I'm considering purchasing a Fractal Design R5 to replace my CoolerMaster HAF X purely due to the fact that I want a quieter system. But, I was wondering, how much of a difference would this make?
Furthermore, I am also considering purchasing an SSD to replace my HDD, but I was worried that this would be alot of hassle to copy the data from the HDD onto the SSD, is this the case?
Thanks alot for the help.
I went from an Aerocool Sixth Element that was noisey, resonating and had a rattle I just could not track down to a NZXT H440 and the difference was night and day.
That said it is not silent by any mean but so much more pleasing. And once I have my headphones on it may as well not even be in the same room because I can't hear it anymore.
The change was due to the old case annoying other people in the house. We have wood floors and the vibration went down into the room below and around into the surrounding rooms. Now the case noise is very low and only in my room. I am happy.
The noiseyest part of a case will be the fans, the golden rule for silent cases is usually ditch the factory fans and buy in specifically quiet fans for your case. That will make worlds of difference.
Edit: yeah you could replace you HDDs with SSDs, but I find now they are properly isolated in proper cages with feet they don't make noise any more at all. But to copy the data is pretty easy. Just clone the drive. Although when I bought an SSD I took it as an opportunity to fresh install windows.
Remember ! It is not just the case that is important but also the fans and the rest of the pc components. Silent " cases " is more about the rest of the build than the just case.
So, would replacing my stock CPU cooler to a larger air cooler with slower spinning fans also help? The Fractal case comes with quiet fans, so that should be okay.
Thanks for the help.
yes definitely. The intel stock coolers can get extremely loud.
The most important part would be your fans and the RPM that they run at. That's the number one source of noise, obviously, and it would make the biggest impact. I've switched to a case with sound dampening recently and, from my experience, the actual reduction in noise levels is not the major selling point. What I mean by that is that the actual sound levels may remain similar, but what the sound dampening foam does is it lowers the frequency and muffles all the noise to a more pleasant deep growl as opposed to a high pitched whine (to an extent of course, a tiny fan spinning at 5000rpm will still whine in a case with sound dampening). What the fans are up against also seems to make a difference, but right now, with my fans up against thick radiators and sound dampening all over the case, all I can hear, even at 1400rpm on 120mm fans, is a nice "whoosh" of air being transported as opposed to whining or annoying fan noises.
Sound dampening is nice and it does make a difference, just don't expect complete silence or an absolutely massive difference just from switching cases.
Yes it would be a big help.
About that case fans though. I don't know about fractal but with the NZXT case even though is was a H (hush as in quiet) line case the fans were not rubber isolated. They sell isolated fans. Intact they sell the exact line of fans that come with the h440 but with better isolation and dampening. They do not ship the quietest version with the case. Which is strange as it was billed as a quiet case. Cost cutting is a bitch.
So make sure the fans in the R5 are actually silent fans.
Run your system with an open side panel and try to find out what makes how much noise (just rate it on a list). You can do some verification by exclusion with the case fans, just unplug one, and power the machine on.
3-Pin fans run at a set RPM, 4-Pin run depending on preset sometimes proportional to the CPU temp. If you have an intel with integrated GPU, remove your graphics card and then listen for the sound of the case. This way you get the idea what makes how much noise.
You can combine that noise test with stress testing (prime 95 for the cpu and fur mark for the GPU).
I found out this way that my GPU is the noisiest part of my system. Sadly it is something I cannot change at the moment (due to pricing), my next GPU will be low TDP and with a zero-db fan mode.
I have a fractal core 2500 for my secondary system and I had it at one point only ventilated with the PSU fan (be quiet PSU and 17 Watts total power draw), only THEN the HDD became really audible. So you are probably not going to have to worry about your HDD.
You can play around with the fan speed settings for your GPU in MSI afterburner (keep an eye on the GPU temp though) to see if there are certain significant points. At my system the difference between 48% fanspeed and 50% fanspeed of the GPU is night and day.
With your HAF case you might get away with ordering a bunch of fan speed reducers off ebay (they reduce the voltage from 12V to a lower voltage (can't recall if it was 7 or 9V). They are fairly cheap.
Bigger CPU cooler will also be helping. Depending on your CPU it does not really have to be very expensive.
Swapping out mechanical drives for SSD will help. I replaced all the drives in my tower a couple years ago with ssd's as price/gb dropped. I use a nas for bulk data storage so the noisy mechanical drivers are not sitting right next to me. It will also help if the case can fit 140mm fans. They can move the same amount of air at lower rpm so they will be quieter. I use a Define R4 as my nas case to dampen the sound of the 7 mechanical drives but it sits off in the corner so I only hear it if there's no other noise in the room.
I think my best bet is to get a R5 "silent" case, better air cooler for my CPU, and buy an SSD and some quiet case fans also. I think that should do the trick.
Disclaimer: i have not red anything in this topic, but the question itself.
Now to the question itslef: for me - pointless.
Now, R5 is OK case, not great, but its ok. I would not use it for two main reasons:
1. I like an open front intake, so air can get in easily. I can deal with the amount of noise, that comes out of the front.
2. I dont like the roof of R5.
Now, i have 5 case fans, 2 CPU Cooler fans, 3 fan GPU and the PSU fan. That adds up to total of 11 fans. All i hear from my fans is slight hum of the fans IF it is in the middle of the night and i have turned off my surround, because otherwise, the white noise from the sound system is louder. Now, all 7 case fans (and the cooler fans) are directly hooked up to 7V. They are all Fractal and Arctic fans. So do i really need a silent case? No. I can move those parts in a silent case, and that hum will be gone. But that hum is the reason i realized my fan controller was broken.
So no. Set your fans at 7V, use quality fans and you will not hear a thing. And you will not cripple your airflow.
My speakers don't produce any white noise and my surroundings are fairly quiet. My PC isn't loud but I just want it to be as quiet as possible. I believe that even with the slightly worse airflow of the R5, I think that the temperatures won't be bad even when under full load. I'm going to get larger fans so they rotate slower, thus producing less sound.
In that case, may I recommend my favorite silent case - NZXT H440. My guess would be you know the difference, but still. I think it looks better, even with top fans installed, it have great sound dampening, great cable management, comes with 4 fans, no fan controllers, but it has fanhub, lifght on the backpanel, for easier cable plugging and unplugging, no drive cage to rearrange, no optical Bay to waste space, so on and so forth.
IMHO H440 is a better case.
The front panel on the R5 blocks way more noise than the side panel for some reason... If I was out to buy any silent case I could, I'd get the Silent Base 800. If I was out to get a case in general, the Enthoo Pro is amazing.
The HAF X is a very noisy case. There's lots of turbulence going on around the front intake fan (due to the 120mm mounts and the HDD cage). It also has rather noisy fans even though they turn a low RPM (I believe the 200mm megaflow tops out around the 660RPM mark)
Get something like an R5 and just enough quiet fans to cool it. The 2 Fractal fans in the front are good, but a set of Noctuas optimized for static pressure will be better both in terms of air displacement and noise.
For the rear I'd go with something optimized for airflow, perhaps another Noctua since you're already putting 2 at the front.
If that doesn't provide enough airflow, get a 140mm intake for the side panel and a filter (no idea why Fractal didn't include one as standard).
Don't remove the modu-vents at the top until you're absolutely sure you need the cooling capacity, as every single added fan opening will reduce the case's noise dampening capability.
A good cooler will do miracles too.
On my own R5 I went all BeQuiet even though they're not optimal at the front because they don't have the static pressure to push air through the HDD cages. I ended upp adding 2 120mm fans at the rear of the HDD cages to create a push-pull effect. With the fans idling I have enough cooling and all I hear are the 8 HDDs.
So, you recommend me adding a static fan at the front of the case? What's the difference between a static fan and a normal quiet fan? And, do you not believe 2 120mm fans at the front, and 1 at the back will be enough airflow? Or will I need to add one to the side?
I'll only be using 1 SSD and 1HDD, so they won't need much cooling, but as for the rest of the system, I'm using a R9 290X, and an I5 3570K with a Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO.
With one SSD and one HDD, you may be better off with regular airflow fans indeed. What size is the HDD? If it's 2TB or less, consider getting a 2.5" HDD and mounting it on the back of the motherboard tray so you can remove both HDD cages.
Dual 120mm at the front and a single 120mm at the rear will be enough for most regular PCs, and 140mm ones are even better (the case comes with 140mm fans as standard).
However I'm not aware of your entire hardware spec, so I'd rather cover all options right away. If you have an old ATI furnace/card or run dual cards, dual 140mm intake and single exhaust may not be enough to keep everything cool.
I went from an Antec 902 v3 to the HAF evo. The 902 sounded like a vacuum cleaner at high settings. In the HAF I placed Apache fans and run them at full speed and they are inaudible if there is any conversation in the room and my temps are the same as before. Cpu cooler in both cases is the Noctua nh-d14 which is whisper quiet. The only thing that reveals I have a PC in the room is when my MSI GTX670PE's fire up under heavy load. Then it sounds like the thing is about to take off and fly out the window.
My bet is that I could have kept the Antec and just replaced its fans and gotten the same result.
The R5's stock fans (GP-14) are decently quiet and have a good flow.
But they tend to have some subtle vibrations, so maybe look for some appropriate rubber mounts.
Basically isolated cases are quiet because they go with closed panels instead of a bunch of mesh avoiding the direct spreading of the sound.
Insulating materials (such as foam) only absorbs a fractional amount of noise (and transfer to heat). Most of the difference is made by the thickness of the material.