Best silent small ITX case for basic Customac Mini?

Dear Customac Mini experts,

I am planning for a basic Customac Mini, similar to what I already have. (see my signature)
But this time, I was a smaller footprint and still silent.

Components: GA-H87N-wifi, i3-4330 running the HD4600 (stock CPU fan), 8GB, SSD 250GB, HDD 1TB
(basic and low consumption.)

Also looking at small budget. (I don't want to put 100€ for a Lian Li or Node 304, which are great, but won't make a difference with my very light config)

I can't find the small Apex, in Amazon Austria.

There is the Antec ISK 300-150, but I am not sure it is a silent case, with the small PSU and small fans. (80mm?)

For now, I found
- Cooler Master Elite 120, which seems silent with correct airflow. It can take a normal PSU, like a Be Quiet Pure Power L8 300W = total 84€

- SilverStone SG05 or SG06, which is also a good size and good airflow. It takes SFX PSU, like Be Quiet SFX 300W = total 95€

I would love to take a Steamcom, but it's 150€ + additional for the external PSU.

Do you know about other good small ITX case, that keep it silent?

Do you know about the German brand Cooltek?
It seems nice but I never heard about it. (like I never heard about SilverStone, before doing my rig, last year.)
They have a Coolcube which has no case fan at all. It must be silent, if it doesnt burnt too hot... (I guess the PSU is used to extract the air.) But thin aluminium might also pass all the noise to the outside.


Thanks for all your suggestions and your experience on these and other ITX small cases !

I'm looking for the same thing for a build for my wife's "Facebook" and email computer.

What did you decide on?

For now, I'm not yet decided.
I was waiting for some feedback and ideas from others.

But I spent a very "productive" afternoon in office yesterday. (depend on which point of view... ), reading a lot on internet about ITX boxes.

I still don't know about the Antek ISK 300-150. Really small, enough space for my SSD + HDD, but I am afraid of the noise.
I am convince the 150W are sufficient for the Customac Mini
Here, you can see they put i7 inside and it's still ok.
http://www.tonymacx86.com/general-help/91765-ga-h77n-wifi-weird-wake-issue.html#post563323
(even in a smaller ISK, with external PSU 90W http://www.tonymacx86.com/golden-bu...te-ga-h77n-wifi-hd-4000-16-gb-256-gb-ssd.html)
Also here, someone is talking about it with i7.

I will not take the Cooltek or other aluminium case, like Lian Li cube box.
It's clear that these cases are not silent. Light, but they intend to propagate the vibrations, sometimes with humming sound. I could not stand it.
(in my rig, I already isolated the HDD because I could hear the vibration transfer to the case)

If I take a SUG0 SG06, I will take the version "Lite" without PSU and will buy a separate one. It's almost same price, but then I am sure to have a good one inside. (I has to be SFX for the SG05 and SG06)

So, now we are waiting for some more feedback from guys that used an Antec ISK or SG06, or other small ones.

Edit:
I have excluded the super tiny case (barely the size of the ITX board), because I won't be able to fit SSD + HDD.

http://www.amazon.de/dp/B008DMH7EE/?tag=tonymacx8603-21
And I don't think they are silent with a desktop CPU. (too much heat for the small box, tiny fan, etc.)
If I wanted a tiny one, with laptop components, I would just take a Mac Mini.

If someone is interested, there was a tiny ITX built in January 2012. Here http://www.tonymacx86.com/user-builds/40119-ultimate-hack-mini-core-i3-2105-hd3000-dh61ag.html

I'm in the process of making my mITX a silent box. My case recommendation would be the Fractal Design Node 304, which I have. The noisiest part about it is the GPU and the CPU fan. Aside from those it's dead silent.

Hi Doug,
Thank for your tip.

I have been reading on internet over the last weeks.

I eliminated the CM Elite 120. I don't think it's enough performant, for silence.

I also eliminated the Cooltek from my list.

And I put back on my potential list the Lian Li PC-Q07, although it's full aluminium. It is still a good choice of silent case. And has a very little footprint on the desk, because it's all vertical.

I really like the Node 304 when I discovered it. It looks great, good quality, good potential for a tower cooler.
Sure, it's not tall, but it has a bigger footprint than my actual mATX!
Because the motherboard is on the bottom, near the PSU. It takes a lot of space.



The PC-Q07 can take a "normal" ATX PSU, which gives more choices.
I could even fit a big tower cooler and use a picoPSU, to remove even more of the noise.

SG-06 is still on my list. It's much smaller than the Node 304.
It takes a bit more space on the desk. It's kind of the Q07 that you lay down.

Still searching, still reading.


I was also looking for the ITX board, compatible for easy hackintosh.
It would be the GA-H87N-WIFI, as the Gigabyte are easier.
But I found the BIOS is not as good as other brand, in term of tweaking the CPU fan and the slope.
I kind of lean on the easier setup, even if it gives less options for tweaking...

If footprint is your main concern have you checked out the Silverstone ft03 Mini? I've heard great things about it as a case, and it certainly has a small footprint. I'm not sure how silent it is, though.

It's a very nice case. I really love it, since I first saw it here on TonyMac. (although it was the non-mini FT03 http://www.tonymacx86.com/golden-bu...-3770k-16gb-ram-gtx-670-ft03-os-x-10-8-a.html)

But as you said, I don't know if it would be as silent as the Q07 and SG06.

And... it cost 120€, vs 50€.

My total is about 600€, to keep it at low budget.
That's a big chunk if I get the FT03 mini.