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Nanoxia Deep Silence 2 Case Review: Trimming the Fat

 by Dustin Sklavos on February 14, 2013 12:01 AM EST
39 Comments | Add A Comment
39 Comments

Assembling the Nanoxia Deep Silence 2

Apart from the accursed side panels, the Nanoxia Deep Silence 2 remains a fairly pleasant, easily assembled enclosure. There are definitely some small conveniences missing, but by and large Nanoxia's engineers continue to do right by the end user.

Disappointingly, Nanoxia doesn't include any extrusions on the motherboard tray, pre-installed standoffs, or an alignment stud the way a lot of modern enclosures have begun doing. This is a minor grievance but still annoying, as you'll be required to install all of the standoffs yourself. Connecting the motherboard headers remains easy, though, as Nanoxia smartly includes cable routing holes both near the cable bundle at the top of the case and between the motherboard and the power supply.

Installing drives continues to be a fairly painless process. The toolless clamps used for the 5.25" drive bays are a smart design and feel secure, and I appreciate that they include clamps on both sides of the cage as opposed to just the left side. Meanwhile the drive trays continue to be incredibly sturdy, although they aren't toolless; you'll want to hold on to the screws used for bottom-mounting the hard drives to the trays. The trays also snap into the cage pretty easily, but they're not quite as secure as I'd like.

Gallery: Nanoxia Deep Silence 2 Assembly

Getting the video card and power supply in is business as usual. The perforated covers for the expansion slots use thumbscrews as expected, while there's actually a little bit of padding in the power supply bay to ease fan vibration. Nothing eventful to report here, though.

Wiring up the DS2 is pretty standard, too. It's easy to make good use of the routing holes around the motherboard tray, but where Nanoxia goofs up a little is with the AUX 12V routing hole. This isn't the first time I've seen this happen in a case design, and it alternates between being irritating and amusing. Basically, the back of the hole is blocked off somewhat by the rail for replacing the side panel. You can fish the line through it, but you may need a bit of patience.

Unfortunately the side panel mounting system does continue to be an issue due to the less than ideal amount of space for cables behind the motherboard tray. Remember that because the side panels are padded we lose millimeters of space, and this is an area where any amount of space can help. Expect a bit of a struggle when you go to close up this section of your build.

In and Around the Nanoxia Deep Silence 2 Testing Methodology
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  • zinton - Thursday, February 14, 2013 - link

    Does anyone know a retailer in the United States that ships to Hawaii, and sells the Deep silence 1 or 2?

  • headbox - Thursday, February 14, 2013 - link

    Amazing how far we have NOT come in case design in the 20+ years I've been building computers.

  • jabber - Thursday, February 14, 2013 - link

    I know, it's like time has stood still.

    Just moved on from beige and that's about it.

  • lurker22 - Thursday, February 14, 2013 - link

    Maybe because there really isn't much to holding a few parts together in a box?

  • arthur449 - Thursday, February 14, 2013 - link

    Well, when I started building computers, the CPU was located at the front bottom of the case. Then came ATX, and then BTX compatible cases... then everyone said "meh" and kept ATX.

    It's just not worth it to make a new standard for cases and motherboards when custom builders are such a small portion of the overall market. All the big companies pay for custom boards if they need them, but most consumer-oriented brands have thrown in the towel and use mATX for lower cost and higher customer satisfaction due to future upgrade compatibility with different boards and add-on cards.

  • GotThumbs - Thursday, February 14, 2013 - link

    Agreed.

    My first build was an AT case and I haven't built an ATX system for myself or anyone else is quite a few years. Most of my systems have been mATX based using Apevia QPACK cases with an upgraded PS. My systems/users are not for heavy gamers, so multiple graphic cards are not needed.

    I am moving my personal systems to mini-ITX format now. I find it unnecessary these days to have a big case, since I have a separate home-server for all my content storage. Using a SSD and an AMD APU based system more than does the job for my needs.

    Best wishes,

  • Zak - Thursday, February 14, 2013 - link

    The ATX standard is adequate. But why is so hard to make a good looking AND functional case? There are some good looking cases that are barely functional, some functional cases that are butt-ugly and everything else is either boring or gaudy.

  • LordOfTheBoired - Saturday, February 16, 2013 - link

    Because everyone's idea of good-looking is different.
    Some people like plain square boxes, some like case doors, some like plexiglass windows, some like blinky lights, some like black mesh, some like pointy bits...
    Ask ten people to name the best-looking cases on the market, expect ten different answers.

    Personally, I like the original Phantom. I don't understand how the best-looking case I've ever seen can be considered gaudy, but obviously tastes differ.
    I used to run in an old Antec Solo that I also loved(though not quite so much). And I've never understood how it could be considered ugly, but some people did.

  • michaelheath - Thursday, February 14, 2013 - link

    I'm sure it doesn't help case designers that the ATX specification has been around since 1995 and hasn't changed all that much since. You can only do so much when your case design revolves around a 12" x 9.6" flat board (or a 9.6" x 9.6" or a 6.7" x 6.7" board, for that matter). Motherboard designers and component manufacturers would have to agree on a new specification for us to see a radical change in 'standard' case designs.

  • ShieTar - Thursday, February 14, 2013 - link

    Really, you can't see a big difference between the DS2 and this thing: http://interloper.com/graphics/cases/mid_tower/mpe... ?

    You know, the AT-case with the non-replacable power supply, because it needed to be hardwired to the front-panel power button? And all those sharp-edged, hard to access drive cages? And the total lack of any kind of ventilation outside of the power supply, because nobody owned a 225W-GPU anyways, let alone several?
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