Hunting for a quiet black case with a door

meglamaniac · Post by **meglamaniac** » Tue Oct 05, 2004 2:00 am

It doesn't necessarily have to be quiet from the outset, I'm happy working on a case with potential (applying acoustic padding etc).

The kind of style I'm after is very minimalist. Like the Lian-Li PC6070 - picture link.

In fact, the only reason I'm holding back at all on the 6070 is because of comments I've seen here about issues with low airflow, and because I'd rather have 120mm fans than 80mm. Other than that it's perfect.

Does anyone have any suggestions?
So far I've looked at coolermaster, antec, and silverstone as well and unless i've missed one I don't think there's anything there matching what i'm after. The Antec Sonata is ok I guess if you disconnect the blue LED thingy on the front, but the talk of drive cage resonance has me worried (I have 4 harddrives heh).

teejay · Post by **teejay** » Tue Oct 05, 2004 2:39 am

You could consider the Lian Li PC-V1100B or V2100B... 1100 is the mid-tower size, 2100 the full tower. Both are equipped with 120mm fans from the outset. With 4 hdd's I'd skip the 1100 though, because you can only put 3 of them directly in front of the intake fan and I personally don't like uncooled drives. Also, the drive cages need some work because they transfer quite a bit of case vibration...

For the same reason I would pass on the Sonata, because it doesn't have enough cooling potential for 4 drives - silent or otherwise. An Antec SLK-3700BQE perhaps? No experience with it myself but many people here have and like the case.

meglamaniac · Post by **meglamaniac** » Tue Oct 05, 2004 2:43 am

Well pointed out - I did indeed look at the V1100/2100 series, but there's a major problem with them: you can't use the zalman type heatpipe graphics card coolers because they're upside down. Otherwise I'd probably have gone with them.

The antec is OK but my current case is also an antec and I'm starting to get annoyed with those ridges in the front - they somehow manage to collect dust like anything and its hell to get it out. Also, it'd be nice to have a change.

Bah. So many choices, none quite right!

davidstone28 · Post by **davidstone28** » Tue Oct 05, 2004 2:51 am

meglamaniac wrote: Well pointed out - I did indeed look at the V1100/2100 series, but there's a major problem with them: you can't use the zalman type heatpipe graphics card coolers because they're upside down.

I would query that. See my comments at the end of the V1000 thread in the Case section of these forums.

meglamaniac · Post by **meglamaniac** » Tue Oct 05, 2004 3:04 am

Ah but that's with a GeForce4, a relatively cool card by today's standards.
I'm looking at cooling a GeForce 6800GT - so I doubt I could get away with the reduction in cooling performance.

teejay · Post by **teejay** » Tue Oct 05, 2004 3:05 am

How about an Arctic Cooling VGA silencer? Works just as well upside-down.

meglamaniac · Post by **meglamaniac** » Tue Oct 05, 2004 3:24 am

Yep.
I'm still trying to weigh that one up. With the zalman (or similar) I can attach any fan I like to assist in cooling a high output graphics card, so obviously I'll choose a 120mm at somewhere between 5v and 7v.

However, with the silencer you're stuck with what you're given (and by all accounts so far it exhibits a lot of PWM noise from cards with a PWM fan controler, so I'd have to do more mucking about linking it directly to the PSU lines instead) and, basicly, it's a much smaller fan so likely to be noisier.

I'm trying to decide if the nicer layout of the V1100 will compensate enough with lower PSU noise (because it's cooler at the bottom, isolated), or if the better option is the traditional ATX layout and a zalman type cooler. In the worst case I could always duct the PSU in that setup.

You guessed it, I've been thinking about this far too much hehe.

teejay · Post by **teejay** » Tue Oct 05, 2004 4:09 am

Very true... I have my Silencer ("old" model, rev. 3) hooked up to my T-Balancer which also uses PWM and it definately became more noisy. The newer versions especially seem to be noisier. However, the fact that it dumps hot air outside the case is invaluable because there is no outtake fan at the top of the case. Even with the Silencer I get a 8 degree higher case temp at the top of the case when compared with the bottom.

What do you expect of the "nicer" layout? It also comes with a few negatives, outlined here as you've probably seen. In your case I'd especially consider your 4 harddisks in light of the case vibration plus the lack of direct cooling to the 4th disk in the 1100B (but now I'm repeating myself... growing old).

There is no such thing as thinking too much about an upgrade! Is there?

davidstone28 · Post by **davidstone28** » Tue Oct 05, 2004 8:41 am

It says here that the ZM80D-HP (Zalman heatpipe cooler) isn't compatible with the 6800GT because of the absence of 3mm holes around the GPU.

I'd be interested to know what's the best (silent) way of cooling a high end graphics card. I read somewhere (probably on these forums) that the stock Arctic Silencer 4 was still a bit noisy and didn't sit properly on the core. Not sure whether than was a one off or indicative of the whole product line.

It seems to me that the most effective way of silently cooling a high end VGA card is Zalman 'Reseratoring' it, which is mind numbingly expensive solution, particularly when you've just spent £250-£300 or so on a 6800GT or X800.

If anyone has any thoughts, I'd be interested to know because I'm holding off a upgrade of my VGA card until a silentish solution can be found.[/url]

sthayashi · Post by **sthayashi** » Tue Oct 05, 2004 9:01 am

Why not use the BQE + Sorbothane or other suspension methods?

meglamaniac · Post by **meglamaniac** » Tue Oct 05, 2004 10:23 am

2 quick points:

davidstone28 wrote:It says here that the ZM80D-HP (Zalman heatpipe cooler) isn't compatible with the 6800GT because of the absence of 3mm holes around the GPU.

Correct. However, a bit of research on google showed that there were several methods of making it work. One involves reusing the bolts from the stock cooler, others involve simply purchasing new bolts from a hardware store.

davidstone28 wrote:It seems to me that the most effective way of silently cooling a high end VGA card is Zalman 'Reseratoring' it, which is mind numbingly expensive solution, particularly when you've just spent £250-£300 or so on a 6800GT or X800.

Correct again - water cooling has numerous advantages when applied to graphics cooling. However, as you note, the major disadvantage is price.

Just FYI, i typo'd earlier. I meant 6600 not 6800.
The equivilant of the GeForce 6600GT is the Radeon X700.
The equivilant of the Radeon X800 is the GeForce 6800Ultra.

acaurora · Post by **acaurora** » Tue Oct 05, 2004 12:50 pm

FYI - The Reserator probably WILL struggle cooling a CPU + GPU. I myself have only an Athlon 3200+ XP, and it gets pretty hot after having F@H on 24/7. Add on a toasty 6800 Ultra, and then you can start hard boiling some eggs without ever leaving your computer

meglamaniac · Post by **meglamaniac** » Tue Oct 05, 2004 1:19 pm

Really? I was under the impression it could cope better than that...
You can probably get away with a 6600GT ok then? They're fabbed at 90nm as well so should have much lower heat output - they have a very small stock cooler in comparison to the 6800GT.

[edit]
Photo comparison:
http://www.bit-tech.net/images/review/3 ... 6800GT.jpg

The 6600GT is also PCI-Express native so doesn't require a hot running bridge chip in my case, as I will be building a PCI-E system.

burcakb · Post by **burcakb** » Tue Oct 05, 2004 1:52 pm

Aren't LianLis aluminium? so how about taking another look at sthayashi's suggestion of a BQE?

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Wed Oct 06, 2004 5:11 am

burcakb wrote:Aren't LianLis aluminium? so how about taking another look at sthayashi's suggestion of a BQE?

That'd be my suggestion too. It's a fairly understated looking case, and if the cheese-grater vents bother you, at least they blend into the bezel fairly well.

meglamaniac · Post by **meglamaniac** » Wed Oct 06, 2004 5:37 am

There's just something about it I don't really like.
Yeah yeah, picky I know

Mebbe I'll just go with the 6070 - someone has to try it after all!
When you're commenting about it being aluminium, I assume you're worried that it will resonate more? Is this not solved (to some extent anyway) by the acoutic padding pre-fitted? If it turns out not to be enough I'm not above a quick rip and strip to put something better in.

sthayashi · Post by **sthayashi** » Wed Oct 06, 2004 7:26 am

meglamaniac wrote:Mebbe I'll just go with the 6070 - someone has to try it after all!
When you're commenting about it being aluminium, I assume you're worried that it will resonate more? Is this not solved (to some extent anyway) by the acoutic padding pre-fitted? If it turns out not to be enough I'm not above a quick rip and strip to put something better in.

Based on what I've read from other people's experience, not really. Especially not if you hard mount those drives.

meglamaniac · Post by **meglamaniac** » Wed Oct 06, 2004 8:22 am

I was planning on decoupling them.
I know the drive cage is rather restrictive so I was thinking about just suspending the entire cage. It's removable, so should work...

Tom Brown · Post by **Tom Brown** » Wed Oct 06, 2004 11:14 am

meglamaniac wrote:There's just something about it I don't really like.
Yeah yeah, picky I know

From a purely asthetic point of view, I prefer the Sonata. It is capable of extremely quiet running also.

The biggest problem I have with the Sonata is that they show dust very easily.

-- Tom

Td_nw · Post by **Td_nw** » Wed Oct 06, 2004 2:56 pm

How about the Tsunami or a pre-modded Tsunami? I have been looking for new case with front/rear 120s with a door and room for my 4 drives and I am getting a Tsunami from Coolcases as I got my D8000 from them and I am also lazy.

It is aluminum, but you were planning on dampening anyway I think. They also have Globe and Panaflo fans.

Just saw Edward Ng listed in a review on this case from New Egg when I copied the link. Maybe he can tell you something good / bad about it. His New Egg review was pretty glowing.

Noizz · Post by **Noizz** » Wed Oct 06, 2004 5:04 pm

Yea the Tsunamis are really nice cases. the case layout is good, and the desgin and looks of the case are stunning. I currently have one and i'm waiting for modding supplies from mnpctech.com to cut out those stock grills and put those fan gromets in myself, just like the premodded ones they sell. And im putting carbon fiber vinyl on the front door of the Tsunami (http://www.mnpctech.com/CarbonFiberBezel.html), it look sooooooooooo clean.