We settled on a benchmark system based on Intel's Core i5-4430 and HIS' Radeon HD 7950 IceQ Turbo that comes slightly overclocked from the factory. This was supposed to challenge, but not overwhelm, a mini-tower’s cooling capacity. Because the graphics card exhausts its waste heat out of the case, it presents a much less demanding load than a lot of the boards with axial fans, which negatively affect ambient temperatures inside the enclosure.
We removed the middle hard drive cage to allow for more air to reach the CPU cooler. The Alpenföhn Brocken 2 offers good performance at low noise levels and fits perfectly.
It goes without saying that we also wanted to take a look at how much we can slow the fans down using Fractal Design's integrated controller. Do the coolers need to be left at 12 V, or can we get ample airflow from 7 or 5 V?
| Benchmark System: Fractal Design Arc Mini R2 | |
|---|---|
| Processor | Intel Core i5-4430 (Haswell), Quad-core, 3 GHz base, 3.2 GHz maximum Turbo Boost, 6 MB shared L3 cache |
| Processor Cooler | Alpenföhn Brocken 2 |
| Motherboard | ASRock B85M Pro4, B85 Express PCH |
| Memory | 1 x 4 GB G.Skill DDR3-1333 F3-1333C9S-4GNS |
| Graphics Card | HIS Radeon HD 7950 IceQ Turbo |
| Hard Drive | Samsung HD322GJ (System Drive) |
| Power Supply Unit (PSU) | 550 W Enermax Triathlor |
| Operating System | Windows 7 Home Premium |
We applied a load to the system using a combination of Prime95 (Small FFTs) and MSI Kombustor (Furry and Tessy Test), then measured the temperatures after 60 minutes.

Fractal's signature theme is a monochrome theme. Black over white or white over black. The only exceptions in their lineup will be the Blackout Edition case where(as the name gave it away) is going to be completely black - all the way down to having black drive sleds and fans with black blades.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8rDDyDW0yA#t=143
With advancements of manufacturing, all things tech that is white such as white PCB'd products and plastics won't turn yellow which apparently happens when exposed to UV radiation due to bromine in the plastic to act as a flame retardant.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brominated_flame_retardant
Now due to various issues, the process has been changed, that's why you now see alot of white products NOT turn yellow within a few months.
Personally I love anything Fractal make, they are minimalist and functional!
Also, there is no reason SSDs can't be mounted to the back of the motherboard trays. NZXT utilizes this design on a lot of their cases. You can even do this yourself without issue by just using some velcro if you have enough clearance between the motherboard tray and the case.
I think most people use their optical drives so infrequently, it makes sense to share a USB optical drive among all of your PCs.
I can see internal optical drives going by the way of the dinosaur; again, especially on a microATX build. Why are case designers still including so many 5.25 bays in general? More than one is hardly necessary for the average user. The only people who need multiple 5.25s are those with disk copying/duplication stations. Most of us aren't using our PCs for this purpose and if we are, we aren't doing it in a microATX package.
If it is the same fan controller as R4 (very likely) then it works like this:
12v mode: 12v from molex to ground
5v mode: 5v molex to ground
7v mode: 12v molex to 5v molex
The problem is the 7-volt mod that Fractal Design used. They claim that it´s okay to force up to 15 watt of power backwards into the 5v line. It´s not a good thing to do according to these links:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article6-page1.html
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/s...d.php?t=372297
http://www.jonnyguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3917
http://www.ithinkibrokeit.co.uk/arti...vmod/page1.php
I have a R4 and FD Norton 600w PSU. When I used the 7-volt mod it destroyed my 4770k AND my replacement CPU G3225… and this is with their own PSU. The computer worked fine just up to the 7-volt mod. I contacted Fractal design about this but they can’t see a problem and they do not have the time to investigate it. I´ve wrote about it here but it’s unfortunately in Swedish:
http://www.sweclockers.com/forum/74-chassin-och-nataggregat/1283945-newton-600w-define-trasig-4770k/#post14450237