Fractal Design Define R4 vs Cooler Master Silencio 652S

DonGaz

Honorable
May 3, 2012
4
0
10,510
I currently have an old Antec Sonata II case, but under stress (gaming, ...) it has problems keeping my system cool, especially in summer. So I have to crank up all fans, resulting in a noisy system.

I'm looking for a new case (100€ max.) that is silent but still manages to keep my system cooler than the Sonata II under stress.

I have been looking at the Fractal Design Define R4 and the recently released Cooler Master Silencio 652S. As the 652S is rather new, I can't find a lot of reviews about it. So I'm having a hard time deciding.

The case has to last at least 5 years (current and next PC build). I do not overclock my hardware. My current build is:
- AMD Phenom II 1090T (TDP 125W) + Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO (159mm)
- MSI R6850 Cyclone

I have a fan controller (4 fans) and 2 spare Zalman ZM-F3 fans.

Which one would you recommended?
Can these cases both be silent and keep my system cool?

Other case suggestions < 100€ are also welcome.

Thank you!
 
I have several Fractal Design cases, and I even recommended some to friends building their own computers. They are excellent cases, but in two of them there were little niggling errors that I had to work around.

One had a motherboard mount "stripped" and I had to fix the standoff with a nut.

On another case, the PSU mount is reversible, but they made a small (maybe 1/16th) error in the spacing, so I had to re-drill the hole in the correct position to mount the PSU with the intake pointing down.

I am looking around and am glad you brought the CM case to my attention - looks like it has a lot of potential.

Another case you can look at, but that may be slightly out of your price range is the "Deep Silence" range. They're made in Germany and every review I read about them speak highly of the build quality.
 

DonGaz

Honorable
May 3, 2012
4
0
10,510

And what about cooling performance? Is the R4 sufficient for keeping my rig (high TDP CPU) cool under stress, without overclocking?

 
Since about 2011 I don't cool with anything other than closed loop liquid coolers. I believe the airflow is sufficient even for air-based coolers. My friend installed a high-end (130W) Intel processor with 64GB of RAM (he does a lot of video processing) in his Fractal case with a closed loop cooler and he is very happy.