Quiet Recomendations

[OhSnapWord]

A customer approached me about building a new rig for him. Among other things, he expressed that it needs to be silent.

The only case I worked with that enhances quiet is the Antec Sonata however, it lacks some features that I would like to see.

I'm looking for a case that offers good airflow, good cable management options and is overall quiet. I want rubber grommets for mounting the hard drive.

I'm also looking for some silent 120MM fans. For CPU cooling, I have my eye on something like an H60 or H80 sandwiched by a pair of silent fans. I feel that will give me maximum cooling performance and minimal noise.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Hameister]

Unless your customer is going to seriously OC, I wouldn't go with the radiators. When the CPU temps increase it forces the fans to 2,700rpm and they get kinda noisy, at least the H100 does.

Again if he's not a serious OC'er, the HAF 932 with the stock 230mm fans at 750rpm, move a lot of air and are very quiet. If a mid-size chassis is what he wants the HAF 922 would work as well.

You could go with something like a 212+ and a Cooler Master R4 on either side. When they are set to about 1,600 rpm they are very quiet, and move more than enough air for a mild OC.

Been using the R4 fans for years, no problem, and they come plain, or with LEDs, and are very inexpensive. Sometimes the Egg has a 4 pack for $19.00

 

[OhSnapWord]

Not sure if he plans on OCing. He is using the rig for AutoCAD 2009 and plans on connecting it to his HDTV. He was pretty adamant about the rig being as quiet as possible.

I think for the CPU, I'm going with an i5-3330.

 

[OS-Wiz]

With no OC, the stock HSF, using SpeedStep and C1 state, would be nearly silent.

 

[Hameister]

With no OC, the stock HSF, using SpeedStep and C1 state, would be nearly silent.

Yeah, I agree, I didn't know that the customer would be running totally stock. That's almost a foreign concept to me, ha!

Sure a case like the CM with huge slow fans, and a stock HSF is about as quiet as it gets, unless you want to add sound deadening material to the inside of the chassis walls.

 

[OhSnapWord]

I was thinking about something like the CM Silencio or the Antec Sonata. I have worked with the Sonata before but air flow and cable management leave much to be desired. Other than that, it's a great case.

 

[Hameister]

I was thinking about something like the CM Silencio or the Antec Sonata. I have worked with the Sonata before but air flow and cable management leave much to be desired. Other than that, it's a great case.

Sorry, I can't help there, as I have no experience with either of those chassis.