Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 Case Review: You Asked For It, You Got It
by Dustin Sklavos on November 27, 2012 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- quiet
- ATX
- Nanoxia
Noise and Thermal Testing, Stock
The Nanoxia Deep SIlence 1's cooling design introduces a few minor wrinkles into the usual testing procedures. I can't complain about the inclusion of an analog fan controller or the switchable chimney in the top of the case, but it does increase the amount of time spent testing the case. To simplify things, I opted to test the DS1 with the fans turned all the way down and all the way up, and with the chimney opened and closed at both fan settings. Even at their lowest settings, the fans do still spin, but I found myself incredibly surprised by some of the results and you may very well be, too.
Ambient temperature during testing was between 22C and 23C.
Temperatures with the fans turned all the way down are pretty poor, but if you max them out the DS1 easily beats the Corsair 550D and BitFenix Ghost. Pay special attention to how the DS1 ranks against the 550D, because if Nanoxia can get it out here at their targeted MSRP, they're going to be undercutting Corsair. What's really surprising, too, is that the DS1's load thermals with the fans all the way up are actually competitive with performance-oriented cases.
Fan speeds are reflective of the differences in thermal performance we saw. With the case fans on high, the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo and GTX 560 Ti's fans don't have to work nearly as hard.
And here's the haymaker. Even with fans turned all the way up, the DS1 is still quieter than every other case. There's an audible difference between low and high that's unfortunately beneath the noise threshold of my sound meter; at low the case can really only be heard in a silent room in the dead of night. That said, the fans Nanoxia includes with the DS1 are very efficient, as is the cooling design of the case. More powerful (and louder) fans could probably easily shoot thermal performance to the top of the charts.
I'd also like to point out that the DS1's chimney has a very negligible effect on thermals and noise, which is both good and bad news depending on your perspective. It's good news because it means that keeping it open won't appreciably increase the noise the case produces, but bad news because it doesn't actually contribute in a meaningful way to case cooling.
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abhicherath - Wednesday, November 28, 2012 - link
instead of:(similar to what BitFenix enjoys)I think you mean, bitfenix employs.
Great review!
stren - Wednesday, November 28, 2012 - link
Any interest in anandtech reviewing a CaseLabs case? I know real water cooling is a bit too "enthusiast" for this site, but still might be a nice to compare an SM8 with the Corsair 900D when/if it launches. Although I'm planning to do that myself anyway, it would be nice to see the professional/mainstream view also.LV3 - Wednesday, November 28, 2012 - link
I want this case! Hope it comes to the US soon, at least before Haswell.LarryDan - Friday, November 30, 2012 - link
Dustin: thanks for the "requested" review! It was very insightful and objective, and helped with my decision. I'll be buying one as soon as it becomes available at NewEgg; and BTW, I prefer the Anthracite version also.NewEgg just replied to my e-mail inquiry as to when it will be available on their Web site, and their response was "hopefully by Jan. 2013".
batguiide - Sunday, December 9, 2012 - link
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jjwa - Wednesday, December 12, 2012 - link
How much air intake is left from the front if I would put a 3.5" HDD in each HDD slide (and I would probably install 4 in the 3x5.25" bays too :P). From the pictures in the review I don't really have an idea how much space would be left around the HDDs. Thanks!amber03 - Wednesday, December 12, 2012 - link
After reading this review I built a home office/home server using 2012 essentials in this case. My boot drive is a samsung 840 and I have put in 6 x WD red 3 TB drives. Air flow seems fine and I am running it at low setting. Case is extremely quiet and cool.I used i3770s for cpu and there is no gpu installed.
vanwazltoff - Thursday, December 20, 2012 - link
at the end of the day its still what you like the most and what you get for the dollar. i REALLY like fractal cases and the fact that they are coming out with new cases and revisions and constantly make their products better is a very admirable quality. i have a define r3 an i love it, getting a node 304 for xmas. i would also buy a bitfenix ghost, if i had to choose between this case, a ghost or a define r4 id probably get the r4, the second choice would be the ghostDenniSys1 - Thursday, December 27, 2012 - link
Should be able to crowd source a silent PC system. It may not look like your PC. It should be 99% silent, and very cheap. There's nothing that dictates that sound baffling has to be dense and heavy. Airflow, aka cooling, does not need to be generated by noisy fan blades or even push air.There are lots of different materials to use for a case, and it does not need to be rectangular inside or out. Sound travels, so lets move it somewhere. Sound vibration that is put to work can be transformed into a melody, even a symphony, or it can be effortlessly extinguished.
Overall, a silent PC system should have been defacto 10 years ago. It is an engineering problem that does not require traveling faster than light. Throw a lamp shade over your PC for a second. It's already quieter.
qiankun - Tuesday, March 26, 2013 - link
One question: why does nowadays drive cages all facing side way, other than that it provides easier wire routing?For someone with a lot of drives (8 in my case), the side way cages will totally block the front two intakes. Maybe I shall stick with my P180 where drives are very well cooled by the front fans.