Looking for a case... Fractal R4?

[alewis]

Hi all, need some buying advice.

Its time to build a new PC, I've settled on an Asus P8Z77-V Deluxe, i3770K, 16GB RAM, and Radeon 7970, 2 x Dell 2713H monitors. Cooling is likely to be the Corsair H100i closed loop

As I understand it, the motherboard is E-ATX, and needs a slightly larger case. The Fractal Design Define R4 looks the part - black and minimalist - but its unclear whether it will take the Asus motherboard. Some sites refer to it as ATX factor, some E-ATX.

Can anyone confirm that the case will take the board, and the Corsair cooler? Oh, and recommendations for a suitable PSU gratefully accepted. Seasonic 760, perhaps?

many thanks

 

[Vectronic]

What do you mean by "some sites"? - P8Z77-V Deluxe

Form Factor
ATX Form Factor
12 inch x 9.6 inch ( 30.5 cm x 24.4 cm )

You can verify it by looking at the board:

Anyways, yes the R4 (I have one) will fit ATX, and would even fit some E-ATX by default, and *will* fit an E-ATX if you remove the HD trays.

Your concern isn't the motherboard, it's the cooler.

You have 2 (ideal) options:
1. Top Mount (can be tight depending on motherboard)
2. Front Mount (will require you to move the HD cages, unless you use passive cooling, or ultra thin fans)

 

[lehtv]

I wouldn't recommend the H100i to be used in the Fractal R4. The space above the motherboard is quite limited - it's a roomy case in terms of width and length but it's not very tall, and a push-pull setup is quite likely to interfere with the motherboard.

However the R4 is a very nice case, if you like it don't change it. Instead of the H100i, get a H90 and install it in the rear slot. The H90 is 140mm and boasts performance very close to H100 at a much lower noise level (max. 1500 RPM). Check out techpowerup's review. It's a very new product and not yet available on newegg, but soon should be.

 

[beginner99]

I have the R2, nor sure what the exact differences are. Just about the PSU: there is a lot of space however it you take a rather large, modular one it will be hard to impossible to use the bottom fan slot (helps with GPU Temp and keeps noise level down compared to opening the side slot).

 

[lehtv]

Oh, and recommendations for a suitable PSU gratefully accepted. Seasonic 760, perhaps?

For 7970 Crossfire support with OC, Corsair HX750 $120 AR.

I know this is OT, but I'm curious what you use the PC for since you opted for 3770K and 16GB instead of 3570K and 8GB. I also can't help but think that the P8Z77-V Deluxe is overkill for your needs, what features does it have that you need and a Z77 Extreme4 lacks?

 

[alewis]

Gents

Cheers for the replies.

The other watercooled options I was considering are the Thermaltake Water 2.0 Pro and Water 2.0 Extreme (the later rather like the H100i), and the Thermaltake New Soprano case.

I'm understand that air cooling has come a long way since 2004/5, and coolers such as the Noctua NH-14 (probably not the right name/part!) are quieter and cool slightly better, but I'm nervous about supporting over a kilo weight on the motherboard. Similarly, nervous about the traditional water cooling solutions, especially with external reservoirs! So an AIO of some description seems ideal - for me. Ok, so it looks like the Water 2.0 Pro, as that will fit at the top rear, the 'old' PSU location.

@lehtv - I currently run two rigs, one 'workstation', one gaming. I do some graphic and video work, web design, and so on. Traditionally, always bought the fastest kit I could, and a dual-cpu'er at heart (e.g DK8N and Opteron 250s, U320 SCSI RAID, ect). However, the cost/performance benefit of a dual Xeon solution doesn't work for me - money isn't a problem, I just cant justify the massive increase in expenditure (£550 for even a moderate CPU, £600 for the motherboard) for the performance gains. If my time was money, then I in terms of ROI, yes. But it isn't Similarly, I would have built a reasonably decent game rig. Oh, I also run Exchange on a dedicated server...

I decided that an i3770K system with a 7790 would offer the best of both worlds. The CPU is powerful enough to run Photoshop, Premiere, the Matrox RT card, etc, with more than acceptable performance. Likewise, it will also run the games I play (AvP, mechwarrior, CoD). Thus, the opportunity to use one box for both. With a dual booting system, using two SSDs (Samsung 840s), one for booting into a work OS and one into the game OS, I can do this without worrying too much about cluttering the work system with games.

I may still build a games rig based on a G1 Sniper 3, i5, and swap the 7790 into that and a 7750 into the i7. I have 3 x 27" monitors, to experiment with a dual LCD work screen, or maybe even a triple headed display (if the 7790 or 7750 will do that, thats for me to play with!) - something I've not done since the days of Parhelia.

Why the Asus? Flexibillity. If gaming performance is acceptable to me, I saved £100 or so over the Sniper. It will sure be ok as a work platform compared to the Tyan 2895! Not as great as a socket 2011 solution, but about £1000 cheaper in the end. I get a good 'bang for my buck'. And I got a good deal on the board, CPU, and RAM from Amazon. Just waiting on delivery! Then its case, PSU, drives.. and a morning installing Win7 and updates! Typical, I moved from a house with 80Mb/20Mb to 8Mb/440Kb

Thanks for the tip on the PSU, again, if I need/decide to build a dedicated game box, then I already have some parts I can migrate over (most of the parts in my boxes cascade down when I upgrade one component or another).

Comments appreciated folks, as are further thoughts - many thanks!

Forgot to add, I'm also looking at moving the Exchange box to a VM on the new work rig. Maybe. I might just migrate to cloud... But its the flexibillity thing again.

 

[lehtv]

Fair enough, especially since you already bought the stuff

Re: performance and motherboards. They have little to do with each other apart from what CPUs they support and the PCIe bandwidth offered. Asus P8Z77-V Deluxe is exactly equal in that regard to any SLI certified Z77 chipset board, and as such will perform the same in everything from games to encoding. G1.Sniper is also equal, it just offers support for up to four GPUs. The only other thing relevant for performance is overclockability - Deluxe has 16-phase power for the CPU compared to 8-phase on P8Z77-V and Asrock Extreme4. However, even with the highest end AIO water cooler, you're limited by the cooling. The only way to benefit from the extra OC potential of the Deluxe is by installing a custom water loop.

Re: 7790 and 7750. You're probably referring to 7970 and 7950 right?

On topic again - how do you like the H90 suggestion in the R4?

 

[alewis]

Er, yes, I is... fingeritus and trying to keep up with what model numbers ATI are on, that's my excuse as I'm not admitting to being 'Terry F-wit' ;-)

The H90 looks good, on a par with the Water 2.0 Pro and cheaper. I'll google some test results later tonight, esp as it is actually available in the UK! OC'ing isn't a priority - at least not yet as the system will be sufficiently faster than what I have now to not matter. At least until 'next week'. Will just be nice to have the stuff installed and components in, and leaving it as so for a while, not stripping out leads every week.

Cheers again lehtv.