Quite Hardware

[ottoreck]

My HTPC seems to be getting louder and louder over the years. Probably need sto be cleaned as a frist step, but wondering if anyone can recommend any good ultra quiet cases. I know that there is a lot to do with fans and such. Looking for a good source to rebuild my box with a good case and such.

Thanks

[FidgetyRat]

Case wise, it doesn't really matter. As you said its all about the fans. If you are considering rebuilding a new system for sage, there are alot of newer mobo combinations coming out that are single fan or passively cooled specifically designed for HTPC uses.

I opted for cheaper components and went with an Ultra Firefly case, which kind of resembles one of the Schuttle cases, but is bigger and supports a full size MATX board. The case is pretty cheap and flimsy but fits perfectly on a side shelf in my entertainment center.

For the powersupply I opted to pay a few extra dollars and got a quiet low wattage supply (300 watts should be plenty for a HTPC). Generally the less you draw the cooler they run. My UPS reports my system is using 128 watts and that is for a 3 tuner, 2 HDD system.

For fans, just find the ones with the lowest operating Dbs.

[elaw]

Fans are a biggie, but hard drives can be too depending on age!

In the last few years, it seems the drive makers have realized that people don't like hard drives to sound like a 1960's jet taking off. They've become *much* quieter.

So if your hard drive is more than a couple of years old, a newer one might be helpful. Never mind all the additional space you'll get!

[Crashless]

You might be experiencing a fan failure. I would stick my head in the case and see what seems to be making the most noise.

I've had a ball bearing in a fan fail before and it started SCREAMING. Replacing the fan quieted the system considerably.

Other then that, I recently rebuilt using a Silverstone SST-CW01 case and it is much quieter than my last one (antec overture). It is very roomy and has great airflow. I've installed 4 x 80mm quiet fans and they stay running very slowly using my MB's fan control. Even with a passively cooled 8600GTS things run very quietly.

[omega]

I don't know if you're looking specifically for an HTPC that has to look pretty in a media rack, but as far as normal PC cases go, I couldn't be happier with the Antec P180 that currently houses my SageTV server. Antec just recently came out with a P182 revision that is supposed to be even quieter and better designed.

I have an Athlon 64-X2 4000+ with the stock fan, 6 hard drives (4 very quiet Samsungs and 2 reasonably quiet Seagates), 4 120mm Antec 3-speed fans at the "medium" setting, and an Antec NeoHE PSU. The only way I can hear the faintest whir out of that system is if I put my ear within a foot or less of the case. I also NEVER hear any hard drive noise, no matter how much activity is going on. I used to have a generic GeForce 5200 video card before I upgraded to the motherboard with onboard video (it's a headless server), and I couldn't hear the noisy fan on that card from outside the case unless I opened it up.

FWIW, I also don't have any temperature problems in this case. I use the BIOS option to spin the stock CPU fan down to a near-silent 8V and it still stays at a comfortable 38C.