Question about the upgrade case

[still_wolf]

Hello,
First of all, I apologize for the possibly stupid question and also for my bad English. But I'm working on an idea and I don't have enough information for it.

Now I have a SilverStone Raven RV02E with Core i5-3470, RAM 16GB, SSD 256GB, HDD 1TB, GTX 660 2GB for about 10 years.

I plan to buy AMD Ryzen 5 7600+ARCTIC Freezer A35, Kingston KC3000 1TB, Kingston NV2 M.2 - 2TB, (GPU maybe in the future).

I am considering replacing the SilverStone Raven RV02E with a Fractal Define C or Fractal Define 7 Compact with the hope of significantly reducing the noise. After all, after only 10 years, those fans must have noisy bearings.
I tried to download some applications for measuring noise to my mobile phone (although it is not at all accurate and optimistically speaking - indicative). In a room where there is 30dBa in silence, I measured approx. 45dBa around the PC at low load and fans set to low and approx. 55dBa at low load and fans set to high.
HWinfo now shows me max CPU temp 43°C, at max CPU load 73°C, AUXTIN2 95°C (no idea what that is but it has the highest temp on the MB) and the MB reports 29°C.
Does anyone have experience with a similar PC case change? I am afraid that my temperature will not rise significantly and the noise will not be very similar. The 180mm fans have a large air flow. But on the other hand, I think that if today there is a small empty space between the fan and the MB, then it might not be such a problem with 3x120mm. What do you think?

 

[P4-630]

Fractal Define C or Fractal Define 7 Compact

Maybe nice cases but no good airflow possible.
To keep your hardware cool I would go for a case with mesh front for better cooling.

Noise, depends on the fans you are using.

 

[dgianstefani]

If you think your fan bearings are gone, replacing the fans is cheaper and probably better than swapping the entire case, which will likely come with budget tier fans anyway.

 

[eidairaman1]

Keep your old case its better than the crap today, just replace the fans and youre set.

 

[freeagent]

The Torrent would be the case to replace that with if you were looking for killer airflow.

 

[still_wolf]

Maybe nice cases but no good airflow possible.
To keep your hardware cool I would go for a case with mesh front for better cooling.

Noise, depends on the fans you are using.

Thank you for your constructive input, I really appreciate it Fans are a source of noise. But noise is also affected by the surrounding material. If I made a PC case out of wood, it would be very quiet. The open front part allows noise to spread to the surroundings without obstruction. But Fractal Design has suction holes around (on the side) of the door. My current PC case sucks in air from below (i.e. the space between the PC case and the ground) and the suction area is not much different. This was the first one I verified. That's also why I considered buying damping material, etc., but it's not easy.

 

[eidairaman1]

Thank you for your constructive input, I really appreciate it Fans are a source of noise. But noise is also affected by the surrounding material. If I made a PC case out of wood, it would be very quiet. The open front part allows noise to spread to the surroundings without obstruction. But Fractal Design has suction holes around (on the side) of the door. My current PC case sucks in air from below (i.e. the space between the PC case and the ground) and the suction area is not much different. This was the first one I verified. That's also why I considered buying damping material, etc., but it's not easy.

And those suction holes would create more noise and be too restrictive on airflow compared to my case in my signature, gotta keep it cool.

 

[still_wolf]

If you think your fan bearings are gone, replacing the fans is cheaper and probably better than swapping the entire case, which will likely come with budget tier fans anyway.

Thank you for your constructive input, I really appreciate it New 3x SilverStone AP181 Air Penetrator 180mm fans cost 3/5 the price of the Fractal Design Define C or 1/2 the price of the Fractal Design Define 7 Compact in my country. 3x Fractal Design 180mm Dynamic X2 costs similar to Fractal Design Define 7 Compact.

 

[eidairaman1]

Thank you for your constructive input, I really appreciate it New 3x SilverStone AP181 Air Penetrator 180mm fans cost 3/5 the price of the Fractal Design Define C or 1/2 the price of the Fractal Design Define 7 Compact in my country. 3x Fractal Design 180mm Dynamic X2 costs similar to Fractal Design Define 7 Compact.

There are other fans besides silverstone, such as Corsair, Bitfenix, Thermalright, Thermaltake. Get online and look. They don't have to be silverstone fans, they can be anything you want.

 

[still_wolf]

And those suction holes would create more noise and be too restrictive on airflow compared to my case in my signature, gotta keep it cool.

The suction surface of the Silverstone RV02 is 2x(2.5x48)cm (2x the height of the legs and the distance between them). The Fractal Design Define 7 compact is 43cm tall and the width of the suction opening will be similar. If the hole was limiting the suction power of the fan, wouldn't there be a whistling sound (high velocity air, rubbing against the edges of the holes, etc.)?

 

[eidairaman1]

Sounds to me there is no advantage in going with the fractal then, just replace the fans and be on your way.

 

[still_wolf]

Sounds to me there is no advantage in going with the fractal then, just replace the fans and be on your way.

if it's the same noise then yes...

 

[claes]

Fractal can be quieter but at the cost of temperatures. The RV02 is one of the best air cooling cases ever, both in terms of performance and noise. The Define series is average or below average at best in terms of noise/performance.

Unless you plan on a GPU upgrade, where the RV02 might limit your options due to how long GPUs are now, I’d just upgrade the fans. To step back, are the fans making motor noises or is it just that you feel they’re too loud? You could as easily plug them into the motherboard for lower fan speeds and maybe resolve your issues.

If you want a new case the Fractal Torrent or Silverstone Alta seem like the logical upgrades, or maybe the LanCool series.

 

[#22]

Closed, sound-dampened cases in type of Define series are more about making your computer sound nicer than being quieter. They won't make loud pc much quieter. They also reduce or complety hide various noises, especially high frequency ones like fan bearings. E.g. Define cases are amazing in reducing coil whine. All of these nice features cost higher temperatures than you would get in mesh airflow case, but such one won't do anything with noise. The thing is, if you don't aim high-end, usually powerhungry components like 13900K or 4090, temperature difference between both type of cases would be negligible.

 

[still_wolf]

Fractal can be quieter but at the cost of temperatures. The RV02 is one of the best air cooling cases ever, both in terms of performance and noise. The Define series is average or below average at best in terms of noise/performance.

Unless you plan on a GPU upgrade, where the RV02 might limit your options due to how long GPUs are now, I’d just upgrade the fans. To step back, are the fans making motor noises or is it just that you feel they’re too loud? You could as easily plug them into the motherboard for lower fan speeds and maybe resolve your issues.

If you want a new case the Fractal Torrent or Silverstone Alta seem like the logical upgrades, or maybe the LanCool series.

Thank you very much for the information. Although I was looking forward to a quieter PC case, I happened to come across newer fans from Silverstone with PWM (in my country, getting 180mm fans is difficult). In addition, I forgot an important thing, which is to compare the air flow of 140mm vs 180mm, which is more than 2x (ie, potentially 2x lower revolutions and lower noise). I'm planning 2xNVe, so I don't need 3 fans in the PC case, but only 2 And I'll see how it will be... maybe I'll try to stick some vibration dampening plates (similar to the ones for cars). Thank you very much

Closed, sound-dampened cases in type of Define series are more about making your computer sound nicer than being quieter. They won't make loud pc much quieter. They also reduce or complety hide various noises, especially high frequency ones like fan bearings. E.g. Define cases are amazing in reducing coil whine. All of these nice features cost higher temperatures than you would get in mesh airflow case, but such one won't do anything with noise. The thing is, if you don't aim high-end, usually powerhungry components like 13900K or 4090, temperature difference between both type of cases would be negligible.

Yes, that was my first thought. Years ago I was considering a bigger investment in more powerful builds. Fortunately, I didn't and took a different route. But I was also surprised by the differences in the flow rates of 140mm (approx. 60-80CFM) and 180mm (new Silverstone 140CFM) fans, and it is with the big ones that lower speeds and even lower noise are possible It's a shame that you can't put 180mm in the Fractal Design Define C. It would be about something else But now I will replace the existing fans, even if it will be expensive. But the new ones are PWM and will be able to run at lower speeds. Maybe something better will appear in a few years ;-)
Thank you very much