Nanoxia Deep Silence 3

Introduction

Nanoxia are back once again with the third iteration of their legendary Deep Silence chassis.The Deep Silence 3 closes a gap in the Deep Silence series.The housing dimensions 456 x 207 x 520 mm size fits motherboard ATX, microATX and mini-ITX.The DS3 has much of the styling the DS2 has but Nanoxia has simplified some things to make the case meeker and a little more cost friendly.I will point out many of the differences as we walk through the DS3.

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One of the few differences between the DS3 and DS2 is color options.The DS3 is available in dark black,and anthracite while the DS2 is available in dark black,silver,anthracite and white. The colors are very flavorful and appeal too many.Now that Deep Silence cases has impressed testers all over the world and was presented with lots of awards, the Deep Silence 3 enters the stage.

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Packaging & Contents

The box is not very similar to the other Deep Silence cases but it looks pretty much the same honestly.The Silence 3 ships in a large cardboard box.This time there arent any full-colour graphics.A nice angled image of the case is found on the front.Six windows cover features found in and around the DS3.

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The rear goes into more detail about its layout.

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From this side, you get some key specifications.

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It also denotes the version of the chassis-I have the black version.

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Once i cracked open the box, i was greeted with a healthy amount of spacing between the case and the sides of the box and a good amount of foam.

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The DS3 comes with a pretty standard set of accessories, including some cable ties, case screws,an adapter for the 5.25" drives for a card reader, and motherboard standoffs.Also Included in the bundle a 8-pin ATX extensions.And should you not want to use the grommet holes on the backside, even closed covers are included, nice detail.

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A basic manual of high quality rounds out the contents within the Nanoxia DS3.

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A Closer Look - Outside

The first thing you'll notice when you unpack the DS3 is the weight(9.3kg), this case is very heavy even when it's empty.The weight does make one think the case is of high quality though, and I think it is.

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No windows are on the Nanoxia DS3.The side panel is a simple sheet of light-weight metal.Nanoxia stated all panels as 0.6mm thick.

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Both sides of the case are not internally covered in sound absorbing material.

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The front of the case features two plastic panels which are minimalistic.

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Swinging out the top portion(the door is equipped with a magnet to ensure a fast closing and easy opening)of the front panel reveals three 5.25" bays nestled within, behind a sheet of sound-proofing foam.

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The meshed bay covers are removed by way of catches to the right side, and are easily re-inserted.The system's reset button is located behind the same door.

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The fan controller has two independently controlled channels with each able to handle 18W offering native support by means of clearly labelled connections for up to six fans. Each channel enables high or low speed operation.

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The bottom half of the front panel is a simple plate.One may ask how does the intake happen? Well, cool air is pulled in from the sides and bottom.The lower section of the front panel can be opened as a door.

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The included 2x120mm fans in their distinctive Nanoxia acid Green are attached by screws to the fan filter which is in turn screwed to the case front making it quite a long drawn out affair to both get at and clean the fan filter.

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In doing away with the lower door and quick release fans of the DS1 i am guessing that this is one of the areas where Nanoxia have managed to make some cost savings.Savings which have then been passed onto you the consumer in the form of a cheaper retail price on the case.

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The I/O panel which consists of two USB 3.0 and a single USB 2.0 port.The power button resides between the USB and dual audio ports.

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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.

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A look at the back.

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Two rubber grommeted tubing holes sit above the rear fan mount.

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Under them is a single 120 mm exhaust fan.

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The 7 vented expansion bay covers of the Deep Silence 3 sit to the left of a second set of tubing holes with a small meshed area above providing additional ventilation.

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The bottom PSU bay in the back comes with two sets of screw holes to allow an installation of the unit with the fan either facing up or down.It is also lined with a thin layer of foam as an anti-vibration measure.

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The bottom of the case rest off the ground because of four round metal and rubber feet.

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The case features very tall feet allowing for good airflow under the case.

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A single dust filter slots into rails proving filtered air to the PSU but not in the base fan location area.

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A Closer Look - Inside

The Deep Silence 3 has pretty heavy side panels due to the thick sound-proofing material on the inside.

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The inside of the case is painted entirely in black, meaning it will complement most component choices aesthetically.

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There is also a decent amount of room behind the motherboard tray(19.6cm) for cable routing.

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There are plenty of cable routing holes, though, so this doesn’t cause significant issues.

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Obviously the grommet holes have rubber inserts to hide away cabling, that's a nice detail.

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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.

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The integrated fan control can manage up to six fans, allowing an individual to optimize settings to balance low system temperatures and the lowest possible noise levels, even at a full fan assembly.

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Here’s the top of the case from the inside, there is noise dampening material here held on with four screws each so you can remove them and install fans if you want to.The Nanoxia Deep Silence 3 is equipped with two Nanoxia VentCovers.

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The 5.25” bays are tool-less, on both sides you’ll find sliding locks that hold your devices in place.

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The Deep Silence 3 allows the decoupled installation of up to five 3.5 inch hard disks in two HDD-cages.

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A decicated 2.5 inch cage, located above the 3.5 inch cages, can hold up to three 2.5 inch drives, thus bringin the total capacity up to 8 drives.

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It is also possible to move the middle HDD cage to the rear towards the power supply.You can install a 120 or 140 mm fan here -the secondary HDD cage holder needs to be removed for this.

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Metal hard-drive trays.

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The PCI slots have thumbscrews to help secure your cards.These are great because it will make installing/uninstalling quick and easy.

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Here’s the bottom of the case where the power supply would sit.Nanoxia has included some padding around the power supply mounting points, presumably to help reduce noisy vibrations.

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In the very top is the single 120 mm exhaust fan that pushes air out of the chassis.

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Installation and Finished looks

You can mount ATX, Micro-ATX and Mini-ITX motherboards in the Deep Silence 3 case.

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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.I used the included extension cable for the power to the motherboard near the CPU socket.It was fairly easy to get though as there’s a hole right there for it.

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The hard disk drives of the Deep Silence 3 are mounted using rubber suspension, in order to absorb vibrations that might arise during startup and to minimize annoying background noises.

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Mounting a HDD is easy but requires tools. Take a drive bay bracket (has silicon inserts to prevent resonating noises from the HDD, use four screws and screw them in at the bottom side them in) and slide the unit into the drive bay until you hear a click.

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The hard drives connect from the back side making routing the wires a bit easier and helping to keep them hidden and out of the way.

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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.

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As you can see the Thermalright Archon IB-E X2 is the limit in terms of height(165mm).

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Thanks to the modular HDD cage you can install VGA cards with a maximum length of 430 mm.If you want to employ all HDD cages, you can install cards of up to 345 mm in length.

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The graphics card must be secured in place using thumbscrews, as Nanoxia haven’t chosen to integrate a more complicated tool-less mechanism.I found these screws were quite difficult to tighten with my fingers, so i would recommend using a screwdriver to ensure it’s properly secured.

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The maximum depth of the power supply is about 200 mm.

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The mounting points easily fit an 240 mm water cooling unit.The only lighting on the outside of the case is around the power button, there’s a ring of green LEDs.

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Test System and Methology

Test System:

Processor: Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme
Motherboard: Asus P9X79
Cpu cooler:Antec h2o 950 v2
Memory: 16GB G.Skill Ares
Graphics Card:2 X GTX 560 Ti Hawk
Power Supply: Seasonic G-Series 650W
Chassis: Nanoxia Deep Silence 3
Monitor: Dell U2311
Boot Drive: Intel SSD 510
Storage Drive: WD Caviar Black 1TB HDD

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Software:

CPUID HW Monitor 1.23
CPUID CPU-Z 1.65
Prime95 v27.1
Furmark 1.11.0

I am testing the Nanoxia Deep Silence 3 performance as follows:

Room temperature is kept at 22C throughout my tests.
The CPU Fan is set to 100% to eliminate inconsistencies as a result of PWM control.
Idle temperatures are obtained after booting the PC and idling on the desktop for 30 minutes.
CPU load temperatures are obtained after running Prime95′s Small FTTs test for 15 minutes.
GPU load temperatures are obtained after running Furmark's Burn-In Test for 15 minutes.
To measure noise levels i disable the CPU fans and GPU fan.

Temperature

Keeping a Core i7-3960X Extreme processor cool isn't easy, but temperatures are kept well within the limits in DS3 chassis.The stock cooling does an adequate job but could be improved.

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The addition of even two fans at the top should lower temperatures of our internal components.

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Noise Level

The Dead Silence 3 lives up to its name and is very quiet indeed registering around 33 dBA.Those heavy noise deadening side panels clearly do a good job and the subtle vents in the front panel help keep the noise levels nice and low.

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Conclusion

Nanoxia has delivered the goods with the Dead Silence 3, making only a few minor compromises.I feel that Nanoxia has delivered a PC case that will suit the mainstream customer.There are plenty of features that grab the attention such as 2-channel fan controller,modular HDD cage,8 drives capacity and noise reducing insulation materials.I would have loved to see another 10mm or 20mm at the top of the case above the CPU cooler and also some removable dust filter below the optional fan at the bottom of the case.Back on the plus side, the rubber grommets, cable ties and cut out section in the motherboard tray which lets you install cpu coolers.The case is aimed at users who don't need the extraordinary features of the Deep Silence 1 or the above-average depth of the Deep Silence 2, while maintaining all the strong points of the Deep Silence case series.

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Despite Nanoxia labeling the Deep Silence 3 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.If you were building systems on a production line, then the effort made by the Nanoxia designers in creating a clean, easy access environment would make this a favourite.That said, even for a system build you get the distinct feeling that the case has been carefully created to make life as easy as possible.The Deep Silence 3 meets the expectations of a perfect symbiosis of ideal system cooling and sensationally low noise levels especially for High-End systems.Overall, this is a great chassis, especially when you consider the modest price tag of 65 Euro's.Build quality is nigh faultless and the level of features on offer make the modest asking price appear a bargain.

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