There are very few, if any, PC enclosures specifically designed for quiet computing. We are finally starting to see more and more cases now, however. One of the newest, and best looking cases is the Antec Sonata. In my opinion, this is the perfect case to start with when building a silent computer. If you already have a suitable tower to use, there are things you can buy that can make things quieter; I'll get to those later on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It looks rather unassuming, I agree. But it is built with us in mind; hard drive brackets contain rubber grommets to dampen vibration sounds. And rather than have a pair of loud 80mm fans on the back, a single large fan is used for exhaust. Coupled with one of the silent power supplies we talked about on the silent power supply page, nothing is going to stop you. NOTHING. You are going to have a VERY quiet PC.

The Antec Sonata II takes the original design one step further, by employing an integrated fan duct to direct air flow. It also comes equipped with a 'lower noise' 450W power supply. There are plenty of fan ducts, so you can customize the installation to make the Sonata II as quiet as you want, or beef it up for better cooling performance. It's really quite a versatile case, but I'd personally replace the power supply and exhaust fan.

Home Theatre Cases

If you're looking to build a silent home theatre PC, my single recommendation is the Silverstone LC03. It supports FULL SIZE ATX motherboards, and is well spaced-out to allow for ample cooling. I have a fanless HTPC system in one of these, and it's very reliable. Even with a fanless cpu (Zalman CNPS7700), fanless video card (Gigabyte X700), fanless power supply (Silverstone ST30NF), and no exhaust fans, my system has been pumping along without a hitch.

Silent Case Fans

Now that you have your silent case, you might need to install a fan or two. With all those components creating heat, you still need a way to expel it! While the Antec case comes with a single 120mm silent fan, you might want to keep your current case, and install a few silent case fans to keep things cool.

Ask any silent PC enthusiast for their recommended silent case fan, and 8 times out of 10 they will say "Panaflo". Panasonic's Panaflo is THE solution for quiet case fans; it is not only one of the quieter fans available, but it is known to be very reliable. This means that it will be quiet when you get it, and it will STAY quiet, for the life of your system. It is officially rated at 21 dBA, and puts out 24 CFM of air at that rate. 4 of these fans on a Fan Controller will yield sufficient airflow to cool your system, and will be all but completely inaudible.

So you're wondering what the other 2 out of 10 recommend? Most likely they will recommend the NMB Silent Case Fan. Some say it is quieter than the Panaflo, and prefer it. It is rated at just 18 dBA, and spins at a slightly lower RPM. It moves a bit less air, at 18 CFM. Either of these fans will suit you perfectly well - maybe buy a couple of each and see how they do for you!

Fan Controllers

Even when running the ultra quiet case fans I just mentioned, you'll still want to take full control of them. After all, if you're going to the most silent computer possible, you'll need to crank down the fan speed when full cooling performance is not necessary.

And that's where the Sunbeam fan controller comes in. Using it with the case fans, you can get them running at sound levels that are below our hearing capability. You probably haven't heard of Sunbeam, as they don't have the retail exposure of other brands like Zalman and Vantec. However, I am recommending this product because it is possibly the best fan controller around.

Other fan controllers may use  Pulse Width Modulation to control fan speed. This is a simple method of lowering voltage, and has the distinct disadvantage of causing a 'grumble' sound on some fans. The Sunbeam uses an advanced electronic circuits to control your fans reliably and consistently. The 4 LED's change from red to blue, depending on fan speed.

We're almost there - our PC is almost totally silent! If you've been following along this far, you've probably noticed that the quieter your PC gets as you remove fans, the louder your hard drive sounds. That's why we have an entire area dedicated to hard drives -check it out!