Does anyone have any firsthand experience with this case? I'm in the planning stages of my first build in many years and I'm having trouble picking out a case. This is the frontrunner so far but the issue is that I've read several reviews from people who experienced overheating issues due to poor air flow, while others say it was fine. I'm not sure which to believe, whether their issues were stricly because of overclocking which I don't plan to do, etc.
On a related note, if anyone has an alternative case suggestion I'd love to hear it. I'm totally out of the loop since it's been so long since the last build. I generally gravitate toward the minimal aesthetic if that helps.
I've had the phantom case, and well, I regret it. The stroke/paint (whatever the english word is) was cheap and got scratches easily, and getting the lid back to the case was always a pain in the ass. Can't say my opinion on the 440, but I assume it will have some of the same problems.
John Myers
>paint job >"lid back on the case"
For future reference if you care at all.
Gabriel Smith
I had that case. It's not that quite but the airflow is fine on a single gpu. 980ti and 5820k. Sli with a second GPU, the temps got hot.
Gavin Diaz
And if you want minimal, fractal design define series
Austin Foster
I was going to go with a single GTX1070 and leave it at that. So you think I would be fine?
Also, do you have any opinions on air cooled vs liquid? It's been so long since I built a rig these All-In-One ezmode liquid cooling things didn't exist at the time. It certainly looks cleaner and may aid in the heating issues with this case, but from what I've read there's not much of a difference between that and air cooled unless you do a custom loop?
Dylan Garcia
These removable fan panels are truly disguting.
William Torres
I want to know as well. I plan on running something less powerful like the RX480 or R9 390.
Ethan Sanders
I was initially going to go black and red too but I think I'm going to do something that resembles this build, if I end up going with this case.
If you're planning on buying an all in one liquid cooler go with a dual tower air cooler like the Phanteks PH-TC14PE instead. It'll be about the same performance for less money.
As far as the case, I have one sitting under my desk right now. I've since moved most of my parts over to a mITX case, but I used the H440 for over a year.
Some things to think about when buying this case:
It's big. It looks like a large case, but it's bigger than it looks in the pictures. This leads to really great temps, but it's a huge case. You could easily fit a dual GPU setup in it and still have a lot of space left over.
It's not nearly as quiet as you'd think. It does a good job of muffling GPU fan noise (mostly because there's so much room) but the front fans don't connect to a mobo header so they're running full blast all the time, and they're not the quietest fans around.
Cable management in this case is really, really great. The only thing I would complain about is the routing holes behind the 2.5" drive plates on the PSU shroud. Those holes should have been closer to the drive plates, where they are now it's hard to get a SATA power connector hooked up without bending the hell out of it.
My final complaint is the side panels. You have to fight with them some to get them off, they don't just slide right off like other cases. I think this is because of the thick sound proofing material, but just keep that in mind. If you like to open up and close your PC case often for cleaning purposes or whatever, it might get annoying.
Colton Carter
If that build can run properly in the case I should be fine with this build right?
Thank you for the info! I had planned on replacing all the stock fans with Corsair Air Series AF140 Quiet Editions anyway so that's not a huge deal. As long as the case pulls in enough air I should be solid, which so far it sounds like it does.
I wonder what all the complaints about overheating were about. I suppose probably massive over clocking and dual GPUs.
Carter Ortiz
Please take the plastic off of your case window.
Jonathan Young
I'm running mine with an overclocked i5 and an R9 Fury. Temps are a little higher than they could be because of the airflow but it isn't terrible. You will want to replace the stock fans though. Overall I really like the case but you can expect your temps to be a little higher than normal.
Brody Ortiz
Complaints about temps are likely coming from people not maxing out the fan slots and only using stock.
To add onto this, my Fury maxes out at 73C at full load and my CPU tops out at 50 at full load. It's completely fine. The people bitching about cooling issues likely don't know what they're doing.
Austin Bell
It's an empty case, why bother? I'll take it off next bst thread.
I take the panels off anyways to look at placement for compontents by eyeballing other's builds.
Really didn't know the case came with fans, but that is nice.
Isaac Peterson
This guy put together a push/pull configuration on his radiator that had the rig running great as far as heat goes (watch the follow up video for the actual temp results, he fucked up the voltage in this one).
I have an H440 with an FX 8350 @4.5 ghz 1.45v cooled with a top mounted Swiftech H240-X, and a Sapphire TRI-X OC Radeon 290X. It previously housed 2x ASUS Geforce GTX 670 in SLI. I have never had a problem with overheating in this case, but the airflow is definitely restricted. This is a quiet case, so there is a big trade off, but for a quiet case it has adequate airflow. I'm cooling an AMD housefire in it, so that's saying something.
Ryder Murphy
>le epin fractal meeeem xDDDD
Simply ebin
Liam Cooper
>>le epin fractal meeeem xDDDD OP asked for case suggestions, the h440 and define R5 are pretty similar but the define has better airflow, all memes aside
Bentley Phillips
>not that quite Welcome to Summer u m m e r
Asher Williams
Get the new version of that case the paint is much better I have a black matte one and it's really something
Got x61 kraken water cooling on cpu i7 4770k and x41 kraken water cooling on gpu 780 ti
Ian Phillips
I read that the only reason your fans will be running full blast is if you put them in the wrong part of the fan header at the back, might wanna check that out
Not sure why exactly but just try switching what slots they're in and they should work normal not full blast 24/7.
I think it's a pretty damn good looking case, but it is fucking massive, plus it weighs about 20 kilos. Got the black and blue one a few months ago and I'm starting to regret it. Thinking of moving to an ITX build.
Chase Morales
The airflow is fine. I live on a pretty warm country and it performs quite decently on summer. I'm running a 970 with Windforce coolers, and on like over 30C ambient temp it was getting around 75C. I don't do any kind of overclocking either. On the same temp IIRC the CPU was getting around 65C, with a Hyper 212 Evo.
Keep in mind this is in no way a 'airflow optimized' case. It's more geared towards silence and I guess 'stealth', since it has some foam on both side panels to block sound, and covers on the power supply and drive bay. It's quiet and it looks good, which is why I bought it, even if the air flow isn't stellar, it's still decent. The included fans are nice.
