Your case does NOT play any part in how much you can overclock.

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For my next PC, I'm definitely going for a silent case (/w noise dampening features).  Sileo (best price value), Hush (considered, but ended up buying my current case because it comes with a power supply, because my old one died) or Whisper (which I think looks quite sexy... but sort of expensive).  (Note: I like the simple elegant look, hate these fancy gamer cases with lights everywhere).

Reasons.
- The front fan is way too loud on this case, so I had to disable it.  That leaves just a big 120mm fan at the back (which is enough... really, put your hand at the back, and you'll know).
- Don't know why, but my 2 HDDs sort of "resonate" with each other.  Buzzing is annoying, buzzing with a repeated loud-soft-loud pattern is 5x more annoying.  Sort of fixed it by moving the HDDs around a bit, but that still doesn't mean they're silent.
- Also, I start encoding shit in summer, and the fan goes over 3000rpm.  Heh, overclocking on the stock heatsink/fan... the old crappy one too, not the new one which comes with P2s.
- I have the case on the table right next to me.

(12/08/2010 08:03 AM)Assassinator Wrote:  Your case does NOT play any part in how much you can overclock.

But it does help with overclocking stability if it assist in the cooling of the CPU... which is what I said. I'm relying on the Titan Fenrir for main CPU cooling.

And yeah, noisy computers are very frustrating, I'll take a look at those cases.

Edit: SPCR Recommended list: http://www.silentpcreview.com/article75-page5.html

(This post was last modified: 12/08/2010 08:30 AM by S7*.)

(12/08/2010 08:13 AM)S7* Wrote:  

(12/08/2010 08:03 AM)Assassinator Wrote:  Your case does NOT play any part in how much you can overclock.

But it does help with overclocking stability if it assist in the cooling of the CPU... which is what I said. I'm relying on the Titan Fenrir for main CPU cooling.

The case fans will never have enough power to directly assist in the cooling of the CPU (unless you have your fans going at like 6000RPM).

The only way it helps is by keeping the ambient temperature inside the case down.  And you really don't need like 7 fans to pull that off, I mean, even if you only had 3 fans instead, you won't see any difference in your ability to overclock.

It can have some effect with positioning (eg PSU at bottom to allow heat from CPU fan to easily escape), but probably not a whole lot.  Though ambient temperature does seem to have quite an effect - now in winter, my CPU doesn't go above 47C under load for long periods, but in summer, it can get to like 57C.  Case fans probably won't influence it still.
The case is more for looks and what it offers (noise reduction, dust filters, ease of managing stuff inside etc).

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Well, my case has a mesh front.  This is both good and bad at the same time.

Good - The mesh greatly helps air flow.  And allows me to keep the whole case cool with just a single 120MM fan at the back (I disabled the front fan beause it was too loud).

Bad - Mesh is good at letting air through, but also good at letting noise through.  Which generally isn't a problem (because nothing is all that noisy)... except for when I'm encoding stuff (perma 100% CPU strain) on a hot summer day (when it does get that noisy).


I blame the exceedingly shitty AMD stock heatsink/fan (the old model), combined with the overclock.  Either the new AMD model or the Intel model should be much quieter than that.

(This post was last modified: 15/08/2010 07:38 AM by Assassinator.)

I've found a case and a better deal on the graphics card, now last essential left is the €100 left for RAM.

(This post was last modified: 15/08/2010 09:28 AM by ProperBritish.)

(15/08/2010 09:28 AM)ProperBritish Wrote:  if you're getting an i7 you need DDR3, which you won't get a good amount of for €100

You can get around 4GB, which can probably last you a few years before you need any more.

(This post was last modified: 15/08/2010 09:41 AM by Assassinator.)

I'm willing to go a bit over ^^

Here are the Specs so far.

Case: Coolermaster Elite 430 - £42*
Monitor: Asus VH242H 24" - £188
CPU: Intel i7-860 2.80 GHz - £211*
Motherboard: ASUS P7P55D - £93
Memory: G.Skilll Ripjaws F3-16000CL9D-4GBRH (2Gx2) - £105
Cooler: Titan Fenrir Xmas Edition - £37
Graphics: XFX ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024MB - £117*
Storage HDD: Samsung HD103SJ 1 TB 32 MB 7200RPM SATA - £46
System SSD: N/A
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-B083L 8x BD-R & Lightscribe DVDRW/CDRW - £50

Prices from Amazon.co.uk - * Prices from Overclockers.co.uk

Total Price (as of 15th August): £885 (€1082) - Inc. VAT, Excl. Delivery

Edit: Just chucked in the Optical.

(This post was last modified: 15/08/2010 01:43 PM by S7*.)