Are you looking at building a new system that is quiet, looks good and comes with plenty of solid features? Check out this case.

Introduction, Specifications and Pricing

VIEW GALLERY - 35 IMAGES

A few manufacturers out there actually do read the reviews that are posted about their products rather than just look for what award can be pasted on the website, case and point with what happened with Nanoxia. Reviewing the DS6, we had made mention that we had seen every chassis since this series of cases were released to the market, well all but one. For some reason or another, this chassis seems to have been released later, but does fill the void in the series that we thought we had somehow missed, or maybe they had just skipped that number in the series.

While making your way from the original Deep Silence chassis all the way through to the DS6 we saw from them last, we have seen the chassis evolve, drastically change in size along the route, but a few things have always stayed a constant, and can be found in this latest midi-tower design as well. Nanoxia is known for the fact that their chassis designs are strong as an ox, they have always offered a nice blend in their feature set, they engineer these cases with the intent to be a silent as possible, hence the name, but also take the extra step to use sound absorbing materials and sound redirection to accomplish this time and time again.

While it may indeed seem a little odd that we have seen versions one through six first, skipping right over number three, but we are here to change that today. While we see many, and we mean many cases rolling through the labs all the time, it is sort of rare that we know the entire lineup of cases as well as we do these from Nanoxia. With an already great handle on what Nanoxia has been about in the past, and with what we have been able to find out with the latest, their Deep Silence 3 midi-tower, it may be a little late to the naming game, but as you will see, this is another top notch design from the people at Nanoxia, and well worth a serious look at what we are about to show.

We have already addressed that this is the Nanoxia Deep Silence 3 chassis, and while we received the black version, there is another color option in anthracite as well. While we find the Midi-tower classification slightly odd, that is what they are calling this steel chassis that stands 456mm tall, is 207mm in width, is 520mm deep, and weighs in at 9.3 kg completely empty. While most midi-tower cases only allow for Micro-ATX and Mini-ITX motherboards, the DS3 will also allow for an ATX motherboard, and it has seven expansion slots too.

In this design, we are offered three 5.25" bays, but they are concealed behind a door that is magnetically attached at one side and swings open to the right. The door offers sound absorbing material, and the front is covered with a slick finish to match the rest of the bezel. On top of just access to the optical drives, there is also a pair of fan controller switches, and each will power three fans. There is also room inside for up to five 3.5" drives and another section of the HDD cage that allows for only 2.5" drives, but there is room for three drives there. Another feature to this HDD cage is that it is also completely removable and reconfigurable as well.

Cooling this chassis there is a pair of 120mm fans in the front of the chassis acting as the intake, and is the source of cool air into the chassis. To help this flow along as well as helping to exhaust it, there is a third fan sent in the chassis, located in the rear of the case, and again is 120mm in size. For any additional cooling needs one might have when looking to buy this chassis, there is still room in both the top of the chassis to allow for yet another pair of 120 or 140mm fans. The floor also offers an optional location, but allows only a single 120mm or 140mm fan.

In our borders, the Deep Silence 3 chassis is in limited supply, but is not surprising either, as previous cases were also a touch hard to find in the past. We were however able to locate a listing at Amazon.com with Nanoxia as the reseller name, and it was there we found the $109.75 pricing with free shipping. That price is down from the $119.99 MSRP that is listed in that ad as well, so there is a bit of introductory savings still going on as well. For a mid-tower chassis, that pricing seems spot on for the feature set, and classifying this as a midi-tower is slightly confusing all the way around as well.

While offering an impression it is smaller, we don't feel cost should be with mid-tower or full-tower offerings, and had the naming been with one less "i" in it, not only would the pricing "feel" better, but it would actually fit the design. While we obviously have our opinion, stick around and see what Nanoxia is offering, as we aren't saying it is not worth the investment, just that you need to look past the confusion to what the Deep Silence 3 chassis really is, a well equipped mid-tower chassis that you will likely have a good use for.

PRICING: You can find the Nanoxia Deep Silence 3 Mid Tower Case for sale below. The prices listed are valid at the time of writing, but can change at any time. Click the link to see the very latest pricing for the best deal.

United States: The Nanoxia Deep Silence 3 Mid Tower Case retails for $98.99 at Amazon.

Australia: Find other tech and computer products like this over at PLE Computer's website.

Canada: The Nanoxia Deep Silence 3 Mid Tower Case retails for CDN$245.97 at Amazon Canada.

Packaging

It seems the other cases were much more colourful when it came to the box, but even so, the black on white packaging still offers options to display naming at the top, offer a rendering of the chassis with features listed in the middle, and tells us to "turn on German engineering".

Keeping the black and white going around the box, when we get to this side panel, we find that Nanoxia has used it to offer three specifications charts, and is also where the box is marked for the color option inside the box.

On the back, the top and bottom are identical to the front, but the center has definitely changed. This time we see a rendering of the opened chassis with an amazing nineteen things about the design being pointed out to potential customers in brick and mortar stores.

Along with the choice of colors used on this shiny packaging, to help save a little bit more money to invest into the chassis, we find that the side panels are indeed identical. Even when we look at the specs charts, they are still in English, German, and French.

Opening the box, our heart sank just a bit as we found the Styrofoam on both ends of the chassis was nearly destroyed. Both caps are broken in multiple places, however, the liner is intact. While this chassis obviously had a very rough journey to us for testing, as beat up as one would suppose this chassis to have been, we found not a single scratch or dent in this DS3.

Nanoxia Deep Silence 3 Midi-Tower Chassis

The front of the chassis is near shiny in the plastic used on the front bezel. The entire thing is black, and from the front, aside from the slightly angled edges around it, the only thing to see is the break where the top part opens and the rest covers the intake fans.

The top of the bezel opens and swings to the right to expose the trio of removable bay covers. While the door uses the magnet seen at the left of the bays to stay shut, if you look along the bottom, you can also see two fan slider switches to power up to six fans between the two.

In front of the steel, as part of the front bezel, we find the front I/O panel for the DS3. Here they offer a pair of 3.5mm HD Audio jacks on the left with a large power button in the center with a ring around it to illuminate later. To the right, we then find a pair of USB 3.0 connections and a single USB 2.0 connection.

The top of the chassis does offer optional ventilations, but the pair of 120mm or 140mm locations in the roof of the chassis is currently covered with sound absorbing pads.

Sticking with the sleek look of their cases, while there is a windowed option, our version offers a solid steel panel to see on the left. At the front of the chassis, we do see the cut out ventilation that is the source for the intake fans.

The back of the DS3 starts at the top with a pair of grommets for water cooling, and then we see the rear I/O and exhaust fan location. There are seven expansion slots and room for the PSU at the bottom, but also offers a second set of grommets for water cooling to pass through there as well.

Almost like looking at the left side of the chassis in the mirror is what we find when it comes to the right side of the DS3. The ventilation matches, there is no protrusion for wiring, even down to the small handle and thumbscrews, it all matches.

Under the chassis, we see large feet at the front of the chassis and much smaller ones used at the back, but the chassis is as sure footed as it can be. At the back is a removable dust filter for the PSU, but optional fan location is left bare.

Inside the DS3

After removing two very heavy side panels, once flipped over, we saw why. There are a few millimetres of sound deadening material used inside of both side panels. Of course, it cannot go edge to edge, but the entire surface other than where it attaches to the rest of the chassis is indeed covered with it.

Our first glance into the chassis shows us that the wiring has been bundles for a safe trip, and it appears there are a lot of wires as well. We also see a twist tie in the ODD bays, and there is a box of hardware found inside of them.

The trio of ODD bays offers tool-free latches on this side, and just a bit later you will see them again on the back as well. The wiring does travel through the bays from the I/O panel, but full access is left for the three bays.

The storage drive rack offers a thinner set of bays at the top for 2.5" drives, while the lower sections hold up to five 3.5" drives. The top section as well as the middle is removable after some tricky negotiation with a screw driver, and they can be shifted left to a second drive stand. The lowest section does not have screws, so it stays in place since they used rivets to mount that.

The top of the chassis offers the correct spacing for a dual 140mm based AIO, but the 120mm fan spacing is spread too far to use like that. For the current time, we still see the pads that Nanoxia has used to absorb sound as well as blocking it from coming out the top of the chassis.

The motherboard tray has a medium to large access hole, made for Mini-ITX, Micro-ATX and ATX motherboards, and is stamped with structure in mind. There are plenty of places to tie up any loose wiring, and the holes for wiring all have grommets in them as well.

In the floor of the chassis, we find plenty of room for the PSU at the back of the chassis, and even use of a PSU gasket in this design to work with the rubber pads on the floor to isolate the unit. The optional fan location is currently blocked with the optional HDD rack base, but is screwed down and can be removed.

The pair in the front matches this green bladed 120mm fan we find at the rear, and all are powered via 3-pin fan connections. The expansions slots below use ventilated covers and are secured with thumbscrews.

Behind the motherboard tray there is very near 20mm behind the motherboard tray to stash any wiring. The left side is more open to a view, but is also deeper and will allow a place to stack up SATA leads or Molex runs.

Everything about the front I/O wiring is black from the wire color to the connections at the ends. There are the standards for the LEDs and buttons, a native USB 3.0, USB 2.0 and HD Audio to connect. We also see a Molex lead to power the fan controller, but the power lead is not connected in ours. We also see two leads with three fan clips on them to use with the fan controllers, if it were connected and functional.

Since we just discussed the wiring, this image seemed fitting to follow it. Keep in mind with any management you do with the wiring, that it is attached to the bezel, and if you want access to the fan filter for cleaning, leave a fair bit of slack in the leads.

Accessories and Documentation

In the hardware box found in the ODD bays, there is a bag with all the screws and bits needed to get the build finished. We got a handful of screws to mount 3.5" drives into the trays, the motherboard standoffs, and motherboard screws in the top row. The bottom offers PSU screws, ODD screws, and a bunch of 2.5" drive mounting screws.

Just in case the lead on your PSU for the EPS 8-pin is a tad short, Nanoxia has you covered. While only a mid-tower, routing could play a part in not making the distance, and this 6" long 4-pin or 8-pin extension may come in handy.

The cover to the manual is in full color, but inside things are black and white. There is everything you need to know inside from what the hardware is for, to how to install various components, and while very short in content, will make the installation process a breeze.

Case Build and Finished Product

Since the HDD rack is complicated to remove, we left it in play, and still found plenty of room for the oversized video card. There were no issues aligning the motherboard; even the wiring was simple. At this point, we really have no issues to discuss.

The dust shield snapped right into place and the PSU sidles right up and smashes the gasket a bit. We also found that when it came time to mount the video card, there was no need for adjustments, the holes lined right up.

Bundling all of the I/O wiring was still not enough to make the side panel have any issues being placed back on the chassis. The access hole lines up well, and all in all everything sort of flows into place where it is needed to run to.

All packaged back up and ready to test, there is not a single thing that changes in our view of the DS3, and we are big fans of that. What you saw in images is exactly what you end up with, and the only thing that could change in this view is potentially seeing a pair of fans in the top of the chassis through the mesh.

In all honesty, in the two foot of distance the camera and we were from this chassis, when the button is pressed, if not for the green ring around the power button being illuminated now, we would not know it was on. We had to seriously get within nine inches of the back of the chassis to even pick up any sound with our ears.

Final Thoughts

When sitting here rehashing what all the Deep Silence 3 from Nanoxia offers, there is a lot to check off on the good side. It is a simple yet elegant looking exterior, and best of all, one thing you don't find outside of this chassis and is most annoying in many others designs; noise. From every angle in the way this chassis was designed, from using side vents on the front bezel to redirect sound and offset what the customer hears is a great start. Offering up fully padded side panels also kills quite a bit of sound.

Attending to the top fan locations, but covering them as well with pads really does make this chassis one of the most silent offerings we have ever tested to date. Inside, there is more than enough bays offered in the front, the ODD bays are tool-free on both sides, the HDD bays may be complicated to remove, but it is possible. There are grommets everywhere, ample tie points, the list does go on and on, but worth mentioning the most out of them is the fact that this chassis is as solid as a rock with or without the side panels and drive bays.

There is a very short list of things we found not to our liking, but they are worth mentioning. First of all and most detrimental to the DS3 feature set was the Molex lead for the fan controllers being improperly made. One of the two leads had somehow broken when made or in transit, and was freely flopping around. Looking in the Molex connector, we found that someone simply forgot how to use a crimping tool properly, and while we could have fixed it and carried onward, most users will not want to deal with something like this in a brand new chassis. We like that there is a top fan option, and with a thin radiator and only a single set of fans a 280mm AIO is possible in the top of the chassis.

However, at the same time, they offset the 120mm fan spacing too far to allow any options other than just fans to cool there. The last thing we want to address is that they classify this as a midi-tower, and while anyone can call it whatever they want when they come up with a name idea on a product, we do find it a bit confusing for the features and capabilities of this, what we would address as a mid-tower chassis.

Even with our personal points of interest addressed, we do not see them as real deal breakers. Mistakes can happen, and know that Nanoxia would have sent us a new panel with the wiring correct if we asked. Naming, who cares if the case does what you need. It can be the "flying purple people eater" for all we care. If it takes care of the needs and wants like the Deep Silence 3 Midi-tower chassis does, that is all that matters.

While you may find offerings with an easier to use HDD cage assembly, it is few and far between that you get it inside of a chassis so solid, hefty, and dead silent from our perspective. Of course, on a technical level, there is some noise, but you really have to hunt and intentionally find it. While it is $109.75, we feel the feature set, the aesthetics, and silence will put this chassis right to the top of many buyers "must have" lists.

PRICING: You can find the Nanoxia Deep Silence 3 Mid Tower Case for sale below. The prices listed are valid at the time of writing, but can change at any time. Click the link to see the very latest pricing for the best deal.

United States: The Nanoxia Deep Silence 3 Mid Tower Case retails for $98.99 at Amazon.

Australia: Find other tech and computer products like this over at PLE Computer's website.

Canada: The Nanoxia Deep Silence 3 Mid Tower Case retails for CDN$245.97 at Amazon Canada.