of abstract thing for me to figure out.
Look at the tests I ran in my R4 build thread and the monitoring utilities used(signature link). It really comes down to:
- can you hear the fans at your expected recording load?
- Is the system quiet enough for you while running heavy loads?

KiddCabbage
Posts: 18
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2015 11:48 pm

Re: What's the quietest case I can get for <$150?

Post by KiddCabbage » Tue May 19, 2015 12:06 pm

Okay awesome. Well it looks like I've got a game plan, then. I'll go ahead and get these parts in the mean time, and go from there!

quest_for_silence
Posts: 5275
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:12 am
Location: ITALY

Re: What's the quietest case I can get for <$150?

Post by quest_for_silence » Tue May 19, 2015 12:16 pm

CA_Steve wrote:Well, 16GB of 1.65V RAM running at 1.2GHz will use more power than 1.5V RAM running at 0.8GHz..that adds up to a couple of watts..so...yeah it'll add some heat but not enough to make your fans run faster... The primary argument is it's a waste of money as it adds no perceivable benefit...and a couple of watts is still a couple of watts :)

Set aside power consumption, mainly I was referring to the CPU temp: long story short, I performed some tests with a 4690 and Crucial DIMMs (Tactical Sport), and I recorded some differences in CPU temps: with reference to a base setup of 2 DIMMs @ 1600/CL9/1.35V, with 4 DIMMs (the same overclocked DIMMs) @ 1866/CL9/1.6V there was an increase up to 3°C across the cores temp under stress (Prime 95 Blend, 12GB, FFT size at 1344/1792), so my guess is that pushing the memory bandwidth up to 2133/2400 at 1.65V (or more, for stability reasons) will worsen the things further, even relaxing timings.

KiddCabbage
Posts: 18
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2015 11:48 pm

Re: What's the quietest case I can get for <$150?

Post by KiddCabbage » Thu May 28, 2015 1:33 am

So all my parts came in the mail, and guess what I realized I didn't order... thermal paste.

So before I run out and grab whatever thermal paste they have at Radio Shack, doestrogen the type of thermal paste matter much when it comes to PC acoustics? i.e. will a more expensive paste make the fans run lower enough to make any practical difference whatsoever?

quest_for_silence
Posts: 5275
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:12 am
Location: ITALY

Re: What's the quietest case I can get for <$150?

Post by quest_for_silence » Thu May 28, 2015 2:36 am

KiddCabbage wrote:i.e. will a more expensive paste make the fans run lower enough to make any practical difference whatsoever?
Unless you delid the CPU heatspreader, no.

If I were you, I'd pick anything known as good but not that expensive, like the Arctic Cooling MX-4, or the Arctic Ceramique 2, but local pricing matters.

By the way, doesn't your NH-L12 come with a good chunk of Noctua-branded thermal paste? In case, use that one.

KiddCabbage
Posts: 18
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2015 11:48 pm

Re: What's the quietest case I can get for <$150?

Post by KiddCabbage » Thu May 28, 2015 8:31 am

quest_for_silence wrote: By the way, doesn't your NH-L12 come with a good chunk of Noctua-branded thermal paste? In case, use that one.
I'm sure it dI'd once upon a time, but I have had it a few years, and don't have the box or the thermal paste anymore.

KiddCabbage
Posts: 18
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2015 11:48 pm

Re: What's the quietest case I can get for <$150?

Post by KiddCabbage » Thu May 28, 2015 1:19 pm

I ran to Radio Shack and picked up some AS5.

Just got the computer together and installed Windows and I have to say... holy shit. I knew this thing was going to be quiet, but I can't believe how quiet. I haven't even done any tweaks yet, and the computer makes less noise than my screens do!

Thanks so much for all the help guys. SPCR really helped thus come together. :)

CA_Steve
Moderator
Posts: 7650
Joined: Thu Oct 06, 2005 4:36 am
Location: St. Louis, MO

Re: What's the quietest case I can get for <$150?

Post by CA_Steve » Thu May 28, 2015 1:45 pm

Enjoy your build :)

Post Reply