Hardware Arctic Cooling Silentium T2 Eco 80

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2008/03/16/arctic_cooling_silentium_t2_eco_80/1

We've all heard of green PCs - but what about a green case? Claiming excellent noise reduction and an innovative thermal management system, the Silentium T2 Eco 80 is a case which seems to have it all - but appearances can be deceiving...

 

Oh, boy

 

Riff-Dribble didn't work under vista?
Hmmm, seems to work okay here.

As soon as I saw the picture with the door opened, I cowered in Horror.
It also sounds like Arctic cooling are going back to the Ghetto with their Hard drive mounting ideas. What's wrong with a normal HDD cage suspended on rubber nipples or similar?
Even Krikkit didn't take to velcro-ing his hard drive in.

 

Even though I sense deep hatred towards the case, I'd still like to know how powerful the powersupply is. I don't know if the amount of drive bays tells anything about a computer being ultra super fast or not, either, but I guess that's just me. I wouldn't mind seeing a picture of the insides with hardware installed, just to see how crowded it actually gets in there.

Shame it turned out so bad, I actually like the outlooks.

 

Sorry, I thought Joe had mentioned the power rating in the article - it's 500W, but curiously called the 550F...

 

I actually like this case very much. It could be very good - with some modding ofcourse. I see it as a great LAN case, with the PSU in it's normal position, two 80 mil fans by the mobo (instead of that duct), a 240 rad in the bottom with the plastic stand modded to have intakes in the ribbed section and a different HDD mounting.

 

It works for me at home too, but for some reason all I was getting was a "Generic Application Error", which wasn't very helpful for diagnosing the problem. I check that the GPU was actually working and that the drivers were correct, but still no luck. In the end, upgrading the GPU test needed to be done anyway. I think it's probably just a small error in the registry or something.

I'm not sure if that's all possible - it seems very cramped in there and you'd have to move the expansion slots etc. Also, bear in mind that the PSU and it's plastic housing seem to be secured in place.

 

I still think it's nothing a little dremel work and some new metal plates (if really neccessary) can't fix

 

First of all the reviewer has by no means understood who this case has been designed for. It's not for the enthusiast who wants to put a ton of highest end hardware in it. It is for the office worker or casual gamer who just needs standard equipment.

Second, placing the PSU at the front bottom of the case has something to do with the overall thermal design. The plastic stand of the case has openings through which cold air is sucked into the case by the PSU and the other case fans (I don't know why Card Joe would want to mod them into the stand - the stand's entire purpose is to allow air to be sucked in the case through its ribs).

Third, if you want the case to be near to silent, you will have to use the proper coolers for the CPU and GPU as well. I am having the previous of this case both at home and at work, 64 bit CPUs and Radeon X800/850s inside. The CPUs are cooled with an Arctic Cooling heatpipe cooler (many people don't seem to like them, but I never had any problems with them). Actually the loudest component is the Arctic Cooling VGA silencer in one of the systems. My workplace system just cannot be heard - I have to look under my desk to see whether its working.

My cases also don't have that awkward fastening system for harddrives, but a solid aluminium casing where you drop the harddrive in. There's only space for one harddrive, but given who the case is intended for, and looking at the prices of 500 GB HDs, that shouldn't be a problem. The fixing system for addon cards is screwless and works nicely.

The case costs less than 100 Euros including a decent PSU and low noise case cooling. For that price I can live with a little black plastic. Personally I like the look of the case. I am preferring very sleek, elegant cases anyway over all that prebuilt modding fuzz (like the Lian Li Armor). My favorite case would be the Antec P182 with chrome finish. Apart from the probably justified criticism of the reviewed case's harddrive attachment system I have to say that the review apparently has been made with a strong elitist attitide that far and wide misses the point and the qualities of this case.

 

i was really hoping that was gonna be a good case, as its a nice low price too.. not realy worth it if you have to modify it to make it any good

 

What's the problem with the case temp being a few degrees above ambient at idle? Surely that's fairly normal.. certinaly my case behaves like that.

I mean.. heat is being produced in the case and unless your cooling system for extracting it is 100% efficent, it's always gonna be a little bit hotter inside isn't it?

..Or am I missing something obvious?

 

trash is trash is trash, unless a dremel is applied.


I expected that result, as you can only lower the price so much without some parts of the case having issues.

for cheap cases best one I ever used that had an enviro-freindly rating on it was the cooler-master elite 330. cost me $40, yet has good build quality.

 

Cant pollish a turd.

I had one of the older models and i was proper disapointed with it, everything would overheat, the "Cool" drive cage was placed right next to the PSU which didnt help, and it was a bit out of the way for wires. No matter how much tidying you got done inside the case it was still so tight in there for such a big case.
The no screws drive rails were a pain the in the arse as well.
The plastic on the bottom that held the case up turned brittle and broke to bits.

Loops now has the case. She can probably vouch for the build quality.

Although saying that, this new one looks ok to look at, but i can just sense the internals and build will be just as bad.

 

to be fair now i come to think of it. out of all the cases i've had and worked with, the antec lanboy 1st gen) has got to be the best i've used.

 

Yeah no one likes those rotwillers. Funky peice of goose this case be.

Why don't you Bit-Tech-ians make a mid tower case that represents your company? I think it be an interesting think tank with all the brains contributing tword an image of your work and philosophies.

China has stoped youtube!!! HorrorS!!!!!!! The Madness!!

 

Nature, on that idea, i would very much like the bit-tech to design the ultimate computer case..... or computer case line, from small to big and from wide to large.....

 

Temperature differences at idle aren't a huge thing - but a 5 degrees difference when NOTHING is going on is a bad sign. Your computer isn't doing anything, the fans are going full pelt, and it's still 5 degrees about the ambient. That's only going to get worse when load builds. Compare it to some other cases in the price range to see what sort of cooling performance you can get with a more standard set-up. The 690, though it comes without a PSU, is about the same price and a good example of this:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2007/11/29/cooler_master_cm_690/4

 

hehe the name? What on earth is silentium something has to be done about that before anything else.

 

Very impressive indeed, it actually cools the ambient air .5 degrees Just nit picking, isn't it lovely when it's 2008 and they still can't make accurate sensors for reasonable price. Personally I've been owned by the instruments as I claimed a case to be lighter with a PSU or something

 

So if they made hybrids that looked that good, more ppl would be driving them.