The only news that I can report of is that the Etaris fanless PSU seems to no longer be available and the Silverstone is now over £100 GBP. So now good news, no.

Yes!!!

Good threads always deserve a bump!

This is a brilliant report. Thank you for helping out future fanless PSU owners!

Great work! These Antec cases really lend themselves to silent modding!

Hi Cordis, have you noticed any increase in your machine's audible noise, since?

Hi Sonic It is the Sonata which has the removable front door, not the Solo. It is the Solo which has the exposed driver bays. The Solo does, however, come in white. But my living room is not Ikea-tastic enough to make it appear at home. So I had to make the sensible aesthetic choice and go for the s...

Hi Sonic There are apparently a number of subtle differences between the various 'P5Q' variations. Do you research carefully, to make sure you don't invest in a more problematic model. In term of Sonata vs Solo, I would choose the Solo first every time, if it were not so ugly! I simply cannot allow ...

Black mesh sounds like a good idea. I could build those myself!

Does anyone use pci-sized air-vents or 'aeroslots'?

They seem to be an easy way to increase case ventilation, but on the other hand they would also cause more noise to escape!

Any thoughts or comments?

Well, I guess after teasing you like this, I must owe you guys a little run-down of my desktop 'theming' configuration. Well here goes! Stock OS: Windows XP Performance Edition (July 2009) Wallpaper: Cropped and recentred, 'Grain' http://badboythemer.deviantart.com/art/Grain-116511537 Desktop config...

That desktop configuration doesn't use much system resource at all. As you can see from the screen-print, with the theming applications running, and with several other much larger applications running in the background, the CPU is at less than 4%. RAM is at 20%, as I think I had a four-hour Firefox ...

I am a Linux user, who has reluctantly reverted to XP, but has tried to make the most of it, hence the elaborate theming exercise!

Thank you, chaps! I think it is definitely worth experimenting with improvements to stock case configurations. It would seem that most cases manufactured today are not made with silence and optimum air-flow in mind. I would contend that even the Sonata III, a venerable case, can still be improved. I...

PS: I now monitor the temperatures of my components directly from my desktop. I know the text is small, but check out the top-left corner of my screen. Those are my active temps, fed directly from SpeedFan. It definitely lets me know if I am ever risking pushing things a little too far! http://farm4...

Yes, positive pressure would have been nice! Though I think that would've required one-too-many modifications! At full load, the system only increases in heat fractionally. Mainly the hard drive readings. Which is understandable, as there is no air rushing past either of them, in their positions in ...

Introduction I like the Sonata case for its dark and subtle exterior design. But it's a shame that its stock interior specification falls short of its sibling, the Solo. I wanted to know if the Sonata could be as good, if not better, than the Solo, with only a little work. My approach has been to d...

Hi Everyone Here are my pics, and a full tutorial guide to my technique: http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=54481 http://www.rhyspippard.com/files/AntecSonata-DriveSuspension/10-0.jpg http://www.rhyspippard.com/files/AntecSonata-DriveSuspension/09-2.jpg http://www.rhyspippard.com/f...

Here is a recent email conversation between me and Western Digital Customer Support: Dear Sir. I note from the product specification page on your website for this hard drive, that the safe operating temperature is stated as a maximum of 60' centigrade. I would like to ask if it is safe to run this h...

I am more than willing to be proven wrong! :) It is, after all, a very attractive case, and if it performed to a level comparable with Antec's Solo or even Sonata then it would definitely be a winner. But when I see only 80mm fans, and relatively large side venting for intake and exhaust, it does ma...

Any fan cooled case that has no holes (or inadequate vents) will cook its components. Come on, Mike. You know as well as I do that there is a significant performance difference between fancy meshing and specific front and rear fan vents. Proper silent PC cases usually have only discreet front and r...

For a fan-based case, it has one major flaw - it is full of holes! Literally!

Any fan moving inside that case will be clearly audible from the outside. Such a case design is, in my opinion, quite simply pointless, for any silent PC enthusiast.

...I will probably be mounting my next build's hdds in a similar way as your guide details. Its just cleaner, and they are out of the way, like you said, which improves airflow to the important stuff like gpu and cpu and fun stuff like that! Thank you, kind Sir! My sentiments entirely! This is, aft...

Sixty degrees!

Edit: Or 140'F - whichever you prefer!

Your point here is good in theory, but in reality does not pan out quite as might be expected. Hard drives of this nature will happily operate at temperatures of up to 60'. Indeed, running one at anything below 30' will most likely cause a significant reduction in performance. Hard drives are not su...

Your hard drives don't need half the air-flow that you might think. Here is my SpeedFan stats with my system running idle for an hour: http://www.rhyspippard.com/files/AntecSonata-DriveSuspension/speedfanoutput.jpg I will post the output after the system has performed a 2-hour gaming session, later....

Background I hope this tutorial will be of interest and benefit to those who have at any point considered suspending their hard drives in order to achieve optimum silence and cooling performance. Hard drive suspension is not a new idea; it has been covered on these forums before. However, there has...

Whilst it is innovative and nicely presented, I would not consider this case to be a worthwhile offering unless it can be kept cool entirely passively.

Dear Gentlemen, thank you for such a marvelous array of witty and concise conclusions on the dubious aforementioned review source. I believe this topic has been thoroughly concluded upon.

That is great advice! Thank you!

The Background I have an Antec Solo case with two Scythe Kaze Jyuni 120mm 1200rpm case fans - one at the front and one at the back - both running on 5v and making next to no noise. Inside the case, I have a graphics card with a Thermalright HR-03 passive heatsink attached to its rear-side, and an I...