Define R5 or Something from Be Quiet ? For affordable silent operation.

[H.K.]

Something like Define R5 (Non-windowed preferebly) or something from Be Quiet (Non-windowed preferebly), which one is better for both quiet operation while being more affordable and having beter ease of use?

[The Sloth]

i like the define design more and if you put low rpm fans you should be fine. 

[DHelios]

Actually, the Define R5 has pretty impressive stock fans. Then again, BeQuiet! is one of my go-to-brands for aftermarket fans... I'd think you'd make a good purchase with either case without having to go out and buy new fans right away.

 

I love the look of Fractal's Define line. I've got two R3s, and I've built many systems for customers in XL R2s, R4s, R5s, S's and Mini's. They're a joy to work in!

[Cyborgsmith]

Love my R5, its small though, coming from a corsair 750D
But the sound dampening is so nice!

[desertcomputer]

Than again any case can be silent at light load, just change FAN RPM, i recently switch from R5 to 460x and move the desktop onto my desk and the noise at idle and load are not even audible. I might have NF14 but i have kept the stock RGB Fan from corsair but i changed so even at load it RPM is still ~60% which is not audible unless you are really trying.  

[it_dont_work]

I think when I was looking at case silent c review found the r5 to be a quieter case, I liked the look of the silent base better though so I went with that. Slow down fans and use less of them and its near silent, well it's quieter than I can measure accurately with my sound meter.

[DHelios]

18 minutes ago, it_dont_work said:

I think when I was looking at case silent c review found the r5 to be a quieter case, I liked the look of the silent base better though so I went with that. Slow down fans and use less of them and its near silent, well it's quieter than I can measure accurately with my sound meter.

SPCR Had originally built a silent gaming rig in the R4 for a review, and got the R5 sample in partway through testing. After testing they swapped the system to the R5 to compare the R4 and R5 with the same hardware in the same tests. The R5 stock fans were on par with the aftermarket ones they'd used in the R4.

Quote

Fan Swap?

We noted that the stock Fractal R4 case fans could be upgraded with quieter fans. Is it worthwhile to try that with the quieter R5 fans? Let's compare the R4 and R5 fans to the Antec TrueQuiet 140 we suggested as an upgrade candidate before. These are new measurements with each fan soft-mounted by itself outside the case, with the mic 1m away from the intake side of the fan. (The Antec fan's top speed is just under 800 RPM, which is why its 870 RPM box is blank.)

FANS COMPARED
RPM	R4	R5	Antec TQ140
	SPL: dBA@1m
870	19.4	17	-
750	15.6	14	15
500	13.5	12.5	12*
*We measured 11 dBA in our last 140mm fan roundup, but readings at such low levels are easily affected by outside noise, which could be higher this time around, and there could be a sample variance.

This is a revelation. The stock R5 fan is at least as quiet as the Antec TrueQuiet 140, which is one of the quietest we've measured. So there's no benefit at all to swapping out the R5 fans. They are as quiet any 140mm fans we've heard.

source: http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1422-page1.html

[Justux204]

Define S or Define mini C or just C