Another SPCR recommended list: Cases.A few models recommended on the basis of reviews or first-hand experience; a few more that look promising for a number of reasons. The usual justifications for the choices, and a modus operandi about silent cool cases.

So tell me which cases you want to see on the list and why.

EDIT, 7 April 2010: Pretty much completely revised & updated -- http://www.silentpcreview.com/Case_Basi ... mendations

EDIT, 13 Feb 2012: Some recommendation changes based on reviews over the past year, some minor enhancements in the text.

Good review.

The Evercase 4252 is available from Newegg for $21(!) w/o a PSU. What a great place to start a quiet system from. Add the quiet PSU of your choice and away you go.

Those Evercases are very sturdy, too....they aren't the tissue-paper steel you usually see in cases in that price range. Several models from the Dual-120mm case thread probably need to be here, or the threads can be consolidated.

Hello:

The price certainly makes them *very* attractive! However, New Egg is currently totally sold out of *all* the black versions! That must tell you something...what do the addtional letters in the model number mean? Some units seem to only have USB front ports, while others add audio and some also have Firewire.

One other positive point that was pointed out to me by someone who has built 3-4 systems with these: the motherboard supports are pressed into the case, and they are nice smooth domes. Very little chance of damaging the back of the mobo, and very easy!

If only it had 120mm fans and looked a little better...

The only one I would touch would be the Lian-Li 6070. At least it has a vent at the bottom front, and a door to enclose the drives.

It would be really nice if Lian-Li sent a review sample to someone who really understands what quiet is supposed to be.

If it comes out good, I may even be willing to sacrifice my ATC-110.

SuperFlower SF-201. Basically a Lian-Li with some extra fan holes (2 front, 2 rear, one side and one top).

I've just recently bought one and fitted it out with the AcoustiPack Deluxe foam, 6 x 12 dBa fans and a Zalman Flower cooler. No measurement of the noise I'm afraid, all I can say is that I can't hear it over my existing PC, even when I've got my head next to the case.

Updated & overhauled -- way overdue but better late than never.

This is definitely a more complete list.

Interestingly the GMC and Antec cases seem to be the only ones I can find over here in Australia.

product link for evercase 4252 :

http://www.evercase.com/newsite/2product/index4252.htm

i have a couple of these cases - they are quite a bit quieter than a regular case, and have great quality and detail.

by only complaints: horribly air-restricting fan grate on the back. i cut it out and put a wire grill, and it made quite a difference with a low-airflow fan.
and it's huge! deeper than my desks will hold. a bit overkill for most systems.

luck,
jef

Was the Fong Kai FK330 not good enough? It seemed to get a very good review.

Since the sticky thread in the Cases Forum is locked, I'll post my 2¢ worth in this thread:

Mike - very nice work on the update and it's a great idea to post it as a sticky at the top of the "Cases" forum.

Now all we have to do is actually get people to read it before they post a "what's the best case" question.

oops -- forgot the Fong Kai! It was left off my mistake -- to be corrected in the next few hours.

EDIT: Fong Kai added.

Super Flower SF-201 is a debatable recommendation. I'm currently using one now. Mine is the Terminator version so it has come with 3 perspex panels.

Good points:
Excellent case fans supplied. They need undervolting, but equal Real Silent Nexus case fans.
Seems to have the potential for good ventilation if fan grills removed.
Perpex panels are well integrated with the case
Comes with a filter for the front panel intakes

Bad points:
Its Aluminium and it resonantes like hell without modificatoin. The supplied case fans resonate with the case near their mounting points. EAR mounts will solve this
Has drirect path for sound from HDD's to escape.
Fan on top panel badly resonates with the perspex panel. EAR mounts and undervolting help this, but do not resolve it entirely. I removed the top panel and taped the edges.
Filter is time consuming to get to

Nice list of recommendations, and very good reviews too. Unfortunately though we can't get many of those cases in little old New Zealand, except the Antec Sonata (VERY expensive here, over NZ$300 or ~US$190), Chenbro Gaming bomb (ugly and not exactly cheap), and the Antec SLK3700AMB (no BQE ). Currently I have a Chieftec Dragon, great solid case but the unrestrictive front lets out all the hdd noise.

Even with the short supply I did stumble accross a quiet case a while ago, and that was an Aopen H600 series case, the H600B. While it doesn't have any quiet specific features it is well made and solid, although still no Chieftec. The included psu is a rebranded Forton 300W (model FSP-300), which is very quiet and quite powerful for a 300W. The single included case fan is a thermister controlled 80mm which is pretty quiet at 12V and plugs in to the motherboard.

One of its strongest featues (imo) is the lack of a front grill. This case is designed to take in airflow from holes in the front of the side panels, and a small intake underneath the front. This keeps the hdd noise down while still cooling them quite well. The top panel is removable by screws, handy if you want to paint or mod it in some way.

The main negative would be the HIGHLY restrictive fan grills, it almost looks like they just punched a few holes as an after thought. Cutting them out was one of the first things I did. Another negative is the fact that all the fan holes are 80mm. 120 or even 92mm fans would have been nice.

More info here.

I have no idea how many places worldwide stock this case, I just thought this might help some of us down under.

Thankyou MikeC for providing such a great site!

I'd like to know where the antec aria places in the list. Is that possible or is it like comparing apples (towers) to oranges (SFF's). Maybe a seperate section on SFF's?

The Aria is unique in that it is the only non-barebones SFF case. Not shure how we could deal with it. How it compares with other SFF depends a lot on your particular system setup.

IIRC, the Shuttle Zen is quieter, and the AOpen box I reviewed is probably quieter -- hard to say without having exactly the same components in them. Also the best barebones SFF have the advantage of total integration -- ie, the CPU cooling system, the PSU, the case: They are all designed as part of one system.

The mid-tower cases on the Recommended Cases list are quieter. They have the advantage of better airflow, greater air volume, more room for bigger HS, etc.

I used to buy tons of these cases, at least until I found out about the Antec SLK3700...

It's very trivial to modify the front case fan area to take a 120mm. What I've done with all the cases I've had is to cut open the grill and install a washable air filter on the front fan (left it at 80mm). I personally think the best mods would be to go with 92mm fans on the front and back, installing a filter on the front fan.

And I've always bought the model with a fan side arm on it which already includes a filter.
Things get dusty REAL fast in colorado.

FYI, the Fong Kai is almost exactly the case used for Hewlett Packard's xw8000 workstation. The case used is also made by Fong Kai, but is pretty much the same thing. A few differences, it's got 4 bays for hard drives as well as being able to mount a 5th drive on the bottom of the case - the screws go in from underneath. They only have 2 available 5 1/4 drive bays, and the floppy drive is actually in the 3rd drive bay, then the hard drive area extends into where the 3 1/2 floppy drive is in this case. It's hard to tell in the picture if it has screw holes, but the heatsinks actually screw into the reinforcing plate. I'm not sure about the dimensions, but I'd bet that they're the same case with a slight modification, a different bezel and paint job. All the tool-less features are there as well. The only thing we need a torq driver for is to install the heatsinks.

I have to say I love working with the HP case, and I'm seriously considering one of these consumer-ized models, although they are rather expensive. The cases have to be good for the workstations, unlike most retail cases, because the customers pay for the quality and some will even refuse delivery if things aren't perfect.

Edit: Just looked closer a the website and there's a model FK-343 with 4 hard drive bays and 2 optical. So I'm guessing that's what we use for the xw8000 systems, just with a different bezel and paint job. Man it's tempting... heh

Hello Mike:

There is still a typo/brain fart on the Recommended Cases list: it should be "Yeong Yang" -- not Ying Yang...

It's hard to believe that such a concise list could effectively sum this information up given the discussions that have taken place in the forums but it really does. Kudos, Mike. Great job.

[Many weeks after Tom's post...] Tom, thanks for the Kudos.

The article has been updated again, btw.

FWIW, the EverCase 4252 link on the recommended page no longer works; it's been changed to this.

A few more changes and edits made.

There is a spelling error on page 2, under "The Aluminum Myth," section, function is misspelled toward the end.

I noticed this doing a spell check on a post in another forum when I was quoting that section.

fixed. Thanks for the headsup.

The Overall Score for the Silentium is not bold while all the others are.

There's also a space between the word "Airflow" and the comma.

I'm also somewhat amused that most of the recommended cases aren't Antec cases, even though they're otherwise the most popular around here.

that's cuz Antec cases are easily accessible.

it's really hard to find a decent case that isn't a CoolerMaster or Antec in Canada

So, now there are 2 reviews of the Antec P180, I am sure we are all wondering whether it will make it onto the recomended cases list.

(Or, to put it another way, the listing for the P180 should include links to the 2 reviews, even if it is too soon to tell what rating to give it.)

Thanks