Corsair AF vs SP fans for NZXT Noctis 450 case?

[Valharth1031]

To start, here's a pic of my case on one side (not my pic btw): http://benchmarkreviews.com/27607/nzxt-noctis-450-mid-tower-case-review/nzxt-noctis-450-cable-management-finished/

I'm going to replace my stock fans and still racking over what to put as my front intakes for this case I got. Over different forums/threads people would usually say AF fans for the case and SP fans for radiators or places with resistance like HDD cages. But what I've noticed here for the Noctis 450 is that the HDD cage is not the regular box-type of a cage. Rather, it's only just the HDD "beds" individually attached so they're not as obstructive. But I'm not sure if it would warrant I go pressure fans. There are a max of 5 "beds" as you can see on the left side of the case in the pic, and I currently have the first 2 "beds" from the bottom occupied with 3.5" drives. And I plan to fill the last 3 soon since I recently had to work with a lot of content. The fans are directly beside to the left of the hdd beds. Do you think there's still enough room for airflow fans with 3-5 bays occupied? Or do I go pressure fans? Thanks in advance.

 

[faalin]

At first it was a 50/50 for me but the more i look at it the more im leaning towards SP fans. Your pulling air through some mesh in the front of the case and then pushing past a rack of harddrives, yes there is gaps between them but its not unrestricted flow where a AF fan would like to be.

The rear fan should be an AF fan while the top should be SP fans. The top fans will be pushing more air then fan flow out of the two mesh openings creating back pressure on the fans.

 

[Valharth1031]

At first it was a 50/50 for me but the more i look at it the more im leaning towards SP fans. Your pulling air through some mesh in the front of the case and then pushing past a rack of harddrives, yes there is gaps between them but its not unrestricted flow where a AF fan would like to be.

The rear fan should be an AF fan while the top should be SP fans. The top fans will be pushing more air then fan flow out of the two mesh openings creating back pressure on the fans.

I was 50/50 too. I thought that since the hdd beds didn't have "walls" like the regular cages where there were only slits for passage of air I thought AF fans would cut it. I'll consider your advice. Thanks for replying!