Everytime I see such a case I am asking myself what the point of having big air intakes behind a closed door panel is (so much more as the panel has sound dampening material glued to it) .
Nice review. Been waiting for one. As you sad the thermal performance is bad at stock level but most people around here have a couple of extra 120mm fans around to upgrade the case. Would have been nice to see what 2-3 more fans can do in the case.
About the price its a lil cheaper here in finland with a price of 89 at my local shop and thus in a different class than the CM 922 or the other cases you talked about in the review. Defo a case for my next upgrade (I really need an upgrade :()
could you (please please) just throw in a few fans, and run a bit something; no need for scientific accurate graphs or the like; just a general impression of how much better the thing is with all the fans mounted?
Originally Posted by alpaca could you (please please) just throw in a few fans, and run a bit something; no need for scientific accurate graphs or the like; just a general impression of how much better the thing is with all the fans mounted?
I've been waiting for this review for some time, so thanks. But yeah, I would also like to see what it would do full of fans.After all, the majority of your readership wouldn't use it as is. I do understand your testing methodology and I'm sure somebody will tell me off for suggesting such a thing, but I'd really appreciate it.
Also, can we please have a review of the Lancool K62 after you previewed the Dragon series so many months ago?
Loving the outlooks. Quite frankly I hope they made a more expensive version with an even better (maybe aluminum) construction. I saw the same chassis in Xigmatek Midgard and wasn't too impressed. I'm sure the bitumen helps make it more rigid, but I just love the outlooks and clean internal design to bits.
Looking forward to seeing other manufacturers hop into the lotsa-3,5"-drivebays-bandwagon, who needs the stupid 5,25" bays anyway.
Interesting results, but for server case it is perfect. The included fans used at lowest speed via included fan controller, 6 HDD's, Sempron 140 board cooled by passive Ninja -> HDDs are all in range of 40-45°C, CPU is at low temps too.
to review this case without adding the additional fans seems rather unfortunate.
Many of us have been looking to this case for our next upgrade but naturaly assume we will have to add the fans the designers have given the option for.
however we are no more in the light now than we were before
It seems a great case, you clearly like it, but we still dont know if its any good?
Originally Posted by alpaca could you (please please) just throw in a few fans, and run a bit something; no need for scientific accurate graphs or the like; just a general impression of how much better the thing is with all the fans mounted?
Originally Posted by alpaca could you (please please) just throw in a few fans, and run a bit something; no need for scientific accurate graphs or the like; just a general impression of how much better the thing is with all the fans mounted?
Another +1, I'd like to see a review of it full fan'd up to the max and then a comparison to the other cases which would be a similar price after the additional expenses.
When I first saw this case I really liked it. When I did some more research on it a number of things put me off it again. Some of them have been commented on in the article, others have not. It's still a great case in the price range, though. Maybe the Define R3 will be more to my liking... :)
Well, some of it is "cosmetic", i.e. the flimsy door, the lack of a reset button, the disparate sizes of the case feet.
Also, I could use at least 1 additional 5.25" drive bay (in a perfect world all cases would consist of only 5.25" bays letting me convert the ones I need to 3.5" bays, much like the Lian-Li PC-P50).
Originally Posted by alpaca could you (please please) just throw in a few fans, and run a bit something; no need for scientific accurate graphs or the like; just a general impression of how much better the thing is with all the fans mounted?
Originally Posted by alpaca could you (please please) just throw in a few fans, and run a bit something; no need for scientific accurate graphs or the like; just a general impression of how much better the thing is with all the fans mounted?
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1, <3ed the review, been waiting on this one for a while, I like the R2 because of its subtle design.
I just thought I would add that I own this case. Whilst its cooling performance out of the box leaves alot to be desired, once it is setup with 2 120mm fans (canibalized from my old Jeantech Phong) in the roof (manual controlled) and non passive graphics cards (I have GTX260-SLI) its cooling improves dramatically.
To be honest with these case reviews I think you start adding in results for a potential *best case* scenario (for this case, two additional fans in the roof) with a explanation of why this setup was chose. This could be included in the results much in the same way that overclocked cpu / gpu results are shown in their respective reviews. These results would useful not as a comparison to other cases but as a comparison to the stock case, in other words seeing what potential improvement could be made. Whilst this isn't fool proof, at least it would provide us more information for a potential purcase decision.
Also (and this is a larger step to take) it may be worth moving from the P4 / Passive GPU setup to a more modern representative setup that is more in line with what alot of us actually use (say Core i5 750, HD4890 or similar).
Constructive critism over, thanks for the review guys. Its nice to see the case I own being well received by bit.
Originally Posted by xaser04 I just thought I would add that I own this case. Whilst its cooling performance out of the box leaves alot to be desired, once it is setup with 2 120mm fans (canibalized from my old Jeantech Phong) in the roof (manual controlled) and non passive graphics cards (I have GTX260-SLI) its cooling improves dramatically.
To be honest with these case reviews I think you start adding in results for a potential *best case* scenario (for this case, two additional fans in the roof) with a explanation of why this setup was chose. This could be included in the results much in the same way that overclocked cpu / gpu results are shown in their respective reviews. These results would useful not as a comparison to other cases but as a comparison to the stock case, in other words seeing what potential improvement could be made. Whilst this isn't fool proof, at least it would provide us more information for a potential purcase decision.
Also (and this is a larger step to take) it may be worth moving from the P4 / Passive GPU setup to a more modern representative setup that is more in line with what alot of us actually use (say Core i5 750, HD4890 or similar).
Constructive critism over, thanks for the review guys. Its nice to see the case I own being well received by bit.
Interesting points - but I think a case with that many HDD bays and silent? throw some old hardware in there and run it as a media server with raid 5 for storage. after all - modern HD's are 1Tb in size - so the only way you'll fill this is with old drives...
Originally Posted by Kalcifer +1, <3ed the review, been waiting on this one for a while, I like the R2 because of its subtle design.
2+ (I am so desperate so I count for two)
i just took a look at this case yestoday and was thinking hmm.. why arent bit-tech making a review of this one? and today! bim ballabuum! here we go. :)
Originally Posted by xaser04 I just thought I would add that I own this case. Whilst its cooling performance out of the box leaves alot to be desired, once it is setup with 2 120mm fans (canibalized from my old Jeantech Phong) in the roof (manual controlled) and non passive graphics cards (I have GTX260-SLI) its cooling improves dramatically.
To be honest with these case reviews I think you start adding in results for a potential *best case* scenario (for this case, two additional fans in the roof) with a explanation of why this setup was chose. This could be included in the results much in the same way that overclocked cpu / gpu results are shown in their respective reviews. These results would useful not as a comparison to other cases but as a comparison to the stock case, in other words seeing what potential improvement could be made. Whilst this isn't fool proof, at least it would provide us more information for a potential purcase decision.
Also (and this is a larger step to take) it may be worth moving from the P4 / Passive GPU setup to a more modern representative setup that is more in line with what alot of us actually use (say Core i5 750, HD4890 or similar).
Constructive critism over, thanks for the review guys. Its nice to see the case I own being well received by bit.
Interesting points - but I think a case with that many HDD bays and silent? throw some old hardware in there and run it as a media server with raid 5 for storage. after all - modern HD's are 1Tb in size - so the only way you'll fill this is with old drives...
Whilst I agree with your point in ragrds to the R2 (I am actually in the process of changing my to a media server, dropping the GTX260 SLI in favour of a low powered GPU that can encode video) I also think it would be a useful addition to all case reviews to have a potential best case cooling scenario included in the results (as I said just like overclocking results on a CPU/GPU).
The R2 does seem to be a case that out of the box is designed to be a server (media or otherwise), but can also be a fantastic gaming case with the right cooling setup.
For reference my setup comprises:
Two stock 120mm Intake fans (included with case) manually controlled with the included fan controller
Two 120mm fans (taken from old case) exhausting air through the roof (I have these manually controlled using a fan controller I took from my old case)
Corsair H50 acting as an intake on the back of the case (the top two fans make their biggest difference in this setup)
2 x GTX260 SLI (stock coolers) with fans set to 52% manually (fed air from the bottom intake fan)
Comments 1 to 25 of 123
ReplyAbout the price its a lil cheaper here in finland with a price of 89 at my local shop and thus in a different class than the CM 922 or the other cases you talked about in the review. Defo a case for my next upgrade (I really need an upgrade :()
+1
Also, can we please have a review of the Lancool K62 after you previewed the Dragon series so many months ago?
Unfortunately I'm stuck with this Cosmos-S :(
Looking forward to seeing other manufacturers hop into the lotsa-3,5"-drivebays-bandwagon, who needs the stupid 5,25" bays anyway.
Many of us have been looking to this case for our next upgrade but naturaly assume we will have to add the fans the designers have given the option for.
however we are no more in the light now than we were before
It seems a great case, you clearly like it, but we still dont know if its any good?
+1
+1
what other things were you concerned about?
+ 1 to another look with fans
Also, I could use at least 1 additional 5.25" drive bay (in a perfect world all cases would consist of only 5.25" bays letting me convert the ones I need to 3.5" bays, much like the Lian-Li PC-P50).
+1
+1, <3ed the review, been waiting on this one for a while, I like the R2 because of its subtle design.
To be honest with these case reviews I think you start adding in results for a potential *best case* scenario (for this case, two additional fans in the roof) with a explanation of why this setup was chose. This could be included in the results much in the same way that overclocked cpu / gpu results are shown in their respective reviews. These results would useful not as a comparison to other cases but as a comparison to the stock case, in other words seeing what potential improvement could be made. Whilst this isn't fool proof, at least it would provide us more information for a potential purcase decision.
Also (and this is a larger step to take) it may be worth moving from the P4 / Passive GPU setup to a more modern representative setup that is more in line with what alot of us actually use (say Core i5 750, HD4890 or similar).
Constructive critism over, thanks for the review guys. Its nice to see the case I own being well received by bit.
Interesting points - but I think a case with that many HDD bays and silent? throw some old hardware in there and run it as a media server with raid 5 for storage. after all - modern HD's are 1Tb in size - so the only way you'll fill this is with old drives...
2+ (I am so desperate so I count for two)
i just took a look at this case yestoday and was thinking hmm.. why arent bit-tech making a review of this one? and today! bim ballabuum! here we go. :)
Whilst I agree with your point in ragrds to the R2 (I am actually in the process of changing my to a media server, dropping the GTX260 SLI in favour of a low powered GPU that can encode video) I also think it would be a useful addition to all case reviews to have a potential best case cooling scenario included in the results (as I said just like overclocking results on a CPU/GPU).
The R2 does seem to be a case that out of the box is designed to be a server (media or otherwise), but can also be a fantastic gaming case with the right cooling setup.
For reference my setup comprises:
Two stock 120mm Intake fans (included with case) manually controlled with the included fan controller
Two 120mm fans (taken from old case) exhausting air through the roof (I have these manually controlled using a fan controller I took from my old case)
Corsair H50 acting as an intake on the back of the case (the top two fans make their biggest difference in this setup)
2 x GTX260 SLI (stock coolers) with fans set to 52% manually (fed air from the bottom intake fan)
+5
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