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I mentioned a case on here a while back that has dual rear 60mm fans and people said to stay away from it, mentioning the noise. But a lot of other (supposedly high quality) cases that I've looked has dual 80mm rear fans. Wouldn't that be even worse as far as noise level?
What's wrong with 60mm fans?
Sun, 09/23/2007 - 11:31am
#1
What's wrong with 60mm fans?
Sun, 09/23/2007 - 12:15pm
#3
I would recommend that you spend some time over at silentpcreview, as they are the source for quiet computing information, however the page seems to be down right now.
I'm sure that it will come back up soon, and if I remember correctly, they have a pretty good primer on silencing that includes all the how's and why's. The site also spends a lot of time talking about and testing fans for airflow and noise.
Sun, 09/23/2007 - 12:46pm
#4
htpc_user wrote:
I mentioned a case on here a while back that has dual rear 60mm fans and people said to stay away from it, mentioning the noise. But a lot of other (supposedly high quality) cases that I've looked has dual 80mm rear fans. Wouldn't that be even worse as far as noise level?
I'm interested to know why you think dual 60mm fans would be better then dual 80mm fans.
Sun, 09/23/2007 - 1:40pm
#5
No, I'm not saying that 60mm fans are better than 80mm fans. But I was confused at first why 60mm fans would be noisier than 80mm fans. The response that one person gave regarding bigger fans are able to move more air without turning as fast makes sense to me. I'm having a problem finding a case that I like, looks-wise and ergonomically. When I start throwing out cases because of the size of the fans they have, it gets even harder. Many of the cases that I've looked at that I like have dual 60mm instead of 80mm. The only one that I like with dual 80mm is the Silverstone LC16M. Right now my top choices are the Silverstone, the Thermaltake Bach, and the nMedia 400BA. Each of them has things I like and dislike. I haven't really found the perfect case yet. Unfortunately, a lot of the cases that I like only will fit an M-atx board. I've thought about switching my motherboard to get a case that I like. The most attractive case that I've seen is the Thermaltake DH101 that I mentioned in another post, but it is not available in the U.S.
Sun, 09/23/2007 - 8:35pm
#6
Well, there isn't many reasons not to go MATX but if you really need an ATX case and you like Antec's Fusion (I love it, best looking case I've seen in a long time IMO) then you should know that they'll be coming out with an ATX version to replace their Overture line.
Personally, functionality is more important to me then looks. While I do want a case that looks good I also want a case that is well made/well designed (which is why I like Antec's Fusion and NSK24x0 cases).
For the Silverstone LC16, I don't like it. It's got a pretty face but it's functional issues. For one thing everything is cramped together on the front panel; you've got the DVD drive, VFD and the I/O panel all right there in the middle of the case. It looks incredible cluttered like that and, because of having the DVD drive right there, you have to be even more selective with the hardware you choose since you can't have a long video card in the system (the case would be better if they had put the PSU over by the CPU rather then on the other side of the expansion slots). With the limit on the video card and the potential depth of the DVD drive it really doesn't make much sense to me to make it an ATX board over an MATX one, it's easy to find an MATX board with a solid IGP. The LC16 would be nice as a server case though....
The LC20 on the other hand is a lot better: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163065
I don't really like TT's Bach, visually it's boring and the underlaying case design is terrible (especially for airflow). Visually I like their Mozart case more but since it uses the same case as the Bach it suffers from the same design flaws. Hopefully the DH101 improves on this.
Mon, 10/01/2007 - 12:12pm
#7
Something of an update, Thermaltake's DH series uses the same old crappy design as their other cases. It's just another pretty face....
http://www.dvhardware.net/article22131.html
Mon, 10/01/2007 - 3:37pm
#8
60mm fans can be quiet. If is more difficult to find a quiet 60mm fan, but with lots of searching and asking around on SPCR you can find them. Still, a couple of 60mm fans at a low enough RPM to make them quiet would hardly move any air at all. Maybe equivalent to a 92mm at similar RPM. If you have anything more than a 45W CPU and onboard graphics, the thermals would soon get out of control anytime you did something that required GPU and CPU. Quiet 80mm fans are easier to find, and dual 80mm fans move about the same air as a single 120, which should be enough for a non overclocked AMD 65W chip or a Core 2. A coulple years ago, before dual 80mm and now even dual 120mm cases existed, I got a dual 60mm case and in order to get it quiet, I had to cut out the back panel and rig up a duct to my $60 all copper 80mm Aerocool ht101 heatsink and totally bypass the dual 60s. It was a pain in the ass and now I've got a NSK2400 and would never turn back. It cost me $70 for a new mATX motherboard and I'm a much happier guy now. I wish I had the black fusion though. One of the best plusses for the antec cases are that they now come with very high quality power supplies that are both quiet, and high efficiency. How can you beat that for $100?
Bigger fans can move the same amount of air as a smaller one at a lower speed so they are quieter.