Nanoxia Deep Silence 2 review

When we checked out Nanoxia's Deep Silence 1 last month, we were deeply impressed by the German company's first outing in case design. It was so well thought out and so well put together it felt like Nanoxia had been creating quality chassis for years.

Now we have the next rapid iteration of the case - the Deep Silence 2. It's going to be rather interesting to see how it stacks up against the original. So what's different about the follow up case then?

Well, for a start, it's a fair bit deeper than its predecessor at 588mm - the Deep Silence 1 was just 532mm. It's also cheaper than the original version - though you'll have to pay a small premium if you want it finished in white (£80 inc VAT). It's also available in silver, black and anthracite for people who don't want to pay the extra for a stormtrooper-white chassis at £75 ($120US / $116AU approx).

It may be a bigger case, but it's lost some of the features that made the original case so appealing. The front bezel is no longer split into two doors, and only the top door remains to access the three 5.25-inch bays.

The ventilation 'chimney' has gone, and perhaps most disappointing of all, the 3.5-inch drive cage (holding seven drive trays) is now fixed in position. Because the bottom half of the front bezel is now fixed, to access the front two 120mm cooling fans you have to take the whole bezel off - a backwards step, surely?

The case comes with three 120mm cooling fans pre-installed. As well as the front pair of 120mm fans, there is a third 120mm unit on the rear panel. There are also options to fit another pair of 120mm fans in the front and four more 120/140mm units at various positions.

Liquid lovin'

The drive cage is now fixed due to the Deep Silence 2 being more geared towards water-cooling than its predecessor. There is a mounting frame added to the drive cage which can hold either a 120mm or 240mm radiator - complete with up to four cooling fans - without getting in the way of the drive cage or the motherboard.

Talking of mobos, the back plate has nine rubber grommeted holes of varying sizes to make tidy cable runs as easy as possible. On the plus side, the extra space means that you can mount mobos from MITX all the way up to EATX in it. Two integrated fan controllers can look after up to six fans - with 18 Watts available for each channel - and sit behind the top door in the front of the case.

The I/O panel is now sat in its usual place on top of the front panel, instead of being built in to a sprung top panel, as per the original case. The I/O panel holds two USB 3.0 and single USB 2.0 ports, as well as mic and audio connectors.

Sadly, Nanoxia has taken away many of the features that made the Deep Silence 1 stand out from the crowd. Yes, it's a bigger case and it's cheaper too, but if you're not entirely set on using an EATX motherboard - or water cooling - then pay the extra £15 and pick up the original Deep Silence 1.