Happy 4th birthday

[diedrichg]

Happy 4th birthday to my oldest (hard drive)! To celebrate, I moved the system into a *new (used, but excellent condition) Fractal Design R5 - $30 on eBay.

 

[cobrakiller58]

Are those temps in the R5?

 

[CompuGlobalHyperMegaNet]

$30 for an R5? Assuming that shipping wasn't too expensive, that's one heck of a deal you got yourself there!

Are those temps in the R5?

If the temps are in the R5 @diedrichg , what fan setting are you using? You could quite easily slow them down a little considering that spinning rust is typically more reliable when they run slightly warmer (somewhere in the 30 to 40c range).

 

[diedrichg]

Are those temps in the R5?

Yes. That was a fresh SMART report. It lives in my basement.

 

[cobrakiller58]

You wouldn't happen to know the ambient temp down there would you? I've never really looked at the case before but it may be appropriate for a friend of mine.

 

[diedrichg]

$30 for an R5? Assuming that shipping wasn't too expensive, that's one heck of a deal you got yourself there!

Yup, $30!! And the R5 even came with an amplifier/stereo, a pair of Infinity bookshelf speakers, and a pair of Definitive bookshelf speakers! It was 'pickup only' in Florida and I convinced the guy to hold on to them for a month so that I could pick it up when we were on vacation visiting my parents. I then had my parents bring it up to me when they visited last week!

 

[diedrichg]

If the temps are in the R5 @diedrichg , what fan setting are you using? You could quite easily slow them down a little considering that spinning rust is typically more reliable when they run slightly warmer (somewhere in the 30 to 40c range).

I had a spare fan controller lying around so I threw that in and brought the two intake and one exhaust fans down to near idle. That's just how cool my basement office is, I've always had temps <=28°. They are usually 24-28°.

The three fans are 120 mm Cougar.

 

[diedrichg]

You wouldn't happen to know the ambient temp down there would you? I've never really looked at the case before but it may be appropriate for a friend of mine.

I'll set up a thermometer when I get home and post you back.

 

[CompuGlobalHyperMegaNet]

You wouldn't happen to know the ambient temp down there would you? I've never really looked at the case before but it may be appropriate for a friend of mine.

I'll give you my two cents if you don't mind, as I did some pretty extensive research on the R5 (as one of my other hobbies, aside from FreeNAS, is silent computing). It's a really good case and far superior to the various other cases that are often seen as competitors, namely the NZXT H440 and BeQuiet! Silent Base 600. Both of which have more restrictive front air intakes and roof intakes/exhausts, they also are more prone to issues with resonance and the designs for their HDD mounts aren't as good as the R5's.

The R5's stock fans are also better, both in terms of overall noise quantity as well as quality, when compared to the aforementioned cases. One thing to check for though is that the HDD sleds in the R5 may or may not be the new "upgraded" desgin which support the new high capcity drives, such as Seagate IronWolf's, which use a different screw positioning. I'm not sure whether Fractal are shipping cases with the new sled design but in any event, you can buy the newer sleds direct from Fractal if need be.

There's also the not inconsiderable issue of dust filters. With the H440 (and I'm pretty sure with the Silent Base 600 too) in order to remove the front dust filter for cleaning, you have the remove the front of the case which use those crappy plastic tabs (which end up breaking) to clip into place. In order to remove the PSU filter for cleaning, you have to pull it out from the back on both the 440 and the 600. Where as on the R5, the front filter is removed by simply opening the front door and unclipping and the PSU filter, which runs the entire length of the floor, can be removed from the front of the case. So no need to move the case to access the filter. It should be noted that this doesn't apply to the previous gen Fractal's.

Yup, $30!! And the R5 even came with an amplifier/stereo, a pair of Infinity bookshelf speakers, and a pair of Definitive bookshelf speakers! It was 'pickup only' in Florida and I convinced the guy to hold on to them for a month so that I could pick it up when we were on vacation visiting my parents. I then had my parents bring it up to me when they visited last week!

I guess the colllection only makes a big difference but my word, what a deal.

[EDIT] Fixed a lot of smelling pistakes and grammar that was bad.

 

[diedrichg]

You wouldn't happen to know the ambient temp down there would you? I've never really looked at the case before but it may be appropriate for a friend of mine.

Ambient = 18*C ... DeltaT = 6-8*C

Fresh SMART report after 16 hours in the R5 with the 3x 120mm Cougar CF-V12HB fans running near idle

I knew I'd love the case, and I do. I've got only four drives in there but you can put up to 10. I only have 120mm fans, but it can fit 140s on the front, top and back! It truly is a perfect small home server case - large, slow fans, good airflow with no choking, not too large of a footprint, contemporary looks, captive side panel screws, sliding drive cages, easy drive access (front facing or rear facing).