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Quiet PC Ultra-Quiet Xbox 360 Premium Review
| Author | Hugo Jobling |
| Published | 13th Apr 2009 |
| Manufacturer | Quiet PC |
| Supplier | Quiet PC |
| Price | £309.55 (Exc VAT) |
| as reviewed | £355.98 (Inc VAT) |
| Latest Price | Click here |
| Overall |  |
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TrustedReviews NewslettersAs great a gaming console as the Xbox 360 is, there's a reason that for any game available on the PS3 as well, that's the version I'll be using: the PlayStation doesn't sound like a wind tunnel every time I ask it to perform even the simplest of tasks. And don't even get me started on that DVD drive.
Those fans whir merrily away inside the Xbox 360 with good reason, though. Lest we forget, Microsoft's console is rather prone to getting just a little hot. The failure rate, courtesy the red ring of death, doesn't inspire much confidence in the Xbox 360.
Lian Li offered those willing to crack open their Xbox 360 a possible solution to the console's tendency to overheat, in the form of the PC-XB01 case. However, transposing the Xbox 360 from one case to the other to avert its overheating problems introduces a potential hitch of its own: voiding the warranty. Bearing in mind Microsoft is offering free replacement of any console succumbing to the RROD (within three years of manufacture) so trying to avert a failure seems ironically counterintuitive.
Quiet PC thinks there's one another reason you might want an XB01 case though. Transposing the guts of an Xbox 360 to a roomier case affords the opportunity to adorn it with some much needed noise-reducing cladding.
Since the New Xbox Experience was released, the biggest noise-producing component of the Xbox 360, its disc drive, has had its impact considerably lessened thanks to the added ability to install games to the Xbox's hard drive. Indeed, to my mind being able to play Gears of War 2 and actually hear what Marcus Fenix was muttering about over the din of the game disc was far more beneficial than the slight reduction in load times.
However, for those occasions when the DVD drive does still have to spin up Quiet PC has done an admirable job of lessening its impact. Sure, I could still hear the drive spinning during a quick round of Halo 3 multiplayer, but it was no longer at distracting volume levels!
Even with the DVD drive's noise held at bay by hard drive installations my post-NXE Xbox 360 Elite still manages to annoy me. Somehow the fans have tuned themselves to a frequency such that it entirely cuts through any game or video's soundtrack.
Conversely the Quiet PC Xbox 360 was completely silent with its disc drive idle. A few hours of Horde drifted blissfully by, interruption free. Discounting the voice-comm spamming morons I was playing against with.
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smc8788 said on 14th April 2009
hank said on 15th April 2009
@smc8788
Is this the same wikipedia that FACTUALLY stated Vernon Kay was dead? The same wikipedia whose previous contributors acted on behalf of MS and Sony? Sony sh... more
smc8788 said on 15th April 2009
@ hank - ROFL. You obviously missed the no less than *30* referenced articles from various web sources, just on the subject of scratched discs? Now I know the validity of Wikipedia... more
hank said on 15th April 2009
@smc8788
Sorry to disappoint but the wikkipedia thing I skipped, not everyone relies on its fact busting educational qualities like yourself. To it's credit it shows in... more
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@ hank - No, the disc scratching was in inherent technical fault with the console itself, and was not down to user error. Since you don't seem to know very much on the subject... more