550d Ventilation

Leuvarden · April 27, 2013

Hey guys,

I am looking for a silent build, but still I want to do a bit of an overclocking with the H100i and so I was wondering, whether am I able to install the H100i in there with the top cover on and if so, would it decrease my airflow a lot? I've seen a Corsair pic at the official sites that there is H100 installed with the top cover on (bottom included links). Should i rather consider buying a Bitfenix Ghost instead? I am looking forward to any answer.

http://www.corsair.com/en/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/d/e/detail_550d_fans_1.png

http://www.corsair.com/en/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/5/5/550d_hero_down_built_1.png

Konn · April 27, 2013

Depends which case you think looks better and is more value for money, they are both great cases.

airdeano · April 27, 2013

Hey guys,

I am looking for a silent build, but still I want to do a bit of an overclocking with the H100i and so I was wondering, whether am I able to install the H100i in there with the top cover on and if so, would it decrease my airflow a lot? I've seen a Corsair pic at the official sites that there is H100 installed with the top cover on (bottom included links). Should i rather consider buying a Bitfenix Ghost instead? I am looking forward to any answer.

welcome to the forums,

those pix are glam pictures and not for functional use. the H100 will not be able to take air in

or exhaust air out with that cover on. if you want water-cooling (albeit, AIO or custom loop) look

to the fractal design R4 if you need a front door on the chassis. the 550D is not a great case

for water-cooling or air-flow. the ghost is meh as well.

if you are looking for a silent build, don't just look at chassis' with front doors.. remember, the

noise is from the hardware and the case is only going to dampen the noise. put the quiet parts

in it and won't have to be limited to chassis selections.

airdeano

mumbojumbogumbo · April 27, 2013

The 550D has awful thermals, especially for the GPU. Better airflow is sometimes better than silencing features, as long as you have somewhat quiet components inside.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6676/antec-gx700-case-review-just-what-you-can-get-for-5999/5

What we have with the GX700, at least at stock, is essentially a good balance between acoustics and performance, and the fan controller allows you to prioritize one over the other. It's a good demonstration of what I've often said about cooling in general: a good airflow design and multiple fans running at low speeds can often do a better job than any acoustic padding ever could

...

As do noise levels, remarkably. It's only here that the silent cases can pull ahead at all, but Nanoxia's Deep Silence 1 does have to sacrifice some thermal performance to get here, and the Corsair Obsidian 550D runs hot. Note also that both of these cases are at least twice as expensive as the GX700, though they're also better built and more feature rich in their own rights.

This is just an example where a well ventilated case performs far better in both acoustics and performance than cases with "silencing" features. But there's a few exceptions. The Nanoxia DS1 and DS2 perform alright but they are probably the quietest cases available.

Leuvarden · April 27, 2013

Hey everyone!

Thank you all! I've decided to go with R4 instead.

To airedeano: I was aiming for equipping the case with noctua NF-F12s - these are basically the best. The only problem is that i have a piece of loud graphics card and I wasn't able to find any proper aftermarket solution. Thank you for your advice - I am going with the R4 Black Pearl. It looks so sleek!

Leuvarden

Veltrix · April 29, 2013

Hey everyone!

Thank you all! I've decided to go with R4 instead.

To airedeano: I was aiming for equipping the case with noctua NF-F12s - these are basically the best. The only problem is that i have a piece of loud graphics card and I wasn't able to find any proper aftermarket solution. Thank you for your advice - I am going with the R4 Black Pearl. It looks so sleek!

Leuvarden

Yes I went for an R4 too instead of the Bitfenix ghost, and I really love my R4 and you have the ability to create a pretty decent custom water loop in the future. The only thing I was iffy about the case was that the top exhaust seemed really flimsy which could cause unwanted vibration noise but luckily Fractal includes 12 rubber spacers to reduce vibrations :D

I have the R4 Arctic white with the window option. Oh one thing to add my system pretty basic config (1 GPU, 1 CPU, Normal size CPU cooler, 2 HDD and so on) the dense foam makes my build really heavy. My back was sore just trying to position the build under my desk. But in the end felt so good having a clean build and just having a really fun time building it because of the easy cable management!

What do you think of my build with it?