Hey, So I have a budget of £100 and seeing as the computer's next to my hifi I need it to be as quiet as possible, and as long as it isn't too warm inside otherwise I don't mine (I won't be overclocking) Is maybe the Fractal Design R2 the best one to go for?? Although the heat issue doesn't seem that good, would a couple of extra fans added on help with that or produce too much noticeable noise? Are there any other acoustic treatments I can do like use rubber washers on all the screws or anything? CHEERS edit: oh, and my setup is an ATX mobo (asus m4a79te or something like that) with a phenom ii 955be and an hd 5770
I think you may have answered your own question. The Fractal and a couple of good silent fans is going to cost around £100: http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductID=1120268 http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/120mm-Sharkoon-1000-Golf-Ball-Quiet-19-dB(A)-Case-Fan-367-CFM The hard drive mounts on the Fractal case already have rubber grommets to dampen the HD vibrations and the Sharkoon fans above come with rubber mounts. To be honest, this sounds like the best bang for buck based upon your requirements.
The Fractal design with extra fans really does seem the best route. Bit-tech even did an article on it: http://www.bit-tech.net/blog/2010/01/25/fractal-design-define-r2-follow-up/
Just dropped in to recomend exactly what's just been said and as others have pointed out, you have just about answered your own question there. Andy
to offer an alternative choice, though there's not much difference between the 2. there's the Antec P183
I have the Utgard & it's a great case for the price (I love it!) however it's not really wat the OP is looking for here. It has very little of the sound-dampening features that the Fractal Design R2 has so does not really fit his requirement for a silent build. Yet again it would help if you expanded on your point.
And with the extra fans you can always tweak their speed to reduce any noise too - makes a noticable difference with my sons Fractal-R2 and sharkoons
As the fan controller that comes with the case only supports three fans you might need to use something else to control the other ones. Either get a splitter cable on the fan controller, get an extra fan controller, or if you enough sys_fan headers on the motherboard you can always use these (Asus motherboards can control fan speeds from within the Bios with a piece of software called Q-Fan).
Motherboards to have fan controllers built in. It doesn't take the four-pin PWM-header to control the speed. You may not be able to control the individual fan speeds too precisely, but for me the BIOS-settings have always been all I need.
Do motherboards still use any other types of fan headers? I was just wondering that there might not be enough fan headers on the motherboard depending on how many extra fans he wants to buy.
I think you will be hard pressed to find a quieter case than the Fractal for the same price. July isn't it Bindi? Apart from the new colour choice, reset button and new motherboard tray covers, what else has changed? It would be nice if the hard drive bay/rack could be split to lose half the drive bays - it would allow better airflow coming in - maybe a mod in waiting...
Fair play. As there's zero indication of anything there, I may give up waiting. Given your comments about upgrade paths the other day, it might be better to just decide on the R2 and move on the next component I can agonize over for ages. Just quickly, I'm assuming the CM 690 II is not a worthy alternative given the title of this thread?
