Silence Case - anyone here own one?

[True North]

Does anyone here use or own a silence case? I am fairly handy and to be quite honest I want to build one of my own rather than pay what they are asking.

I would really appreciate a description of how the unit is built as the website has pretty limited pics. I am specifically interested in how the unit is vented. I am in the midst of building a beast and I need to make sure there is proper venting in the case.

I am also curious what type of fans he is using, the size etc..

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

BTW, here is the website if anyone is interested;

www.silencecases.com

[George Necola]

it's not necessary to buy one;)

1. look for a mainboard with a passive northbridge/southbridge cooling (these damned mini-Fans are extremly loud)

2. get a ZAHLMANN cooler for your CPU.

3. get a "be quiet" PSU

4. anything from coolermaster (the aluminiumstuff) works nice

I am happy, and its cheap.

cheers

[True North]

Originally Posted by George Necola

it's not necessary to buy one;)

1. look for a mainboard with a passive northbridge/southbridge cooling (these damned mini-Fans are extremly loud)

My motherboard uses heat sinks, no fans.

Originally Posted by George Necola

2. get a ZAHLMANN cooler for your CPU.

I am building a dual CPU rig (two dual core Opteron 280's ). I assume you mean the quiet Zahlman fans and not their liquid cooling system which is cost prohibitive - I would be better off to get the Silence case in that instance. I ended up buying 2 Thermaltake Big Typhoon fans. These things are huge and apparently move some decent air at 16DB.

Originally Posted by George Necola

3. get a "be quiet" PSU

Is that a brand (Be Quiet) or are you reccomending getting a quiet PSU? I ended up finding some great information on a site called Silent PC review ( http://www.silentpcreview.com/ ) . Lots of helpful reviews on that site. They rated the Seasonic PSU's as the best and I ordered their 500 watt version.

Which PSU are you using ?

Originally Posted by George Necola

4. anything from coolermaster (the aluminiumstuff) works nice

I just checked out their site, anything in particular that you are referring to? Did you mean the case? I ended up buying an Armor series case from Thermaltake which is an absolute monster. Because my motherboard is so big I had to get a bigger case.

Originally Posted by George Necola

I am happy, and its cheap, cheers

In addition to everything noted above I also bought two Silentmaxx aluminum hard drive enclosure cases for my Western Digital Raptor HD's and a Silentdrive enclosure for my 400GB storage drive - Total $175 CDN

I also bought four case 'noisless' acoustifans ( 2 x 90 mm, 2 x 120 mm) - Total $166 CDN

When you add up the other stuff;
Quiet Power Supply - $80 (premium over what I would have bought)
2 x Heat sink/CPU fans - $130

Grand total for quiet stuff = $551 Canadian

Compared to a Silence case = $805

Savings of = $254

If it doesen't work than I just spent an extra $551 for Jack - to be honest I consider my time to be worth some money. With the amount of time I spent researching quiet parts it would have been way cheaper for me to fork out the dough and buy the Silence case.

Anyways, if any one has insights on how the silence case is built I would still appreciate some insights , thanks.


P.C. - Did the Swiss mens olympic hockey victory over Canada making any news in your neck of the woods? You got some redicoulous goaltending out of Gerber, and a Canadian defector (Di Pietro) scored both of your goals !! I was pissed off watching that game - very painful. Oh well, we aint done yet!

[PlugHead]

Hey Rob,

I have one here -- (typing with baby in hand, so v e r y s l o w... )

the build q is good, but the dual fans (push/pull design) on the case still make some residual noise. much less than my g4 tho...

Elias is good to deal with, but - yes - you could make it yourself.

When my hands are free i could post some pics of specifics if you want ?!

regards,

[True North]

Hey Jay,

Thanks for the offer, take your time with the picture posts, you clearly have more important things to enjoy

I would really appreciate taking a closer look at the case when and if you get the time to post some pics.

BTW

My wife was an RMT who ended up teaching infant massage at a hospital in Toronto. It was through her experience at the hospital that we decided to use mid wives. I must admit I was skeptical at first, but the level of care we received from them blew me away, you guys made a great choice, it's nice to hear it worked out so well.

Congrats again.

P.S. - for those of you wondering what the hell we are talking about, Jay and his partner just delivered a beautiful baby boy the other day at home with the help of some friendly midwvies. Check it out;

http://gearslutz.com/board/showthread.php3?t=59829

[PT User]

I was originally going this route for my PC (slient case). I ended up water cooling my system. CPU and Video Card. No noise at all. Zalman Water Cooler

Not sure if it would work for your setup but its worth a shot. Its not dead quiet but close enough.

http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/...dx=63&code=021

Peace
Eddie

[PlugHead]

Rob,

I posted some pics of my silence case yesterday, and they were up on the site, and now they're gone: maybe lost due to the GS BB upgrade yeterday?

Also, I can't re-post them - there is no "manage attachments" prompt on this browser - any insight? Jules?

I guess I'll post 'em when this gets worked out!

[George Necola]

P.C. - Did the Swiss mens olympic hockey victory over Canada making any news in your neck of the woods? You got some redicoulous goaltending out of Gerber, and a Canadian defector (Di Pietro) scored both of your goals !! I was pissed off watching that game - very painful. Oh well, we aint done yet!

you should really feel pissed, the swiss normaly can't play hockey;)

em, If you scroll down, there is the attachment button. should work for you too.

cheers

[PlugHead]

Originally Posted by George Necola

em, If you scroll down, there is the attachment button. should work for you too.

cheers

Yeah, but not a on a Mac using safari - can see it on a PC with Foxfire/XP tho...

[mrbowes]

I thought about making a silent case for my not-so-quiet dell poweredge server, but then opted for 25ft extension cables for both of my monitors and kb/mouse. Total cost was under $100, and my computer is now in my closet and my room is noticably quiter.

[PlugHead]

Let's try this...

[George Necola]

nice!:)

congrat to your buzzaudio preamp;)

damned offtopic again.

[PlugHead]

Originally Posted by George Necola

nice!:)

congrat to your buzzaudio preamp;)

damned offtopic again.

Had that pre for about 5 yrs - you're better off congratulating me on my new (4 day old) son!

[True North]

Hey Jay,

Thanks for taking the great pics.

The trick seems to be with that black enclosed box on the end. What is the deal with that box ?

Any ideas on how it might work specifically?

Any insights and specifics would be greatly appreciated.

I have to admit that I got a pretty good chuckle out of the 25' extension idea - simple yet effective - it's got my brain going in a different direction - I like that!!

Cheers
Rob

[True North]

Originally Posted by PT User

I was originally going this route for my PC (slient case). I ended up water cooling my system. CPU and Video Card. No noise at all. Zalman Water Cooler

Not sure if it would work for your setup but its worth a shot. Its not dead quiet but close enough.

Peace
Eddie

The Zalman water cooler is ultra cool. I have been trying to get an opinion on whether or not one unit would cool off 2 AMD Opteron 280's. I spoke to some guy in Vancouver (Canada) who apparently does tonnes of mods and he said there is no way that one unit will be enough. I wish I could get an answer from someone at Zalman but I have had no luck getting an answer there either!!

[PlugHead]

Originally Posted by True North

Hey Jay,

Thanks for taking the great pics.

The trick seems to be with that black enclosed box on the end. What is the deal with that box ?

Any ideas on how it might work specifically?

Any insights and specifics would be greatly appreciated.

I have to admit that I got a pretty good chuckle out of the 25' extension idea - simple yet effective - it's got my brain going in a different direction - I like that!!

Cheers
Rob

The box you see (on the back door of the case) is foam: the 2 fans are a push/pull design: the fan on the bottom (lower L side, mounted a couple of inches above the floor) blows across the PCI/back of the chassis, and the one on the rear door pulls it thru the foam box, and blow the hot air out the vent at tht top. Simple design - anyone could make it.

However, I'm leary about ext. drives and the heat at the front of the case - there's not enough "good" circulation up there, and FW/USB drives would scare me. They could go at the back, but I worry for problems, as those buggers get hot enough as it is!

For my purposes it works. Anyone witht the tools and inclination could build one. If I had to do it again, I'd consider running a separate machine room, and using extenders. The ONLY drag to a machine room, is NOT being able to "quickly" access the computer/etc. tho there are workarounds

OTOH, I'd now prefer a large iso-rack enclosure, and it having 'excellent' circulation. There's always room for MORE stuff to help eliminate noise in the CR. THAT is what I'd be most interested in at this point...

Final say - it dropped the noise level in my CR. Then again, if you have anything like my hoover G4, you can build a PC with way less noise. Solid workhorse computers NEED proper cooling. If you can get them in a space well ventilated, you're set.

Good luck!

[PlugHead]

BTW,

I have seen a water cooled PC awhile ago - yes, it was pretty quiet, but there's still the drive's noise, and other attached drives etc that account for more than simply the case's pwr supply noise...

Food for thought.

[True North]

Originally Posted by PlugHead

However, I'm leary about ext. drives and the heat at the front of the case - there's not enough "good" circulation up there, and FW/USB drives would scare me. They could go at the back, but I worry for problems, as those buggers get hot enough as it is!

I was afraid of the whole circulation issue in this case, especially with computer that I am building. I have reviewed all of my options including the Zalman water cooler and I have decided to see how quiet the machine is without the Silence Case or any other new components.

I spent a fair chunk of change on quiet fans, Hard drive enclosures, Quiet CPU coolers etc.....so we are going to see how quiet things are with just those components. Worst case scenario, if it is still too loud, than I have a small room that I will stick the whole computer in and then buy the extension cables I need at that point, that will definitely do the trick.

Thanks Jay for the pics, they really helped me make my decision, thanks to all of the other suggestions, including the MrBowes and his cable extension idea - I sometimes make things too complicated, cheers!

Rob

[Jonathan Starr]

I lined the inside of the bottom left rack of my desk with acoustic foam, and pushed my G5 back about 6" into the lined enclosure. It cut the amount of perceived noise by a large amount.