Page 4 - Installation and Conclusion
The installation process for the Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 is very straightforward. You will have plenty of space to work with, and cable management is easy to work out. Out of preference, just to make the cabling job extremely neat and easy to manage, I loosely configured where the cables went first, then installed the power supply with the power cables accounted for. Then I installed the motherboard next, connecting the appropriate cables where necessary. For those who have a larger power supply, and want to move a HDD/SSD rack right next it, be sure to have all your cables on your power supply routed first, as space may be a premium. If you are planning to stick the HDD/SSD rack here, I would recommend this installation step be saved until the last for best cable management, not to mention it will save you some grief. Next came my video card, RAM, and the monstrous Noctua NH-C14 heatsink. You will notice if you use such large heatsinks, you may not have enough room to fit an optional top fan. 5.25" drive installation takes merely a simple slide-and-click using the tool-free installation clips. Executing a clean cabling job is very straightforward and easy to do, as you can see in the photo above.
Plugging everything in and pushing the power button will bring our system inside the Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 to life. Your finished system will look very similar to what you see above, not like the exterior is going to be any different anyway, haha. Your power button will have a nice green light glowing around it once powered on. On a scale from 0.0 to 10.0 where 0.0 is silent and 10.0 is the loudest, the Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 configured stock fans would come in at 3.5 subjective sound rating at full blast. This is pretty decent, considering that I have quite picky ears. Slowing them down will keep it at around 3.0 in my personal opinion. Unfortunately, it is not quieter than the Fractal Design Define R4, nor does it have better cooling performance.
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The Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 is a fairly decent mid-tower retailing for approximately $120 USD at press time. If you like designs with clean slick looks, the Deep Silence 1 is definitely a chassis to consider for your next shopping list. It comes with noise insulation panels to boot, keeping everything quiet while exhausting the heat well. This is not to mention if you got 140mm top fans stacked in this case, the chimney design is super handy. Moving hard drives around is also very convenient for the end user, as they can simply move an entire rack at once. The tool-free clips makes installing 5.25" drives quick and easy. In addition, it is fitted with dust filters at all air intake locations, while the chimney design serves as a dust blocker while preserving clean lines and looks. However, there are some flaws that require some of our attention. Although the panels and overall build quality is quite solid, I find that Nanoxia could have put much more attention in making sure the case is built to better precision. For the side panels, even without having any components installed yet, they do not slide precisely into place. A bit of force was needed in order for the holes to align for the thumbscrews at the back to fit. Also, the slider for seemed a bit stiff and difficult to open and close the chimney at times, and I found I needed more grip to open it. The mechanism also feels a bit fragile. Closing the front panel doors seemed cheap too. Lastly, it would have been nice if an adapter was provided for users that do not have an internal USB 3.0 connection. If Nanoxia were to make these refinements to the Deep Silence 1 in the next model, it would turn an average case into a great case. But for now, despite its many similarities with the Fractal Design Define R4, this is not a better version of it, nor is it any cheaper -- why not just buy the original?
Nanoxia provided this product to APH Networks for the purpose of evaluation.
APH Review Focus Summary:
6/10 means A product with its advantages, but drawbacks should not be ignored before purchasing.
7/10 means Great product with many advantages and certain insignificant drawbacks; but should be considered before purchasing.
-- Final APH Numeric Rating is 6.8/10
Please note that the APH Numeric Rating system is based off our proprietary guidelines in the Review Focus, and should not be compared to other sites.
Don't get me wrong, the Nanoxia DS1 is a decent case -- but there isn't much reason why you should buy this over a Fractal Design Define R4.
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Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Installation and Conclusion
