best quiet case

S

springer

New member
Hello. First post here and first build. Thanks for the recommendations/support ahead.

Im shooting between the $1k-$2k range for my first build audio recording PC.
A few items to get me going--looking for a full size case quiet as possible.
What my research yields so far:

Silverstone TJ07--very pricey($300+). Some reviews claim so quiet couldnt tell if it was running.
Another complained about the noise. Hmmm

Antec P183 with fan upgrades (Akas Apache) half the price as silverstone. Many say it's the quitest out there besides fanless heatsink case for $600. Looks like the way to go so far.

Other items--

CPU: One of the Intel i7 quad core 3.4GHz but which one is best suited for audio recording ?

MOTHERBOARD: I guess depends on the CPU right?

HARD DRIVES: two Western Digital 1T 's (7200)? Is 1T recommended for both drives?

What I got so far:

Presonus Firestudio Project interface

Yamaha HS80M monitors

Rode NTK tube condenser mic. Read only good reviews so I went for it . $300 on ebay. Naturally after winning the bid the negative reviews materialize (mixed actually) too shrill...etc. Tube upgrade may fix. price was right though and it's a start.

thanks all:)
 
I guess the first question would be, can you locate the PC in another room or a cupboard? cheaper, easier, quieter, cooler than trying to build a quiet pc. I did try swapping fans but it's still noisy...
As far as the drives go I would highly recommend a solid state for boot / os 128 or bigger, fast quiet and reliable.
Plenty fast RAM

Just some thoughts.
 
Tetra, thanks for enlightening me on the water system. something to consider.
Bruiser, cupboards a possibility. Just did a little searching on SS drives. You suggesting just for the systems drive? Boot time is instantaneous right? They sound expensive though. Dont know anything about em yet. Perhaps in course of time I find I'll need three drives. System/recording/library.
 
I'm running a SS (128Gb) as my boot and OS drive, I keep this "sterile" from other programs, I have a 500gb as my music drive 7200 ATA and another drive for junk. This works for me. ALWAYS do regular backups onto something external of all data you care about.
The SS is not an instant boot (win 7 64 ultimate) but it is significantly faster, quieter and more stable.
 
I used to have a crappy PC that I was concerned about fan noise with. I recently built a new PC with a cheap $60 case. I really don't see the fan noise from it being of any issue at all. My silent, but deadly farts, are louder than the fan. I can get the model number if you like. Most fans these days, even on the cheap stuff, seem to be very quiet in my quite limited experience.
 
Get whatever case you like, which will accommodate all your components, and will physically fit wherever you need to install it. But buy one without a power supply, and then get yourself something decent, like a 0dB Seasonic. Yes it will be expensive, but I reckon that power supplies are sometimes an under-estimated weak link. You can kit the case out with some low speed large chassis fans for ventilation. Power supplies do die, and it is always inconvenient.
 
Thermaltake V3 is what I purchased. $40. Includes 1 blue LED lit 120mm fan, 2 front USB, no power supply. Definitely a cheap case, but surprisingly quiet.
 
Seasonic makes a nice heatsink cooled (silent) psu @ 460 watts - i believe - which should be plenty to power a daw. I built a few systems with the Antec Solo case. Comes with acoustic mat inside the case and a HDD suspension system, which - aslong as ur not moving it alot - completely isolates the drives from transmitting noise through the case. Aslong, as your not doing heavy overclocking, or running multiple hi performance video cards you should b fine with 1 120mm fan at the back aswell. Only xtra thing you would need is a nice quiet cpu cooler.

Id recommend the sandy bridge i7. no need for the k series, unless intending to overclock. But honestly the only gains you get with the sandy bridge i7 over the i5 is the hyper threading, which i am not sure how much daw sofware is written to utilize this efficiently. Best thing you can do for your setup is to invest in some good solid state drives, which will have the greatest impact on your system performance. A nice fast read speed for booting and loading sample lidbraries and something with a nice write speed for your recording drive.
 
I've decided to go with the Antec P183 case. Question: would the v3 model with USB 3.0 on front port be any advantage or should i go with the Firerwire . My interface (Presonus Firestudio) has firewire connectability.
 
You'll be able to add a card if you need USB 3 down the road so it's not really an issue. If it's only a few bucks go for it.
 
Usb front port on case is irrelevant of that feature or not. USB3 or Firewire capabilities are a factor of which mobo u pick. Just warning you, incase the mobo u picked doesnt have firewire or usb3 onboard and you think the case having the front ports will give you this.
 
thanks all! Ive decided to base my build on SweetWaters Creation Station XT: This will simply things and help get things rolling:
intel i7 3.06GHz quad, intel X58 mobo. I assume that's the i7 950. Not sure which Intel X58 mobo though and they dont specify on their site. The ports on the unit: 2 x firewire2 (1x back 1x internal), 2 x usb 3.0, 10 x usb 2.0, 2x eSATA, 1 x S/PDIF, 1 x LAN. This all seems very useful. Will this help clue in which mobo (or case) to select?
 
er...well...I was suppos'n I was going to connect it to the Presonus Firestudio interface...then to the PC.
 
Moresound, I guess your sayin the Rode will be the weak link with this setup right? If that turns out to be the case (as far as my voice/instruments go) Im open to recommendations. That link is easier to swap out than the wrong CPU or mobo. Is there a better tube condenser mic in that ball park? Got it for $300.
 
My setup is:
Antec DF-35 case.

i5 760 CPU with Corsair H50 water cooler. radiator is hooked up to the back fan that came with the case and the other fan that came with the cooler - as to give a push/pull cooling. Overclocked to 3.8GHz from stock 2.8. Some people have gotten it to 4.0GHz.

It's put onto The Gigabyte GA-H55M-USB3 motherboard. It has 6 USB 2.0 and 2 USB 3.0 and 1 firewire. Additional space to add another 6 USB 2.0 and 1 firewire I believe. Plus 2 USB 2.0 on the front of the Antec case.

Asus nVidia GTX460 - I have the 768MB model, but the 1GB model is what i should have gone for. Great for gaming, but not particularly needed as the motherboard can use the CPU onboard graphics for basic stuff.

Started with 4GB, but just upgraded to 8GB of Corsair XMS3 [CMX4GX3M1A1333C9].

3 Samsung 1TB Spinpoint F3s. One for main and gaming and basic stuff. 2nd for downloads. 3rd for music production and as scratch drive for other programmes.

Basic DVD writer. Most will do the job fine.

Powered with Corsair VX550watts power supply.

All that cost me around £700 [1 132.67 USD] and is even cheaper now.
 
A PIII with 250mg RAM under W2000 will do unless you're a power hungry person or running Vista or 7 which don't operate on less than a gig before you run a program. I remember my 1st PC running w95 which needed only 8mg to run smoothly, quietly & forever.
Get what you can afford with the best/quietest fans you can if you're using a mic, if it's a dedicated DAW keep it OFFLINE, if it isn't try a dual boot set up & a VERY GOOD anti everything prog like AVG SOHO and finally be tidy with your files - seriously - set up your file management system BEFORE you start to play with it.
Oh, Oh OH geta Tb back up drive and USE IT!
 
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