I put this together over the weekend. It's every bit as quiet as my own system, but the noise character is somewhat different. Close up, my system sounds smoother, but its low-frequency whoosh also reaches further; at a distance, Mummy's machine has the edge. With my ear near the PSU vents I hear a very high-pitched squeal; this becomes inaudible at a distance of less than 1 m, or if anything is placed in the way. From the other side of the case, no squealing can be heard even with my ear pressing against the panels. The sound of airflow is similarly weak, but more omnidirectional. The PSU fan has a hint of wobble, and I hear some bearing noise up close. The CPU fan is inaudible. Neither fan ever runs above its minimum speed.

Performance is very good. Cold boots are very quick, and while the CPU won't set the world on fire, it never becomes a bottleneck. The 35 W TDP seems ridiculously pessimistic; I can't push the CPU past 42 degrees C at full tilt. The cooler can be a bit unnerving to mount, but it also appears to mate very well with the CPU heatspreader. The mounting pressure seems higher than my own Noctua NH-C14 - one edge of the motherboard is visibly bent.

Mummy has my desktop DAC/amp on loan, and it sounds utterly brilliant playing through her Beovox C75. They were produced between 1979 and 1984, so her pair are about 30 years old. I guess they just don't make them like they used to...

How easy was it to assemble the parts in the system?

The case is not the easiest to work with. The PSU obscures most of the space in front of the motherboard, and the board attaches directly to the opposite side panel, so it's difficult to open the case without moving the PSU in relation to the board, complicating cable management. Also, the reset and HDD LED wires are very short, while the power button and power LED wires are very long. I can't make sense of that difference - they all go onto the same group of pins. The shorter wires were so short I had to almost close the case, leaving perhaps a 5 cm gap, before they would plug in. I wouldn't want to build a system with an ATX PSU, multiple HDDs, and an optical drive in this case. With a PicoPSU, assembly would have been trivial since the entire left side of the case would then be open with the panel off.

Quality seems very high. Everything fits well together, the side panel screws are perfectly countersunk, all screw holes line up, the power and reset buttons are very nice, and the brushed finish is impeccable.

Now with gallery.