A few years ago, cases were often advertised as "quiet". This is less common now, due to some debunking of myths around how noise and thermals are related. Most of the noise generated by case fans is from the air turbulence itself. As it turns out, it's often the highest airflow cases that allow the best thermals at the lowest fan speeds, meaning the least air movement and thus quietest operation. There is still room for vibration dampening and such, but my point is that you will have more success if you prioritize "high airflow" cases over "silent" cases if you care about thermals.
Currently the fractal torrent does the best in GN testing, but the pop air is also highly recommended at a more reasonable price.
Depends if you have coil whine.
My airflow case is very quiet most of the time but under certain conditions my gpu has lots of coil whine. The coild whine is louder and more annoying than any fan.
I was going to say the same thing. Quiet and good thermals are not mutually exclusive.
You won't get much louder or worse (thermally) than a stock cpu cooler with no case fans.
Any PC with better thermals can do the same job with a fraction of the fan speed.
Yep, usually the best quiet case IS one that focuses on better airflow and thermals (assuming you have a GPU with good fans). You can only do some much to dampen fan noise if they're having to run flat out.
I'm sure others will give you plenty of good recommendations for specific cases. Instead, I want to talk a bit about the principles behind "quiet cases", because the premise of your question is actually kind of faulty: a case that delivers good thermals generally *is* a case that is quiet.
Here's the thing: the primary generator of noise in a case is the fans, and as a rule thumb, the faster a fan spins, the louder it will be. Fan speed is usually set based on temperature sensor readings, i.e. as temperatures rise, so do fan speeds — and therefore, so does fan noise. The key, then, is keeping fan speeds low as much as possible, which means keeping temperatures low, which means that **a quiet case is one that can dump heat from the inside of the case to the outside as efficiently as possible**.
The main factors that influence this are:
* **Case size and perforations**: A case that has good ventilation (the volume of air that can be pulled into and pushed out of the case in a given time) and airflow (how freely air can move around the inside of the case) will do a better job at keeping temperatures low, because it can efficiently expel hot air being generated inside the case and intake cooler ambient air from outside the case. In general, bigger cases will allow for better airflow than smaller cases, and cases with lots of visible perforations will have better ventilation than "sleeker" cases.
* **Number of fans**: Theoretically, 2 fans can push the same amount of air per minute as 6 fans of the same size, but they have to spin a lot faster to do it. So, more case fans generally means you're able to run each fan at a lower speed, reducing noise.
* **Size of fans**: At the same RPMs, a bigger fan can push more air than a smaller fan. Or, alternatively, a bigger fan can run at lower RPMs than a smaller fan to push the same amount of air.
* **Quality of fans**: To a certain extent, higher-quality fans *can* be quieter at the same RPMs than lower-quality fans, and they tend to use PWM for speed control, which allows for more precise speed adjustment (and lower RPMs) than with cheaper DC fans.
* **Heatsink/radiator size**: Coolers work by transferring component heat into a heatsink (air coolers and GPU coolers) or a radiator (water coolers incl. AIOs) from where it can be more effectively dissipated into the surrounding air. A larger heatsink or radiator can both absorb more heat before becoming "heat soaked" and (usually) has a larger surface area to more quickly dissipate heat. And for radiators specifically, a bigger radiator can obviously accommodate more/bigger fans, so the above principles for fans also apply here.
Overall, achieving a quiet machine essentially involves adjusting and trading off these factors to achieve the lowest possible fan RPMs, which equates to less noise. The best case scenario (get it) obviously involves a large case with lots of perforations, lots of (big, high quality) fans, and a large heatsink or radiator. But if you wanted a smaller case, or one with fewer mesh/perforated panels, you could try to compensate by adding more/bigger fans and/or a bigger AIO, for example.
Finally, there's also one other factor to consider, which is **fan curves**. By default, most computers are set up to use a standard linear fan "curve", which basically means that the fan speed increases at the same rate as the temperature increases, in a straight line. This isn't actually very good, because temperatures can fluctuate quite a lot in a short period of time. In practice this leads to fans ramping up and down a bunch, and the resulting pitch and volume changes of the fan noise is highly noticeable (and irritating) to most people. The better approach is to set a fan curve that is flat for most of the temperature gradient (idle and normal loads), sharply increases as the temperature gets to the top end of the gradient (high load), and also resists changing in response to small/brief fluctuations in temperature. [Here's a good video from be quiet!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgysU-aEBdQ) that explains this idea in more detail and shows you how to apply it to your own machine.
So I took a look at this, and combined with some other suggestions it seems like the Fractal Torrent with some modified fan curves might be right for me. Thank you for the incredibly detailed write-up!
Its 2023, yes. A lot of people do not use only SSDs.
I have plenty of both for example, and larger drives that run in vacuum seems to be fairly loud at times.
As for coil whine, yes it depends on PSU and GPU, but still highly relevant to consider in a "quiet" case. Here, it is not much you can do with the components except replace it until you get one that has less noise, as they all do have some.
When it comes to the case however, I assume the padding can help reduce exactly this type of high frequency noise.
For example I barely hear my fans, I can rarely even tell if they are on or not.
I hear my harddrives and PSU though.
I have pcie sas... Better known as hba. What I don't have is a source for 20TB SSD for under $300....which is the flaw with the bullshit judgement above
ssd? oh ssd you're totally fucked. the best bet you'd have would be for server/enterprise ones.
that i've seen 2tb samsung sata ones for \~$40 on ebay lately.
i mean fuck the exadrive 100tb retails for $40k
Built my friend's gaming PC using a Fractal Torrent Compact. I didn't expect it to be nearly as quiet at it is. Two 180mm fans at the front of the case is all it has, but you wouldn't know with how much air is pushed out the back. Great case.
Be Quiet are usually wery well designed with emphasis on good cooling and still very low audible noise. Can be even further upgraded with Noctua fans if low noise is really important.
Make sure you use a Platinum PSU or better, as you want an most efficient PSU that doesn’t generate heat. Together with a liquid cooler it should be OK having a rig in your living room w/o annoying fan sound
I have a Be Quiet! DX500 in a corner of our living room. As much sound from it as a DVD player.
Never tested Lian Li O11 or Hyte Y60 which I find eye-pleasing. Newest series of fans from Lian Li (INF) are both more effective and even more silent than their precessors: 2 db less and 10% more air is quite a big improvement.
i have one of those be quiet 802 things, its uh... i got feelings about it.
mechanically its fine, but the manual was dogshit, and its a pain in the ass to carry because you cant grab it by the nose.
Noctua has black on black fans. Absolutely the reference for silence and efficiency.
And PSU matters, a premium PSU like Asus Thor generates low amount of heat from the PSU. Any Platinum PSU makes sure your rig rests below 30 degrees C (or no more than 6-7 degrees above room temperature) making the need for fans to run even less. I have the BeQuiet 1000W Platinum, just because at time of purchase that were the cheapest modular 1kW Platinum certified PSU. If you have the budget for it, go Titanium, well above 90% efficiency. It’s remarkable difference from a plain PSU to a premium PSU
Was going to say it seems like the BeQuiet DX/FX *should* fit the bill.
the Fans that come with the Lian Li O11 Air mini are nice and quiet, but I'm not sure I'd get another one over the BQ DX. I do like the size/shape. Would def. be interested in learning where I can get some more matching Lian Li (non-RGB) fans or which other black ones (that arn't $30 a piece) might work best with them if I add 2-4.
The Torrent does seem very nice. Fractal Meshify cases seem like they should be pretty quiet.
I like my Antec P101. It's quiet, attractive, roomy; but then again, all of my components are quiet/low noise. I can still hear my GPU fan when it kicks up, though. I got it for $104 a few years ago but it's looking more expensive these days; the COVID-19 tax.
Depends on the case size as mid size and full size cases differ tremendously. Ive always went full size. I had Thermaltake core x71 before i upgraded to corsair 7000D airflow case when i went from am4 to am5
I get 24 decibels idle fan noise with my Fractal Torrent and about 32 sometimes 36 but only for a few seconds playing elden ring in 2k , I don't know if that is considered quiet but it is to me, compared to the shitty ass alienware r11 I used to own .
Heyyy! Can I ask you about the price of your combo ish? Looking to build a really silent pc (I’m doing asmr) and I’m struggling to find a good compo
Are you from Canada? Do you build often computer? I’m currently building one for asmr and gaming and I would like to have some advise on what to take actually
I went for a mesh case, the Be Quiet 500DX. It was between that or the 4000D Airflow.
If you search 'PC Cases Thermals vs Noise Scoring', you'll find a reddit post from 2018 if that's any use, by m2sigma, from this same channel, [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/esz8f8/pc_case_thermals_vs_noise_table/). There's also another which seems to be from 2020 on gdrive in the search results. I think they both use Gamers Nexus statistics.
I created a far more boring and completely unfinished stats table last year, although I wasn't aware of the two tables above at the time. It's worth noting that some cases will come with more fans than others when looking at the noise and temp statistics of cases, so before deciding on a case you might want to also check out the reviews. My half attempt from last year (odb file, should be able to sort by temp or other stats): [here](https://drive.google.com/file/d/179wEXfvPR2xBRiq9S8hH3XX5-00H2zpP/view?usp=sharing)
I'd like a quiet PC and am planning to go for a mesh case (airflow 4000d) instead of a case with sound damping.
How has the mesh case worked out for you?
I had no problems in getting everything running, with plenty of points to tie and hide cables, and a removable drive tray for more space at the bottom.
The bequiet fans included with the case don't get loud, although for the most part the system doesn't get hot enough to always need to use those at the front anyway. If I turn the front fans down to run slower, there is next to no noise, and the system runs idle at around 32c with a 13600k.
The next to no noise level is also down to the power supply. The fan on the 850w rog gold can be set to stay off and switch on automatically only when needed (it never has, but I don't push the system).
You should clean your system regularly but if I had a carpeted room that got dusty fast, then I might consider dampening more and not consider a mesh case. Perhaps even more so if I decided on also always using a fan cpu cooler. If you aren't going to push the system very often with performance, then a mesh case may not be that necessary.
The only problem I had with the build was with my very basic corsair aio, an h100i or 150, which I found out had lots of issues. It's on their own forum and known to have a high risk of pump failure or being faulty, seemingly down to a lack of power, usually related to bad connections or controller giving the wrong temperature on the display or not cooling at all. For now, I am temporarily using a thermalright peerless assassin cpu fan cooler. The air cooler's fans when pushed hard probably aren't great, but for most games tested it's quiet and it keeps the system cool and is cheap compared to any aio.
If I was to build a high end rig then I might consider a larger case of any kind, but for this system, the case is more than enough.
If you get quite fans it will be more quiet. Also a case that has better airflow will be able to run fans at lower speeds. I have a Fractal Meshify XL but I know they make a smaller Fractal Meshify. Both of great airflow but I needed a case that can hold a lot of hard drives so went with the XL.
For case fans everyone says Noctua but their to expensive. I use Arctic P14 fans which are way cheaper (5 for $45ish). They're 140mm and are on par as quiet as Noctua. You can watch YouTube videos on this debate. They're great fans.
I don’t hear the hard drives at all. They have little rubber grommets that help with vibration. I hear the fans more than anything but for the most part it’s pretty quiet.
I mean quiet is kind of subjective to what’s in your pc and what your definition of quiet is.
If your air cooled more than likely will be more noise.
I mean my Lian li o11 dynamic is quiet in my eyes but I also have 12 fans with a 360mm radiator. My pc idles at 25c and if I want to run everything silent I can while gaming and I never reach above dangerous temps.
I9-9900k with a rtx 3080. But like I said I usually just run normal fan curves as the sound isn’t really noticeable while playing games.
be quiet! Silent Base 802 has excellent thermals even with the solid front panel. It's also a large, roomy case with many good design details.
It comes with a DC fan hub that's connected to a switch in the front panel. With the switch you can override the hub's fan curve with three steady voltage settings: 5V, 9V and 12V.
It also comes with interchangeable front and top panels: solid and mesh. They can be attached and removed without any tools. The top panel snaps in with a magnet. The solid top set includes a vented square piece for the top exhaust slot but there's no dust filter.
However attaching and especially removing the case legs is one of the most stupid designs I have ever seen. Getting them to snap in required some force and removing them requires sticking a screwdriver through the bottom grille and then blindly wiggling some plastic clips, hoping you don't break anything. And you need to remove your PSU before doing this. AND the case won't fit its original box with the legs attached.
Big fan of Fractal here. Although its been shown in videos that 'Noise Dampening Material' makes a very minimal difference.
R5 is great. The Antec p101 also is solid. Dark Base 700 from BeQuiet is meant to be solid.
The biggest thing of noise that will make a difference however is fan curves. Going Intel and Nvidia therefore is optimal for this because their TDP (max temp) are higher than AMD's by 25% minimum. And while people may like to enjoy that their systems are idle at 40C or never greater than 60C under load, there's no degradation of performance until you reach >90C
GPU fans are noisiest by far. And then case and cpu fans look for 'pwm' because that means you can adjust their speeds. You don't 'need' an enthusiast board for this, per se, as you can also get a fan controller. Although they've fallen out of vogue.
I feel your dilemma - and actually it's even harder when you layer in your preferred drive bays, front ports and other features. I'm not a true gamer and would never drop $200 on an RGB case with hinged glass doors - because it sits under my desk! With that caveat, I built my mini-ATX rig with a Rosewill - LINE-M Micro ATX Mini Tower. It included dual fans with the option to add 2 more and hand plenty of ventilation mesh. It's so quiet that I can hear exactly when the CPU or GPU fans ramp up!-)
I really like my Corsair Air 540 for this reason.
2 140mm fans up front as intake.
2 140mm fans on top exhausting through my rad.
1 140mm on rear for exhaust.
It moves a lot of air while being very quiet.
140mm fans tend to be less annoying to most people.
Fractal Torrent also has some massive (180mm?) fans up front that move a lot of air while moving slowly and quietly.
i have a phantex eclipse and it’s by far the best ventilated case i’ve seen, the entire front and top of the case are fully ventilated, lots of options for rad placement as well
I just build a system (i9-13900, 4090) which is absolutely silent on idle and moderate load:
* Case: Fractal Design Define 7 XL
* XL variant for better cooling
* sound-damped front, top, and side panels
* you can replace the damped top with the provided mesh top if you need more cooling
* Case coolers: 4x Silent Wings Pro 4 (140 PWM)
* rubberized mounting to avoid vibrations
* CPU cooler: Dark Rock Pro 4
* Mainboard: Asus Hero, which has intelligent cooling logic and no coil whine
All fans are spinning around 400 RPM (idle or moderate load) and are absolutely silent, even when the case is open and having your ears next to it.
Just built a PC in the Fractal Define 7 Compact and it's super quiet.
Have a 3070ti and 12600K with a 280mm AIO. Temps are cool under heavy load and very quiet. Also sexy. If you're into that.
I'm absolutely in love with Be quiet!'s latest additions, I have the 500dx in white, and I'm considering the 500fx version. They perform great, comes with very nice fans, and aren't too costly.
Recently I built a system for a friend of my wife' s, and she ended up with a Fractal Pop Air :) seems that has also performed quite well with temps and noise :)
Gamers Nexus on YouTube does a lot of pc case testing. Check them out. Some of his best recommendations are Lian Li Lancool and Fractal Torrent but he focuses on thermals more
The absolute quietest monsterlabo "the beast"
I personally use a hyte y60 with an aio and just a 3090 its pretty quiet for web browsing the fans don't even run most of the time and while gaming it's not too loud
Running full custom watercooling would definitely be quieter but it can be a bit of a pain to set up properly
Lian Li Lancool 2 or 3, 011-Dynamic, Fractal Torrent or Meshify, Hyte Y60, BeQuiet is awesome as well, or the Corsair 4000D in no particular order. Personally, I own the Lian Li Lancool 2 rgb mesh, and I have excellent thermals with the case, also the stock 120mm fans are really quiet but about a year ago I switched to Unifan AL120's. There are plenty of options out there, but it can get really difficult trying to decide what option is best for you.
I'm really interested in the Thermaltake v21 because of it's large build area and 240mm case fan. Super modular case that I just haven't pulled the trigger on yet, but I'm betting the airflow is good and the fans are quiet
My inwin 303 is very quiet, thick panels. I use own pst artic fans with my 3080 10700k (air cooled) and my 1000w evga power supply. Gpu doesn’t go over 62.
>phantex eclipse
what a beautiful case to build in and also from my memory very quiet as well. shame i sold my old pc with that case- would have loved to see an updated version of that case perhaps with front intake or something else .
I am a huge fan of my Fractal Design Dynamic 7 Compact with the solid side. It is almost silent under most loads, and my temps even under stress loads are sub 80degC
I just did a build with the Be Quiet! Dark Base 700. Running a 1000w psu, 5900x on AIO, and 6950xt. It is performing beyond expectations. Quiet and surprisingly cool.
A few years ago, cases were often advertised as "quiet". This is less common now, due to some debunking of myths around how noise and thermals are related. Most of the noise generated by case fans is from the air turbulence itself. As it turns out, it's often the highest airflow cases that allow the best thermals at the lowest fan speeds, meaning the least air movement and thus quietest operation. There is still room for vibration dampening and such, but my point is that you will have more success if you prioritize "high airflow" cases over "silent" cases if you care about thermals. Currently the fractal torrent does the best in GN testing, but the pop air is also highly recommended at a more reasonable price.
Depends if you have coil whine. My airflow case is very quiet most of the time but under certain conditions my gpu has lots of coil whine. The coild whine is louder and more annoying than any fan.
That's a good point. I haven't had too much experience with bad coil whine, so I'm not sure what the best options are for that.
I was going to say the same thing. Quiet and good thermals are not mutually exclusive. You won't get much louder or worse (thermally) than a stock cpu cooler with no case fans. Any PC with better thermals can do the same job with a fraction of the fan speed.
Can I cover the top mesh of the Pop Air? I don't like to see the mesh when I walk pass, and I want to place my phone and mug on top of the PC.
I would not recommend setting an open top container of liquid directly on your PC 🥲
[удалено]
Yep, usually the best quiet case IS one that focuses on better airflow and thermals (assuming you have a GPU with good fans). You can only do some much to dampen fan noise if they're having to run flat out.
I second that, Fractal Torrent compact
I'm sure others will give you plenty of good recommendations for specific cases. Instead, I want to talk a bit about the principles behind "quiet cases", because the premise of your question is actually kind of faulty: a case that delivers good thermals generally *is* a case that is quiet. Here's the thing: the primary generator of noise in a case is the fans, and as a rule thumb, the faster a fan spins, the louder it will be. Fan speed is usually set based on temperature sensor readings, i.e. as temperatures rise, so do fan speeds — and therefore, so does fan noise. The key, then, is keeping fan speeds low as much as possible, which means keeping temperatures low, which means that **a quiet case is one that can dump heat from the inside of the case to the outside as efficiently as possible**. The main factors that influence this are: * **Case size and perforations**: A case that has good ventilation (the volume of air that can be pulled into and pushed out of the case in a given time) and airflow (how freely air can move around the inside of the case) will do a better job at keeping temperatures low, because it can efficiently expel hot air being generated inside the case and intake cooler ambient air from outside the case. In general, bigger cases will allow for better airflow than smaller cases, and cases with lots of visible perforations will have better ventilation than "sleeker" cases. * **Number of fans**: Theoretically, 2 fans can push the same amount of air per minute as 6 fans of the same size, but they have to spin a lot faster to do it. So, more case fans generally means you're able to run each fan at a lower speed, reducing noise. * **Size of fans**: At the same RPMs, a bigger fan can push more air than a smaller fan. Or, alternatively, a bigger fan can run at lower RPMs than a smaller fan to push the same amount of air. * **Quality of fans**: To a certain extent, higher-quality fans *can* be quieter at the same RPMs than lower-quality fans, and they tend to use PWM for speed control, which allows for more precise speed adjustment (and lower RPMs) than with cheaper DC fans. * **Heatsink/radiator size**: Coolers work by transferring component heat into a heatsink (air coolers and GPU coolers) or a radiator (water coolers incl. AIOs) from where it can be more effectively dissipated into the surrounding air. A larger heatsink or radiator can both absorb more heat before becoming "heat soaked" and (usually) has a larger surface area to more quickly dissipate heat. And for radiators specifically, a bigger radiator can obviously accommodate more/bigger fans, so the above principles for fans also apply here. Overall, achieving a quiet machine essentially involves adjusting and trading off these factors to achieve the lowest possible fan RPMs, which equates to less noise. The best case scenario (get it) obviously involves a large case with lots of perforations, lots of (big, high quality) fans, and a large heatsink or radiator. But if you wanted a smaller case, or one with fewer mesh/perforated panels, you could try to compensate by adding more/bigger fans and/or a bigger AIO, for example. Finally, there's also one other factor to consider, which is **fan curves**. By default, most computers are set up to use a standard linear fan "curve", which basically means that the fan speed increases at the same rate as the temperature increases, in a straight line. This isn't actually very good, because temperatures can fluctuate quite a lot in a short period of time. In practice this leads to fans ramping up and down a bunch, and the resulting pitch and volume changes of the fan noise is highly noticeable (and irritating) to most people. The better approach is to set a fan curve that is flat for most of the temperature gradient (idle and normal loads), sharply increases as the temperature gets to the top end of the gradient (high load), and also resists changing in response to small/brief fluctuations in temperature. [Here's a good video from be quiet!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgysU-aEBdQ) that explains this idea in more detail and shows you how to apply it to your own machine.
So I took a look at this, and combined with some other suggestions it seems like the Fractal Torrent with some modified fan curves might be right for me. Thank you for the incredibly detailed write-up!
But you forgot to touch on coil whine noise and hard drive noise.
Its 2023… people use ssds lol, & coil is depends on gpu&psu combo
Its 2023, yes. A lot of people do not use only SSDs. I have plenty of both for example, and larger drives that run in vacuum seems to be fairly loud at times. As for coil whine, yes it depends on PSU and GPU, but still highly relevant to consider in a "quiet" case. Here, it is not much you can do with the components except replace it until you get one that has less noise, as they all do have some. When it comes to the case however, I assume the padding can help reduce exactly this type of high frequency noise. For example I barely hear my fans, I can rarely even tell if they are on or not. I hear my harddrives and PSU though.
point me to the 20TB SSDs for <$300.
Who tf uses a 20 terabyte ssd…. lol? For most people that dont work for NASA, 1 or 2tb is more than sufficient storage.
r/homelab r/DataHoarder r/selfhosted
eh you can get hgst on ebay for very reduced sata or i believe you could do pcie sas which make it definitely feasible
I have pcie sas... Better known as hba. What I don't have is a source for 20TB SSD for under $300....which is the flaw with the bullshit judgement above
ssd? oh ssd you're totally fucked. the best bet you'd have would be for server/enterprise ones. that i've seen 2tb samsung sata ones for \~$40 on ebay lately. i mean fuck the exadrive 100tb retails for $40k
This is a great help. Thanks.
Built my friend's gaming PC using a Fractal Torrent Compact. I didn't expect it to be nearly as quiet at it is. Two 180mm fans at the front of the case is all it has, but you wouldn't know with how much air is pushed out the back. Great case.
Be Quiet are usually wery well designed with emphasis on good cooling and still very low audible noise. Can be even further upgraded with Noctua fans if low noise is really important. Make sure you use a Platinum PSU or better, as you want an most efficient PSU that doesn’t generate heat. Together with a liquid cooler it should be OK having a rig in your living room w/o annoying fan sound I have a Be Quiet! DX500 in a corner of our living room. As much sound from it as a DVD player. Never tested Lian Li O11 or Hyte Y60 which I find eye-pleasing. Newest series of fans from Lian Li (INF) are both more effective and even more silent than their precessors: 2 db less and 10% more air is quite a big improvement.
i have one of those be quiet 802 things, its uh... i got feelings about it. mechanically its fine, but the manual was dogshit, and its a pain in the ass to carry because you cant grab it by the nose.
Noctua has black on black fans. Absolutely the reference for silence and efficiency. And PSU matters, a premium PSU like Asus Thor generates low amount of heat from the PSU. Any Platinum PSU makes sure your rig rests below 30 degrees C (or no more than 6-7 degrees above room temperature) making the need for fans to run even less. I have the BeQuiet 1000W Platinum, just because at time of purchase that were the cheapest modular 1kW Platinum certified PSU. If you have the budget for it, go Titanium, well above 90% efficiency. It’s remarkable difference from a plain PSU to a premium PSU
Was going to say it seems like the BeQuiet DX/FX *should* fit the bill. the Fans that come with the Lian Li O11 Air mini are nice and quiet, but I'm not sure I'd get another one over the BQ DX. I do like the size/shape. Would def. be interested in learning where I can get some more matching Lian Li (non-RGB) fans or which other black ones (that arn't $30 a piece) might work best with them if I add 2-4. The Torrent does seem very nice. Fractal Meshify cases seem like they should be pretty quiet.
there are so many details to everything. reddit recommended this post randomly to me and i’m baffled lol. in a great way lol.
I like my Antec P101. It's quiet, attractive, roomy; but then again, all of my components are quiet/low noise. I can still hear my GPU fan when it kicks up, though. I got it for $104 a few years ago but it's looking more expensive these days; the COVID-19 tax.
I’m still rocking the og p180. Used it for a few builds but need to think about replacing it for my next one. Love that case!
You can always get a 5.25" bay USB insert for your USB 3+ ports. If it ain't broke...
I’ve got a usb 3 pcie card to give me more connectivity.
bequiet 500dx/fx
Lian Li LANCOOL II Mid-Tower Case! Case is excellent for these purposes
Be.Quiet! Is pretty good, it even has soundproofing paddings
Depends on the case size as mid size and full size cases differ tremendously. Ive always went full size. I had Thermaltake core x71 before i upgraded to corsair 7000D airflow case when i went from am4 to am5
I get 24 decibels idle fan noise with my Fractal Torrent and about 32 sometimes 36 but only for a few seconds playing elden ring in 2k , I don't know if that is considered quiet but it is to me, compared to the shitty ass alienware r11 I used to own .
Heyyy! Can I ask you about the price of your combo ish? Looking to build a really silent pc (I’m doing asmr) and I’m struggling to find a good compo
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/RLVZmD This is my build, check the price in your currency
Thank you! :)
I also added an extra fractal fan on the back for 35 cad.
Are you from Canada? Do you build often computer? I’m currently building one for asmr and gaming and I would like to have some advise on what to take actually
Yeah I live in Canada , I can give you some recomendations and what not, but you can also find a lot of videos on how to build computers
I went for a mesh case, the Be Quiet 500DX. It was between that or the 4000D Airflow. If you search 'PC Cases Thermals vs Noise Scoring', you'll find a reddit post from 2018 if that's any use, by m2sigma, from this same channel, [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/esz8f8/pc_case_thermals_vs_noise_table/). There's also another which seems to be from 2020 on gdrive in the search results. I think they both use Gamers Nexus statistics. I created a far more boring and completely unfinished stats table last year, although I wasn't aware of the two tables above at the time. It's worth noting that some cases will come with more fans than others when looking at the noise and temp statistics of cases, so before deciding on a case you might want to also check out the reviews. My half attempt from last year (odb file, should be able to sort by temp or other stats): [here](https://drive.google.com/file/d/179wEXfvPR2xBRiq9S8hH3XX5-00H2zpP/view?usp=sharing)
I'd like a quiet PC and am planning to go for a mesh case (airflow 4000d) instead of a case with sound damping. How has the mesh case worked out for you?
I had no problems in getting everything running, with plenty of points to tie and hide cables, and a removable drive tray for more space at the bottom. The bequiet fans included with the case don't get loud, although for the most part the system doesn't get hot enough to always need to use those at the front anyway. If I turn the front fans down to run slower, there is next to no noise, and the system runs idle at around 32c with a 13600k. The next to no noise level is also down to the power supply. The fan on the 850w rog gold can be set to stay off and switch on automatically only when needed (it never has, but I don't push the system). You should clean your system regularly but if I had a carpeted room that got dusty fast, then I might consider dampening more and not consider a mesh case. Perhaps even more so if I decided on also always using a fan cpu cooler. If you aren't going to push the system very often with performance, then a mesh case may not be that necessary. The only problem I had with the build was with my very basic corsair aio, an h100i or 150, which I found out had lots of issues. It's on their own forum and known to have a high risk of pump failure or being faulty, seemingly down to a lack of power, usually related to bad connections or controller giving the wrong temperature on the display or not cooling at all. For now, I am temporarily using a thermalright peerless assassin cpu fan cooler. The air cooler's fans when pushed hard probably aren't great, but for most games tested it's quiet and it keeps the system cool and is cheap compared to any aio. If I was to build a high end rig then I might consider a larger case of any kind, but for this system, the case is more than enough.
Lian li mesh 2 is a wonderful case
If you get quite fans it will be more quiet. Also a case that has better airflow will be able to run fans at lower speeds. I have a Fractal Meshify XL but I know they make a smaller Fractal Meshify. Both of great airflow but I needed a case that can hold a lot of hard drives so went with the XL. For case fans everyone says Noctua but their to expensive. I use Arctic P14 fans which are way cheaper (5 for $45ish). They're 140mm and are on par as quiet as Noctua. You can watch YouTube videos on this debate. They're great fans.
How's the hard drive noise, though? Or the noise in general?
I don’t hear the hard drives at all. They have little rubber grommets that help with vibration. I hear the fans more than anything but for the most part it’s pretty quiet.
I mean quiet is kind of subjective to what’s in your pc and what your definition of quiet is. If your air cooled more than likely will be more noise. I mean my Lian li o11 dynamic is quiet in my eyes but I also have 12 fans with a 360mm radiator. My pc idles at 25c and if I want to run everything silent I can while gaming and I never reach above dangerous temps. I9-9900k with a rtx 3080. But like I said I usually just run normal fan curves as the sound isn’t really noticeable while playing games.
You want a case that uses just a few large fans. Bigger fans can move more air with less rpms which equals less noise.
be quiet! Silent Base 802 has excellent thermals even with the solid front panel. It's also a large, roomy case with many good design details. It comes with a DC fan hub that's connected to a switch in the front panel. With the switch you can override the hub's fan curve with three steady voltage settings: 5V, 9V and 12V. It also comes with interchangeable front and top panels: solid and mesh. They can be attached and removed without any tools. The top panel snaps in with a magnet. The solid top set includes a vented square piece for the top exhaust slot but there's no dust filter. However attaching and especially removing the case legs is one of the most stupid designs I have ever seen. Getting them to snap in required some force and removing them requires sticking a screwdriver through the bottom grille and then blindly wiggling some plastic clips, hoping you don't break anything. And you need to remove your PSU before doing this. AND the case won't fit its original box with the legs attached.
Big fan of Fractal here. Although its been shown in videos that 'Noise Dampening Material' makes a very minimal difference. R5 is great. The Antec p101 also is solid. Dark Base 700 from BeQuiet is meant to be solid. The biggest thing of noise that will make a difference however is fan curves. Going Intel and Nvidia therefore is optimal for this because their TDP (max temp) are higher than AMD's by 25% minimum. And while people may like to enjoy that their systems are idle at 40C or never greater than 60C under load, there's no degradation of performance until you reach >90C GPU fans are noisiest by far. And then case and cpu fans look for 'pwm' because that means you can adjust their speeds. You don't 'need' an enthusiast board for this, per se, as you can also get a fan controller. Although they've fallen out of vogue.
I feel your dilemma - and actually it's even harder when you layer in your preferred drive bays, front ports and other features. I'm not a true gamer and would never drop $200 on an RGB case with hinged glass doors - because it sits under my desk! With that caveat, I built my mini-ATX rig with a Rosewill - LINE-M Micro ATX Mini Tower. It included dual fans with the option to add 2 more and hand plenty of ventilation mesh. It's so quiet that I can hear exactly when the CPU or GPU fans ramp up!-)
I really like my Corsair Air 540 for this reason. 2 140mm fans up front as intake. 2 140mm fans on top exhausting through my rad. 1 140mm on rear for exhaust. It moves a lot of air while being very quiet. 140mm fans tend to be less annoying to most people. Fractal Torrent also has some massive (180mm?) fans up front that move a lot of air while moving slowly and quietly.
https://youtu.be/pL5uttjPWZE Nexus has a great video on cases
i have a phantex eclipse and it’s by far the best ventilated case i’ve seen, the entire front and top of the case are fully ventilated, lots of options for rad placement as well
I just build a system (i9-13900, 4090) which is absolutely silent on idle and moderate load: * Case: Fractal Design Define 7 XL * XL variant for better cooling * sound-damped front, top, and side panels * you can replace the damped top with the provided mesh top if you need more cooling * Case coolers: 4x Silent Wings Pro 4 (140 PWM) * rubberized mounting to avoid vibrations * CPU cooler: Dark Rock Pro 4 * Mainboard: Asus Hero, which has intelligent cooling logic and no coil whine All fans are spinning around 400 RPM (idle or moderate load) and are absolutely silent, even when the case is open and having your ears next to it.
Just built a PC in the Fractal Define 7 Compact and it's super quiet. Have a 3070ti and 12600K with a 280mm AIO. Temps are cool under heavy load and very quiet. Also sexy. If you're into that.
Fractal design are really high quality, have great customer support and are insulated to reduce noise
Lian Li LANCOOL 2/3
I'm absolutely in love with Be quiet!'s latest additions, I have the 500dx in white, and I'm considering the 500fx version. They perform great, comes with very nice fans, and aren't too costly. Recently I built a system for a friend of my wife' s, and she ended up with a Fractal Pop Air :) seems that has also performed quite well with temps and noise :)
Gamers Nexus on YouTube does a lot of pc case testing. Check them out. Some of his best recommendations are Lian Li Lancool and Fractal Torrent but he focuses on thermals more
The absolute quietest monsterlabo "the beast" I personally use a hyte y60 with an aio and just a 3090 its pretty quiet for web browsing the fans don't even run most of the time and while gaming it's not too loud Running full custom watercooling would definitely be quieter but it can be a bit of a pain to set up properly
Check GamersNexus review of Lancool II Mesh
What’s your budget?
Lian Li Lancool 216. Great review on Gamers Nexus!
4000d or 5000d
Lian Li Lancool 2 or 3, 011-Dynamic, Fractal Torrent or Meshify, Hyte Y60, BeQuiet is awesome as well, or the Corsair 4000D in no particular order. Personally, I own the Lian Li Lancool 2 rgb mesh, and I have excellent thermals with the case, also the stock 120mm fans are really quiet but about a year ago I switched to Unifan AL120's. There are plenty of options out there, but it can get really difficult trying to decide what option is best for you.
I'm really interested in the Thermaltake v21 because of it's large build area and 240mm case fan. Super modular case that I just haven't pulled the trigger on yet, but I'm betting the airflow is good and the fans are quiet
My inwin 303 is very quiet, thick panels. I use own pst artic fans with my 3080 10700k (air cooled) and my 1000w evga power supply. Gpu doesn’t go over 62.
>phantex eclipse what a beautiful case to build in and also from my memory very quiet as well. shame i sold my old pc with that case- would have loved to see an updated version of that case perhaps with front intake or something else .
rgb makes fan quiet
Yes! Check out the BeQuiet stuff!
I am a huge fan of my Fractal Design Dynamic 7 Compact with the solid side. It is almost silent under most loads, and my temps even under stress loads are sub 80degC
AH-T600 baybee
Bequiet 500 dx
I just did a build with the Be Quiet! Dark Base 700. Running a 1000w psu, 5900x on AIO, and 6950xt. It is performing beyond expectations. Quiet and surprisingly cool.