Introduction
With the Deep Silence 6 being the latest flagship chassis to come out of the NanoxiaI think I speak for a lot of people when I say that it has been highly anticipated.I know when I first saw images I imagined it being a total beast for water cooling being able to accommodate at least 2x 280mm radiators. So lets see what my opinions on this behemoth were are how well it sized up to the competition in reality.The Deep Silence 6 is similar in exterior design to the first model of Deep Silence case series.
Nanoxia's Deep Silence 1 and Deep Silence 2 have impressed reviewers all over the world and have received many awards, therefore Nanoxia decided to build on this success by taking it to the absolute limit!
Packaging & Contents
The Deep Silence 6 is supplied in a large cardboard box which is decorated in a distinctive black, yellow and white livery. There is a large image of the case on the front of the box which gives you an idea of what is inside before opening. There is also some basic information about the key features of the case surrounding the image.
Turning the box around reveals nine different images which illustrate different features of the case.
You will find detailed specifications on both sides of the chassis.
The box itself feels good quality and combined with the polystyrene packaging inside, should do a good job of protecting the case in transit.
Inside the box, the bundled accessories are supplied within a small black cardboard box.
You will get quite the good set of extras with the DS6. All the screws are black and Nanoxia has also added a few cable-ties.
An extension cable for the CPU power connector on a power supply. This will prove to be very useful if the power supply has short cables as they may not otherwise reach.
Four solid rubber covers for the water cooling holes in the back of the chassis.
A 3.5" tray and front bezel also allow you to install an external device within a 5.25" inch drive bay.
Last but not least, there is a very detailed, multilingual manual-perfect for those building their first system.
A Closer Look - Outside
The Nanoxia Deep Silence 6 is available in Black, Anthracite and of course White.The sample i have for review today is presented in White.
Nanoxia also offer a version with an integrated window(left side panel).
With simple clean lines there is little to offend the eye in what has become something of a de-rigueur style for silent cases.The chassis is 1.0 mm thick steel panelling.
Both side panels are completely solid, but Nanoxia has also included a covered up 2x140 mm fans placement on the main panel.This gives you the flexibility to pick between sound dampening and air flow for this area.
There are slotted intake vents towards the section of the front of the case as well as fan vents in the roof and left side panel.
The Nanoxia DS6 features a clean and understated look with doors in the front of the chassis.The front of the case is plastic finished with brushed effect panels corresponding with the colour of the case.
A round power-reset button can be found in the top of the front panel.
Nanoxia has recessed the I/O panel in a flip-up piece.The panel can easily be embedded in the cover if the connectors are not needed.
Pressing it down makes the entire contraption move up to reveal four USB 3.0, a pair of USB 2.0, and the usual audio connectivity.
In the rear area of the top are two covers to seal off the top air-vents.
A sliding mechanism, called "Active Air Chimney" by Nanoxia, raises this panel up.
By simply opening the Air Chimney, the pre-installed 140 mm fans are started automatically. When you close the Chimney, the fans are deactivated again. You may install up to three fans under the top-cover and connect them to the Active Air Chimney.Thus the warm air is dissipated quickly and effectively from the case.
This gives any underlying fans the breathing room needed while still offering some sound encapsulation.
Opening the magnetically closing sound insulated top door of the DS6 reveals the 5.25" bay area.
The doors swing open to the right, which is perfect for placing the Deep Silence 6 right next to your monitor and keyboard on a desk.
You will find simple sound-dampening foam and magnets that hold the doors in place on its inner side.
Taking a closer look at the front, there are two pre-installed low-noise 140 mm fans behind the bottom door.The two 140 mm fans rotate at a maximum of 1,100 RPM.
These cooling units rest in housing that can be flipped open as well, and both are equipped with easily removable dust filters.
A simple pressure on the holding frame (it works using the push-pin principle) releases the anchoring, the flap can be opened, and dust filter and fan can be removed and cleaned very easily.
Above that are the four 5.25" drive bays.These actually feature the exact same tool-less locking mechanism .
The meshed bay covers are removed by way of catches to the right side, and are easily re-inserted.
The fan controller has two independently controlled channels offering native support by means of clearly labelled connections for up to eight fans.Each channel enables high or low speed operation.
The case front remains tethered to the main body of the case by the cables pertaining to the front I/O and the fan controller.
Fortunately there is enough slack in the cable to enable the front to be moved far enough away to allow access.
Turning the chassis around.
Here is the bottom PSU bay.
Above that are the ten motherboard expansion slots with individual covers.
You will find a single 140 mm fan to push air out of the Deep Silence 6, along with four water-cooling openings, in the very top.
There are also four usual rubber-lined grommet holes for the increasingly rarefied external liquid cooling radiator.All four holes can be covered up with supplied solid grommets - a cool little touch.
The entire bottom floor of the chassis is lined with an easily removable dust filter, which may be pulled out of the back.
It can easily be rinsed off to keep things clean.
Typically I do not have a foot fetish, but that is the right stuff right there. These are rubber suspended case feet, crafted in the a classy "hi-fi" look.
A Closer Look - Inside
As with all the Deep Silence cases, the side panels and top cover are fitted with specially designed, noise reducing insulation materials to minimize and absorb any noises.
The left side panel has been lined with a special combination of bitumen and foam, for a very efficient reduction of airborne noise emissions.
In order to optimize the cooling of the graphics card, two additional 120 or 140 mm fans can be mounted in the left side panel.
The Nanoxia Deep Silence 6 offers a lavish cable management system.There are 15 grommets covering the cable pass-through areas.
A look at the back.There is a generous amount of room behind the motherboard tray for cable routing, which lets me achieve a tidy build without much effort.
Like every Nanoxia Deep Silence case, this server-capable tower is water cooling ready. In the steel top, there are special offset mounting points for 360/280 mm radiators. You can easily install very thick radiators (e.g. 45 or 60 mm) without interfering with motherboards components.Thanks to the immense space available you can operate even massive radiators in a push-pull mode with fans on both sides.You can mount a total of three 120 or 140 mm fans under the top cover and operate them with the Active Air Chimney.
Two 140mm fans(1400rpm) are installed by deafault by Nanoxia.
At the bottom of the case, either one 140 mm or two 120 mm fans can be accommodated. All air intake openings of the case equipped with effective dust filters.
All the cables of the DS6 are sleeved black and of the standard variety.
The Deep Silence 6 provides the ability to mount a 120 or 240 mm or 240/280 mm radiator behind the HDD cage in a special mounting frame. If necessary, the radiator can even be equipped with fans on both sides without colliding with the motherboard or power supply.
The chassis is designed for a total of up to thirteen 2.5 inch or 3.5 inch hard disk drives in the Deep Silence 6.
The hard drives are installed in special mounting carriages, which are designed to accommodate both 2.5" HDD / SSD as well as 3.5" HDD.
The Deep Silence 6 also features a modular 3-bay HDD cage, which allows you (by using additional, separately available cages) to boost the hard disk drive capacity of the Deep Silence 6 massively. The cage may also be mounted at different positions on the case bottom. This ensures that for example very thick radiators can be installed without space problems or give you the opportunity to mount even more HDD cages without interfering with the motherboard.
Here you can see the rubber bumpers that support the PSU.
The rear 140mmm fan.
On the back side are as many as ten PCI expansion slots painted in black.The PCI slots have thumbscrews to help secure your cards. These are great because it will make installing/uninstalling quick and easy.
There's a massive cutout in the tray to maximize compatibility with aftermarket cooling.Near it its another one a little smaller.
Toolless locking mechanisms for the 5.25" drive bays are in place.
Installation and Finished looks
Installing the motherboard is about as easy as it gets.You can mount HTPX, E-ATX, XL-ATX, ATX, Micro-ATX and Mini-ITX motherboards in the Deep Silence 6.
I always try to test the limits of the wire management, and I have to say the DS6 passes with flying colors. I was able to get everything I needed in here, and with the three quarters of an inch of clearance, the door panel slid right back in place.
The power supply slid right in over the four raised rubber feet.Vga cards up to 370 mm in length can be mounted.The room here pretty much covers anything currently on the market.
Screws with rubber suspension are used to hold the drives in place.
A second pair of mounting holes is available to mount the hard disks in the carriages with the connectors pointing to the front, which can be useful, if frequent changes of the hard drives are on the agenda.
Below are some pictures of the finished build, with a stock 240mm radiator on the roof.
Here is the radiator behind the HDD cage in a special mounting frame.
When the DS6 from Nanoxia gets power up and everything is running, the only things to change now is that we get the green glow of LED from around the power button.The DS6 makes an excellent impression.
Test System and Methology
Test System:
Processor: Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme
Motherboard: Asus P9X79
Cpu cooler:Corsair H100
Memory: 16GB G.Skill Ares
Graphics Card:2 X GTX 560 Ti Hawk
Power Supply: Seasonic G-Series 650W
Chassis: Nanoxia Deep Silence 6
Monitor: Dell U2311
Boot Drive: Intel SSD 510
Storage Drive: WD Caviar Black 1TB HDD
Software:
CPUID HW Monitor 1.23
CPUID CPU-Z 1.65
Prime95 v27.1
Furmark 1.11.0
I am testing the DS6's 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
Stock testing starts off with a bang.At the highest fan setting,the DS6 (together with the Phantom 630)runs the CPU cooler than the other cases tested, and even the GPU thermals are competitive.
Temperatures are at least competitive if not outright victories. At the high fan setting, performance is tremendous.
Noise level
The built-in fans from their own are hardly to be heard in low rpm mode.Nanoxia's chassis is the quietest.It takes first place, which makes it a great option for people who love silence.It doesn't make more noise with the fans on maximum speed.
Conclusion
The DS6 has a minimalist approach to case design giving credence to subtle and discreet styling. Not everyone likes their rig to be gaudy with flashing LED fan lights. The outside is pleasing to the eye as is the inside too.The gigantic case offers you enormous space for your most demanding projects.You can install any motherboard and combination of graphics cards with ease.Specifically with the DS6, it is the wire management system, the tool-free clips on the bays,the hidden front I/O panel and the Active Air Chimney.It has dust filters, it has plenty of fans and optional fan locations, it is water cooling capable, you can remove the Disk cages and you can even slide in 280mm width radiator in front of the Disk cage without any modification.The fan controller is discreet and gives the user control over fan speeds without having to attach oodles of cables.Airflow is excellent throughout, with more vents in the bottom and the big gap around the periphery of the door.Working inside the DS6 is pain-free, thanks to the luxuriously spacious interior The list really does go on and on with reasons to love this chassis.If there really is anything to pick on this chassis about,i could go into the fact that it is large and heavy and you will need a fair amount of room to house this chassis.
If you are looking for a quiet case then the DS6 will make an excellent choice as the five fans registered under 35 dBA in my acoustic testing.The Dual-layer design side panels equipped with foam are exceptionally well engineered and help reduce annoying fan noise, even from a close distance.I have 9 fans on it and i can sleep next to it.Overall ventilation is good, and can be improved with the addition of extra fans.The price point of the DS6 being slightly over 200 Euro's is going to take this chassis out of a lot of hands right out of the gate. Thing is though, when considering the cost of a dual socket system, multiple video cards, a 1.5kW PSU, water cooling components, and various other additions, the price is just a drop in the bucket.The Deep Silence 6 from Nanoxia is a big step up for them and is a chassis that a lot of users will find to be the next big chassis for their builds.
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Originally Posted by Rilla927
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