Nanoxia Deep Silence 2 Review

Performance Analysis

As with the Deep Silence 1 before it, the Deep Silence 2 is incredibly quiet in operation. It's once again hard to hear the difference from a regular distance between the high and low fan speeds, especially over the rest of our labs, and the case contains the sounds of other hardware excellently. If you're chasing quiet computing, the Deep Silence series is as good as it currently gets.


With its three fans on maximum speed, the DS2's temperatures aren't particularly amazing, but the case is able to slightly improve on those of the DS1 at full speed. Given its low noise profile, its CPU delta T result of 55°C is good, as it's easily quieter than the other cases which achieve similar results. Fractal's Define cases are a little better here, but the XL R2 especially is undoubtedly louder. The GPU delta T result of 49°C is similarly respectable for so quiet a case, and in this arena manages to keep pace with the Define R4 at full speed too.

On minimum speed it feels (and sounds) as if the fans are barely spinning, and this drop in airflow sends the CPU delta T value up by a whole 9°C to a toasty 64°C, which is even higher than the DS1 at minimum speed. Needless to say, you wouldn't want to be running an overclocked system with the fans at so low a speed. The GPU result also increases by 5°C to 54°C thanks to a drop in cool air reaching it from the front, which places it among other cases on minimum speed too.

Conclusion

Like its predecessor, the Deep Silence 2 is a great chassis, especially for those primarily concerned about noise reduction. There's little that's been lost in the height reduction bar the roof water-cooling support, but having support for a full size double radiator as well as E-ATX motherboards in a £75 mid-tower chassis is still excellent. Features have been cut in sensible places to meet the new price tag, although we would have preferred the second front door to have remained, and other than the stiff side panels the case is universally well designed, solidly built and easy to build a tidy system into.

Given the choice, we'd still likely opt for the Deep Silence 1, as its cooling and noise performance is roughly equal to the newer chassis and it has the better feature set. The DS2's price tag is what really stands out though, especially as the silver edition can be had for just over £70, and it's this value for money that principally earns the DS2 its award. The original DS1, the Corsair 550D and Fractal's Define R4 and XL R2 cases are all viable (but costlier) alternatives, however. The choice between such cases will naturally depend on your specific needs, especially with regards to cost, water-cooling abilities and motherboard size, but the DS2 is a very worthy contender if you're seeking minimum noise at a minimal price.