Specifically, the Dynamic GP 14s/12s. I've never owned "name brand" fans, so I have little reference for comparison.
Gonna get two more to compliment the two that come with it. 2/2 in front/back. Also gonna get a hyper 212 EVO and probably gonna keep the fan that comes on it.
Are these fans good? should I get a 5th to replace the 212 fan?
Also taking constructive criticism on heatsink choice
Fractal fans in question (newegg)
Cooler master Hyper 212 EVO
The Fractal fans are fine although I'd probably say the Noctua's are a better bet. More money but better.
As for the Hyper 212, the fan included with it is fine. Performance is excellent. At higher RPMs it can get noisy but mine rarely goes over 800 because it doesn't need to.
I took my Fractal fans out and threw them away. I sort of have a thing for Corsair SP120 quiet editions...
were they bad or did you need to stick with your usual ones?
Corsair Quiet Edition fans are actually louder than the ones Fractal puts in the R5. Not that it matters much if you leave the moduvents on.
It was a preference based decision. Plus I need static pressure fans for my 360mm and 240mm rads.
You may be right, but I don't think those fractal fans were meant to be paired with rads.
They are indeed just fine chassis fans.
Let the motherboard control them, as even most cheap mobos have half decent fan control these days.
thanks guys and gals. I appreciate the feedback
I left the ones in my R4 in my R4 because I'm too lazy to replace them. I have better things to spend my money on than fans, especially since my R4 has been so heavily modded over the years that silence is no longer the main point of the case anyway. It's function is to house a dual-socket EEB motherboard. In terms of overall performance, I'd say that Fractal fans are like delta fans, but aren't jet engines like deltas. They're completely fine, decently quiet and have good airflow but they're no-nonsense and no-frills. There are no bells or whistles on them.
Good, now that I've got some more time :
As an owner of 2 Define R5 cases (one housing my 10-drive NAS, the other my secondary PC), I'd like to point out 1 flaw that can have an effect on how you'd like to set up your fans : there's a huge unfiltered opening near the 5.25" bays, and with a fairly neutral fan setup it has a tendency to suck in large amounts of dust through said opening (because the CPU cooler will generate front-to-back airflow in the top third-ish of the case).
A possible fix for that is to use duct tape to cover the hole between the 5.25" cage and the front cover, between the red lines on this pic :
With that fix, the case can no longer draw in unfiltered air through there.
I did that on both my R5-es ... R5s ... R5ii ... ermm ... what's the plural for "R5"? Here's a pic of it on my NAS.
Another fix is to simply make sure that there is so much positive pressure inside the case that the CPU simply can't draw air from all the way up front. To achieve that, I'd put in 2 more intake fans than exhaust fans.
Personally I prefer the duct tape method though. But hey, you can have both the tape and massive positive pressure if you want.
3 fans (2 in, 1 out) should be enough to keep a 4770 with a decent cooler (like the 212 EVO you mentioned) and a 1070 at a reasonable temperature. It'll also keep it fairly quiet because you can keep all the moduvents in place.
In this configuration, I'd take the stock rear fan and bolt it on the front, so you have matching fans there. Then you can get anything else for the opening at the back.
5 fans (3 in, 2 out) will be more than enough for even an SLI setup. For that cooling setup, I'd also move the stock rear fan to the front to get a matching pair there, put another intake fan on the floor (put the small drivecage up against the 5.25" bays and leave out the large one). For exhaust I'd put a fan in the rear opening and remove the rear moduvent so you can put a fan there.
With the 2 intakes and 2 exhausts you mentioned, you'll not get a neutral setup, you'll get negative pressure because the filter on the intake fans and the obstruction of the drive cage (if you leave it in) will reduce the efficiency of the fans, meaning that the exhaust fans can move more air out than the intake fans can suck in. With negative pressure you'll suck in even more dust than with neutral pressure, so make sure you have at least 1 fan extra pulling in air.
Don't let this one flaw put you off, the R5 is one hell of a case and a pleasure to build in.
Wow, thanks for fantastic feedback. I appreciate it very much
That's good to know because I will probably only use one 5.25" drive