Fractal designs. ARC Midi vs R5

[marcplante]

OK Fractal fans. I'll step up from my budget Silverstone and Corsair options and am now deciding between the Arc Midi R2 or Define R5. I'm not for flash, so will go windowless.

My rig will include

Asus Z270e MB
Intel i7 7700k
Hyper 212 Evo Cooler
EVGA 1080Ti graphics
512 GB SSD (2.5?)
1 TB HD (3.5)
2x8G RAM
Blu Ray Drive.
Corsair TX750M PSU

My read is that the R5 is quieter though heavier. I could see porting this from my office to the basement where I would be running a driving Sim FTTT. so the weight might be a factor. Any other nuances about life with these cases? Given my modest hardware requirements, is there anything a little smaller I can get away with? or should I just plan on this size for the sake of finger space and air circulation?



prices seem to be dipping a bit on PCPartspicker. so time to build...

 

[UsandThem]

I have two R5 cases. Best case I ever used. Very quiet (sound deadening does add a little weight though). I keep my front door closed except when I game, which allows some fan noise to escape, but allows great airflow.

 

[Ranulf]

Owning and liking both, the Arc Midi is older design wise and doesn't have ssd mounts on the back I think, or they are the old ones like on the R4 which require installing before the motherboard (thus not worth the hassle). I like the Arc mini (matx) version better than the full size one just because it has ssd mounts on the back. The Arc Midi has a tinted window vs clear on the R5s.

The benefit of the R5's is you can take off the top sound dampening deal with the moduvent system and that would lower weight, allow more airflow with more noise.

 

[marcplante]

Went ahead and bought an R5. Thanks for the thoughts.

 

[dbrons]

Just getting used to my r5 I'm sure you will be hapopy with it.