Cases Define R3, CM 690 II Advanced, HAF 912 or?

I'm going to be buying the parts for my new build over the next few weeks (to make use of offers such as Scan's today only deals). I don't yet know exactly all the components I'll be getting, but I want the case to last for longer than the first build I put in it so any that I pick should be compatible with a range of parts for now and the future. My case budget is a bit flexible, but I'd like something better than the £20/30 budget cases I've seen, and I'm not convinced that anything over £80 offers anything more I'm after. I'd consider up to £100 or so if there was good reason to.

After some searching the Fractal Define R3, Coolermaster CM 690 II Advanced and HAF 912 seem to be the 3 closed to what I'm after.

I'm not that bothered about looks. I find both the Define R3 and HAF attractive and ugly in their own way but I think I could live with either.

I am more bothered about noise - particularly high pitched wines. I don't mind the gentle sound of airflow, but any wines can annoy me pretty quickly, especially when I'm not gaming (i.e. when doing office/email type work I'd love the system to be as close as possible to silent, when fans kick in while gaming not as bothered as sound from that covers it).

However I also would like the potential to be able to have an overclocked 2500k based system with a decent graphics card in, so I don't want to sacrifice too much cooling ability for the sake of sound proofing. I realise it's a bit of a compromise, so please let me know how much these cases sacrifice one for the other - especially something like the HAF - is it very noisy? Is the Define R3 possible to cool enough? In the case of the Define I'm slightly worried about the bit-tech review saying to use a graphics card that vents out of the case - a lot of ones I'm looking at don't seem to do this. Will that cause problems?

The other aspect of this is that I'm thinking of using a CPU cooler such as the Be Quiet! Dark Rock Advanced - according to the Be Quiet website it has a hight of 168 mm. I saw somewhere the Define R3 has a max of aprox. 165mm, CM 690 II 170mm - does anyone know if this will be too tight for either/both of these? HAF 912 I have down as 175 mm so should be ok.

The above are the main areas I'm not sure about. I'm only planning to have one each of SSD, HDD, Optical drive, graphics card, maybe an expansion card or two (possibly sound and/or TV tuner in future, won't start with them) so I can't imagine any mid-tower case won't have space for these. But if there is anything else I should be taking into account please let me know

Edit - to correct propagated typo as noted below.

 

Personally, i would go for the R3 over the others, because it looks the best in my opinion.

Sam

 

sounds like the fractal is the case for you, though i cant confirm if that cooler will work or not...thing is, there are plenty of very good coolers, but silent cases with good cooling are a bit more rare, so if that one is a worry, look at others, like the tranquillo

 

There is no HAF 612...

 

Good point. Certainly I'd be willing to look at other coolers, I just mentioned that one because I'd heard lots of good things about it. I take it from what you say that you think the Fractal has good cooling in general then?

Bah, I meant 912 I managed to type 612 into the speadsheet I was using to compare specs and was working from there.

 

I assumed it was something like that, as you were consistant over your OP

 

The Be Quiet! Dark Rock Advanced fits just fine in a Fractal R3 case. I have one myself!

Also have a 690 II case which is nice but the Fractal R3 is better. The only down side is the rubber grommets they used in the case which keep flipping out when pushing big PSU leads through them! Minor niggle otherwise it is an excellent case and very effective at curving noise levels. My Fractal case has 10 fans in total (including GPU, PSU, CPU fans) and it has a satisfying hum in the background which is a world away from my old 690 II case which roars!

 

What about the HAF 922? Its £70 on today only

 

Wha.....?

Get the define R3. Its cooling can always be sorted out with a few extra fans, whereas the "hit in the face with a frying pan" look of the Haf 9xx can never be remedied (well a sledge hammer could but I don't think the case would survive).

 

Thanks, very useful to know

I have since found a few YouTube videos which seem to support the idea that with the extra fans high end kit can survive just fine inside the Fractal. Do you overclock you system?

I think the R3 is a bit too plain - I'm not a fan of modern minimalist design. I actually prefer the front of the HAF visually, but don't like the rest of it (especially the top). But like I said I could live with either, and as (at the moment at least) my PC sits down beside my desk, mostly out of sight, looks isn't a big factor in my decision.

Comments in favour of the R3 have however made me hold off buying any of the cheap HAFs for now, and I'll keep my eye out for another offer on the R3 (missed the one from CCL a few days ago making it a fair amount cheaper than Scan...)

 

Lian Li K58W.

Any of the LanKool series is actually pretty good. I have one sitting at home waiting for parts (and the rest of the money) it's a very solid case.

 

My i5 2500K is overclocked to 4.5GHz and I also overclock my two GTX 460's to 810MHz. When everything is under extreme stress then the CPU will hit 70 at an absolute maximum and my top GTX 460 can hit 80 degrees. Although if I ramp all the fans up then the temperature can drop by 10 degrees easily and the noise is audible but not annoyingly so. Just for reference my GTX 460's are not rear exhaust so all that heat is dumped inside the case and the Be Quiet handles this extra heat very well. It's worth putting a Scythe Gentle Typhoon 120mm fan rated at 1850RPM in the rear of the Fractal as that can really dump heat outside of the case. Actually it's the only exhaust fan I have inside my Fractal R3 and everything works fine!

 

Clearly someone needs to come out in favour of the CM 690 II Advanced!

So, quick review:

I like it. I liked putting it together. I like the low whoosh its fans make. I like its potential for watercooling or extra air-cooling. I like the fact that it has dust filters everywhere.

It needs a bigger CPU cut-out - with socket 1155 (and I'm guessing with other sockets) you have to fit the cpu backplate before you put the motherboard into the case. The dust filters are a bit cheap.

It is quite a big and wide case, you should have no issues even with very tall coolers like the Dark Rock Advanced.



I think the R3 is a bit ugly, and I don't like cases with doors at the front. That said, it is universally agreed to be a very quiet case. Up to you really.

 

Personally I'd rather have a case that's a little bit noisey but has high air flow and better cooling.

 

Meh, Sandy Bridge runs cool, nvidia 5 series runs fairly cool - overheating is not a serious problem for most users any more.

 

From what I have seen of the R3, the door catch mechanism looks a little flimsy, has anyone had one break yet or the door come loose?

 

I'll second that, i can just turn up the music to counteract the fan noise!
Go for the Haf 912, very good at cooling!

 

The R3 is sturdy all over. Rarely need to open the door but when I do it's solid and not in the least bit flimsy. Also the sound dampening effect of the door is very noticeable once closed, so it does serve a function!

 

R3. Love mine

 

Itss down to personal preference I think