For the Fractal Design Define R4, should I move the fan up for better airflow?

[gary king]

By default, the Fractal Design Define R4 blows into the bottom hard drive cage, which is where I have one 7200 RPM hard drive, and the unused cables from my non-modular PSU.

I was thinking, should I move the fan up one slot, then remove the upper hard drive cage, for better airflow? Or does the hard drive really need the fan blowing into it?

 

[Patryk Orlowski-Lisewski]

Hey.

As long as your Cable Management is decent, and there is nothing that could block your HDD there shouldn't be any heating up problems.

With the R4 I would remove the top HDD Cage anyway if you are not having tons of HDD's 😛

Removing that cage gives you more space for an airflow

After removing the top cage, move your fan to top slot, with better airflow the HDD's won't need a fan to cool them down as the case will be chilly inside

Hope that helps.

Cheers.

 

[13thmonkey]

cooling a hdd is useful, just get another fan, if you are worried about noise get a lower speed quiet one and have that on the hdd.

 

[gary king]

Okay thanks for the replies. I have a single 7200 RPM drive, so I have decided to remove the top HD cage, and move the single fan up to the top. This also is similar to the configuration that I have in my Corsair 200R case, which doesn't even have an upper HD cage, and the fan is already in that spot. So now both of my cases should have good airflow.

 

[Patryk Orlowski-Lisewski]

Okay thanks for the replies. I have a single 7200 RPM drive, so I have decided to remove the top HD cage, and move the single fan up to the top. This also is similar to the configuration that I have in my Corsair 200R case, which doesn't even have an upper HD cage, and the fan is already in that spot. So now both of my cases should have good airflow.

Good Choice, also as a reply to 13thmonkey

The cooling of your HDD's is useful but with good airflow inside your case and only having 1 HDD and nothing near it to make it warm up, there isn't much need really.

But yet I would also reccomend installing 1 more fan just for the sake of safety

 

[13thmonkey]

Okay thanks for the replies. I have a single 7200 RPM drive, so I have decided to remove the top HD cage, and move the single fan up to the top. This also is similar to the configuration that I have in my Corsair 200R case, which doesn't even have an upper HD cage, and the fan is already in that spot. So now both of my cases should have good airflow.

Good Choice, also as a reply to 13thmonkey

The cooling of your HDD's is useful but with good airflow inside your case and only having 1 HDD and nothing near it to make it warm up, there isn't much need really.

But yet I would also reccomend installing 1 more fan just for the sake of safety

modern drives are cooler than older ones, but still keeping them cool is generally speaking a good idea, it doesn't take much airflow to accomplish this, but they are rubbish a getting rid of heat with no flow.

 

[gary king]

Okay so I have moved the fan back to the bottom and re-inserted the upper cage. What I've done instead is moved the unused PSU non-modular cables to the upper cage, and cable tied it to there, so that it doesn't block the fan airflow in the bottom.