Benchmarking - Sound

Sound levels also play a vital role in choosing the right HTPC case, since it will be coinciding with the quietest of home theater equipment. We don't want the noise of loud fans to interfere with our late night movie sound track or even our favorite audio tracks. We tested the LC10M in the same way that we have tested mid-tower chassis. We hold our sound level meter 12" from the sealed case. Take a look at our results.

Sound Benchmarks

The LC10M did not perform as quiet as we would have liked it to be, at 51dBA. Being a home theater PC chassis, we wanted noise levels to remain at a minimum. Some of our quietest mid-tower chassis, like Lian Li's PC-6070, used foam padding to dampen sound produced by the fans, which can definitely help the LC10M as well as many other cases that feature loud fans.

Benchmarking - Thermal Final Words
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  • Larry Chanin - Friday, December 24, 2004 - link

    To follow-up on the last suggestion. I'm a home theater enthusiast and I know absolutely nothing about building HTPC's. So I found reading your reviews of HTPC cases extremely helpful. However, I have to admit I was totally shocked by the measured sound levels of both cases reviewed. In my home theater the projector measures about 27 db. Therefore HTPC's measuring in the 40's and 50's would be totally unacceptable. With the addition of noise-reducing products could one reasonably expect to quiet these HTPC's down to db sound levels in the 20's, or am I wasting my time researching building an HTPC?
  • i6hlf - Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - link

    Speaking of loud HTPC's, why doesn't Anandtech dig into the design of a silent and cool HTPC. I mean some solutions with laptop cpu, mob and cooler system must be an obvious solution…
  • Tarumam - Monday, November 15, 2004 - link

    A good looking desktop case for a change. But why would I ever want a loud HTPC? Sounds like an oxymoron to me.
  • ImJacksAmygdala - Sunday, November 14, 2004 - link

    Anandtech does a great job with HTPC case reviews. The thermal mapping, sound levels, and wire bundle/heatsink clearance is exactly what the HTPC crowd wants to know.

    As for the value memory review eetnoyer mentioned, ya I'd love to see that to although only Anandtech does HTPC case reviews right.

    Besides if they showed benchmarks of value RAM overclocking just fine with AMD64 +3200 it might effect their sponsor's enthusiast memory line sales...
  • Gatak - Sunday, November 14, 2004 - link

    I really like the thermal display over different areas of the case. Great thing to see where the hot spots arise. =)
  • Degrador - Saturday, November 13, 2004 - link

    Just thought I'd say I love the new thermal benchmarking stuff - gives a great indication of where the dead zones are (although seemingly none in this case).
  • phaxmohdem - Saturday, November 13, 2004 - link

    My first thought... Alienware MPC?

    http://www.alienware.com/product_detail_pages/DHS_...

  • eetnoyer - Saturday, November 13, 2004 - link

    Instead of media PC cases, how about that mainstream (value) memory review that was promised a couple of months ago. I think it would have a much broader appeal to your readers. Not bashing, I've just been waiting with baited breath.

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