Fractal Design XL

[sheroo]

I've read a few reviews of this case and was wondering if anyone is using it and what you guys think of it. From what I've read its a little noisier than the R3 as the back is a lot more open. However the GPU cooling is meant to be better because you can remove the front drive cage. It also comes with a mount in the front 5.25 bays for a 120mm fan - so cpu cooling should be good as well. The only thing I'm not sure about is the 180mm fan in the roof, which is at quite an acute angle to its vent at the rear.

What do you guys think?

 

[RedgyK]

I considered this case myself, because I needed silence and a bit more space than in the R3 because of my crossfire setup. But after a lot of reading and googling, most people said that it has very poor airflow, so I went with another case instead

I have however seen GTX 580 SLI builds in it though, think it's LinusTechTips on youtube that did it, just search for "linus fractal XL" or something

Don't think a D14 will have any problems keeping your CPU cool in there though

 

[sheroo]

Yeah I've watched Linus's vid with the dual 580's - still not sure how good that 180mm fan in the top is though, or if it makes that much difference. Which case did you go for?

 

[RedgyK]

Yeah I've watched Linus's vid with the dual 580's - still not sure how good that 180mm fan in the top is though, or if it makes that much difference. Which case did you go for?

Silverstone RV02, Tom has a couple of builds and I think a review as well on youtube, so you should check it out

I didn't know that was a 180mm in the Fractal

I wonder how 3 of those would be in a RV02, gotta check if they sell them without the case

Not a lot of 180mm fans around. The silverstone 180mm's are pretty quiet and move A LOT of air! Compared to the R3 rig of a friend, my Silverstone is deffo louder, but nothing compared to an ATI/AMD GPU fan at load lol

 

[peircevongoth12]

I have this tower and love it. Great cable management. Great air flow. And great construction. The 180 does actualy dump a good bit of air out the back of the case. I took the top hard drive cage includeing mounts (4 screws). Then flipped the top mount around and used it to hang the removable panel from between the bottom HDD cages and PSU. Great for hideing any wires, but only a temp fix I will be makeing something to go in there. But that allows the front 140 to blast right at the GPU(S). I am running 6950s in X-fire and they stay nice and cool. I haven't checked to see how easy the sound mat is to remove on side panel to mount a window tho yet. I can talk more about this later if you have any question.

 

[sheroo]

Looking at the layout - it should be pretty easy to build a quiet rig in there. Although some of the reviews I've read suggest that the R3 is quieter because more noise leaks out of the back. I know noise is subjective but how do you find it?

 

[peircevongoth12]

It is literaly close enough to bump my elbow on and all the fans running at 12v. Thats 2 140s and the 120 in front, 180 and 140 in back, and a 140 in the side. And I would have to say for all that it is pretty silent. Granted if I ramp up the fans on the GPUs (X-fire 6950s) nothing is gonna keep that noise in. But can say that will all those fans it is no louder then my parent's stock dell.