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Today we are going to look at the Nanoxia Deep Silence 2 case … designed for users who want to build a powerful system with low noise acoustics performance. In fact, it features sound-proofing similar to that of Fractal Design’s Define series which is a great starting point to reduce noise. Is this a new ‘low noise' challenger that should be at the top of your shortlist?
You would be forgiven for not having heard of Nanoxia as they are a very recent addition to the PC case market. In fact, they launched their first case, the Deep Silence 1, less than a year ago in Autumn 2012. Since then, they have expanded their range of products to include case fans and cables, as well as a large range of PC cases.
Specification
- Case Type: Midi Tower.
- Motherboard Support: E-ATX, ATX, Micro-ATX, Mini-ITX.
- 5.25” drive bay: 3x External.
- 3.5” drive bay: 1x External, 7x Internal.
- 2.5” drive bay: 7x External (interchangeable with 3.5”.
- Case Fan (Front): 2 x 120 mm (included) + 2 x 120 mm optional (Mounting Bracket).
- Case Fan (Rear): 1 x 120 mm (included).
- Case Fan (Top): optional 2 x (120/140 mm).
- Case Fan (Bottom): optional 1 x (120/140 mm).
- Dimensions: 468 x 207 x 588 mm (HxWxD).
- Weight: 10.96 kg.
- CPU Cooler Support (height): 165 mm.
- VGA Card Support (length): (370) mm.
The Deep Silence 2 is supplied in a large cardboard box which is decorated in a distinctive black, yellow and white livery. There is a large image of the case on the front of the box which gives you an idea of what is inside before opening. There is also some basic information about the key features of the case surrounding the image.
Turning the box around reveals six different images which illustrate different features of the case, annotated in three languages. The box itself feels good quality and combined with the polystyrene packaging inside, should do a good job of protecting the case in transit.
Our sample was supplied in an additional external box for extra protection but this will usually be dependent on the particular etailer that you purchase it from.
Inside the box, the bundled accessories are supplied within a small black cardboard box, almost identical to those that Fractal Design include with their cases.
There isn’t anything particularly noteworthy included except an extension cable for the CPU power connector on a power supply. This will prove to be very useful if the power supply has short cables as they may not otherwise reach.
The only other items included are the screws for installation, some cable ties, a 3.5” external drive adapter and an installation guide.
It’s clear that Nanoxia have followed very similar design guidelines to Fractal Design when creating the Deep Silence 2. The front of the case features two brushed-aluminium effect panels which are as minimalistic as those on Fractal’s Define series of cases.
The construction of the Deep Silence 2 is also very similar, boasting a substantial steel chassis with a brushed-aluminium-effect front panel. It feels just as well put together as Fractal’s models which is a great accolade for Nanoxia.
Swinging out the top portion of the front panel reveals three 5.25” bays nestled within, behind a sheet of sound-proofing foam.
There are two Nanoxia Deep Silence fans located behind the lower portion of the front panel which spin up to 1,300 rpm. The speed of these can be reduced using the built in fan controller, though, which is also located behind this panel. The slider has options for 12V, 7V and 5V.
We find the front panel connectors on the front edge of the case either side of the power button. From left to right we find the headphone and microphone jacks, two USB3.0 connectors and a single USB2.0 connector.
Moving further back on the top of the case, we can see that there are dual fan vents which support twin 120 mm or twin 140 mm fans when the sound-proofing pads have been removed.
The mounting points could easily be used for a 240 mm water cooling unit such as the Corsair H100i.
There isn’t anything particularly out of the ordinary to talk about when looking at the rear of the case. There is a quartet of external water cooling holes, a 120 mm exhaust vent in the top half of the panel and seven expansion slots further down towards the power supply mounting points at the bottom.
Like any case which is designed with superior acoustics in mind, the Deep Silence 2 features sound-proofing material on the inside of the side panels. In this instance, the material used is thin foam. This feels like a bit of a cop-out when compared to the more substantial bitumen-like material used by Fractal Design.
The inside of the case is painted entirely in black, meaning it will complement most component choices aesthetically. Despite Nanoxia labeling the Deep Silence 2 a mid-tower case, it is actually somewhere between a mid-tower and a full-tower in terms of size. This means that there is plenty of room to work with inside the chassis.
Over on the right hand side of the case there are seven internal drive bays which can either be populated with 2.5” or 3.5” drives. These require screws to install the drives and are very similar in design to those found in Fractal Design’s cases.
These aren't fully tool-less drive bays as screws are required to secure both 2.5” and 3.5” drives into the trays.
Installing a motherboard into the case is fairly simple, although the stand-offs aren’t preinstalled and can be a bit of a pain to screw into place before securing the motherboard down.
There is a large cut-out section in the motherboard tray so it’s not necessary to install the CPU cooler backplate before installing the motherboard into the case.
Nanoxia has included some padding around the power supply mounting points, presumably to help reduce noisy vibrations. The power supply is still installed in the usual fashion, though, using four screws through the back of the case.
There is plenty of provision for cable routing as there are an array of cable routing holes cut into the motherboard. These feature rubber grommets which make them look nice and tidy. There is also a decent amount of room behind the motherboard tray for cable routing.
Installing the graphics card into the system is made extremely easy by the large amount of room to work with inside the case. The graphics card secured into place using two thumbscrews, but we would recommend tightening these with a screwdriver to make sure they don’t come loose.
For our tests we will be using a Noctua NH-D14 to cool the Intel Core i7-3930K CPU in the Nanoxia Deep Silence 2. Our test system also features an AMD Radeon HD 7950 graphics card.
We manually overclocked the i7-3930K to 4.7 GHz by increasing the multiplier to 47x, leaving the baseclock set at 100 MHz. We set Load Line Calibration to ‘High’, and increased the CPU Current Capability to 120% with a minor voltage increase. Speed stepping was disabled for both stock and overclocked tests.
Test System:
- Processor: Intel Core i7-3930K
- Motherboard: Asus P9X79
- Cooler: Phanteks Noctua NH-D14
- Thermal Paste: Arctic Cooling MX-2.
- Memory: 16GB (4x 4GB) Mushkin Blackline 1600 MHz
- Graphics Card: AMD Radeon HD 7950.
- Power Supply: Seasonic Platinum 1000W
- System Drive: Intel SSD 330 Series 120 GB
- Monitor: Viewsonic VX2260WM.
Software:
- Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit).
- CPUID Hardware Monitor.
- Prime95 64-bit.
- Furmark V1.10.6
To test the thermal performance of the Nanoxia Deep Silence 2 we loaded our test system for 15 minutes using Prime95 and Furmark and recorded the maximum temperatures reached using CPUID Hardware Monitor. We then restarted the system and left it for 15 minutes before recording idle temperatures.
Room temperature was maintained at 18 degrees C for the duration of our tests.
These temperatures are pretty impressive considering the low-noise credentials of this case.
To conduct our noise level tests, we replaced the graphics card in our system with a AMD Radeon HD 5550 Silence which was passively cooled. We also momentarily disconnected the fans on the CPU cooler so we were only taking into account the noise generated by the fans in the case.
The scores recorded in this test were very low indeed, proving just how quiet this case really is.
The Nanoxia Deep Silence 2 has a lot to offer. We love the minimalistic design which follows closely with what we’ve seen before from Fractal Design. In fact, we would go as far as to say the Deep Silence 2 is probably made by the same OEM manufacturer as there are a number of distinct similarities between them.
We would be very surprised if you were disappointed with the build quality of the Deep Silence 2, as it’s about as good as you will get for the money. The steel chassis feels very durable indeed, although this does mean the case is quite heavy.
The thermal results we recorded were good considering the excellent acoustic performance of the case. Despite the sound-proofing material not being quite up to the same level as Fractal Design’s, the case remained whisper quiet throughout the duration of our tests.
At a price of £75 from Quiet PC, the Deep Silence 2 is priced almost identically to the Fractal Design Define R4, its direct competitor. There isn't much to choose between the two to be honest and they are both excellent cases. We would probably sway towards the Fractal because it's white fans are a little prettier, however this is simply a matter of personal colour preference.
Pros
- Very quiet.
- Feels well built.
- Attractive design.
- Good value.
Cons
- Sound-proofing not quite as good as Fractal’s.
KitGuru says: An excellent case from Nanoxia which rivals Fractal’s finest.
