Limewirelord Posted October 22, 2011 Share Posted October 22, 2011 I've been reading a many review about the 650D and it's attracted me due to the modularity of the drive bays (I'd buy a third one so I can get 9 drive bays in my case) but it seems there's a reasonable number of issues regarding the case, especially regarding the front intake fan's noisiness. Replacing fans with a High Flow is out of the question since I'd like all the drive bays accessible and I don't have a dremel to cut out the front grate either. So my requirements for a case are: - 8+ HDD bays - Cable management - Nice looks - H100 compatible - Reasonably quiet Is the Obsidian 650D for me, or should I just look elsewhere? I'd have bought the Carbide 500R in a heartbeat if it had the hard drive modularity that the Obsidian/Graphite have. ;_; Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grandvitesse Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 Hello Limewirelord: I have a 650D and find it great. I don't have any issue with fan noise from the front intake. I understand the noise everyone talks about, but I only sense it when I pop the front filter off. Full disclosure: My case is facing perpendicular to me, so the intake is away from my ears and I look directly into the case window. I don't use the fan controller or top hot swap bay, so any of those issues that some readers have had don't impact me anyway. I use the stock 200mm fan in the front, two 140mm fans for exhaust at the top (replaced the single 200m stock fan), and a Corsair H70 cooler with two 120mm fans in push-pull at the back. I also have the Corsair RAM fans and a Corsair AX850 PSU, so I have a lot of airflow going on in the case -- still very little noise. I have an Aerocool Strike-X fan controller and keep most fans on low for normal work. I like the case a lot. It is not as big as a full tower, but it is a very large mid-tower, providing lots of internal room. Cable management is great with lots of grommets (although another 1/4 inch of gap and some additional Tywrap tie-downs would have been nice). I only use one drive bay cage which is relocated to the floor in front of my PSU. I have an ATX form factor MOBO, plus an AMD Radeon HD6970 GPU, a WiFi card, two additional port cards (I have 12 devices plugged into USB ports), and my interior lighting switches on a rear bracket, and the interior still looks clean and open for great airflow. Regarding looks, I wanted a clean design. The 650D looks more like a clean Scandinavian furniture design rather than some kid designing a case for World of Warcraft. I like the less is more design concept. Everyone that sees it thinks it look rich and slick. No plastic rounded panels. No pointless curves and embellishments. It's more like the timeless square lines of a Mercedes G-wagon than a curvy SUV that goes out of style next year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fan O Water Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 Great case - you won't be disappointed. I really enjoyed building mine - super easy to work in. Never said that before about any case - even the almighty Cosmos S (which I really liked as well). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Limewirelord Posted October 24, 2011 Author Share Posted October 24, 2011 So the noise is reasonably negligible? I've got a P180 right now but I need to turn the fans up quite a bit anyways since there's too many things in it so the "soundproof" qualities of it kind of don't matter since the fans are ungodly loud. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Celty Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 Depends on how much airflow you want from the stock fans I think. I'll soon be replacing the front and top fan, partly because i think they are a tad noisy, but mainly for a water cooling setup. I'll be interested to see how the case acoustics change. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grandvitesse Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 If you really wanted to knock the noise down, you could opt for buying the solid side panel from Corsair for $19.99 and putting in some sound deadening. All depends on whether you like to see the guts or not. I'm relegated to the fact that there is no such thing as a quiet case. All fans make noise, it all depends on how you can deflect or absorb the sound waves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Limewirelord Posted October 25, 2011 Author Share Posted October 25, 2011 The problem is that I don't care if it's silent. I just don't want an obnoxious frontal intake fan making excessive noise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
distronic Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 The front fan isn't very loud by my standards. It was actually too quiet so I had to buy a louder fan. J/K. Even with an NZXT FN-200 fan which pushes 166CFM, it isn't very loud to me. I have it at my feet and to my side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginut Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 I love mine, it so sexy and hasnt given me any issues, however I swapped the front intake fan to a 200mm CM and the top is running the H100 with the stock Corsair fans which is a little loud (something I have to work on and fix) I need to take better pictures, just too lazy to put the tripod up and take high quality pics, but she is super sexy as is. I have to modify the CM 5.25 intake and add the extra Corsair front mesh intake and she will be all matching:) http://oi52.tinypic.com/54egyh.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsa44 Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 So the noise is reasonably negligible? I've got a P180 right now but I need to turn the fans up quite a bit anyways since there's too many things in it so the "soundproof" qualities of it kind of don't matter since the fans are ungodly loud. Hey Limewirelord...I too have the p180 and just received the 650d as replacement. (The p180 was too small to add a large rad into and no cable management whatsoever). I did not want to wait for the p280, who knows when that case will ever arrive. The first thing I did was hook up my fans and put them side by side for a test. In the 650d, I replaced the top 200 fan with a 280mm rad and 2 Thermalright X-silent 140 fans, and kept the front 200 and rear 120. On the p180, I have one antec tricool 120 rear exhaust on med, one tricool top exhaust on low, one tricool 120 in bottom compartment on low, and one generic 120 low speed intake in front of mid drive bay. Well, the p180 is still alot quieter. It is definitely the 650d front 200 fan that is the culprit. When I disconnected that fan, the 650d was on a par with the p180, and very peaceful with just faint airflow noticeable. I am rather disappointed with the noise, but I have to abandon my p180 in order to provide more radiator space for my oc'd system. I guess we'll have to figure out a way to rev down that front 200, or move it further back with silicone grommets as others have suggested. I am not into dremelling out the front mesh. I'll let you know what I find out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grandvitesse Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 As stated, I love my 650D too. The badges on the case are actually stuck to a vinyl coated magnet (which has the same general color and texture as the case), so I can pull them off as desired. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Limewirelord Posted October 26, 2011 Author Share Posted October 26, 2011 Hmm, I think I might bite then. I hear the Graphite's front intake fan is a lot quieter than the Obsidian's fan; do you guys know if there's an actual difference, or is it just the grille in the Obsidian causing all the noise? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hilgard Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 Look up "600T Front Fan" on Youtube if you want to hear it for yourself. There are several examples. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Limewirelord Posted October 27, 2011 Author Share Posted October 27, 2011 Yeesh, it's pretty bad. The fan itself isn't even that loud, it's just the grille. :/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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