Sweet thank you. Seems I am closer to obtain R4... now the Color... I hate blue leds, I dig red leds but White One is unavailable. I guess, I go titanium gray and leave HDD and Case leds unplugged. Man, this thread is dangerous for me. Thanks guys and Steve.

heh.

Silly question, but am I understanding this correctly that the front door has to be open for the front fan to work properly?

Lack of HDD activity led seems disappointing and puzzling.

No. Front air is sucked in from the slots on each side of the bezel, and a cut-out on the bottom of the bezel. Slots can easily be seen in this pic:

http://www.fractal-design.com/img_prod/ ... 4-WH_7.jpg

I finally ordered and got this case.
It seems like top hdd cage can be rotated 90' to that sleds are in the long way. This improves airflow, but hdd have to be removed TOWARDS the motherboard. If I try to put it the other way handles from drive sleds don't fit into the case.
And I think I read some reviews that bottom hdd cage can also be rotated 90', but when I removed it I couldn't find proper holes on the bottom of the case to screw the cage back in.

What's up with that?

I think the bottom cage is only removable, that's what the reviews I've read have said too. Airflow isn't bad with the upper cage in its normal position so I'd leave it as so except only for situations where you'd want to remove it altogether.

I guess "isn't bad" somewhat relative. In normal position side holes are somewhat small. In the rotated position there's virtually no obstruction in the airflow.
I really don't understand why they would design that case so that it can be rotated only in the wrong position. This review has pictures of this exact problem http://www.legitreviews.com/article/2020/5/
They should've made it possible to rotate all cages 90' the other way. It would improve airflow and make drives accessible simply by opening the front, rather than both side panels...

Air can also go around the cage after coming in through the front fans. The holes in the cage are more than enough to let in fresh air to the drives themselves. One can always wish for a different case design but changes like that would require significant changes to keep the drive area easily accessible. I've seen a few cases where the drives are accessed from the front but none where it worked particularly well.

first thoughts:

not as quiet as cooler master silencio 550 it replaced
but much nicer design, in and out*
the hdd isolation things dont isolate that much vibration
airflow doesnt seem that good with the included fans(front and back, at 7v, which seem to blow more than coolermaster case fans did), aux/cpu/gpu/hdd temps upped by 5C... added case fan from coolermaster 550 to the front with improvement...

*wtf design of installing/removing SSD that requires taking off the motherboard ! omg

Just built a new PC in this case.

P8Z77-V + 3770k, HR02 Macho with 140mm TR fan @ 500 tr/min
3 x 140mm Fractal @ 5V (2 front, 1 back)
Fanless PSU (Seasonic X-460)
Fanless GC (Asus HD7750)
SSD Samsung 830 128 Go
2 x Seagate 7200.14 2 To (RAID0, I'm a fearless one )
Antec Silicon HDD grommets instead of Fractal ones

I had previously an Antec Solo. I find the build quality a bit cheap on this Fractal R4. It's hard to kill HDD vibrations, and the HDD spinning noise is the main issue (resounding and amplifying). I've tested other HDD in this case (WD Green, WD Caviar SE, Seagate Constellation ES), the problem is still there.

So, I'm looking for a case which is able to keep HDD really quiet, and with a better build quality. P280, Obsidian 550D, Silencio 650D, Bitfenix Ghost, others...?

Ali

How about reusing your Antec Solo? It's a great case and from what I've seen from the majority of the newer cases, it's definitely built better than they are.

My old PC is still running

Ali

What about an aftermarket hard drive suspension system such as the Sharkoon Vibefixer?

http://www.sharkoon.com/?q=en/node/915

Or just simply a plain thick knitting string. It's stretchy enough to absorb vibrations, yet strong enough to stretch out and dry up like are regular rubber band would.

Ali-Pacha, did you enable acoustic management on those drives? With that enables these drives become literally silent.

No AAM on Seagate drives.

OP said they tried WD drives as well, so those should've been quiet.

Yep, even my prehistoric 7200.7 / 80 go lacks this feature
Anyway, from my experience (WD and Samsung), AAM has no effect on continuous spinning noise, but it makes seeking noise smoother.
Vibrations are not the main issue. With a little bit of attention (gently screwing, no cable touching the side panel, more efficient grommets, etc...), the R4 deals with it.
But there is something in this case which amplifies the spinning noise of HDD, making it resounding. Maybe it's the path of noise inside the case, the orientation of HDD racks, the reflection of the noise on side panels, etc...

I've finally tested my parts in an Antec P280 : even with the top hole fully open, the spinning noise almost disappears. Maybe I'll get this one, with top hole closed (home made solution I think) and others fans (Antec ones are noisy), like slip/glide stream from Scythe.

Uh...one more thing : unfortunately, I've a very (very) sharp hearing (no self-conceit, astonishes my ENT...my curse ). Subsequently silence freak

Ali

Good to hear, it sounded a bit odd that vibrations would be a problem there. I hate the spinning whine the most too. I'd guess that what you heard was simply the spinning noise getting out through the relatively open front. Seing as the case has dual 140mm fan holes and a long row of vents on both sides of the front fascia, there is room for such noise to bounce out. Placement of the case and the angle to the listeners ears will be the deciding factor of how major this issue becomes. Most other cases with doors have more constricted airflow through the front, which on the flip side turn helps to block noise. In most builds one could block part of the R4's front section intakes off without noticeably hampering cooling.

The white P280 looks really nice to me with its flush sides and top. I hope there will be something like a P282 with a 140 exhaust in the back, because that would be a really interesting setup.

I split off silenceorgtfo's thread to here.