SPCR

I still mulling over a build with the upcoming Kaby Lake Xeon and a GTX 1080 (the most silent one). An efficient Seasonic Prime Titanium 650W. NH-U14S CPU cooler.

Question about case and case fans.

I like the define S. It seems like a good choice that's well recognized for quiet builds. But I prefer the Lian Li PC-V33B. A beautiful tiny aluminum build. It has open sides that may let more noise, but also make the ventilation better that may make the fans labor less often and less intensely to keep the same cooling. The Case Labs BH7 may be an interesting alternative that is less open so may be better for noise.

My preference is the Lian Li case. Any thoughts on noise relative to these alterantives and what I should do to make this quiet? Any thoughts about what the difference in db might be between these cases in (1) productivity mode -word/browsing, and (2) gaming mode?

Also I was thinking the NF-S12A for case fans - either all of them or as a Noctua customer support person recommended- using the Noctua NF-P12 for intake fans.

But also curious about the Noiseblocker M2-PS PWM, or the B12-PS PWM. Its not clear which one is supposed to be the higher end version and how these compare to the above Noctua? SilentPCReview seems to indicate there was some problem with the M2-PS but I wonder when something like that that seems like an outlier from what one would expect for this high performing brand that that might be a bad unit. There is no comment in the article to address that possibility.

Suggestions? Comments?

Alex

Tonally, Noiseblockers, specially M12 have been one of the best tonally, but the M12-PS is wierd, their PWM design is very high for how i like to control PWM fans, for you to reach around 500rpms you need a mobo that can drop to 0% pwm, and not all allow this, thus you most of the time end up with 800rpms as the lowerst because of how the fan is design. I prefer Noctua PWM design over Noisblockers, but not sure how are the enloops pwm. If you go none pwm, noiseblcoker is fine, it undervolts decently, and to me very good fans overall, just too expensive imo when having fans like Noctua redux is cheaper and almost as good.

I also prefer Noctua. The e-loop is not an all purpose fan. When there is something in the airflow path closer than ~2cm in font of the fan they can develop a strange tonality and/or a humming sound. I use Noctua PWM fans wherever possible, controlled by Asus Fanexpert or the graphics card they are inaudible to me, and I had to move my new PC to a different case which is currently completely open (not done building).