BeanTech, ClearPC, SunBeam, and Logisys: Another Look at the Acrylic Arena

Sound Benchamarks

Heat is not the only number important in choosing the right case. No one likes a box that hums during the late hours when they are trying to sleep or a rattling case during a quiet movie at home. In our last test bed, we used the quietest equipment that we could find to help produce accurately the sound of the case as it came in the manufacturer's box. Older power supplies as well as heatsink fans tend to be extremely noisy, so we went out and found the quietest running equipment that we could for our test bed.

Even though the OCZ PowerStream and Zalman CNPS7000 are pretty quiet, we turned off their fans to allow us to read the sounds produced by the case's factory installed fans. We measured the noise levels 12" away from the sealed cases. Take a look at how each acrylic case performed in our noise tests.

	dBA
Logisys CS888CL	49
ClearPC Secret Agent	47
BeanTech BT-85	48
SunBeam Technologies LAC-UVT	53
Lian Li PC-6070	44

We predicted that the Secret Agent would perform above the rest in our sound tests due to its use of a single 120mm fan, and we were correct. At 47db, the Secret Agent was the quietest case of the bunch. The loudest was the SunBeam LAC-UVT at 53db. Following was the BT-85 and second quietest was the CS888CL at 49db. We have discussed in previous articles that a larger fan produces less noise than smaller 80mm as well as the 40mm fans, also used in the Secret Agent.