[Delt]

What cases are available with only 2 air vents?
I wish to only put filtered air into the computer, probably piped to it by an external air filter, possibly HEPA.
I want only 1 air vent in and 1 out.
Preferably, it would be Micro-ATX, but perhaps as large as ATX.

[chconline]

Is dust your main concern?

Give the Fractal Design Define R3 a shot. The top and side vents are blocked off by default, so you don't need to worry about. A standard 120mm rear exhaust is present, and the two front intakes are all filtered. I'm extremely concerned about dust accumulation, and I never had a problem with the otherwise excellent filters installed on the R3.

[TL6MT]

+1 for Define R3 but that's an ATX case. The Silverstone PS07 might be a good choice but 2 front intakes, it has a dust filter too.

http://aphnetworks.c...y-preston-yuen/

[Delt]

My concerns are

Dust. I would like to have an air filter I can replace. I am thinking of running a pipe into the input vent on the case. Then there would only be 1 input.

Reliability. I've had small fans fail more suddenly than large fans. Fans failing on the north bridge and graphics cards have caused destruction of motherboards and the graphics cards.

I would like to not have fans on the CPU, north bridge. or graphics cards. Only heat sinks.

Noise. High frequency noise from small fans is more irritating to me than low.

Thanks for the tips. I'll look into them.

This post has been edited by Delt: 13 December 2011 - 06:39 AM

[chconline]

I think you are taking this a little too seriously

Firstly, for the intake: Most case fans have decent enough dust filters. None of them are perfect, but from my experience, most of the dust particles are caught effectively. Fractal Design has some of the best around in my opinion. You don't really need to replace them. Just vacuum it out with a brush, and you are on your way again.

http://aphnetworks.c...esign_define_r3

I don't recall any recent motherboards from major brand manufacturers having chipset fans. They have been largely replaced by heatpipes, and it has been this case since like, 2006. Graphics card fans are quite reliable nowadays, considering stock coolers are relatively decent, and many board OEMs use custom cooling solutions. You can buy a passive card, but the performance is going to be crap. Gigabyte's Windforce solution is awesome IMO -- I got a GTX 570 capped at 40% and life is awesome

No fans on the CPU is probably not possible on any regular desktop CPUs. If you're concerned about noise, look into Noctua fans for your case, and self enclosed water cooling solutions if you don't like large heatsinks like the Noctua NH-D14. ( http://aphnetworks.c...s/noctua_nh_d14 ) I have mine capped at 900-1000rpm, and as a hardcore picky silent PC enthusiast, it works well for me. I have NF-S12B's for the rest of my case, and my PSU is a Cooler Master Silent Pro Hybrid 1050W with the fan shut off. (http://aphnetworks.c...ro_hybrid_1050w)

[TL6MT]

Whats your comp spec? I dont recall any recent builds with that problem as chc said.

[chconline]

Small fans don't fail any easier, it's just usually they're cheap low quality fans that are prone to dust -- and they get jammed easily.

[Big Bang]

+1 for Fractal Design cases - they gave Rave Reviews everywhere, and APH loves them as well.