I am looking for case recommendations. These are the things I would like: high air flow, silent/quiet/sound dampening, 1-2 5.25" optical drive bay slots, 4-5 minimum 2.5"/3.5" drive bays.
I don’t need rgb or anything else. I am willing to buy more fans as well to max the air flow on the case. If I have to I will lose the 5.25" drive bay, but I would like one if possible(I have an external one now, but want to put it in new case). If I am missing any else let me know! Any suggestions and advise is greatly appreciated!
Was thinking about getting Cooler Master NR600 w/odd
Fractal Design Arc Midi R2.
Get a time machine and go back to 2014. Everything since is absolute glass rgb laughable HDD capacity PSU cover awful airflow identical garbage…
If you can find the good old Define R4 that’s pretty much the same internals but with closed off front.
Fractal Designs Define 7 have one 5.25 bay, and the Define 7 XL have two 5.25 bays. Both can support over 10 hdds, they are quiet, and if you need more airflow you can swing open the front panel for unrestricted airflow.
I’m gonna have to disagree with you there
Edit: And the Define 7s are avaliable with regular sound dampened side panels, if you dont care about seeing into your pc.
Am I the only one who doesn’t like that H440 ripoff? Especially hypocritical from Fractal after the whole tantrum they did about the Thermaltake thing…
If you’re willing to go back some years I suggest you the Phanteks Enthoo Pro. It ticks every box beside the damping on the panels. But it has good airflow, is very spacious, has the 5.25" bays, 6 3.5 HDD caddies inside the box (no bs buy extra), lots of fans spot (you can even fully drill out the holes for one 200mm fan in the top of the case like I did, pretty easy).
PSU cover like every case and it’s dog - check.
HDD mounting system - identical.
Internal compartments - identical…
Oh yeah, fractal allows you to move the plate you mount the HDDs to, while the 6 years old NZXT case does not. Also the NZXT roof is better designed.
What is the different? The H440 looks better. The R7 looks like absolutely any other DEFINE case fractal has ever made…
Oh, it was long time ago, when there was also the whole Case Labs thing, where Thermaltake stole some CaseLabs designs. It was stupid to the point people started accusing Thermaltake of stealing the Corsair’s fan design, because Corsair had a plastic ring on their fans at the time and Thermaltake had an LED ring on their RIING series of fans. Then watercooling accusations and stuff, and turned out the company was using Thermaltake as a manufacturer for it’s watercooling parts or some such bulshit. Something like imagine people saying Seasonic stole the NZXT power supply designs, no matter Seasonic is manufacturing the units and selling them to NZXT…
It was weird time…
In that case (pun unintended), it’s not just Fractal that’s a copy cat.
But I’ll counter a bit.
Then drag all cases that have a psu cover into the court room.
There’s a limit to how many ways you can make a bent steel panel.
So? If it’s a good solution, why care?
Ehhh, no.
You can move the internals around in the R7, while the H440 is static.
When it comes to custom water cooling, it’s miles ahead of the H440 in radiator support, pump mounting, etc.
And you can see all of the cooling hardware, since it’s an all class side panel, on th TG version that is.
In what way? If you want venting in the top panel, fractal includes a separate vented panel.
On the H440, the air hits a solid panel, and then have to change directions.
That’s your opinon, I prefer the R7 to the H440.
Of course it does. If it didn’t have any resemblance to the previous Define cases, it wouldn’t be a Define case.
Edit:
And I’m not saying the H440 is bad case, but it’s doesn’t tick all the demands of OP.
He would like 1-2 5.25 bays, and the H440 have none. That makes it un-recommendable in this scenario.
I had an threadripper system in an R6. 1900X 8 core, gtx 1080.
With 3 120mm fans in the front it had zero heat problems with the front closed.
The cpu was air cooled by an noctua nh-u12s tr4 cooler. No problems.
I’d take a look at the Fractal Design R6 or even the R5, you can get them without the glass side panel for a tad cheaper. They have room for up to 8 3.5" HD, 2 dedicated 2.5" drives on the back side of the motherboard. I can’t recall if the R5 has 2 5.25" bays, but the R6 only has one. They are quite and insulated, yet have good air flow. I normally toss in some Noctua fans later on. I haven’t even taken a look at the R7 yet, but I will.
Oh ya, the R5 and R6 only come with 5 3.5" HD trays, so you’d have to purchase the other 3 if you want to fully populate the case.
Im not saying h440 fits the needs. I already gave my recommendation. I am just saying it uses pretty much the same internal design as R7 but 5 years earlier.
Anyways, I am honestly surprised nobody see it’s the same case with fractal externals…
Fractal Design Define XL R2 is quiet & solid with lots of room - I did have to mount 2 top fans & an extra front fan so the disks stayed below 40 degrees in the summer- still quiet enough.
If the age of the case doesn’t really matter to you.
Then maybe you could for the first gen Phanteks Enthoo pro case.
It’s a case from 2014 / 2015 i believe, but it’s a good one.
