Define R4--Blackout vs. Black Pearl

[sammykhalifa]

Getting ready to pick up a new case (building this has been a long process, haha). Finally decided on a windowed R4/5, but there are frequent sales on R4s so at this point I think I'm going to go that route.

I was just wondering which one people liked the "looks" of better. I like the idea of an all-black interior (I keep picking up components are all black) and white LED up front, but I'm not sure about the tinted window of the Blackout. Is it too dark to really see inside anyhow? Not that this is the biggest decision in my life but I thought I'd see what people thought. I haven't seen either in real life and sometimes it's hard to judge based on online photographs.

 

[Ranulf]

If its the same tinted window on my arc mini R2 (looks like it from newegg photos), then its fairly hard to see in. It reflects the carpet mostly. About all you can see (without a light/flash) from about 2-3ft away is the hyper 212 evo I have in it and the white pci slot covers.

I love the arc case (originally was going to use it for a HTPC) but it would be great if I could buy a clear window for it. From looking at fractal's site they have the regular R4 window panel listed as an accessory so maybe you could get both.

 

[sammykhalifa]

Thanks! That's what I was thinking about the window. Maybe I'll just wait for the inevitable sale on the regular Black Pearl, and get some black fans later on if it bothers me that much. Not much point in having a window if you can't see in it, right? Haha. I'm being picky right now, but I only build a new PC about every five years or so . . .

 

[lehtv]

I'd go with R5 to be honest. Improvement over R4 in all respects, not that R4 needed much improving but it's still better

 

[voodoo7817]

The R5 wasn't available when I purchased my R4, but if I was buying today and the pricing was $110 for the R5 and $80 for the R4 on sale (which is a common situation), I'd probably still go with the R4. While $30 isn't a lot of money, the R4 will most likely do everything you need it to do at the cheaper price. Perhaps the R5 would be worth the price premium if you plan to be in and out of the case fairly often, but IMO most of the R5 improvements are "nice-to-haves" rather than "need-to-haves". If the price difference were $10 or $20, perhaps it'd be worth getting the newest one.

As for aesthetics, that's 100% personal and from what I've seen they all look good. I'm not a window guy, so in general internal aesthetics didn't matter as much. But I think you're planning correctly by looking at the color of your components and planning around that. I ended up going with 4 black fans with white fins, so getting the Black Pearl when it was on sale worked very easily for me. I ended up removing all the hard drive bays so it lost some of its 'pearlness' but again, I don't plan on looking inside my system too often anyway.

 

[sammykhalifa]

Just as a follow up--I waited for a sale and picked up the Black Pearl R4 on sale, and it arrived yesterday. It is larger than I thought (a problem with my imagination and not the product, haha) but otherwise will do just fine. I was interested in the R5 but just wasn't sure the improvements were worth ~40 dollars to me. I've mentioned before that my current case is an Antec that I've been reusing for almost 15 years, a good case but I'm sure the ergonomics have come a long way since then across the board.

Color isn't actually that big of a deal (after all my old case is about 4 different colors of sunfaded beige), and if really bothers me that much down the road I'll buy a new fan. :0

Thanks everyone.