I can't do it anymore, just when I find the "perfect" silent case something else comes up.
So, I need 10 people to pick a case and post it here, the one which gets more votes wins, and state why.

Options are:

1.Fractal Design Define R3
2.Corsair Carbide 500R
3.Coolermaster Silencio 550
4.Antec 1100

Cant recommend unless you give at least some info about what you planning on doing with your pc or what components will it have. But just out of your list, i prefer the Fractal Design R3, out of having sound dampening, good layout, decent quality, and moduvents, but personally i like more the Antec Solo II.

it's standard, high-end PC that will never be turned off...that's why the silent factor is important in the first place.

I've read a review of the Corsair Carbide 500R basically saying that it can provide both excellent airflow(it has 4 big fans included) and relative silence.

I wish someone with a first hand experience would say something about it, after all, we have to think about the summer time temps too..can you basically put all those 4 fans on lowest speed and still get greater airflow but better silence than R3?

you can never get such basic information from any video or website review.

Again, components are always more important then the case. Based on reviews and people here though I'd go the Fractal (if those are your only 4 choices)

EDIT: Plus as a bonus u could get it from Mike and support the site (check out SPCR clearance)! That is if shipping isn't horrendous.

Can you list the components for this high end pc?

I would use the Antec Solo II for a high-end silent build if I were to make one tomorrow. Currently using the original Solo with a SB i5 system w/ integrated graphics and it runs very cool, silently. The Solo II adds nice features like a separate intake for the PSU, 120mm front fan mounts, motherboard cutout, etc.

GTX 680
600W Corsair GS Series, ATX PSU, ATX12V v2.3, ultra-quiet 140mm (double ball bearing)
i5 2550k


Antec Solo II doesn't exist in my country, there is every other kind of Antec, even Antec Solo and P183, but for some reason every store in the country forgot about the second version.

Here is what one known reviewer on youtube said:



What do you think?(he didn't say about the noise if on lowest speed setting)
Wouldn't components last much longer if they are better cooled?

If you want silence, then you won't be using 4 fans. You only need 1-2 if you use good and new hardware. I chose R3 so that is what I recommend to you. It has good quality/price.

Potentially components will last longer if they are better cooled. Conventional hard drives are a case in point, where research suggests that the failure rate can increase significantly if they are run much over 40C for any length of time. But the main point seems to be that you are intending to use two components which will be significant heat generators under load. So idle conditions are not really the issue, since any of the cases on your list would likely be quiet enough at idle. Under load you might struggle to contain temperatures given that the 2550K will probably be overclocked and maybe also the GTX 680. In that scenario, the Define R3 looks the best buy because you can just remove the fan position covers for extra venting, and/or add fans until load temperatures are satisfactory. If you can buy Noctua PWM fans in your country, then if you were using the R3 the supplied exhaust fan could be moved to the bottom fan position. Put a Noctua PWM 120mm in the exhaust fan position, and have one also on the CPU cooler. Link them using the PWM splitter cable supplied by Noctua. Under PWM (thermal) control, these two fans will then idle at fairly low speeds, but will speed up automatically and give more airflow when the system is under load.

Depending on load temperatures it might be that you would have to uncover the rear top fan vent on the R3, and perhaps have to put a fan there. If that were the case, it could be another Noctua PWM fan and be added it to the existing PWM fan chain. How quiet the fans will be at idle depends on the BIOS PWM controls for your motherboard, with the best being the Asus models and the ones with basic fan control normally coming from GigaByte. The Asus motherboards also allow greater control over load fan speeds, including the ability to set a manual profile if the built-in BIOS options are not sufficient. If more flexibility is needed than the Asus BIOS fan controls allow, the Asus Fan Xpert software will give you further options.

So what you are saying is that with Carbide I would never have to worry about such things and buy/install extra stuff like with R3?
With Carbide, if I see a higher temp I would just click the button for the fan speed on the front panel?

Jesus imaginary christ, if someone would just put a mic to the carbide with all speed settings and post it on youtube I would immediately see if it is acceptable or not.

It is amazing that not a single "reviewer" on youtube ever does such a basic thing with any case!

Also, when I was looking at PSUs I noticed there is division between 120mm and 140mm, is that something I should take into consideration regarding these cases?

The Corsair Carbide 500R looks to me like a typical gamers case, rather than a quiet case. There are alternatives such as the Antec 902, or the Antec 1100 which I see you have on your list. Gaming cases are not likely to be quiet under any conditions, but then many gamers just want the airflow they are not worried about the noise. If you want a case that will be quieter then something like the Define R3 would be a better choice. With the Define Moduvent system the cooling can be adjusted to get the balance between noise and airflow that you want.

I guess it's R3 then, lots of people have said the same thing. I don't plan to overclock anything anyway, I've never oc anything in my life.

and



...and I suppose 600W is enough?
Right now I have Seasonic but this has bigger fan and it's got that ultra-quit thing going on...

The GS600 will be enough, since nVidia specify a 550w PSU as the minimum for the GTX 680. I don't know how noisy or otherwise this PSU is. A 140mm fan can help, but it depends on the fan spec and the fan profile. I note that the GS600 is not modular, so there may be more cable mess than desirable. If I were building a system with a 2550K and a GTX 680 I would probably fit a Seasonic X-760 which as it is modular would reduce cable clutter to a minimum.

For me Fractal Design Define R3 is the right choice

No, you wouldn't.

Cooling a 2550 is trivial if you choose a big heatsink. The GTX 680 should be relatively quiet on idle, but I'd stay away from the reference layout, i.e. this
I've heard good things noise-wise from Asus DCII-series, Gainward Phantom and MSI Twin Frozr.

If you're using conventional hard disks, that is not SSDs, then the single most important question for a new case is how good is the hdd mounting system? The next issue is price. Are fans included, if so, how loud are they and how much does a case without included fans cost once you've upgraded it with quality fans.
Personally, I'd go with a cheaper case without fans and then stick a couple of Scythes in there.

All cases you listed share a similar layout and include noise dampening, so it's more a matter of looks and price/availability.

What does it mean when PSU is modular, I know what the word means but how is that related to a PSU?
I just remembered something, when I googled for PSUs, I came a cross a couple of posts on the forums saying that corsair TX series is just noisy, is that issue outdated?(if i go for modular i can only find it from TX series)

My understanding is that a famous google study of HDD longevity in their server farms gave the counterintuitive finding that the sweet spot for HD temp was substantially higher than most people assumed.

Yes, we're both referring to Failure Trends in a Large Disk Drive Population published by Google about five years ago. What this showed was that failure of drives aged 2 years and under was mainly associated with lower temperatures, particularly 30C or less. With drives of 3 years old and to a lesser extent 4 years old there was a correlation between temperatures over 40C and higher failure rates. To be specific, with the 3 year old drives the failure rate at 30C was 5%; at 45C it was 15%.

A modular PSU just means one where most (or all) of the cables are detachable, so you only need to use as many as your system requires, rather than having to find room for spare ones in the case.

btw, what is the load temperature(in Celsius) of CPUs and GPUs when they are superbly air-cooled?

And if I ever choose to upgrade it would the extra front and extra back fans be the most optimal solution?

This guy says that he gets 20C higher temp in R3 than in other gaming cases, pretty devastating.

So, if I would to get 2 additional 140mm scythe slipstream fans for R3 what would be the best position for them and which way(intake/exhaust).
Also how can you tell which is intake and which is exhaust without turning them on?

Simply moving the front fan to the rearwards upper exhaust makes a good difference over the default setup, and would be plenty coolingwise for most systems. (air still enters easily through the front and some from the bottom if that vent is left open) Replace the stock fans if you want something that can more easily be run at lower speeds. The stock R3 fans run at roughly 800 RPM at 5V, which is a pretty good level for cooling while keeping noise reasonable. The fans tend to chatter a little bit but not more than I'm sure most would be okay with from a distance.

"20 degrees warmer" doesn't mean much though in a rough comparison. That might as well mean it's still just fine all things considered.

Not really. Gaming cases are dedicated to high airflow regardless of noise considerations. In addition gamers typically overclock their CPU as a matter of course. They also tend to buy graphics cards which are factory overclocked and then overclock them even more. Put systems like these into a case with only one intake and one exhaust fan and of course you will see significantly higher temperatures. It would have been more useful if instead of simply talking about the need for extra fans the reviewer had installed some and said what the difference was. But given the flexibility of the Moduvent system it is possible, as has already been said, to remove fan covers and install extra fans until system temperatures are satisfactory.

Bear in mind that both the CPU and the GTX 680 will as standard both downclock and undervolt in idle situations. Under load, the CPU will overclock automatically (Turbo modes). There is a similar feature on the GTX 680. So you will need more airflow at load, but how much may depend on what that load is.


Yes, it would be sensible to plan for an extra exhaust fan in the top rear position, and an additional intake fan, preferably in the bottom position if the PSU will allow it. I would still recommend PWM fans because the system is one where you need relatively low airflow at idle, and substantially more at load. PWM fans will accommodate this automatically. The other options are to add fixed speed fans, or to use some form of manual fan control.


If you look carefully at the fans, there should be airflow direction arrows moulded into the frame. Typically the fan hub is on the intake side and the air blows over the struts.

Just one more question, which I asked 2 times already.

Isn't the bottom grill fixed 120mm, so I really can't get 140mm PSU?

From Fractal Design's specification for the Define R3:

"...Supports PSU's with a depth of maximum circa 170mm, when using bottom 120/140mm fan location. When not using the bottom 120/140mm fan location, the case supports also longer PSU's, typically 200-220mm...".

Of the PSUs mentioned so far, the Corsair GS 600 has 160mm depth, as does the Season X-760.

Hey, I just wanted to let you know there is a new silent case out

He says it's amazingly super silent.

But it's the same dilemma as with Carbide 500R versus R3.

In the UK the Corsair Obsidian 550D costs around 50% more than Fractal Design R3 in black, and I can't see anything about the 550D that would justify that degree of difference in the price.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/Corsair_Obsidian_550D

When it comes to noise/sound assessments, you really have to pay very close attention to who's making them. 99% of tech reviewers simply do not pay attention to noise the way SPCR does, and so when someone out there says something is really quiet, I might take note but never give it full creedance until I or one of the SZPCR gang confirms it in person.

The reality is that just about ANY case can be silent -- what matters more is the components inside it. IE, if you choose a bunch of hot components with noisy fans, it hardly matters what case you choose, there's no way any PC case can contain or block the noise effectively enough for it to be quiet.

On another note, a trusted colleague in the industry just told me that the stock nVidia cooler on the GTX680 is the quietest he's ever come across on a high performance video card, quieter than all the partner cooling solutions.

Interesting, but probably there is no such thing in my country. Last I saw was Palit GTX680 and PointOfView NV and I've never heard of those brands.

Can you even get stock cards in normal stores? I don't think I remember ever seeing such thing.