[nanaholic]

  I need a new computer case that manages cables better.  I would be keen on finding some very quiet, yet efficient, fans to go along with it.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 
You should head over to silentpcreview.com and read their fan reviews.  Basically you should start looking at 120mm fans or above to replace the standard case fans which are usually 90mm (but the nicer cases today usually comes with something nicer), and the other fan to get rid of ASAP is the crummy CPU cooler which comes free with the CPU.
 
Also it depends on how much computing power you need.  If you don't need a lot an i5 Intel NUC is virtually silent requiring no effort to put together.  

 

[SunTanScanMan]

   
Interesting!  Been using an Antec 900 case for several years now with the fans on low speed.  When the refrigerator's compressor is off in the far corner of the same room, I measure about 54 dB (C-weighted, slow/1 second time constant) where my head is positioned.  Oddly enough, despite being very noticeable to me, the refrigerator only seems to add 2 dB of noise when the compressor kicks in.  It holds beer, though, so I forgive it.  Closed headphones help to lower the noise floor, but my Denon D5K (with custom pads and damping) are not known to be great for isolation.  Still, even 4-6 dB of attenuation is significant.  I'm probably dealing with just under 50 dB of noise while wearing my headphones in this room with the desktop computer running .  I normally listen at volume levels between 75-90 dB, though closer to 80 dB on average.  I can still hear a doorbell ring or my phone notification alerts. 
 
I need a new computer case that manages cables better.  I would be keen on finding some very quiet, yet efficient, fans to go along with it.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Agree with what has been said about bigger fans so far. I would add a caveat - I would avoid 200mm fans, as my experience with stock or custom fans of that size have either been too noisy, QC issues, or have not provided adequate air flow. The range 200mm fans are limited, as are the cases that accommodate them. Best stick with 140 or 120mm IMO.
 
Noctua fans are generally well regarded for the build quality and silence. Bit pricey, and their unique colour scheme is divisive to say the least (Though I think they have recently released black versions). I use the NF-F14 PWM (140mm) and NF-F12 PWM (120mm) and NF-F15 PWM (150mm). Although I haven't used them, their CPU coolers are also very well regarded for their cooling and silence.
 
Noise is generally caused by vibrations/movement noise of fans, but also turbulence of the moving air. So if the intake section, or the air flow in front of the fans is obstructed or non-linear it can increase the noise. So cable management as well as generally a clean build inside the PC is IMO important, and not just for aesthetics. Also the reason why I prefer to have cases where the hard drive mounts are removable.
 
Static pressure optimised fans provide a 'wider cone' shaped, dispersing airflow that are ideal for tight and obstructed enclosures and intake. Air flow optimised fans provide a more focused and linear air flow and so ideal for enclosures/intakes which are open and linear air flow is easier. I stick with SP fans always as IMO dust fiters are essential for the longevity of electronics, but present resistance. Most cases will have hard drive cages directly in front of the front intake fans. Also as long as you create a positive air pressure going in/out the case all should be fine imo.
 
Case vibrations can be minimised with feet like these or towels, and placing it on a study base.
 
---
 
Apologies for going off topic. This is a very interesting thread. I generally don't have anything to add to it mainly due to my lack of knowledge but I've nevertheless been following it for a while.
 
Edit: grammar

 

[sonitus mirus]

Great advice from everyone on the quiet PC options.   Thanks!
 
I suppose that bolting a 20" box fan to the side of my computer case is not the brightest idea. 

 
 
Looks like someone did this already.
 
http://www.envador.com/cases/PVCII/
 

 
 
Back to audio, I feel as if many people neglect to consider having a quiet environment as part of their audio setup.  Our ears adapt quickly, and I'd be interested in any studies that might have been done with regards to background noise and perception of loudness.
 
Does 40 dB music in an anechoic chamber sound like 80 dB in a normal room?

 

[SunTanScanMan]

I can't even begin to imagine the amount of dust that PC will collect in a week

. 
 
When you mentioned anechoic chamber it reminded me of this video:
 

 
I would presume that the sound dampening nature of the anechoic chamber will mean that your room is unlikely to sound like it.
 
Edit: Slightly related to the above video when the guy talks about hearing his heart beating. I underwent a pericardiectomy last year. Ever since then, the sound of my heart beating is noticeably louder due to having less tissue of the pericardium, insulating the noise of the beating heart. The heart it turns out is a very loud organ. I've got used to the sound, both psychologically and physically.
 
My guess is that for me, listening to music in an anechoic chamber would not be a good experience. There are perks to ambient noise.

 

[OddE]

 
When you mentioned anechoic chamber (...)

 
-I've spent considerable amounts of time in an anechoic chamber while a student (The chamber doubled as our microwave aerial test lab; with me majoring in RF engineering, I spent hours and hours tuning designs in there.
 
Short version - it drives you nuts. It messed with my balance nerves, making me dizzy and constantly feeling like I was about to fall. Sure, you do hear all sorts of noises from your own body - that didn't bother me much. What really got to me, was my inability to keep a sure footing in there. Bah.
 
The anechoic chamber is one of the things I really do not miss about my student days. Now, the ready access to world-class minds and test equipment, on the other hand - I'd really like to be able to spend a few weeks a year in my old faculty just to pick other, smarter people's brains.

 

[castleofargh]

because of my real long lasting discomfort to anything loud, I tend to go for maximum isolation(like etymotic deeply stuck into the temporal lob^_^), and I couldn't say it really solves anything sadly. those stuff are life savers when in a train or a plane, but in an already calm environment you just go too deep into silence.
same with going from a life in the center of a big cities to be now at the edge of a old isolated village.
 
in both situations I just adapt too fast for my own good. at least that's how I feel. with customs or really isolating IEMs I rapidly adapt and start hearing body noises(breathing, heart, the friction of the discs in my neck when I turn my head, some noise if I'm stressed and can't relax my jaw... stuff like the cable moving become a torture on the er4. the most quiet tinnitus will now be clearly audible if I listen to music really quietly.
I've come to a point where I force myself  to keep a loud enough music level(when I say loud it might be 55db) to stay above all those little noises. after spending all my life looking for ways to lower it and save my ears, I'm now troubled with the opposite because it works just too well ^_^.
 
same with the place you live in. when living on a main street in paris, with crappy 150years old windows. not once did I think that my computer was making too much noise. everything was so noisy at all time. now that I live in a perfectly silent place, the computer noise drives me mad, and I bought some little fanless crap to use for music/video and basic web browsing. I stopped using my mechanical keyboard I loved so much because the clics became a very dominant part of the ambient noise, and a lot of small stuff like that becomes a problem because it's so quiet and nice.
 
 
so my own experience leads me to believe that you need to find the right loudness but can't just go as low as you can hear, else something else is bound to ruin your fun.

 

[w00dman]

  Listening tests aren't difficult at all. They are only frustrating if you convince yourself you have to win.

They are difficult because you can't just do the casual listening. I mean you can, but that's not of much value.
I agree you don't have to win, but you have to make an active effort and try to isolate particular points of comparison.
 
Also they are difficult for me because I've never been much into audio.

 

[SunTanScanMan]

   
-I've spent considerable amounts of time in an anechoic chamber while a student (The chamber doubled as our microwave aerial test lab; with me majoring in RF engineering, I spent hours and hours tuning designs in there.
 
Short version - it drives you nuts. It messed with my balance nerves, making me dizzy and constantly feeling like I was about to fall. Sure, you do hear all sorts of noises from your own body - that didn't bother me much. What really got to me, was my inability to keep a sure footing in there. Bah.
 
The anechoic chamber is one of the things I really do not miss about my student days. Now, the ready access to world-class minds and test equipment, on the other hand - I'd really like to be able to spend a few weeks a year in my old faculty just to pick other, smarter people's brains.

To some that might sound like an agreeable night out.
 
But seriously, I would still like to experience a facility like that. I make do with the uni library where the silence is occasionally broken by students typing on their laptops. The scientist in the video seemed quite at ease, though the darkness may have helped. Did you not get adjusted to the place at all with time?
 

 

[OddE]

  To some that might sound like an agreeable night out.
 
But seriously, I would still like to experience a facility like that. I make do with the uni library where the silence is occasionally broken by students typing on their laptops. The scientist in the video seemed quite at ease, though the darkness may have helped. Did you not get adjusted to the place at all with time?
 

-An agreeable night out, pffft... That one almost made me spill coffee all over my keyboard!
 
Nope - as far as balance issues went, I never got quite used to it, and I went in there almost daily for the better part of three years.
 
I think my discomfort was probably caused by the way my eyes and ears gave the brain conflicting info about the room - any noise I made left no echo whatsoever, indicating a very large, open space; however, if I looked around, I was in a room some 20-ish square meters (225 sqft or so) large, with all sorts of visually disturbing acoustic tiles on the walls.
 
My dizziness got better in seconds if I closed my eyes - however, as we didn't have a fancy grating to walk on as in the video but just a couple of narrow (10-12 inches wide) walkways which were lifted out when critical measurements were to be made, I never quite took the chance at walking about with my eyes closed - would probably end up falling onto the tiles in seconds, causing all sorts of grief for the poor sods who were trying to maintain the room on an essentially non-existing budget.

 

[derbigpr]

   
Interesting!  Been using an Antec 900 case for several years now with the fans on low speed.  When the refrigerator's compressor is off in the far corner of the same room, I measure about 54 dB (C-weighted, slow/1 second time constant) where my head is positioned.  Oddly enough, despite being very noticeable to me, the refrigerator only seems to add 2 dB of noise when the compressor kicks in.  It holds beer, though, so I forgive it.  Closed headphones help to lower the noise floor, but my Denon D5K (with custom pads and damping) are not known to be great for isolation.  Still, even 4-6 dB of attenuation is significant.  I'm probably dealing with just under 50 dB of noise while wearing my headphones in this room with the desktop computer running .  I normally listen at volume levels between 75-90 dB, though closer to 80 dB on average.  I can still hear a doorbell ring or my phone notification alerts. 
 
I need a new computer case that manages cables better.  I would be keen on finding some very quiet, yet efficient, fans to go along with it.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 
 
As someone who had the Antec 900, I can say it's a POS. Once you try a really high quality case, you will laugh at how bad the Antec is in virtually every way, and how unintelligent the design solutions on that case are. It's a high airflow case, I give it that, but it's loud, nasty, ugly, low quality.
 
Now I had a Fractal Design Define R4 for about half a year, and my PC experience is totally changed (in the sense of using open back headphones near a PC). The case is virtually inaudible. Literally, I have to put my ear on the case itself to hear anything. My laptop is about twice as loud. The build quality is extraordinary, attention to detail as well...you have to see it in person to appreciate it, because on pictures it looks like an ordinary cheap case.  It's anything but. Panels have thick and heavy sound proofing materials on it, and on top of that, the metal used it very thick as well, the case is solid like a tank, just the two side panels weigh almost as much as the entire Antec 900 case. No flexing side panels or sharp metal edges here, and when you knock on the case it sounds like knocking on wood rather than like knocking on thin sheet of metal. It comes with two 140 mm fans on the case, and I find that to be enough and a great balance of sound and cooling. Use a graphics card with quiet coolers and a nice quality CPU cooler, and you can have yourself a PC so silent the only way you'll be able to tell it's on is by looking at the blue LED in the front.

 

[analogsurviver]

This is hilarious beyond extreme :
 

 

[vertical]

"Shoot the scientists."

I wonder how many marketing departments in tech product companies have felt that same strong emotion over the years. It's like a panel you'd see in an old Dilbert comic strip.

 

[charleski]

A quote lifted from Ethan Winer's book:

 “I thought cables didn’t matter, so I tried running my system without them. Huge difference!”     —Posted in a hi-fi audio forum

 

[thehoff]

   
 
As someone who had the Antec 900, I can say it's a POS. Once you try a really high quality case, you will laugh at how bad the Antec is in virtually every way, and how unintelligent the design solutions on that case are. It's a high airflow case, I give it that, but it's loud, nasty, ugly, low quality.
 
Now I had a Fractal Design Define R4 for about half a year, and my PC experience is totally changed (in the sense of using open back headphones near a PC). The case is virtually inaudible. Literally, I have to put my ear on the case itself to hear anything. My laptop is about twice as loud. The build quality is extraordinary, attention to detail as well...you have to see it in person to appreciate it, because on pictures it looks like an ordinary cheap case.  It's anything but. Panels have thick and heavy sound proofing materials on it, and on top of that, the metal used it very thick as well, the case is solid like a tank, just the two side panels weigh almost as much as the entire Antec 900 case. No flexing side panels or sharp metal edges here, and when you knock on the case it sounds like knocking on wood rather than like knocking on thin sheet of metal. It comes with two 140 mm fans on the case, and I find that to be enough and a great balance of sound and cooling. Use a graphics card with quiet coolers and a nice quality CPU cooler, and you can have yourself a PC so silent the only way you'll be able to tell it's on is by looking at the blue LED in the front.

 
+1 to the Fractal R4. I have 16 drives in mine and it is still barely audible. My UPS is louder.
 
Only thing better than the R4/R5 is a LianLi or CaseLabs.

 

[Ruben123]

New Q!!
 
How do you feel (some really have feelings about this topic) about using headphone amps? I see claims going everywhere, magical claims, and while I do not have a specially designed headphone amp (like I do not have special golden speaker cables .........) I do have some HiFi stereo receiver/amplifiers, a Behringer UAC 202 USB soundcard (with ´poor headphone amp´ ), a Sansa Clip + and a voodoo'ed Samsung GS1.
My IEMs and phones are driven very well at -30 dB (my hearing is excellent), even the power hungry Havi B3 Pro1. Which, to be fair is driven right out of the Clip+ at -22dB. My Samsung (which is a famous DAP with Voodoo ROM) can go up to +6 dB.
 
I can see that amps can give more power. Of course. But do they (magically!!) add soundstage? I have not heard any difference in soundstage, though small differences in sound colour (probably due to the impedance). I also can just not understand HOW it can add soundstage without effects, like DSP, crossfeed etc. I think it's placebo. Not sure though. It just adds power to the signal it gets. Ideally the sound ONLY gets louder, every frequency the same increase. Am I missing something or is it some myth?
 
OK yes Im also asking because ´ you cannot buy the Havi Pro1 without going for an amp too, otherwise you will be disappointed by the soundstage´ . I find the soundstage to be not that wide and deep, not specially so.