I was considering buying it because my current case is a NZXT and there is some vibration that is driving me insane since I bought it like 2 years ago. The fan noises are also annoying.

But then I've read here the R4 has no HD activity LED. WHAT where they thinking?
A LED HD activity is essential and very useful to know if the computer is doing something or not. Waste of case.

[Mod: Split post into a new topic]

It looks like there is a cheap work around. Some guy connected the cable the LED cable to the HD activity one in the motherboard and it blinks

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1728271

Did anyone try it?

Not everyone needs one. Not everyone can see their computer in use anyway in which case it would be wasted. I'm all for disconnecting LEDs nowadays just out of anti-bling, efficiency and reducing cable clutter.

While the lack of an hdd activity light is silly, I solved this problem simply by connecting power light to hdd activity pins. Even case's manual states you can do that.
I don't need a light to know when my puter is on, so it's not a loss.

You said it, not everyone but some need it. Sometimes you open a program, it gets stuck and you dont know if its still loading or if the program has frozen. No hdd led = retarded imo.

OK, but a lot of software doesn't have high HDD load anyway and with SSDs the HDD loading time is very short so the HDD LED becomes less relevant in knowing whether a program is working or not. What if the program has a massive memory leak and starts paging to the hard disk? Then your HDD LED is going to be going crazy even when the software has failed. This is a really bad way of telling if a program is running or not.

You could instead check in software what tasks are running on your computer or run from the command line and view what happens in the terminal. An HDD LED as a workaround for poor software is a pretty poor workaround.

Oh, and please I know the term 'retard' is used a lot on the Internet but it is a little unkind on people with mental problems. The work stupid would have been fine and not discriminated against anyone.

Feeling a need for a HDD led would mostly come from habit really. It would be flashing pretty constantly in many systems too, and all would be well. Get an SSD or fix the broken system to avoid long waits. Even the power led is pretty redundant, but too many would complain about that one missing.

Not everyone uses SSD yet. Lots of times during load times of demanding games I thought "this crashed" but then when I was about to ctrl+alt+del it I looked at the HDD led and it was blinking. So I just waited a bit more and it loaded.

Also, personally I work with audio, so I need massive storage drivers (just got a 7200 rpm Seagate of 2TB), sometimes you dont know if your DAW is loading a sample or if it got stuck. HDD led makes you more patient. If it wasnt for HDD led I would have gotten pissed up a lot of times at long loading times thinking the program just crashed when it didn't.

I dont have money for both SSD and R4 now.

Then skip the case, SSD is more important.

I know. Im still running XP
My plan is to get an SSD of a decent size enough to fit in Win 7 + games installed, and have the regular disks as data storage. I guess 300GB would be enough for the SSD.
Thing is, im going nuts with the vibrating sound and fan sounds. I hope to get it solved asap with the R4.

Does stuff crash or get stuck so often for you?

300GB is overkill. 128GB works fine for this - just store the unused games on the HDD.

I've had the HDD for a week and its working great. XP managed to read the 2TB without doing anything fancy.

I expect to not hear a thing once I get the R4.

Btw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVDyMTJ334I

Anyone knows what is that?

My answer here:
viewtopic.php?f=15&t=65760&p=570959#p570959

Hello, can anyone confirm that the "Thermalright True Spirit 120 Rev A" CPU cooler fits into R4? It seems that the dimensions are 133 x 77 x 160 mm and on Fractal Design website they say that "CPU coolers up to 170mm tall (when no fan is installed in the side panel)".

Aside from that, any opinions on the cooler? Is there a better choice in this price range?

LE: I bought the True Spirit and it fits nicely.

Finally pulled the trigger, will arrive this friday. Cant wait to retire my old noisy case. That vibrating noise is driving me insane lately plus the fans. It's interesting how when I bought it years ago it seemed so quiet compared to my older one, and now I can't tolerate it anymore. I hope the R4 is near silent.

Little mod I did with both my Define XL and Define Mini.

Remove the front facia.
Remove the 3mm Blue LED
Replace the 3mm Blue LED with 3mm Green LED
Glue 3mm Red LED with lead (ripped out of old scrap case) to side of clear plastic button surround, beside the Green LED. I used hot glue.

Now the clear plastic part glows Green during normal operation, and flashes red when the HDD is working. Looks very neat, and isn't the distracting blue of the standard light.