Quiet Cases

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Are there any good cases that are made to be quiet? I'm trying to convert my PC from the super loud powerhouse to a nice quiet but still powerful machine. The main things making noise right now are the 80MM fan on my CPU (it's pretty quiet, but not quiet enough, and if I turn down the speed, it doesn't provide enough cooling), the hard drive, and the CD-ROM drive. I have 5 case fans that are running at super low speed so they're almost completely silent.

 

[Blurry]

Have you tried water-cooling?
Quiet cases= quiet PC, but low performance

 

[BG4533]

Originally posted by: Blurry
Have you tried water-cooling?
Quiet cases= quiet PC, but low performance

Quiet does not necessarily mean low performance. It is pretty easy to make a quiet low performance machine, but when high performance quiet comes in, things get more expensive and difficult. Watercooling is a good, but expensive and complex way of making a quiet system, but it is not necessary.

The Antec Sonata and Lian-LI PC-6070 are designed to be at least a little quieter than normal cases. Quiet is also a very relative thing. If you are used to high speed deltas, anything under 30db or so is probably very quiet to you. I would personally consider quiet a system at or below 20dB (according to fan ratings, HD noise, etc).

Personally, I have lined my case with SonexMini 1" acoustical foam. It stops some of the vibrations in the case and makes a small, but noticable difference in the noise level of the case. The foam stops all of the high pitched whine from my IBM 60GXP HD. Windows often let more noise escape then say thick steel.

Brian

 

[AtomicDude512]

If you aircool, you Sonata. At least that's what I think.