My new fractal Design R2

OCDStevo · 6 Mar 2010 at 16:42

Hi,

Recieved my new case this week, replaces a battered Tsunami Dream that was quite loud and had a good few rattles.

Here are a few pics of my setup and my first ever attempts at cable management

Nice looking case.

Moved the supplied rear fan to the front.

Installed a Noctua NF-S12B FLX Ultra Quiet 120mm as a rear exhaust fan. Very happy with the interior post cable management. All 3 case fans are running off the supplied fan controller fitted to the lowest PCI slot

Not as much space as I would have liked behind the motherboard base, but the rear panel fits ok with no bulges etc.

My new Alpenföhn Nordwand Rev B. CPU Cooler.

Getting all the cables pulled through the back and routed that way took me ages, but I'm happy with the results, I've never owned a PC that didn't have power cables in the way before, until now

All in all a very nice case, especially for the price. The cable management rubber fittings are not very robust when pulling cables through and have to be refitted, slightly annoying. Too many hard drive bays, would have been nice if at least one of the sets of 4 cages could have been removed but for the money I really do think this is a great case.

Ive just finished overclocking my E8500 to 3.8, so that should last me a while longer too ..... Now i've just got to save for a 5850 to replace my current 4850 :rolleyes:

iNPUt · 6 Mar 2010 at 17:13

OCDStevo said:
...

Now i've just got to save for a 5850 to replace my current 4850

Nice work there, cable management is pretty simple in the case compared to ones with no routing. Also want a 5850 BC2 is testing my 4850 a bit too much.

Tweaker · 6 Mar 2010 at 18:49

How much lower temps with the second front intake fan installed?

OCDStevo · 6 Mar 2010 at 22:36

Tweaker said:
How much lower temps with the second front intake fan installed?

Well, can't say to be honest. I added the extra fan when I got the case so never ran the setup with just the 2 supplied fans. I read the reviews and decided that as I was going to OC my CPU I would try and get a little more airflow.

adbp1 · 6 Mar 2010 at 23:14

i really like this case BUT i agree with there are too many hdd bays, would be nice if some if not all could be removable.

Tweaker · 6 Mar 2010 at 23:30

adbp1 said:
i really like this case BUT i agree with there are too many hdd bays, would be nice if some if not all could be removable.

I think thats the point, they want to be different, they know that its the only way to get sales. I use one for a file server, considering it has 6 HDDs it has much less vibrations that cases at twice the price that i have used.

matja · 11 Mar 2010 at 21:02

With this case, can you mount the HD's so that the connectors are on the same side as the motherboard? Seems awkward that you have to take both side panels off to swap a HD.

Randomface74 · 11 Mar 2010 at 21:07

I wish they'd stop putting 5.25" drive bays in cases.

KIA · 11 Mar 2010 at 21:54

Very nice review. I'm considering getting one of these myself.

Kharbyne · 11 Mar 2010 at 23:28

Cable management on the case looks awesome

Cursed · 12 Mar 2010 at 07:15

billysielu said:
I wish they'd stop putting 5.25" drive bays in cases.

I think that this case gets the balance right. I wouldn't like to have a case with no 5.25" bays or there would be nowhere for my DVD drive. The second 5.25" bay on mine is converted to 3.5" for my card reader.

MonkeykingZX · 12 Mar 2010 at 12:38

Nice cable management

The r2 looks like a really good case what are your temps like?

OCDStevo · 13 Mar 2010 at 07:36

matja said:
With this case, can you mount the HD's so that the connectors are on the same side as the motherboard? Seems awkward that you have to take both side panels off to swap a HD.

You could thread the cables through the gap and between the case and the HDD bay, into the back of the HDD bay, connect the cables to the device then slide it into position i suppose if your cables are long enough.....

I don't change my HDD's much, so it's not an issue for me.

OCDStevo · 13 Mar 2010 at 07:50

MonkeykingZX said:
Nice cable management

The r2 looks like a really good case what are your temps like?

Temps....

Well currently core temps are, idle 33, load seems to be about 47 and Prime seems to peak about 58. Not too happy with them to be honest, but I did re seat my cooler and used some old thermal paste I had left over so this maybe to blame.

Today I'll be re seating the cooler again, using MX-3, and taking more care in doing so, I hope this will drop the temps a bit. I also need to do some work on my OC settings as I did it the lazy way using the AI suite software on auto settings mostly, just setting the FSB and CPU voltage myself.....

C64 · 13 Mar 2010 at 17:27

mx3 just use a blob in middle

FlamingFirebird · 14 Mar 2010 at 23:08

hey OCDStevo,

How is the cooling with the front doors closed? Do you realistically need to keep them open when in use? Or maybe just when the hardware is under stress?

Cheers

OCDStevo · 15 Mar 2010 at 08:23

Hi FlamingFirebird,

The front doors are always closed when in use. The case has venting around the sides behind the doors where the air is drawn through by the fans.

My actual system temps are low, it's just my CPU core temps from my over clocked CPU that I am working on reducing

Randomface74 · 15 Mar 2010 at 12:46

If a case didn't have 5.25" drive bays, and you went with a USB dvd drive (for the odd occasion you need one), you could get another fan on the front of your case.

FlamingFirebird · 15 Mar 2010 at 14:45

OCDStevo said:
Hi FlamingFirebird,

The front doors are always closed when in use. The case has venting around the sides behind the doors where the air is drawn through by the fans.

My actual system temps are low, it's just my CPU core temps from my over clocked CPU that I am working on reducing

Cheers mate, will definitely get one then with my Titan Viper build this week

Jumblejug · 19 Mar 2010 at 13:36

Your cable management looks good. I need to have another go at tidying mine up