Quiet Cases Power Supplies?

[Bob Wills]

Any recommendations on ATX form factor cases and power supplies that are designed specifically for reducing noise? I'm thinking that mini-tower is the smallest I can go for the case, and I'd like the power supply to be between 375W and 420W.

Also, is the dual fan architecture used by Enermax mainly good marketing or is it significantly quieter than, say, something offered by Antec? I've been looking at the Sonata enclosure by Antec, but I'm not positive that it will do the trick. I was thinking that perhaps I would have to try out some of the acoustic absorption mats on the market, but I'd prefer to find a nice and quiet case that is ready to go.

If the components are unbelievably quiet, I'm also willing to spend whatever it takes.

 

[TexasOwnzYou]

go water cooling then

 

[Ags_EE]

I have an Antec Sonata, and it's pretty quiet, even with one of those damn squirrel cage fans and a GeForce FX 5900. Basically the trick is to not use the 120 mm fan that comes with it, and buy a quiet (Vantecs Stealths are decent) 120 mm fan to replace it. Other big sources of noise are the HSF, video card, and hard drives. Zalman makes lots of pretty quiet HSFs, and you can go with passively cooled video cards, or use the Zalman kit to make your vid card passively cooled, though Radeon 9600XT is about as fast as you can go and still use the passive video card kit. 5400 rpm HD's to get rid of the rest of the noise. It should be about as quiet as a decent watercooling setup, but it will run a little hotter.

 

[zzzz]

The new imac is supposed to be quieter than a whisper. They said the reason for this is they use three smaller fans that turn more slowly — one near the hard drive, one near the G5 and another as part of the power supply.

 

[wherzwaldo]

The new iMac is a laptop for your desk. Of course it's going to be quiet.

 

[BNB]

You will get alot more responses if you go to avsforum.com and post in the home theater computer section.

 

[dustin_c1]

There are several sites and forums around the net that are dedicated to quiet computing.

Oh, I don't have a good experiences with Enermax power supplies. Those things aren't nearly as quiet as I was led to believe. I intend on trying out Zalman power supplies next time around.

 

[Bob Wills]

Thanks everyone.

I'll dig in deep over at avsforums and experiment with a few different solutions. I have a HTPC box and a file/mail server that run 24/7 and are driving me nuts with their constant whining. Those Zalman PSUs have caught my eye too.

 

[jcdenton]

The Link is a good site dedicated to quiet PC's. Based on what I've heard RE: the Antec Sonata, it sounds like exactly what you're looking for. You can always combine it with additional noise dampening/absorption materials and quiet cooling components.