Assembling the Nanoxia Deep Silence 1

While Nanoxia's Deep Silence 1 has a fairly smart layout and is reasonably convenient, there are were still a couple of hangups when I went to assemble our testbed inside it. There weren't any major issues, just a series of small annoyances.

The motherboard went in easy enough, but I would've appreciated a center-mounted guide post similar to how I've seen in recent cases (including BitFenix's Ghost), and I had an unusually difficult time getting the motherboard's I/O shield to snap into place. Routing case headers to the motherboard was also mostly easy, but there's nothing inside the DS1 that keeps the cables from slipping into the optical drive bays; you pretty much have to have an optical drive installed to keep that clean. Depending on how you route the cables and if you removed the top panel at any point, you may also find that the I/O hinge at the top of the case actually sticks. Nanoxia says they've already solved the problem, so hopefully if the DS1 gets to retail in the United States end users won't run into it.

Installing the optical drive and SSD was pain free. Toolless installation of the optical drive was easy and Nanoxia smartly includes toolless clamps on both sides of the drive; better still, the drive bay shields are similar to the snap-in ones that NZXT uses, which feature a locking lever. The drive sleds themselves are durable metal with rubber vibration grommets for 3.5" drives, but they're not toolless; both 2.5" and 3.5" drives need to be screwed into place. Thankfully the sleds themselves fit securely into the drive cages.

Getting the power supply in, on the other hand, proved to be more challenging than it needed to be. Nanoxia features two rubber studs that hold up the back of ther power supply, but there's no guide for the front of it, causing it to easily dip and thus requiring some Arm Fu to get the PSU lined up and screwed into place. This could've been avoided by just putting a slight lip inside the case to hold up the front.

The graphics card was also difficult. I'm used to having to bow either the bracket or the case to get everything to line up, but the DS1 required more force than I expected. This can be kind of a crap shoot, but it feels like the measurements here were ever so slightly off.

Thankfully, getting everything wired together was fairly easy apart from two minor complaints. The routing holes in the motherboard tray are all very intelligently aligned and spacious enough, and the grommets themselves stay securely in place. My only issues were the aggravatingly small hole for routing the AUX 12V line above the motherboard tray where I accidentally snapped one of the clamps after it got caught on a rivet, and the use of a molex connector for the fan controller instead of a SATA power connector.

Finally putting the side panels back on wound up being easier than I expected given the old style notched mounting system Nanoxia uses to lock them in place. They include a healthy amount of space for routing cables behind the motherboard tray, though they'd do well to consider dedicating cabling channels around it similar to how Corsair designed the Vengeance C70. Doing so could make the DS1 that much easier to wire and keep neat.

In and Around the Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 Testing Methodology
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  • kevith - Friday, March 8, 2013 - link

    Lol! :)
  • ShieTar - Tuesday, November 27, 2012 - link

    If the case would be made in germany, the export-cost would be negligible as compared to the 500$ worth of salaries going into the production.

    Like basically everbody else, Nonoxia are producing in China.
  • Egg - Tuesday, November 27, 2012 - link

    I agree. However, 109 euros is 140 dollars. Selling it for 109 dollars would actually make it cheaper in the US.
  • Death666Angel - Tuesday, November 27, 2012 - link

    As far as I know, MSRP for the US is usually without taxes (VAT). While in Germany all prices for consumers are with taxes included. It currently retails for 100€ which is 130 USD incl. taxes and 84€ excl. taxes which translates to 109 USD. Shipping costs will likely be similar from their manufacturer to the respective countries. So 110 to 120 USD sound very plausible, depending on how aggressive they want to pursue the US market.
    I personally haven't heard from them and I'm from Germany. :D
  • Grok42 - Thursday, November 29, 2012 - link

    I deal with international pricing of our product and you would not believe how much more expensive products have to be in non-US countries because of the government policies. VAT is obviously the largest issue which is typically closer to ~20% and built into the price rather than ~8% in US which most don't even pay if they order on-line. The other biggest price factor is warranty. Germany requires a 2-year warranty while the US only requires a 30-day one. Most manufactures include more in the US and use it as a competitive feature. That isn't really possible in much of the EU and everyone seems to have agreed to price fix and charge a lot for it. We charge roughly 2x the price in the EU as we do in the US between VAT and Warranty. The import duties and shipping are almost the same so they aren't a factor.
  • Dustin Sklavos - Tuesday, November 27, 2012 - link

    You'll have to take my word on it. I spoke with them about their MSRP and what they were targeting.
  • Azethoth - Friday, October 18, 2013 - link

    Amazon price: $105.50
  • Alexvrb - Wednesday, November 28, 2012 - link

    Well, in the quiet case department... personally I'm looking to get an Antec Solo II. It's just about perfect. Reasonably priced, too, IMO.
  • MyrddinE - Tuesday, November 27, 2012 - link

    I'm still sporting a four year old Antec Sonata case. This might be my replacement. My needs are quiet and spacious, so (unlike Egg) I appreciate a full size Tower without a full size sound.
  • crimson117 - Tuesday, November 27, 2012 - link

    Antec Sonata III user here!

    Buzzing front panel audio when using USB, no room to work inside, no USB 3.0 front panel (as with any older case), and that stupid door are getting pretty old.

    It runs well and fairly quiet, but it really heated up when I tried to use dual 6850's.

    Nanoxia, bring this one to the USA!

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