Good full tower for sound dampening

Enclosures and acoustic damping to help quiet them.

Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Devonavar

Post Reply
Degaium
Posts: 6
Joined: Mon Dec 09, 2013 10:59 am

Good full tower for sound dampening

Post by Degaium » Wed May 27, 2015 10:41 pm

I'm looking for a FullTower case of a maximum budget of 200$, I would prefer a best-buy.
I don't require it to include case vans, psu, fan controller and so on. Just a good, strong case that doesn't vibrate and has support for SSD, wire management and large case fans (the larger the less noise).

I've read reviews about Define XL R2 and Fractal Design Arc XL and I would go for the latter but I'm not sure it is worth the money.
Please advise.

Abula
Posts: 3662
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:22 pm
Location: Guatemala

Re: Good full tower for sound dampening

Post by Abula » Wed May 27, 2015 10:58 pm

Most Fractal cases are pretty good, solid steel cases, with good design and cable management.

If you really need the space of a full tower both XL R2 and the Arc XL are good options, if you like more the arc its a good choice still, less restricted than the XL, but its tradeoffs... If you wish to read more check SPCR Fractal Design Arc XL Case.

Other options to consider,
Antec P280 Black ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Reviewed by SPCR Antec P280: Performance One Refresh
Antec P380 Black Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case - Released recently.

But remember cases with dampening and not so open, do help lower the noise, but they don't eliminate, to build quiet you have to chose quiet components all around, and never expect the case will fix a noisy setup.

Degaium
Posts: 6
Joined: Mon Dec 09, 2013 10:59 am

Re: Good full tower for sound dampening

Post by Degaium » Wed May 27, 2015 11:36 pm

I don't need that much space but I only buy a case like once every 10 years so I want it to last 10 years from now before I buy another one.

Right now I have an ANTEC 650 TITAN and it is horrible. I've dismounted everything but the main scheleton in order for it to stop vibrating, it is not only the HDD that is causing the vibration but also vents and psu.

What I like about the ARC is that it has support for 2 ssd behind the motherboard; that is a huge clutter saver.

Abula
Posts: 3662
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:22 pm
Location: Guatemala

Re: Good full tower for sound dampening

Post by Abula » Thu May 28, 2015 7:22 am

If you don't have a need for full tower, aka eatx motherboards, then go for the Fractal Design Define R5 FD-CA-DEF-R5-BK Black Computer Case, it was used in the SPCR Quiet ATX Gamer, R5 Version, and came out really well. I used the R4 for almost 2 years and it was a very good case for the money, it can handle any hardware you throw in it, unless you OCing heavy, but its very well done, and now the R5 has a lot of little tweaks over the R4, defently worth the $100, probably the best below $200 for single gpu setup, specially for someone looking for a quiet build.

That said, its up to you if you feel that bigger will last you longer, that to me isn't true, the standards for most hardware is defined already into ATX, and thus the case should last you until the standard is changed, or you need more cooling or you need something smaller/bigger for whatever reason.

Now if you feel you will move into SLI/Xfire setup in the near future, then consider the Silverstone FT05, which is imo one of the best air cooling cases, it was used on the SPCR Quiet SLI Gaming PC Build Guide, and from my personal experience, its a very good for building a more high end setup, that said its not perfect, cablemangement space is lacking and since its a compact (sort of speak) case, its a little hard to maneuver with big hardware, limited storage options, no optical, etc, not for everybody, but till today my favorite air cooling case for a multi gpu setup.

Post Reply