Date: October 4, 2007 - Author: Rory Buszka
If you're not into silent PCs, then the AcoustiCase 340 probably isn't for you. If that comment piques your interest, read on and find out why this case is a good choice for those who have the goal of reducing the noise output of their PC. We put it to the test, both thermally and sonically.
AcoustiProducts is a UK-based company that offers a wide variety of products with a single focus: reducing the level of noise produced by your PC. Noise is an important ergonomic component of the PC user experience – high levels of noise have been shown in studies to cause impaired concentration and increased amounts of stress while working at the PC, and a constant source of background noise can interfere with getting restful sleep. AcoustiProducts’ offerings allow you to retrofit your PC with quiet-operating cooling solutions.
Among the items sold by AcoustiProducts are “AcoustiFan" quiet case fans, “AcoustiPack" acoustic damping materials, rubber case fan mounting grommets, and “AcoustiFeet" highly-compliant (“squishy") adhesive feet for decoupling the PC from the desk. AcoustiProducts also offers “AcoustiCase" PC cases with the compliant feet and acoustic damping materials pre-installed, though the AcoustiFan case fan is sold separately. In the United States, one of the most notable distributors of AcoustiProducts items is QuietPC USA.
At QuietPC’s request, we’re having a look at the AcoustiCase model 340, which is a rather generic-looking mid-tower case that’s outfitted with several other AcoustiProducts items, including AcoustiPack foam damping materials throughout and AcoustiFeet decoupling feet underneath. QuietPC USA also supplied an AcoustiFan “Dustproof" 120mm case fan (not included), as well as a set of “Ultra-Soft" elastomer studs for mounting the fan to the case.
We like to think we’ve got a fairly stringent standard of what ‘silence’ in a PC means – it needs to disappear beneath the noise floor of a quiet room, which usually means <25dB total noise output. One thing we’ve learned after evaluating many supposedly “silent" products is that there are lots of pretenders out there – manufacturers who unscrupulously brand products as ‘silent’ when they can only reasonably classified as ‘quiet’ – not ‘noisy’, but still audible. However, AcoustiProduct’s specialist niche likely counts in their favor, since silence is what they do. Does the AcoustiCase 340 make it appreciably easier to build a silent PC? We’ll also see how it performs both thermally and acoustically with the supplied AcoustiFan 120mm case fan.
The case arrived packaged in what appears to be the box used by a Chinese case OEM – the dead giveaway is the broken English writing. Apparently this is “Model 6A". It’s clear that what we’re really dealing with here is a plain OEM case, simply accessorized with AcoustiProducts items and put back in the original box. Even so, care was apparently taken to repackage the case at least as well as it originally had been.
Removing the side panel of the case revealed a large bubble-wrapped bundle of boxes, including the hardware pack for the case itself and another larger box containing additional AcoustiProducts accessories. Contained in the larger box were a single AcoustiFan 120mm case fan, a set of four elastomer studs for decoupled mounting of the case fan, an empty package of AcoustiFeet (already attached to the case itself), and a power cord – which is strange since the case doesn’t include a power supply, and QuietPC didn’t supply us with one. Oh well, you can never have too many euro cables (and yet strangely it’s the one thing I routinely forget to bring to LAN parties).
The case itself… well, let’s just say the AcoustiCase 340 isn’t much to look at. It’s almost depressingly plain, with a black orange-peel paint job and a faux brushed black-anodized aluminum appearance on the front panel. The case is available in both a black-and-silver version and an all-black version, which is the one that QuietPC sent us. We suppose the all-black version is at least visually stealthy – it might be right at home in a recording studio, tucked discreetly away beneath a mixing console. Still, we don’t find its design particularly appealing, and it isn’t the sort of case we’d display on our desks.
And now, the second caveat (aesthetics being the first): While our AcoustiCase 340 came with the acoustic damping materials pre-installed by QuietPC, typical customers won’t receive this treatment. We would have preferred to be sent the same package that QuietPC sends to all their customers, but that’s not how it worked out. You’ll have to install all these materials yourself as per an installation guide supplied by AcoustiProducts. The case itself will be shipped to you in the form of a ‘kit’.
Specification |
Value |
| Model | AcoustiCase 340 |
| Case Type | ATX Mid Tower |
| Dimensions (HxWxD) | 18.1" x 8.3" x 16.9" |
| Weight | 23 lbs. |
| Cooling Provisions | 1x120mm (rear, not included); 1x120mm (front, not included) |
| Drive Bays | 11 Total 4x 5.25" External 2x 3.5" External 5x 3.5" Internal |
| Material | SECC Steel |
| Expansion Slots | 7 |
| Power Supply | Not Included |
| Motherboard Support | ATX, Micro ATX |
| Front Panel Ports | Audio I/O, 2x USB, 1x IEEE 1394 |
| Other Features | Latching side panel Washable air filter |
So we’ve established that you aren’t likely to buy this case for its looks. Let’s have a peek inside and see what the AcoustiCase 340 really has to offer.
The AcoustiProducts AcoustiCase 340 is essentially a generic mid-tower case with some specialized products for noise reduction pre-installed. The basic case itself is appears to be a custom Rosewill R6A34 case, without the side panel vents or CPU duct. We’ll be taking a look at both the features of the case itself and the AcoustiCase accessory kit.
The front panel of the AcoustiCase features a door that is held shut with small magnets and double-hinged to allow the door to open a full 180 degrees. (The AcoustiCase 360 model is available for those who have an aversion to doors.) The bezel also features a faux brushed aluminum finish, and the case is available with either a black or silver front bezel. A large power button is wreathed in a green glow when the machine is operating. Four 5.25" bays and two 3.5" bays are accessible to the outside.
The AcoustiCase 340’s only means of air ingress is through four vents in the front bezel – two on each side and two on the bottom. This effectively attenuates drive noises by blocking direct exit paths – the intake air must turn a 90-degree corner. The AcoustiCase features a 120mm front fan mount, which we recommend using if you use the included washable air filter. The front bezel is removed by squeezing two tabs, one on either side of the front bezel, and swinging the bezel upward.
The AcoustiCase features a latching side panel that’s easy to open – simply depress the latches at the top and bottom of the side panel. One of the latches may be locked using the provided set of keys.
Inside the AcoustiCase, it’s easy to see what’s special about this case – there’s open-cell foam everywhere. It’s all custom-cut, and very nicely done. AcoustiProducts also offers this AcoustiPack foam in sheets that you can custom-cut to fit an existing case. There’s layers of foam on the side, top, bottom, and rear panels, and even on the opposite side panel of the case. Two large and three small bricks of open cell foam (cut to fit 5.25" and 3.5" bays, respectively) provide additional noise absorption.
Unlike the acoustic damping material in the previously-reviewed Antec SOLO, this open-cell foam material doesn’t reduce vibration by adding mass – instead, it’s intended to absorb the sound itself and convert it adiabatically to immeasurably small amounts of heat. If you stick your head inside the case, you can hear everything around you get significantly quieter.
The AcoustiCase 340 also provides a removable hard drive cage – simply loosen the thumb screw and slide the cage out. Rubber grommets allow decoupled mounting of the hard drives, to decrease the transmission of seek noise through the chassis. Grommets can be superior to rail-type mounting systems when it comes to noise, because rail systems can allow the drive to rattle about as it seeks, while the grommets absorb the force.
The back of the AcoustiCase 340 doesn’t contain anything particularly newsworthy – it does offer a rear 120mm fan location, and a large mounting area for the PSU. The side panel of the AcoustiCase can also be secured using a pair of thumb screws. On the bottom, the AcoustiCase features tall silicone feet, which are affixed to the case with adhesive. This effectively decouples hard drive noise and fan vibration from the surface on which the case is placed.
Internally, the AcoustiCase 340 offers a solid set of features, although many of them have been standard fare in mid-tower cases for some time now. Next, we’ll look at the process of building a test system in the AcoustiCase.
To test the AcoustiCase’s ability to ‘silence’ components, we didn’t select any silent cooling components to build the test system. Instead, we simply swapped in a test system based around some components we had on hand, among them a Gigabyte Micro ATX motherboard and an AMD Athlon BE-2300 with its stock heatsink/fan.
The test system originally lived in an Antec SLK3700, but right away we noticed the striking similarity with the AcoustiCase. The hard drive cage from the Antec SLK3700 fit directly into the AcoustiCase 340, and the stamped fan grilles looked virtually identical. The only differences appear to be that the AcoustiCase uses thinner steel (0.6mm instead of 0.8mm) and doesn’t have the same cross-brace that the Antec case has. Later on, we’ll compare the thermal performance of the AcoustiCase 340 to that of the same system in the SLK3700, to see what the effect of all that foam really is. For now, however, let’s take a look at the process of building a system in the AcoustiCase.
QuietPC USA also sent along an AcoustiFan “Dustproof" case fan. “Dustproof" refers to the way that this sleeve-bearing fan features additional internal seals to keep dust from mixing with the lubricant and congealing, which would otherwise shorten the fan’s life span. (In an upcoming article on silent PCs, we’ll take a look at why sleeve bearings are making a comeback.) The fan itself is based on a Globe Fan 120mm chassis (merely re-branded “AcoustiFan") with a 3-pin power connector, and moves 56.3 CFM at 1500 RPM and 24.7 dBa.
The AcoustiFan package included a set of four elastomer fan mounts, which enable the fan to be mounted without transferring its vibration to the chassis. Installing these grommets was a delicate operation, yet no tools were required. First, each grommet had to be individually threaded through the fan mounting holes in the case. Then, each grommet had to be individually pulled through the fan frame. While we worried we might stretch the grommets too far and break them, they held up to the strain.
Next, we set about transferring the hard drives from the SLK’s drive cage to the 340’s. Now, as you’ll recall, hard drives produce heat, so it’s not so simple as sticking the hard drives into any open slot. One side of each drive will be adjacent to a block of foam – so it’s important to make sure each drive will receive some airflow, at least. We elected to go with the placement shown in the photo – with a tunnel through the center to conduct airflow between the two drives. We wish we could have mounted the top drive upside down, so the airflow could still be passing over the ‘top’ of each drive, but such luck was not to be had.
While we typically discard front filters because they restrict airflow and hurt more than they help when it comes to thermal performance, the filter on the AcoustiCase appears to be a legit wire mesh, instead of the perforated plastic we’ve seen on other cases (like Antec’s SOLO.) In order for a front filter to work well, there must be no other paths of air intake – but here, the entire front panel is perforated. We threw up our hands in disgust and left it the way it was.
Next, we installed the motherboard and expansion cards. The motherboard is only a MicroATX motherboard, but we see no reason why a full ATX board couldn’t fit comfortably in this case. We borrowed a vented expansion slot cover from an Antec NSK2400 case to improve ventilation near the video card itself; we’re surprised nobody is selling these expansion slot covers a-la-carte.
Finally, with everything in place, we routed the cables – an easy task thanks to the AcoustiCase’s copious amounts of internal space. With everything in and wired up, we closed up the case and admired our handiwork. Rapping on the side, we noticed that the sound was dull and greatly attenuated, a promising sign for the case’s acoustic performance.
Next, let’s move on to the testing results and some additional subjective impressions.
As was mentioned on the last page, the test system for this review previously resided in an Antec SLK3700, which is virtually identical to the AcoustiCase in design and internal volume. We weren’t too surprised – the SLK3700 is one of the most often-imitated cases we’ve seen. We suspect that the AcoustiCase 340 was made by the same OEM responsible for Thermaltake’s version of the chassis. All this similarity allows us a unique opportunity to examine the net effect on noise and case temperatures of adding the acoustic damping material.
To test the system’s thermal performance, we loaded the CPU in much the same way as we have in the past, by firing up a round of Futuremark’s 3DMark2006 with a temperature monitoring program set up to run in the background. This test loads both cores of the CPU during the CPU rendering test to nearly 100%, which gives us our peak temperature value for the CPU core.
The stock AMD CPU cooler was used, though the CPU Smart Fan control was disabled, as well as AMD Cool N’ Quiet – we wanted the CPU to run as hot as possible. The SLK3700 used a pair of Evercool Ever Green case fans (800 RPM nominal) in push-pull mode (one intake, one exhaust), and the AcoustiCase 340 was fitted with the supplied AcoustiFan. For a third test, we swapped in one of the Evercool Ever Green fans, to test the case’s performance with a consistent airflow level.
What these results show is not particularly surprising – the thermal performance of the AcoustiCase with its faster-spinning case fan outstrips the SLK3700 case. However, when we substituted one of the Evercool Ever Green fans that were used in the SLK3700 case (which spin much slower than the 1500RPM AcoustiFan), we saw things come back into line for the most part.
What we didn’t expect was that the nearly identical AcoustiCase still outperformed the SLK3700 by 3 degrees C at idle, and still held a 1 to 3 degree advantage over the Antec SLK3700 when under load by our stress test. We think it’s because of all the extra ventilation in the front of the AcoustiCase’s steel chassis. Since it provides less restriction than the front of SLK3700’s chassis, the slower-spinning Evercool Ever Green fan operates against a lower airflow impedance.
Now we’re getting to the heart of what the AcoustiCase is all about – noise reduction. The AcoustiPack damping material demonstrates its effectiveness here, by rendering the full-speed stock AMD CPU fan virtually inaudible, as well as the GPU cooler and any hard drive idle noise. The AcoustiPack foam turns the case interior into a sponge for noise – the same techniques are used in noise isolation enclosures for noisy industrial machinery such as air compressors and Roots blowers. Essentially, it’s a big muffler.
The muffler-like characteristics of the AcoustiCase didn’t help absorb any noise from the rear case fan, however, and the 1500RPM AcoustiFan supplied by QuietPC was still plainly audible in our “quiet room" at 24.7dB. When we swapped in our 120mm Evercool “Ever Green" reference ‘silent’ case fan (which only runs at 800 RPM and features a sleeve bearing variant for low noise), we were rewarded with an extremely quiet system using ordinary components – enabling the motherboard’s smart CPU fan control resulted in a completely silent system. If you have some way of slowing down the AcoustiFan to below 1000 RPM, such as a “rheobus" or other variable controller, we suspect the AcoustiFan would work as well as our reference Evercool fans for silence.
When it comes to building a silent rig, there’s no doubt left in our minds that the AcoustiProducts AcoustiCase 340 gets it done. Most of the case’s silencing abilities come from the AcoustiPack open-cell foam damping material that is applied to nearly every interior surface. Its ability to silence ‘ordinary’ cooling components inside the case means that the AcoustiCase makes it much easier to build a silent system, with fewer specialty components being required. The case also performed admirably in thermal testing, beating out our reference Antec SLK3700 mid-tower. We didn’t find the basic chassis lacking in any of the basic features that make system-building easy, either – the AcoustiCase 340 offered all the conveniences we expect in a mid-tower case, without any needless extravagance.
There were a couple things we didn’t like so well, however. The case itself was fairly Spartan as cases go, and lacking in visual appeal – it’s clear that compelling aesthetics were an afterthought. We question the wisdom of going with one of Rosewill’s plainer-looking cases as the basis for the AcoustiCase, and would have much preferred to see a higher-quality (or at least more exciting-looking) case used. We know that the AcoustiCase is targeted toward a different sort of enthusiast who seeks silence and a more subdued computing experience, but NZXT offers a case with foam damping panels that’s much more aesthetically exciting than the AcoustiCase.
With these conclusions in mind, we award the AcoustiCase a Techgage score of 7/10. Given the fact that you can buy all the acoustic treatments separately (AcoustiFeet, AcoustiPack, elastomeric fan mounting studs), we’d prefer to modify a case of our own choosing than to buy the AcoustiCase “kit". Still, you could do far worse for a silent machine.
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