I'm on the lookout for a quiet MiniITX case (Via C5), unfortunately most of the SFF models are targeted at Athlon or P4 MBs and CPUs, with only a few being either specifically ITX or universal-size models. Oh yes, I'm not too keen on paying Hush prices, or anything that needs hard-to-get slimline/low-profile components.
The Sereniti 2000 looks like the most obvious choice, but there were some reviews dating from when it first came out which indicated that the fan was somewhat noisy. However, the review at http://www.ultim8pc.co.uk/index.asp?fol ... e=Sereniti indicates that it's very quiet. Has anyone used any of these recently? Perhaps the early noisy fans were just teething problems (they date from two years ago)... I'm tempted to become a guinea pig for this and get one to see if recent models still have problems, although if someone else has already played guinea pig with a recent model I wouldn't complain.
Of all the others I've looked at, the most feasible alternative seems to be the general-purpose Antec Aria or Minuet, probably the Aria based on the review here. At the moment I'm undecided between the sure-thing Aria and the MiniITX-specific but perhaps a bit more risky Sereniti 2000. Any thoughts?
Quiet MiniITX case
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Mr_Smartepants
- Posts: 539
- Joined: Fri Apr 04, 2003 6:35 am
- Location: Cambridgeshire, England
A few comments:
Antec Minuet (I & II), only has one hard drive bay and requires half-height cards.
Antec Aria, lots of expandability, will accept up to MicroATX boards and takes full-sized expansion cards, and up to 3 hard drives. Also has a PSU with 120mm fan that doubles as case exhaust. Nice.
One you didn't list but is worth considering is the Silverstone LC-11 ($140 at newegg) for MicroATX boards and smaller.
It will accept one AGP card(or PCI-x with RC-01 adapter) and two PCI cards (full-size), up to 3 hard drive bays. Also uses 3 80mm fans (swappable with panaflo or yate loon). There's another version that has an integrated VFD display and remote.
Antec Minuet (I & II), only has one hard drive bay and requires half-height cards.
Antec Aria, lots of expandability, will accept up to MicroATX boards and takes full-sized expansion cards, and up to 3 hard drives. Also has a PSU with 120mm fan that doubles as case exhaust. Nice.
One you didn't list but is worth considering is the Silverstone LC-11 ($140 at newegg) for MicroATX boards and smaller.
It will accept one AGP card(or PCI-x with RC-01 adapter) and two PCI cards (full-size), up to 3 hard drive bays. Also uses 3 80mm fans (swappable with panaflo or yate loon). There's another version that has an integrated VFD display and remote.
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Equilateral
- Posts: 39
- Joined: Tue Jan 20, 2004 2:48 am
Thanks, I hadn't looked at that one before. Two small problems for what I wanted it for, it's got a rather large footprint (420mm x 430mm, that's pretty much a standard desktop PC), and it's aimed at the lifestyle market, with a corresponding price - it's nearly twice the price of the Aria, which itself is more expensive than the Sereniti. I'm trying to keep the case cost down to less than the cost of the CPU + MB, if I was building (say) an Athlon-64 system then I'd be willing to wrap it up in a slightly more expensive case. A side-effect of this is that since the C5 MB has everything built-in, there isn't really any need for PCI or AGP slots, all I need is room for a CDRW and HDD.Mr_Smartepants wrote:One you didn't list but is worth considering is the Silverstone LC-11 ($140 at newegg) for MicroATX boards and smaller. It will accept one AGP card(or PCI-x with RC-01 adapter) and two PCI cards (full-size), up to 3 hard drive bays. Also uses 3 80mm fans (swappable with panaflo or yate loon). There's another version that has an integrated VFD display and remote.
Check the mini-ITX web site
You may already be aware of this, but http://www.mini-itx.com is dedicated to mini-ITX form-factor systems and has a pretty exhaustive list of chassis, including some passively-cooled.
-Derek
-Derek
two items i wanted to mention.
first, the casetronic stuff. http://www.casetronic.com/Products/Products_Main.asp. i used to run a travla-c137 and it was pretty good. the case had a single 60mm fan which is pretty quiet with a fanmate. the psu is external and totally silent (ie, no fans). it fits a 3.5" HDD but the cdrom needed to be slim so that may not fit your requirements. but i think some of their other cases might hold regular cd drives.
second, casetek. http://www.casetek.com.tw/pc_case/mini.htm they have both microatx and miniatx. i used to have a CK-1010. it fits a 3.5" HDD and also a regular CD-ROM drive. no case fans except in the internal PSU. i don't remember what size the fan was but it wasn't too quiet. you could maybe mod that though.
however, in both of these cases, airflow across the HDD area were too good. in the casetek, the HDD is at the very bottom. in the travla, it's like on the side. so my HDs ran at like 55 or something like that on idle. i had to switch to 5400rpm drives.
first, the casetronic stuff. http://www.casetronic.com/Products/Products_Main.asp. i used to run a travla-c137 and it was pretty good. the case had a single 60mm fan which is pretty quiet with a fanmate. the psu is external and totally silent (ie, no fans). it fits a 3.5" HDD but the cdrom needed to be slim so that may not fit your requirements. but i think some of their other cases might hold regular cd drives.
second, casetek. http://www.casetek.com.tw/pc_case/mini.htm they have both microatx and miniatx. i used to have a CK-1010. it fits a 3.5" HDD and also a regular CD-ROM drive. no case fans except in the internal PSU. i don't remember what size the fan was but it wasn't too quiet. you could maybe mod that though.
however, in both of these cases, airflow across the HDD area were too good. in the casetek, the HDD is at the very bottom. in the travla, it's like on the side. so my HDs ran at like 55 or something like that on idle. i had to switch to 5400rpm drives.