aluminum case vs. steel case

[rickyman]

i want to know which one is better for cooling more than noise.

i want to know is aluminum case is better for cooling than steel case.

is there any case that is cooling and noise is about the amount?

 

[AristoV300]

Well Aluminum would be better for cooling, and it is a hell of alot lighter then steel to. Not really sure about noise issues between the 2.

 

[Algere]

I've heard somewhere steel (denser) > aluminum for noise & aluminum > steel for cooling. I suppose to have both noise & cooling, you'd want thicker aluminum.

 

[Tiamat]

Alumium Resonates much more than steel. Steel is much quieter. Aluminum is much lighter. Aluminum DOES NOT have any effect on cooling. Your fans are what cool your system, not your case. If you are relying on your case to dissipate heat, your components have already burned up. The only exception to this is the Zalman case that costs 1000$.

The only way aluminum cools better is if you use it for direct conduction of heat. The Zalman is the only case that does this. Every other instance, heat transfer with aluminum case is via convection and to a lesser extent radiation. The Heat has to travel through the air before it hits the aluminum. Air sucks at transfering heat, so whether or not you use aluminum or steel is negligable for heat transfer as the suckiness of air transfering heat is much higher than any benefit the metals could provide.

 

[HardWarrior]

Aluminum, especially magnesium alloyed versions, does indeed have better cooling properties. Steel is far more capable of holding heat and far less capable of dissipating it.

Read this.

 

[Zepper]

In the real world, there is no diff between steel and Al cases for computer cooling - the basic case design and fan deployment makes the difference. Steel cases have the advantage when it comes to noise - but the design is important too. Design trumps material every time.

.bh.

 

[Promethply]

The Case's design would play a great part in determining both the airflow through the case, which affect cooling, as well as the noise generated.

Usually, it's quite rare to get a case that is quiet and has very good airflow going through it.

 

[Tiamat]

Originally posted by: HardWarrior
Aluminum, especially magnesium alloyed versions, does indeed have better cooling properties. Steel is far more capable of holding heat and far less capable of dissipating it.

Read this.

You can't just look at the case material. You have to evaluate the thermodynamics/heat transfer of the entire system. The forced convection via fans is the main source of heat movement in the case and eventually out of the case.

The natural convection of heat through air to the metal is much "slower" than is useful. The forced convection overrides this seemingly minute natural convection.

Sure, aluminum CONDUCTS better than steel. But since the heat energy depends on natural convection to get to the metal, this conduction improvement is negligable since it is never seen due to the forced convection playing a much larger role than natural convection.

The point the article makes is that with a greater temperature gradient, heat transfer is improved. This is correct in a theoretical sense. Also, assuming the conduction of heat. Unfortunately, conduction is dependent on natural convection which is superseded by the forced convection.

Now, the place where the observation made by the link provided by hardwarrior holds true is for the cpu heatsink. The cpu heatsink is in direct contact with the heatsource and thus, conduction is the key player here. When the ambient temp around the cpu heatsink is cooler, your heat dissipates much better than if the ambient temp around the cpu heatsink is high. This is why we use exhaust fans to try to remove the heat energy around the cpu heatsink so we can maximize the benefits yielded by aluminum or even copper.

So, for example, the Antec 3000B when equipped with the same fans, is quieter than the Antec SuperLanboy for instance. If you were to eliminate the side panel duct work and cover up the vents, the Antec 3000B temps would be similar to that of the SuperLanboy.

 

[ribbon13]

Tiamat brought up a very good quiet steel case. The SLK3000B is very nice. Get a 120mm fan PSU too (preferably Seasonic) and you'll have a good start on a quiet system.

 

[imported_Kensai]

Aluminum > Steel, Overall.

 

[rickyman]

is there any other case except antec 3000B that has air duct on the side panel or rear panel.

 

[Zepper]

Any case that says it meets Intel's "Thermally Advantaged" spec should have a side duct. Lots of them on newegg have the duct: Athanatech, Evercase, most Antecs, Enermax even the cheap cases like Raidmax, A-top, Powmax etc. have the ducts or fans.

.bh.

 

[fireontheway]

The Antec 1650 is one of the many Thermally Advantaged Chassis available.

 

[Elfear]

I personally like the Chieftec/Ultra Dragon series cases. If you have the room they provide very good airflow and with the right fans wouldn't be too loud.

 

[The Pentium Guy]

Are the fans that come with these cheiftecs, loud?

 

[Concillian]

Originally posted by: HardWarrior
Aluminum, especially magnesium alloyed versions, does indeed have better cooling properties. Steel is far more capable of holding heat and far less capable of dissipating it.

Read this.

These statements are false, and your link even says that there is no difference in cooling with aluminum cases.

Alloying decreases conductivity, so pure aluminum conducts heat better than 'magnesium alloyed versions'. But you'll never see anything as structureal as a computer case made of pure aluminum unless the aluminum is pretty thick, since pure aluminum is pretty low strength relative to Al alloys.

As far as 'holding heat' aluminum has a significantly higher heat capacity compared to steel, but it conducts better, so it may seem like it doesn't.

Bottom line is that I don't believe the material the case is made of to be a significant factor in CPU temperatures. airflow design is a FAR greater factor such that the best steel case will FAR outperform the worst aluminum case.

 

[frank84]

i like aluminum better just because is not heavy.

componenets themselves are heavy enough, no need to add weight with metal case.

 

[IceWindius]

Read this and you'll understand why Steel is better all around

Steel vs Aluminum. The Real Story

 

[Elfear]

Originally posted by: The Pentium Guy
Are the fans that come with these cheiftecs, loud?

I can't remember if the case came with fans or not but I don't think it did. I just bought some Thermaltake Smart Case II fans and hooked them up to a fan controller. Very quiet when surfing or i can crank them up if I need some serious airflow. Otherwise I'd say get some decent, quiet 80mm fans and they should provide plenty of cooling.

 

[HardWarrior]

Originally posted by: Concillian

Originally posted by: HardWarrior
Aluminum, especially magnesium alloyed versions, does indeed have better cooling properties. Steel is far more capable of holding heat and far less capable of dissipating it.

Read this.

These statements are false, and your link even says that there is no difference in cooling with aluminum cases.

Alloying decreases conductivity, so pure aluminum conducts heat better than 'magnesium alloyed versions'. But you'll never see anything as structureal as a computer case made of pure aluminum unless the aluminum is pretty thick, since pure aluminum is pretty low strength relative to Al alloys.

As far as 'holding heat' aluminum has a significantly higher heat capacity compared to steel, but it conducts better, so it may seem like it doesn't.

Bottom line is that I don't believe the material the case is made of to be a significant factor in CPU temperatures. airflow design is a FAR greater factor such that the best steel case will FAR outperform the worst aluminum case.

Just saying something is false does not make it so. I don't have a bone to pick in this discussion, nor am I trying to justify the type of case I currently own. If I thought that having a steel case was in my best interest, I'd have one. FYI

We aren't talking about strength, are we?

No it doesn't. If you have two billets, one of steel and the other of aluminum, and heat both to 100 degrees, the AL billet will cool to room temperature faster than the steel, and with nothing more than natural convection.

You're free to believe whatever you want, Concillian. I have no interest in trying to change your mind.

So the paradox is that the overall system and CPU temperatures are not different in summer even with better heat dissipation: but in WINTER or in areas where the ambient temperature is cool, there might be a very measurable difference in system and component temperature in an all aluminum case.

I can only speak for myself in this, but my game rig doesn't sit outside. I usually keep my home at about 68 degrees. Add to this the fact that I have a performance water-cooler (with ample fans in support and operational roles) and you have a well cooled rig, housed in a quality AL case.

 

[uOpt]

Aluminium is quite a bit louder, depending on what kind of frequencies of noise you produce. Fan noises from inside are different that e.g. a whining harddrive. The latter sound is killed halfway effectively by steel and not much at all by aluminium.

Don't understimate weight. My gaming PC has 6 optiocal drives, 3 harddrives, 6800 Ultra soon with Zalman solid copper cooler, a Zalman PSU (heavy!) and a full tower steel case. That PC weights a fregging ton.

There seem to be two schools of thoughts about heat dissipation and ventilation:
- solution A (aluminium): have few ventilators and get rid of parts of the heat through a thin Aluminium layer
- solution B (steel): shield off PC case against noise and heat movement and put in enough fans

I am strongly in the latter camp. If you stuff up the PC with lots of high-quality 80mm or 120mm fans (I have panaflos) and then use low-noise VGA and CPU coolers you move a ton of air with very low (and pleasent) noise. Since I have lots of harddrives I appreciate that my steel cases eat that noise much better than aluminium.

 

[Concillian]

Originally posted by: HardWarrior

Just saying something is false does not make it so.

No it doesn't but the statements you made ARE false. Maybe you are confused about which statements I'm claiming are false

Aluminum, especially magnesium alloyed versions, does indeed have better cooling properties.

Alloying decreases conductivity: http://www.alu-info.dk/Html/alulib/modul/A00056.htm
Magnesium alloyed aluminum will have worse cooling properties than pure aluminum. Some common high magnesium aluminum alloys (like 7075) are almost half the conductivity of pure aluminum. Thus, the statement about especially magnesium alloyed versions is false.

Steel is far more capable of holding heat

Aluminum has a higher heat capacity than steel:
http://www.stanford.edu/~eboyden3/constants.html

Yes a piece of aluminum the same size and shape as a piece of steel will cool to room temperature faster, because of the conductivity and the lower mass (heat capacity is measured per unit MASS, but because aluminum is so much lighter, anything per unit VOLUME will have to factor that in as well)

My points are more on the technicalities of what you wrote, while you were thinking on a general scale. The world indeed works, I wasn't disputing the obvious... you just were incorrect on your explanations of why the world works.

The other thing is that you said one thing: 'Aluminum has better cooling properties'
Then linked to a site that had this to say: 'Aluminum cases do NOT lower system or CPU temperature'

Given the context of the thread, it is easy to interpret your first statement (aluminum has better cooling properties) as: 'Aluminum cases are better for your system temperatures.' However, reading your second post, it's clear that your intention was just comparing physical properties.

I guess the disconnect I see is who cares what the physics say if in the scenario we're discussion shows those physics to be an insignificant factor. And if you're going to discuss the physics of it just for the sake of discussing the physics of it, at least get the physics right.

 

[HardWarrior]

Whuh? What a load of disjointed crapola! You must be off your meds, huh? Find someone else to argue dumbsh!t with, monkey-boy. Like I said, I don't care what you believe or what straw-men you throw up to prove an argument that has n-n-n-nothing to do with the topic.

 

[Concillian]

I'm not arguing, just pointing out the mistakes you made.

I'm not sure what I did to deserve namecalling and personal attacks, but something I did seems to have seriously offended you. That was not my intent.

 

[HardWarrior]

Sure you are, and it honks you even more that I refuse to fuss with you about nothing.

Let me give you a hint. Not everyone responds well to being talked down to. Learn to speak to others as you yourself prefer to be spoken to.