Hi Alex,
Before my post a thought about your case:
It already has mesh at the front and top, but only 120mm fans. There's not that much more you can do apart from:
- Mesh at the bottom
- 140mm fans
- better fans/ better coolers
I searched for a new case since my old one was sound damped and very hot.
I can recommend GamersNexus' case recommendations for choosing a case!
Their recommendations seems to be:
Liancool 2 Mesh: Front 2x 140, top 2x 140, bottom 2x 120, rear 1x 120
Fractal Meshify S2 compact: Front 2x 120, top 2x 140, bottom 1x 120, rear 1x 120
My recommendations:
BeQuiet 500DX: Front 2x 140, top 2x 140, bottom 0, rear 1x 140
Fractal Meshify S2: Front 3x 140, top 3x 140, bottom 2x 140, rear 1x 140
Imo with air cooling, the rear exhaust is probably the most important for cooling. The BeQuiet 500DX has 140mm at the rear, same for the big Meshify S2. Might make a difference!!
Corsair also has some airflow cases.
In theory, a small case will have better temperatures, since the air doesn't get "stuck", the fans have less work to do.
But you can run into problems if the heat becomes stuck somewhere, when components are too close together!
For comparison: My looong Fractal Design has worse CPU temperatures but better GPU temperatures than the short BeQuiet. The CPU airflow isn't as efficient but the GPU has more breathing room.
You can find all these tests from GamersNexus!
One note about "airflow" cases: The only thing I hear when gaming is the coil whine/crisping from my GPU..
It was louder with the BeQuiet glass panel than it is on my Fractal steel panel.
I ended up with the following cases:
BeQuiet Pure Base 500DX:
This case is pretty short, in relation to that it's pretty high though and it's wide enough for big coolers.
It takes 2x 140mm at the front, 2x 140mm at the top and 1x 140mm at the back.
It's mesh at the front and top and has some slits at the back. All intakes have dust filters!
I had to send it back though because it doesn't have this little step or "cut out" at the back. The rear fan and the mainboard are at the same level/plane. Normally the mainboard is a bit "sunken" into the case.
With my big fat Thermalright Le Grand Macho, I couldn't fit the rear fan.
I mounted the CPU cooler flipped but the temperatures weren't great with the cpu fan sucking through the cooler instead of blowing into it..
Otherwise a great case, kinda cheap and looks nice imo.
It comes with 3x 140mm BeQuiet PureWings installed.
I need a completely silent case since I'm sensitive, work at my PC and barely wear headphones.
The Pure Wings have some clicking from the motors. It's not loud, most people don't hear it at all, but I did.
Wasn't a big issue though since the clicking vanishes when the fans are spinning faster than 500 rpm and when during office stuff, I simply shut them off completely. The CPU fan was enough to keep the CPU within a good range at 300 rpm, idling.
A friend of mine asked me to build a new PC with him. He now has this case, an AMD 3600XT, RTX 3060 TI and a Be Quiet Dark Rock 4.
He's super happy with it! CPU stays below 60°c at full load and there's nothing more to hear than a smooth "swoooooosh". He doesn't hear the clicking from the fans.
Here's my build (and his build on the floor. Forgot to take a picture...):
View attachment 453741View attachment 453742
Fractal Design Meshify S2:
I ended up with this case. It's BIG! Or not really big overall but it's kinda wide for a midi tower, not as high as the BeQuiet but it's LONG!
It takes 3x 140mm at the front, 2x 140mm at the bottom, 3x 140mm at the top, 1x 140mm at the back!
It's mesh at the front, bottom and top with dust filters!
It comes with 3x 140mm Fractal Design fans which are super light and "plastic" but their clicking sound is about 30% as loud as the BeQuiet Pure Wings!
And these fans are pretty efficient! Not high-end but I like them, didn't expect that!
Not much to say about this case. Build quality is great, I chose the steel side panel variant to be able to put a sound damping foam on it. And my PC is on my left side so.. I wouldn't see it anyway!
Fun fact: I don't really like watercooling due to pump noises. I'm really, really sensitive about these noises, sadly... So I went for air cooling.
I had 1x 120mm NoiseBlocker MF, 1x 120mm SilentWings 3, 1x 140mm SilentWings 3 from my old case and now 3x 140mm Fractal Design fans.
I also bought one of these awesome Noctua 120mm NF-A12x25 fans for a friend. They are probably the most high-end fans right now. However it didn't make a difference with his PC so I'd normally would've sent it back.
But it's such a nice piece of technology that I decided to keep it...
So I now have:
Bottom: 1x 140mm Fractal + 1x 120mm NoiseBlocker
Front: 2x 140mm Fractal + 1x 120mm SilentWings
Top: 1x 120mm Noctua
Rear: 1x 140mm SilentWings
My z490 gaming X board has 4x case fan headers + 1x cpu fan header.
I'm using 2x Y-Splitters to connect them all.
Here's a picture of my build (before the Noctua):
View attachment 453744
Writing this was fun
