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- Joined
- 24 May 2011
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- 1,439
Hi
I have just setup my system in this case and as I noticed there is very little mention of it on this forum I thought I would add some of my initial thoughts in case anyone is interested.
To begin with I am replacing a Factual Define R5 due to no longer needing an optical drive and thus I am able to place the new case in a new position that has less space. As I am sure many of you will know the R5 is an amazing case, with a BeQuiet Dark Rock Pro 3, ssds and Palit 980ti superstream my pc was silent at all times.
The same cannot be said for the Corsair. The noise dampening material is simply not as good (being far less dense and lighter).
The provided fans are terrible and will all need to be replaced unless you are happy to live with the noise. I have had a similar experience with Corsair coolers and the supplied fans and I will be honest in being perplexed that a company that seems so on the ball continues to use fans that are so bad when compared to their competitors.
The top design looks nice enough but the magnetic roof simply doesn't do a good job at noise dampening and the difference between it being in place and removed appears to be negligible. (Understand I am talking about the low noise dampening of the this case as my kit is all pretty quiet anyway)
Having replaced all of the case fans with the fans I used in the R5 there was a gentle hum from the case. This is not a bad thing and most people wouldn't of noticed or cared even if they did, but coming from the silent R5 I am being a bit ocd about noise and this case simply isn't as quiet. I think the issue is the front panel, it provides large gaps for air to be drawn in, which is a good thing, but said gaps are completely open and are only broken up by plastic struts every 2cm or so to support the front plate. The R5 in comparison has far more struts and also a fan filter with downward angled plastic that I think accounts for the better dispersion of the fan and associated wind noise.
Of course if the above comes with the benefit of slightly better cooling then this would appear to be worth it. However again this is not the case, whereas in the R5 my CPU cooler never ramped up the fans in the Corsair it has done so after prolonged use. The GPU temps and noise are hard to judge but to be honest if there is a difference in temps and fan speeds I have not noticed it.
I will be honest I am a little disappointed with the Corsair but that is not to say it is a bad case, cable management is ok (not great but considering the size and how much kit you will have in it I think it is fine) however as is often the case an extra cm to half a cm behind the mobo tray would have been nice. All of the fan filters are nice additions but the front panel is terribly designed requiring you to take off the side of the case, reach in and press in these annoying little catches (this can be done by taking only one side panel off but this does require a more aggressive pull on the front panel and I am not sure whether in the long term it will survive the treatment), this is made all the more annoying as this is the only way to get to the front fan filter which in every other way is a lovely easily removed filter.
One other complaint, the lack of a fan controller in a silent case seems a glaring fault in my opinion but again I am reminded of the price and of course fan speeds can be controlled in other ways so for me it isn't a huge issue but I thought I would mention it as something to be planned for when building your system.
Sorry for the wall of text and the slightly rambling nature of it but hopefully it might help people with whether to consider this case or not.
In conclusion, for the price I would recommend it as a pretty good smaller full ATX silent case on a budget, but if you are happy to have a bigger case and pay a bit more the R5 remains the far better silent case.
I have just setup my system in this case and as I noticed there is very little mention of it on this forum I thought I would add some of my initial thoughts in case anyone is interested.
To begin with I am replacing a Factual Define R5 due to no longer needing an optical drive and thus I am able to place the new case in a new position that has less space. As I am sure many of you will know the R5 is an amazing case, with a BeQuiet Dark Rock Pro 3, ssds and Palit 980ti superstream my pc was silent at all times.
The same cannot be said for the Corsair. The noise dampening material is simply not as good (being far less dense and lighter).
The provided fans are terrible and will all need to be replaced unless you are happy to live with the noise. I have had a similar experience with Corsair coolers and the supplied fans and I will be honest in being perplexed that a company that seems so on the ball continues to use fans that are so bad when compared to their competitors.
The top design looks nice enough but the magnetic roof simply doesn't do a good job at noise dampening and the difference between it being in place and removed appears to be negligible. (Understand I am talking about the low noise dampening of the this case as my kit is all pretty quiet anyway)
Having replaced all of the case fans with the fans I used in the R5 there was a gentle hum from the case. This is not a bad thing and most people wouldn't of noticed or cared even if they did, but coming from the silent R5 I am being a bit ocd about noise and this case simply isn't as quiet. I think the issue is the front panel, it provides large gaps for air to be drawn in, which is a good thing, but said gaps are completely open and are only broken up by plastic struts every 2cm or so to support the front plate. The R5 in comparison has far more struts and also a fan filter with downward angled plastic that I think accounts for the better dispersion of the fan and associated wind noise.
Of course if the above comes with the benefit of slightly better cooling then this would appear to be worth it. However again this is not the case, whereas in the R5 my CPU cooler never ramped up the fans in the Corsair it has done so after prolonged use. The GPU temps and noise are hard to judge but to be honest if there is a difference in temps and fan speeds I have not noticed it.
I will be honest I am a little disappointed with the Corsair but that is not to say it is a bad case, cable management is ok (not great but considering the size and how much kit you will have in it I think it is fine) however as is often the case an extra cm to half a cm behind the mobo tray would have been nice. All of the fan filters are nice additions but the front panel is terribly designed requiring you to take off the side of the case, reach in and press in these annoying little catches (this can be done by taking only one side panel off but this does require a more aggressive pull on the front panel and I am not sure whether in the long term it will survive the treatment), this is made all the more annoying as this is the only way to get to the front fan filter which in every other way is a lovely easily removed filter.
One other complaint, the lack of a fan controller in a silent case seems a glaring fault in my opinion but again I am reminded of the price and of course fan speeds can be controlled in other ways so for me it isn't a huge issue but I thought I would mention it as something to be planned for when building your system.
Sorry for the wall of text and the slightly rambling nature of it but hopefully it might help people with whether to consider this case or not.
In conclusion, for the price I would recommend it as a pretty good smaller full ATX silent case on a budget, but if you are happy to have a bigger case and pay a bit more the R5 remains the far better silent case.
