Part Recommendations

[Axxemann]

So my next case is gonna be a MONSTER. Why? I like full towers. I like lots of storage on my PC, and that necessitates a bunch of hard drive bays. I also want something I can try my hand at a custom water loop when I finally migrate to AM5.

My local has the Fractal Pop lineup available on special order. The Meshify and Define are stocked items, but substantially more pricey.

The Pop XL Silent is murdered out black. I like it like that. I've always shied away from RGB as being too glitzy. Only thing is, I'm not sure how good the thermals are given that I won't be running water cooled EVERYTHING for a while.

The Pop XL Air is about $10 more, has ARGB fans, and IIRC was very highly rated for airflow and thermals by Gamer's Nexus.

My biggest concern about the Air model: Dust ingress. I live next door to a construction site (one of the joys of living in a newer neighborhood in the city I live in) and I'm a Cat-Dad. As clean as my furry little jerk keeps himself, there's always cat fur and dander floating around. 

My biggest concern about the Silent model: Is it going to get enough airflow to the important parts of the PC while I'm still running an air cooled GPU and AIO for the CPU? The fact that it has all the extra sound insulation (probably also good for thermal insulation too) to keep the machine quiet isn't a big deal for me. I tend to set my fan curve at around 40% and have it ramp up from there. The fan noise has never really bugged me since I already have tinnitus from loud guns, loud motorcycles, loud 4x4s and loud heavy metal.

So if you were me, which one would you choose? 

[Axxemann]

Can I get a mod to move this to the Part Recommendations area? I posted here not knowing that area was a thing.

[Amber_AMD]

Moving post for you now 🙂 

[Axxemann]

Thank you, my dear! 😁

[Amber_AMD]

[uwhusky1991]

I'm looking at this case too. I think the biggest drawback are the included 120mm fans which are only 32cfm. They're probably fine, but if you find it doesn't cool well enough, you could upgrade them all to 140mm and likely get 72cfm per fan. I plan to go with a 280mm front mount radiator (Arctic Liquid Freezer II) in push pull so will add 2 140mm fans, then use all 3 included fans for exhaust, 2 on top, one in back. It should give me a slight positive airflow.

[Axxemann]

I was leaning towards my standby Arctic P12s if I wasn't happy with the airflow, or the RGB.

[cpurpe91 · Accepted solution]

I would get the Air.

[Axxemann]

I saw a build in the Air, and it was almost exactly what I'd be aiming for, only this dude had some custom etching done on the glass and a bit more bling than what I'd ever do.