Noise and Thermal Testing, Overclocked

Our overclocked testing can be remarkably brutal for many systems, and a lot of the time we wind up hitting not just the thermal limits of the enclosure, but also its acoustic limits. Incidentally this is also a point where cases engineered for silent operation sink or swim, since they oftentimes have to get by on the merits of their acoustic optimizations instead of raw thermal performance. It will be interesting to see how well the Fractal Design Define R4 performs here.

Thermal performance in the Fractal Design Define R4 is actually a little disappointing. The competing Corsair 550D isn't a particularly stellar performer, and I figured the open intake area should've given the R4 a bigger edge. Unfortunately things just don't seem to be working out that way.

As expected we're also pretty much at the limits of our thermal headroom with the R4, too. Our medium fan setting, the 7V, was a big winner at stock but under overclocks seems to have a harder time justifying itself.

And this is where it gets really interesting. The Corsair Obsidian 550D did a much better job of muffling the noise it generated and ran cooler in the process. Meanwhile the R4 actually seems a bit starved for air; our 12V fan setting, though anecdotally (just not immediately measurably) louder at idle, actually runs quieter at load as it's able to do a better job of keeping the internal heatsinks fed.

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