About the silverstone GD05 (noise)

You should run all three fans to keep the airflow as designed ("Positive air pressure design for excellent cooling/quietness and dust-prevention"). Running only 1 or 2 fans is not recommended in general (no guarantee that all components inside are cooled effectively).

Just lower the rotation speeds a bit, for example, this way.

I run only one and I run it at 75%. My case seems to be staying pretty clean

It was designed for all three to be blowing inward, creating positive pressure which will exhaust out the back without additional exhaust fans. And it can do so extremely quietly either by slowing down the stock fans, or by using slower, quieter fans like Noctua NF-S12B FLX fans at 600 or 900 rpm at which speed they make basically no noise.

I have this case and Assassin has a section in his FAQ on how you can modify the molex pins to the fans to run at a lower voltage.

My stock fans were somewhat loud at full speed but after doing the molex adjustment i can barely hear anything unless i put my ear against the case. And all three of my stock fans are running.

5V mod is OK, but 7V = 12V - 5V mod could cause PSU malfuctioning, depending on the PSU used (in my case, Enermax MODU82+ stopped working immediately). Silent PC Review: Get 12V, 7V or 5V for your Fans:


and "Caution!" in blue background color.

Zalman Fan Mate 2 is only $5 (shipped) that can adjust voltage 5V-12V continuously. Highly recommended. (Y-cable and 4-pin to 3-pin pass-through cable required.)

Good points. Mine is a Silverstone PSU Modular 80+ Bronze but I set mine at 5V and everything is running just fine.

I'm using an Antec ECO NEO 400W PSU running 5V without problems and it's quiet enough for me.

But works fine with only one fan going depending on how much heat your system produces.

Drawing currents from 5V line is no problem (as many hardware components do ); the current is fed back to PSU via Ground. It's 7V that could cause a problem: sucking currents from 12V line, then feeding them back to PSU via 5V line, that should not happen. I observed that my Enermax MODU82+ stopped working immediately.

5V mod is OK. Using a simple rheostat (variable resistor) such as FAN MATE 2 ($5 shipped) is smarter, IMO.

I have this case and agree the fans are overkill even for three HDs. But I left them as is because its in a cabinet with a glass front and open back and I actually think having my HTPC on the shelf over my AVR helps cool my AVR by keeping the air moving in the cabinet... YMMV

My fans are hooked up to run when the motherboard temperatures rise above a threshold (PWM). Typically the case fans do not run.

My biggest source of noise is the CPU fan from the stock Intel core i3.

Well, I am a little disappointed with the default noise of the case.
What is the best solution to have almost no noise? New fans or fan mate?

You can use the stock fans but they definetly have to be cut down to 750rpm or less. The easiest way is to try to do it is plug the fans into the chasis port on your mobo and control them through bios settings.

Thank you. It worked I connected to the motherboard (system fan) and bios auto setup it. It was working at ~630rpm and it was really quiet



But I can only connect 1fan! How i connect 3? Can I use this cable:

Why don't you do this? Works great. Free.

I really don't know how to do it, but i will google. Thanks

Its in assassin's FAQ and I saw a variaton just today on www.silentpcreview.com.

Yep. Its been in there for a long time and we also have beaten this to death in the past month in my sticky thread. Its an easy fix and most people are very happy with the noise (or lack thereof) once the mod is done.

I'm not done yet.. I want to beat it until it is a gooey, pulpy mess!!!

Actually I'm glad it's come up a lot because I'm going to do it in my desktop PC.

I did it and works great without spend money.
Thanks Assassin

Yep.

Thanks for trusting my opinion.

I am thinking about pickup up one of these cases. Looking for a cool HTPC case for a M-ATX board. Are these cases really noisy???

how noisy is noisy ???

I like how it looks, and USB3.0 on front is a plus.

Not noisy. Looking at mine now and can't hear it. Tons of threads here at AVS with people using this case.

+1......I have modded the 3 case fans to run at 5volts, I have a Scythe Shuriken rev B CPU cooler and a Silverstone Essentials PSU and the case is silent from 5 feet away.

David

I have that case. It was my main HTPC case but not its my quite server. I have all three fans going. I installed the Silverstone fan controller in the free PCI slot above the PSU. Its allows adjustability of all three fans individually. Then I just have one on the CPU. Its a nice case, it was just too small for me. I just build a GB08B case. Its the nicest do everything PC case.

Is this basically the best reasonable Micro ATX case ?

If you're constrained on depth, yes. I tried to find a micro ATX case that was less than 14" deep, and this was really the only suitable one, so I got it despite not being terribly impressed with the look (I prefer something with a "volume wheel" like a Sony receiver).

I just built an HTPC using this case, an i5 3750K chip, Big Shuriken II rev. B cooler, and an Asus z77 M-Pro motherboard. I plugged all 3 case fans, and the CPU fan into the motherboard, and yes, this thing is quiet.