Temperature
The temperatures under full load show that, even with the built-in controller set to 5 V, the case fans have no problem keeping our specific configuration cool. At this voltage, the 14-cm fan spins along at 500 RPM, while the 12-cm fans run at 600 RPM. We kept the Alpenföhn Brocken 2 at a constant 1000 RPM throughout, since it’s very quiet anyway.
| Temperatures under Full Load: Fractal Design Arc Mini R2 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Case Fans 12 V | Case Fans 5 V | |
| Ambient Temperature | 20.2 °C | 20.5 °C |
| CPU (Core i5-4430) TCore Ø | 52.2 °C | 55.4 °C |
| Radeon HD 7950 | 63-64 °C | 68-69 °C |
| (Fan 47% = 1835 RPM) | (Fan 54% = 2188 RPM) | |
| Hard Drive | 25 °C | 30 °C |
The reduced airflow that results from lowering the fan speed warms the Core i5-4430 by only 3 °C. This difference increases to 5 °C for the idling hard drive. HIS' Radeon HD 7950 is impacted most, though. Its Tahiti GPU's temperature increases by 5 °C, and its fan runs at 2200 RPM instead of 1800. Again, a graphics card that uses an axial fan, recirculating waste heat back into the enclosure, is going to cause platform components to rise more significantly, particularly at low fan rotational speeds.
Noise
Under full load, the graphics card contributes most prominently to system noise. With that said, the acoustics aren't as bad as we've heard from other cases due to the Arc Mini R2’s closed side wall. Enclosures with mesh sides typically far worse in this metric. Fractal Design's fans are quite noticeable at 12 V, generating up to 42.0 dB(A), but they get a lot quieter once the voltage is reduced to 7 V. This setting seems to provide the best compromise between thermal performance and noise for heavier loads. A sound pressure reading of 37 dB(A) isn't what we'd call annoying, or even distracting. The results would be almost perfect if the case included higher-quality fans. The 14 cm fan in particular generates noticeable vibrations, and its rotor doesn’t run quite as smoothly as it should.
| Noise: Fractal Design Arc Mini R2 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
12 V, Case Fans Only | 7 V, Case Fans Only | 5 V, Case Fans Only | 12 V, Whole System Under Full Load | |
| Front (50 cm) | 42.0 dB(A) | 36.6 dB(A) | 35.7 dB(A) | 44.3 dB(A) |
| Top-Left Diagonal (50 cm) | 41.5 dB(A) | 36.6 dB(A) | 35.4 dB(A) | 42.4 dB(A) |
| Top-Right Diagonal (50 cm) | 41.4 dB(A) | 36.4 dB(A) | 35.4 dB(A) | 42.6 dB(A) |
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