Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 Case Review

Today we are going to take a look at the Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 case which is the predecessor to the Deep Silence 2 which we looked at a few weeks back. This was only released around a year ago, though, so is still fairly current and is actually a more expensive product than the Deep Silence 2. The Deep Silence 1 is the first case that Nanoxia released and is designed with noise-conscious users in mind. It is a ‘full-fat’ version of the Deep Silence 2 which was changed slightly to reduce the cost. We look forward to seeing how the Deep Silence 1 fares in our tests and if it's worth the slight price premium over the Deep Silence 2. Specification Motherboard Support: ATX, XL-ATX, Micro-ATX, Mini-ITX External Drive Bays: 3x 5.25 inch, 1x 3.5 inch Interal Drive Bays: 8x 2.5/3.5 inch Case Fan (Front): 2x 120 mm (1,300 rpm) Case Fan (Rear): 1x 140 mm (1,100 rpm) Case Fan (Top): Optional 2x 120/140 mm Case Fan (Bottom): Optional 1x 120/140 mm Case Fan (Left Sidepanel): Optional 1x 120/140 mm Dimensions: 517 x 220 x 532 mm (HxWxD) Materials: Steel, Plastic Weight: 11.34 kg Maximum CPU Cooler Height: 185 mm Maximum VGA Card Length: 315 (445) mm The Deep Silence 1 is supplied in very similar packaging to its successor, which features a large image of the case on the front of the box. Turning the box around reveals a series of further images which illustrate particular features of the case. Inside the box, the case is suspended between two slabs of polystyrene. All of the accessories are supplied within a cardboard box inside the system, keeping them neat and tidy. There’s nothing particularly out-of-the-ordinary included, with the bundle consisting mainly of the screws required for installation. The aesthetic design of the Deep Silence 2 is fairly minimalistic and is pretty similar to that of the Deep Silence 2. The front panel of the case consists of two separate brushed aluminium panels. The top panel swings open to reveal three 5.25” drive bays, alongside two fan controllers and the reset button. Opening the bottom door reveals two 120 mm intake fans which suck cool air into the front of the chassis. There is a small flap on the top of the case which pops up to reveal the front panel connectors. From left to right we find two USB2.0 ports, two USB3.0 connectors and headphone and microphone jacks. Moving further back on the top panel, there are twin 120 / 140 mm fan vents which aren’t populated out of the box. These are hidden below a panel which can be raised or lowered depending on whether you have fans installed or not. This helps to reduce noise when there aren’t fans installed here. There isn’t anything particularly interesting round the back of the case. The layout follows the standards set by most modern cases, with the PSU bracket located at the bottom with eight expansion slots and a 120 mm exhaust fan. The Deep Silence 1 has pretty heavy side panels due to the thick sound-proofing material on the inside. Nanoxia have opted for a fairly standard layout for the Deep Silence 2 and have painted the inside of the case entirely black. This will compliment most component choices aesthetically. Installing the motherboard in the case is pretty simple, although we were required to install the stand-offs before securing down the motherboard which can be a little fiddly. For those who want to install the CPU cooler after the motherboard, there is a sizeable cut out section in the motherboard tray which lets you install the backplate. There is plenty of room for long power supplies (up to 200mm) in the floor of the case, however longer models do obstruct some of the cable routing holes. There are plenty of cable routing holes, though, so this doesn’t cause significant issues. In total there are seven hard drive bays which all support both 2.5” and 3.5” drives. These are very similar to the drive bays used by Fractal Design and feature high-quality metal caddies. The graphics card must be secured in place using thumbscrews, as Nanoxia haven’t chosen to integrate a more complicated tool-less mechanism. We found these screws were quite difficult to tighten with our fingers, so we would recommend using a screwdriver to ensure it’s properly secured. There is a generous amount of room behind the motherboard tray for cable routing, which lets us achieve a tidy build without much effort. For our tests we will be using a Noctua NH-U14S to cool the Intel Core i7-3930K CPU in the Nanoxia Deep Silence. Our test system also features an AMD Radeon HD 7950 graphics card. We manually overclocked the i7-3930K to 4.3 GHz by increasing the multiplier to 43x, leaving the baseclock set at 100 MHz. The voltage was increased to 1.35V to achieve this frequency. Test System: Processor: Intel Core i7-3930K Motherboard: Asus P9X79 Cooler: Phanteks Noctua NH-U14S 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. We are impressed with these temperatures considering that the Deep Silence 1 is designed to keep noise to a minimum, rather than to create huge air flow. 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. As expected, this result is very impressive and really showcases the stellar acoustic performance of the case. Even though the Deep Silence 1 is the first product that Nanoxia brought to market, it’s very impressive and is up to the same high standards as much more established manufacturers like Fractal Design and Corsair. The steel chassis feels very solid indeed and the aesthetic design is sure to appeal to those who are looking for a subtle case. There isn’t a great deal of difference between the Deep Silence 1 and Deep Silence 2, however the former boasts a slightly superior specification. Its dimensions are slightly greater, allowing XL-ATX compatibility and more room for large CPU coolers, as well as some trick external features like the pop up front panel connectors and the pop-up cover for the top fan bays. We were particularly impressed with the low-noise credentials of the Deep Silence 1 as it does an excellent job of minimising the noise from the case. In fact, if you select appropriate cooling components to build your system, it would be very easy to create a near-silent system. At a price of £85 from Quiet PC, the Deep Silence 1 is around £10 more expensive than the Deep Silence 2. For most users we would recommend opting for the Deep Silence 2, however the Deep Silence 1 is ideal for those who are looking to install a large air cooler or XL-ATX motherboard. Pros Whisper quiet. Minimalist design. Decent build quality. Cons Deep Silence 2 is a better option for those on a budget. KitGuru says: Another excellent case from Nanoxia.