Need help deciding between two cases and their fan configurations

hobnailspenguin · Aug 10, 2018

Hello everyone, I'm building a new gaming PC and I have currently narrowed my choices of cases down to a Fractal Meshify C Dark TG and a Corsair 570x Mirror Black. Pretty wide apart I know, but I'm having trouble deciding between creating a beautiful Black/Red Soul-absorbing mirror-box and a Noctua-filled Fractal typhoon generator. The fan configurations I have chosen for each bring them to about even price, so I was wondering if I would regret either choice for any particular reason.

For the Fractal I was going to get

3 front 1 bot intake Noctua - NF-A14 PWM 120 chromax with
1 rear Noctua - NF-A14 PWM 120 chromax 2 top Noctua - NF-A14 PWM 140mm exhausting

And for the 570x I was going to use the 3 SP120's it comes with, and get three Corsair ML120 Pro LEDs

My rig will be a Ryzen 2700x with stock cooler, MSI Gaming Plus Mobo, and either one of the new GTX's or a 1080.

Any ideas are appreciated, including suggestions on pursuing a whole new idea.

Darkbreeze · Aug 10, 2018

Personally, as a Noctua owner myself, and having used a slew of other fans on my own builds as well as those for clients, I can tell you that you'd be hard pressed to not be 1100% on point with the choice of Noctua fans over almost anybody else.

I think however that you'd be a lot happier with 140mm NF-A14's in all fan locations rather than 120mm. If you want to go with 120mm Noctua fans I'd highly recommend looking at the newer NF-A12-25. While they don't come in black, they are far superior to all previous Noctua 120mm fans which themselves were superior in quality and noise level to practically all other currently sold 120's anywhere near their price range.

I hear the Corsair Maglev fans are pretty amazing, but haven't used any on a build yet so I can't comment on that, but the SP series fans are meh in my opinion. Noctua makes a much better fan than anything Corsair makes aside from maybe the Maglev series.

Plus, with NF-A14's in all locations, you are going to move just as much air volume at a much lower noise level than you will with those 120mm fans.

Are you planning to overclock that 2700x? If so, I'd rethink using the wraith cooler. I know some among us say it's ok for overclocking, but that's seriously questionable. Stock coolers, even pretty ones like that, are designed for the TDP of the stock configuration. They are not designed to handle higher TDP scenarios created by overclocking, if you are.

hobnailspenguin · Aug 10, 2018

Thanks for the informed advice darkbreeze, I appreciate getting such good advice from this helpful community. The logic of what you say makes a lot of sense, If I go with the Fractal I might as well get the Owl colored a12-25 since I won't be emphasizing the interior anyway, but I feel a little bad confusing the color aesthetics I've kept cohesive with the other internal parts. I was shooting for positive pressure with the 120's in the front of the Fractal, but I will definitely concede to your experience.

I was going to see what kind of overclock I could reliably get with the wraith and fan configuration and get a better CPU cooler if that appeared necessary. I'm going to receive the wraith cooler no matter what, so I might as well see if it will do the job. I don't want to have to budget another $85 for a Noctua cooler if I can avoid it.

As for the 570x, I didn't want to get rid of the 570x's stock fans because they're included and look great, and as you said the maglev are close competitors to Noctua, and fit the red/black motif.

Also, any opinion on the cases themselves?

Darkbreeze · Aug 11, 2018

It really depends on what your priorities are. Positive pressure only has ONE added benefit. Dust suppression.

In ALL other ways, negative or equal pressure are superior. Equal pressure, which is what I like to shoot for, gives you a compromise between better performance and still having some amount of dust suppression.

Negative pressure will always offer higher cooling performance AND will in all probability allow your fans to have a bit longer lifespan as they will not be straining against the interior pressure of the case in order to overcome that pressure and sustain a positive pressure arrangement. It's always easier for a fan to spin at a given RPM when there is little or no resistance against it.

Personally, I really do like the 570x. Why not that case with the black Noctua 140mm NF-A14's. Sell the brand new SP fans to somebody. You could probably recover a good portion of your investment in the Noctua fans that way. Then simply add your own interior lighting. I really like the effect of LED strips better than lighted fans, but I admit lighted fans do look pretty good with dark tempered glass.

Depends on what's really important to you though. Performance or aesthetics. What is the rig to be used for?

Don't even attempt to overclock with the Wraith cooler. It will just end in either frustration and giving up on the overclock altogether, a minimal overclock or running at or near the thermal ceiling, which is not a great idea.

No way that cooler can handle a mid to high level overclock. If you are only going to bump the full time frequency by a couple of hundred mhz, then I guess it could work, but that's really not even overclocking. That's just pushing the all core turbo frequency to a full time setting.

hobnailspenguin · Aug 11, 2018

The current goal is to run my 27" 1440p monitor at 144hz with good framerate. I don't know what GPU I'll use yet because I'm waiting for Aug 20/31 and hoping for good news. I picked the Ryzen at first because I am considering getting into streaming and maybe some video editing, but that is speculative and I mostly game with light college work on the side. I like AMD as a company, plus the support for x470 and possible future utility of 8 cores, but if the Ryzen 2700x is going to be so tough to get any extra performance out of I may just return my MSI 470 Gaming Plus and go with an 8600k with a Noctua NH-D15. Not having to get a cooler was how I was going to justify the $330 pricetag.

If the specs of the 570x pass your muster, I'll pick that one, and reflect on whether to go full Noctua or Corsair Maglev. Thanks for passing your experience on, my future rig will thank you!

As for Air Pressure, I am worried about the mirror surface getting all dusty, but I suppose I'll be cleaning that thing one way or another. Your suggested fan config is 4 x NF-A14's front/top and a NF-A12-25 in the rear right?

Darkbreeze · Aug 11, 2018

Maybe not. Here's why. That fan is a terrific intake, heatsink and radiator fan, and will work fine as an exhaust fan, but some of the benefits of that fan might be unnecessary as an exhaust. Exhaust fans have little resistance to overcome as it's generally always lower pressure outside the case than in. That means there is little chance of any forced air bypassing the sides of the fan blades.

Still, you could do worse, but I think you could get by fine with a black Noctua 120mm fan there. It will still be very quiet and will work good. I guess I didn't realize that rear location only supported a 120mm fan. I don't particularly like that in a case.

I'm picky though. I like cases where 140mm fans can be used at all fan locations. They simply move equal amounts, or more air, at a lower RPM which makes them quieter. The only drawback at all, and this doesn't apply in all comparisons depending on the specific fan, is that often they are not as high of static pressure as some 120mm fans. Static pressure is really only important if you are running a full on positive pressure arrangement, or running them through a heatsink or radiator. For exhaust, obviously that's not the case.

For an equal or negative pressure arrangement, also not the case. Hope that doesn't mess up your plans at all, and I think whether you do put one of those there or go for a black Noctua, should be fine and very quiet.

One thing that often gets overlooked as well is whether or not the motherboard you are using has really good fan control options. You want to make sure that any board you get has full on PWM headers, for all fan header locations on the board, or that you will be using a PWM hub or controller of some kind. This is particularly important with these fans since they are all four pin PWM. Most boards do support that these days but some of them have rather crappy fan controls in the bios so you might look into that.

hobnailspenguin · Aug 11, 2018

The only cases I've seen offering 140mm rear exhaust are the Carbide Air series (which I hear has a few problems, and I'm generally not a fan of boxes) and the Silverstone Primavera PM01-rgb (and other Silverstones, but the PM01 is usually best reviewed). I was thinking about getting the PM01-rgb for having all 140mm's, but I hear it roars like a lion, and it looks a little cheap with the plastic shelling and thin metal side, but maybe with all Noctuas it would be a silent air-cannon. A lot of reviewers say the thick tempered glass on the 570x can lower sound, plus it is the only case with a c-type usb in the discussion, and I like the idea of using the same case 10 years from now if possible.

Right now I've got the MSI Gaming Plus ordered, website says it has 6x fan headers, DC/PWM mode, and full fan control. This is my first solo PC build actually, so I am flying blind in terms of managing the finer aspects, like fan-header mounts, but I am a good researcher and I've worked at a static-free circuit board factory so I can probably handle the basics of assembly. If you have a favorite assembly guide/primer feel free to share it, but I can always google that myself.

No worries if you don't make your way back to this thread though, you've been a ton of help already.

Darkbreeze · Aug 11, 2018

The Fractal design Define S, Phanteks Enthoo Pro and Enthoo Pro M tempered glass cases support rear 140mm. There are many others too you just have to look at 90 dollar + cases.

Don't let my preferences determine your decisions though. There is no reason your configuration won't be perfectly fine with what you have planned.

For assembly, the three part Newegg tutorial on building a system is pretty hard to beat. All three video segments are available on Youtube.

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