Nanoxia Deep Silence 2 Case Review: Trimming the Fat
by Dustin Sklavos on February 14, 2013 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- quiet
- ATX
- Nanoxia
Assembling the Nanoxia Deep Silence 2
Apart from the accursed side panels, the Nanoxia Deep Silence 2 remains a fairly pleasant, easily assembled enclosure. There are definitely some small conveniences missing, but by and large Nanoxia's engineers continue to do right by the end user.
Disappointingly, Nanoxia doesn't include any extrusions on the motherboard tray, pre-installed standoffs, or an alignment stud the way a lot of modern enclosures have begun doing. This is a minor grievance but still annoying, as you'll be required to install all of the standoffs yourself. Connecting the motherboard headers remains easy, though, as Nanoxia smartly includes cable routing holes both near the cable bundle at the top of the case and between the motherboard and the power supply.
.jpg)
Installing drives continues to be a fairly painless process. The toolless clamps used for the 5.25" drive bays are a smart design and feel secure, and I appreciate that they include clamps on both sides of the cage as opposed to just the left side. Meanwhile the drive trays continue to be incredibly sturdy, although they aren't toolless; you'll want to hold on to the screws used for bottom-mounting the hard drives to the trays. The trays also snap into the cage pretty easily, but they're not quite as secure as I'd like.
_thumb.jpg)
_thumb.jpg)
_thumb.jpg)
_thumb.jpg)
_thumb.jpg)
_thumb.jpg)
Getting the video card and power supply in is business as usual. The perforated covers for the expansion slots use thumbscrews as expected, while there's actually a little bit of padding in the power supply bay to ease fan vibration. Nothing eventful to report here, though.
.jpg)
Wiring up the DS2 is pretty standard, too. It's easy to make good use of the routing holes around the motherboard tray, but where Nanoxia goofs up a little is with the AUX 12V routing hole. This isn't the first time I've seen this happen in a case design, and it alternates between being irritating and amusing. Basically, the back of the hole is blocked off somewhat by the rail for replacing the side panel. You can fish the line through it, but you may need a bit of patience.
Unfortunately the side panel mounting system does continue to be an issue due to the less than ideal amount of space for cables behind the motherboard tray. Remember that because the side panels are padded we lose millimeters of space, and this is an area where any amount of space can help. Expect a bit of a struggle when you go to close up this section of your build.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
39 Comments
View All Comments
saf227 - Thursday, February 14, 2013 - link
.... and still no US availability?Dustin Sklavos - Friday, February 15, 2013 - link
They're working on it. That's actually part of why I elected to review Nanoxia's stuff. You guys were interested, the products are actually really good, and the review helps them make a case (no pun intended) with American distributors.Zak - Thursday, February 14, 2013 - link
Boring. Looks like a small refrigerator...nassaux - Thursday, February 21, 2013 - link
One good reason to choose DS2 could be if you cannot squeeze a 230mm case in your computer hold. I know it might sound silly to some of you, but that is a real problem for me now and that "wide" case I've got. I was lookig for a nice quiet and thin case for about 6 months now. I think I've found it.JNo - Monday, February 25, 2013 - link
"The DS2 is likely going to be the standard bearer for quiet cases under $100. That assumes Nanoxia hits the price point in the States that they're targeting, much as some of the DS1's success rides on that same factor. Yet the DS2 sells for 89 Euros (and the DS1 for 119) .... At the same time, though, the Deep Silence 2 doesn't really feel different enough from the Deep Silence 1 to really merit a purchase. Yes, you'll be able to save $20"Firstly, that'll be closer to a $30+ cheaper using your implied exchange rate. It may not sound much but when you're trimming $30 here and the case, $50 on a cheaper soundcard, $50 on an i5 instead of an i7, $20 off a cheaper PSU etc etc it all adds up. $30 isn't nothing.
"It's like the used games at Gamestop that go for a whole $5 less than new. What's the point?"
Er... because all the 1s and 0s are the same anyway? All those $5s add up and can soon be spent on another game. Or, you know, food and bills and stuff.
You've got to remember just because you're a tech enthusiast who won't skimp, there are plenty who are still enthusiasts but trying to cut costs where they can...
Affectionate-Bed-980 - Monday, February 25, 2013 - link
The 820? 620? You spend time reviewing those, giving gold and bronze awards, and then you don't include them in the benchmarks? You also mention NZXT in this review too. It's like talking about the Nexus 4 right after the iPhone 5 release and not comparing two flagship phones...Affectionate-Bed-980 - Monday, February 25, 2013 - link
Sorry. Better analogy might be HTC One and SGS4. I'd imagine two flagship Android phones would get heavy comparisons, but if you were to do a review without accounting for the other, that would be an epic fail.pudl - Tuesday, March 26, 2013 - link
I recently got this case and am not happy with it. It has thin cover plates which tend to vibrate defeating its Deep Silence acronym. There are also some tiny rust spots bulging through the white paint while a cage on the inside has a more significant amount of rust. :SI think it's a cheap copy of Fractal Design's cases.
tahelia - Monday, April 8, 2013 - link
I haven't read all of the comments, so I don't know wether it's mentioned, but where the review states, that the front intake has no filter, that's not true. There still is one to the front, though that's not as easy accessible as at the DS1, and there is one at the bottom, of course.