Hi Guys, Been looking at a new case and it's a toss up between the Zalman Z9 Plus (like the look from a pervious thread) Antec 100 (forums suggested) Antec 300 (2 previous builds) My question really is which is quiter, haven't been able to find any dB results for these cases to compare. it will be housing a q6600, gtx260 and antec earthwatts 500w non OC'ed Your advice would be much appriciated
As standard the Z9 comes with four fans whilst the Antec 100 comes with only two. Assuming that the fans are of average quality and the case has no sound proofing I would assume the Antec 100 would be quieter. Out of the two though I would take the Zalman Z9. Based on the pictures it has more features, better stock cooling (or at least more felxible cooling) and better general layout (more cable routing ability).
True, But the main reason for change of case is the noise the current Budget case it's been swapped out for and that has priority over looks.
Well i have a 300 housing an amd build and the 140 mm fan can be loud. If you want quite the two fans or at least the 140 mm will have to be replaced. What case d you have ATM?
Personally if it's quiet cooling you are after I would suggest spending extra and getting something like the Fractal Design Define R3. For the price it is virtually unbeatable when it comes to quiet cooling & future expandability (cooling and components). I have recently rebuilt my AMD setup into one and apart from when the GPU ramps up in game it is basically inaudible. I can appreciate that this essentially doubles the cost over the Z9/100 but it is certainly worth the extra. Once you start messing about with changing the fans in "budget" cases you may as well have bought a better* case in the first place. * I am not saying the Z9 / 100 are bad cases, merely that when it comes to silence there are better cases out there.
If i had the budget maybe, but as it stands any other cases that might offer better sound insulation? should consider instead.
Fair comment although the Fractal is "only" £35 more than the Z9 (£85 vs £49 the last time I looked) so it isn't *that* much more. I am not sure that there are any cases priced lower than the R3 which include decent sound insulation TBH. Sound insulation can always be added but again like the fan issue you may as well pay extra for the quieter case in the first place. I have had a quick read around and depending on who you believe the Zalman is either noisy or relatively quiet. Of course this isn't particularly helpful as noise is very subjective. I would say that the Z9 is geared more towards cooling than silence due to the inclusion of 4 fans (and room for more) but I simply don't know how good the included fans are. It does have a fan controller though which could be useful.
+1 for the R3. It does come with USB ports, has two (2.0) at the top, also comes with an eSata port and audio ports. Can get it for 'only' £78 at the moment from scan. So only about £30 more than the Zalman, but probably worth it if you are after some peace and quiet.
