I notice that there's no way out for the USB 3.0 cable without taking it across the motherboard. Why can't they just cut a small slot out above the fan?

The Fractal Design is priced at around the £80 mark:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/236437

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Componen ... ctId=41375

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/fractal- ... se-w-o-psu

Tower coolers of 151mms that's huge problem and makes the case kind of useless. You might as well buy the HAF 912 and line it with noise damping it would be better value,case. Define R3 can be found for $78.00 CAD which makes it the best slient budget case.

How would the case perform if you filled that last fan opening?

Seems like a very good effort from CM, much better than the 500. Not perfect maybe but still a real option. Looks are much better and the top buttons and ports section is a very nice touch.

I like that is has front to back only airflow, with no top or side vents.



I'm curious about that too. Adding another intake fan might give it some more air and make it positive pressure that could work wonders on cooling.

I think this is a great offering from Cooler Master. I like the added features, and the simplistic style. I like the idea of positive pressure, without having to resort to mods to accomplish it.

Sure, it wouldn't be the best choice for a heavy duty workstation, but I think most people will do with something modest. Something that is easily cooled with even a modest hs/f. We don't all need 160mm clearance .

Everyone actually does there are zero slient aftermarket coolers that will accept 120mm fan that are below 158mm in height. You would have to run top down cooler with this case just makes more sense when spending this amount money to get proper case like the Define R3,P180 series. As for budget cases the CM Haf 912,Antec 300 beat this by miles in features and they actually fit coolers upto 163mms.

What do you call a Scythe Ninja then?

You could also fit something like a Xigmatek HDT-S1283 into this case easily. Or an HR-01.

Xigmatek HDT-S1283 159mm tall

Thermalright HR-01 Plus 159mm tall

Scythe Ninja III 160mm tall

Any other questions??

Both the 1283 and the HR-01 will fit.

The Ninja and Ninja II are 150mm and 152mm tall, and should be relatively easy to acquire. The Ninja 3 you can probably shave 2-3mm off easily.

Then there's the Noctua NH-U12P at 158mm, the Megahalems is 158.7mm, Zalman CNPS10X Flex at 151mm, Titan Fenrir at 156mm.. All of these will cool most CPUs silently quite effectively.

Hey guys, a little reality check: It is only foam. A utility knife with a fresh blade can be used to easily cut away a portion of the foam that interferes with the heatsink. With this little mod, there's hardly a heatsink the case would not fit, and the impact on noise would be a big fat zero.

But what if he cuts himself? Knives are dangerous!

Is it really that bad? You might be able to just let the heatsink compact the foam when you put the side panel on. The tips of the heatpipes would be the only points of contact with the foam, and at least on the NH-U12P, they aren't sharp at all.

I was somewhat interested in this case, but I recently bought a TRUE rev. C which is 160.5mm tall, so I don't think it will fit, even with the foam cut out.

I'm also sticking an Accelero Xtreme Plus on my 6950, and that's over 11" long, so I'd have to remove the drive cage and use the bottom one only, which probably doesn't matter as I only use one drive anyway, but would mean I'd have to use two front fans.

I think I still prefer the Coolermaster CM 690 II Lite, not only because it has more space but because I can use two bottom mounting fans and no front ones, and then block the mesh front (and side) with foam.

"if you excise the foam over the heatsink, clearance becomes 161 mm."

So many of the heatsinks you guys are discussing will fit, and you can probably still get the side panel closed if it's too tall by 1~2 mm.

OK, fair enough. I got a bit confused and thought the clearance was for the heatsink AND the CPU/motherboard

I still prefer a case with bottom mounted fans though

Interesting review I was considering this case but my dislike for doors on pc's have increased over the years! I can see some improvements here over the Sileo 500 but in the end I'm not sure any maker has really nailed it down though it's a decent effort. I picked the Sileo 500 with a few tweaks it's pretty good really.

It's weird you didn't give to this cheap and nice case a Golden Award. The only thing it needs to perform at least as good as the competitors is an extra fan, plus it is cheaper and looks refreshingly understated. Also, an integrated SD slot, damped panels and hot-swap cage are something rare at this price.
Many other cases need a little extra investment right when you buy them to be as quiet and usable as this one. Move that rear fan to the front and add a Slipstream 800 and you have a true winner!

Mike,how are the plastic rails for the hdd??Was there any noise/vibration comming from the hdd when you tested it?And more importantly, how much of a impact would a second intake fan have on the cooling?Picture the following config:3 nexus @7v,and the drive cage pulled out so that the airflow from that top intake fan in the front hits the GPU directly.

I have just bought this case and put my old mini-itx home server in it. Actually the power supply from my In-Win mini-itx case broke down, and I was looking for a replacement.

So I have now a passively cooled Pegatron/POW Atom330/ION board with 4 hard drives mounted. Mounting is very easy, and the rubber contacts in the plastic strip do a good job in damping vibrations, as far as present. I have one 2.5" drive (WD3200BEVT) and 3 3.5" green drives (WD10EADS and WD20EARS). The 2.5" drive is the noisiest component in the system now.

I had moved the original provided fans both to the front, and another (too noisy fan) to the back, but had a serious issue with the temperature of the CPU, due to insufficient airflow. The hard drives all show a temperature of 30 degrees C, which is fine. I replaced all 3 case fans with the 12 cm nexus real silent fan, which made a big improvement as well for noise as for temperature.

I will post some pictures and overview of temperatures later.

do you have the removable hdd cage in place, or have you taken it out?What do you mean by high CPU temp?

I've kept the HDD cage in place. Otherwise you cannot load more than 3 hard drives.

For reading temperature of the CPU core, I was always using Everest, which showed me an idle CPU temp of 100 degrees C, going up to 120 degrees when doing some activity. After replacing the fans, and still a temp of about 90 degrees, I found there is a huge gap between Everest versus Speedfan and Realtemp, who show a temp of 35 degrees C lower (about 55 degrees) !

These temps of 90-100 are unrealistic. Use realtemp or HW monitor

If you aren't sure check the BIOS for your real idle temps for reference.

You're absolutely right. Just like I mentioned, I compared to Realtemp which I trust more. It gives exactly the same value as Speedfan. The BIOS gives slightly higher values, but the condition in which temp is measured differs a bit, so I can accept that small difference.

i've just orderd mine,but i have a curiosity:how long does the cpu 4 pin power cable has to be in order to route it behind the mobo tray?The ting is that I have a nexus value 430 psu and I think that the cables are kinda short...

My supply has a 20+4 pin ATX supply cable of 40 cm long, and I needed an extension of at least 15 cm to get it around my mobo. It depends a bit on where the 4 pin connector is located, but worst case you should route it through the case, rather than behind the mobo tray. Or buy an extension cable, like I did.

Right then.My case has just arrived.Pretty impressed by the build quality amd the paint finish.To start off, a couple of things:the foam on the side panel behind the mobo is not as thick as the one on the other side panel,but this is a good thing.I had no trouble routing all the psu cables behind the tray and then closing the side panel.One problem was that my 4 pin atx cable from my nexus 430 psu was just long enough without any mm to spare.Another thing was that I immediatly swapped the front fan with 2 nexus 120mm @ 7v.
I'll come back with another post with more comments,temps and perhaps pictures.Fell free to ask me any questions regarding this case

Need a favour from someone who has the Silencio - could you please measure the height including the feet?

I emailed Fractal regarding the height of the Core 3000 (I'm considering that or the Silencio) and they advised the height didn't include the feet (shelf under a desk and limited height).

Thank you.

45.2 cm total (including feet)