New silent case designs

[Brakner]

With all the silent PC stuff coming on the market lately, why don't case manufacturers give you the option of a open rear exhaust on case? Maybe a grate or screen to cover it ( like the front dust screen on most cases ).

I have an Antec Solo case with 120mm Noctua rear and 2x 92mm Noctua front fans. I noticed when my Noctua fans were set to 1200 rpm that the only one I could hear was the rear one as it is trying to force 47cfm worth of air through a bunch of holes. I decided to "chop shop" the rear of my case and dremal out the area where the fan attaches. Much to my surprise in completely decreased that muffled sound that a fan makes trying to force air through a bunch of holes, plus it enabled me to turn my fans down to 800rpm as the area is now unobstructed....

 

[Sheninat0r]

It depends on how restrictive the exhaust is - on many Antec cases [which are designed to be quiet], they use very unrestrictive hex grills on their exhausts. Other cases may use more restrictive exhaust grills because it's cheaper or something.

 

[Zepper]

Probably is a bit more expensive to do a proper cutout (see rear of any Silverstone Kublai) than punch a bunch of holes as you'll need to make a special tool and die for that shape. It is worth it, IMO. Several have shown up recently with proper cutouts. Unfortunately a full cutout limits the choices of fan size to one. Cases can offer fittings for 2, 3 or 4 fan sizes with the more restrictive method.

Actually the Solo isn't bad at all with the hexagonal (beehive) grid with narrow walls around the openings and convexity away from the fan - less restrictive than a great many others. Take a look at this: Rosewill R5717. It's a wonder that fans in that abomination don't die almost immediately from such back pressure...

.bh.

 

[Entropism]

My Lian Li PC7 has a speaker mesh type filter for the front & rear, which I promptly unscrewed. It's now completely open (though with a generic chrome fanguard on the back I added for my cat's safety).