Deciding between open or silent focused case (Fractal S2)
Posted: Mon Mar 04, 2019 1:57 am
Hello all.
I was asking in the drives forum about today's quiet drives, but CA_Steve kindly informs there's not much current information, so for now I'm gonna try out a WD blue, which by specs should be slightly quieter than my current greens and just hope it's better.
Now the topic got more sidetracked towards my main conundrum, which is the choice of my new case, so I thought it'd be best to just open a new topic in here even if it's just for me to get my thought process straight.
The issue is this: I currently have a Fractal R4 but I'm gonna change it for a couple of reasons, and the best candidates by specs (and looks) seem to be the Fractal S2s.
Now where's the thing. My main focus is silent operation at idle, but I already reached that even on a completely open case (tested opening up my R4 entirely). A GTX 1080, Noctua D15, Seasonic x750W as the PSU and 3 noctua fans as case fans (2 A14s are the intakes) mean that, at idle, the thing is completely dead silent even just a couple inches away from it. That's except if the hard drives are spinning, which is where all the pain is coming from.
They're in no way loud, and they spend a lot of the time parked as they're storage drives, but they get accessed more or less frequently, and in the middle of the night you can actually (barely, but you can) hear them over ambient noise at say 1 or 2 meters due to the spinning itself plus the vibrations, unless the case mutes the noise with padding. Hence why I'm gonna try to swap them for a single bigger, quieter drive (it was time to get a new one anyway).
So this is where the hard choice comes. As I said, the Fractal S2s are most likely gonna be the chosen, because even if I'll waste a significant amount of space and are kind of pricey, they have exactly what I want otherwise. I'll also mount 3 Phanteks F140s as intakes that I can't mount in the R4 because of them being slightly larger (deeper) than what the front cage allows.
And here's the thing: I cannot find any proper testing of the Meshify and the Define S2s for cooling performance with 3 good fans pushing through the front, so I just have no clue what the best choice is.
I know the Meshify will perform better overall, and it will be dead silent at idle anyway if the hard drives are parked, but I can't know how much better, and if a single WD Blue, and the placing of the drive in the S2 will be quiet enough for it to be silent at idle while spinning (seek noise is irrelevant for me btw, just the idle spinning plus induced vibration).
The supposedly better airflow would also mean less noise while at load, which isn't as much of a priority, but would be obviously preferable.
On the other hand, I have no idea how the Define option performs when you get 3 proper fans working against the closed front. Maybe the airflow difference in that situation isn't that much worse than on the Meshify, and I'd get the benefit of the padding that would almost guarantee the silencing of the hard drive.
Then again, from the little data I've found, it seems like the open nature of the Meshify makes it benefit more from additional fans than the Defines, so it's entirely possible that I'll be able to turn the fan noise down significantly while on load (this is what's kind of a problem with my current R4, it needs to get pretty "loud" when working hard to move enough air).
So there, I can't decide (need more data!!). Is there anyone around here with experience maybe with the Define R6 and a Meshify C if not with the S themselves that could give me some clarity?
Thanks, and sorry for the text walls, but I find when I'm asking things on forums, writing it out helps me at the very least to clarify the situation for myself , with the obvious added benefit of giving people I'm asking plenty of information.
I was asking in the drives forum about today's quiet drives, but CA_Steve kindly informs there's not much current information, so for now I'm gonna try out a WD blue, which by specs should be slightly quieter than my current greens and just hope it's better.
Now the topic got more sidetracked towards my main conundrum, which is the choice of my new case, so I thought it'd be best to just open a new topic in here even if it's just for me to get my thought process straight.
The issue is this: I currently have a Fractal R4 but I'm gonna change it for a couple of reasons, and the best candidates by specs (and looks) seem to be the Fractal S2s.
Now where's the thing. My main focus is silent operation at idle, but I already reached that even on a completely open case (tested opening up my R4 entirely). A GTX 1080, Noctua D15, Seasonic x750W as the PSU and 3 noctua fans as case fans (2 A14s are the intakes) mean that, at idle, the thing is completely dead silent even just a couple inches away from it. That's except if the hard drives are spinning, which is where all the pain is coming from.
They're in no way loud, and they spend a lot of the time parked as they're storage drives, but they get accessed more or less frequently, and in the middle of the night you can actually (barely, but you can) hear them over ambient noise at say 1 or 2 meters due to the spinning itself plus the vibrations, unless the case mutes the noise with padding. Hence why I'm gonna try to swap them for a single bigger, quieter drive (it was time to get a new one anyway).
So this is where the hard choice comes. As I said, the Fractal S2s are most likely gonna be the chosen, because even if I'll waste a significant amount of space and are kind of pricey, they have exactly what I want otherwise. I'll also mount 3 Phanteks F140s as intakes that I can't mount in the R4 because of them being slightly larger (deeper) than what the front cage allows.
And here's the thing: I cannot find any proper testing of the Meshify and the Define S2s for cooling performance with 3 good fans pushing through the front, so I just have no clue what the best choice is.
I know the Meshify will perform better overall, and it will be dead silent at idle anyway if the hard drives are parked, but I can't know how much better, and if a single WD Blue, and the placing of the drive in the S2 will be quiet enough for it to be silent at idle while spinning (seek noise is irrelevant for me btw, just the idle spinning plus induced vibration).
The supposedly better airflow would also mean less noise while at load, which isn't as much of a priority, but would be obviously preferable.
On the other hand, I have no idea how the Define option performs when you get 3 proper fans working against the closed front. Maybe the airflow difference in that situation isn't that much worse than on the Meshify, and I'd get the benefit of the padding that would almost guarantee the silencing of the hard drive.
Then again, from the little data I've found, it seems like the open nature of the Meshify makes it benefit more from additional fans than the Defines, so it's entirely possible that I'll be able to turn the fan noise down significantly while on load (this is what's kind of a problem with my current R4, it needs to get pretty "loud" when working hard to move enough air).
So there, I can't decide (need more data!!). Is there anyone around here with experience maybe with the Define R6 and a Meshify C if not with the S themselves that could give me some clarity?
Thanks, and sorry for the text walls, but I find when I'm asking things on forums, writing it out helps me at the very least to clarify the situation for myself , with the obvious added benefit of giving people I'm asking plenty of information.