Correction: at 2:55 you say the H2O can only fit air coolers up to 44mm height when it can actually fit air coolers up to 55mm height. Nice video otherwise!
Im gonna build a h2o with aircooling, just ordered the parts, hope its all gonna fit :P AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D Boxed ASUS ROG Strix B650E-I GAMING WIFI ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12GB GDDR6X OC Edition Lian Li A4-H2O (PCI-e 4.0 riser cable) Zwart Thermalright AXP90-X47 FULL 2x Phanteks PH-F120T30 Single Fan, 120mm Kingston Fury Beast KF560C30BBEK2-32 Crucial P3 Plus 2TB (CT2000P3PSSD8) Samsung 850 EVO 1TB (Old drive I have from old PC)
@@calebintal806 3 reasons. 1 I wasnt aware the 53 existed when I made my buildlist at first, 2 the all copper 47 was mentioned to be perfectly capable of cooling the 7800x3d, and 3 the slightly more distance to the edge of the case is supposed to reduce chance of turbulence noise. I have now made the build and im very happy! fits like a charm. Only downside was that I couldnt get the phanteks (they were out of stock at most places) so went for the noctua fans instead, which work perfectly well. Also replaced the axp47 fan with the noctua version and that also works very well and very very quietly.
@@Okkebeltman Hey there, I'm rocking the A4 H2O too. So far I've tried the noctua NH L9 and Alpenföhn black ridge. The NHl9 was unable to cool the r5 7600 as it kept recycling the hot air. Was using Gigabyte B650i Aorus Ultra at that time, but it kicked the bucked few weeks ago and now I'm on Asrock A620 lightning. The Alpenföhn Blackridge was a miracle that thing cooled the 7600 better than my CoolerMaster Master liquid 240 AiO. But in order for it to do so you'd have to flip the fan to pull the air throu the fins which in turn caused turbulent air and sounded like a hairdryer. Now I'm waiting for AXP90-X53 so once it arrives in couple of weeks I'll share my two cents on it.
The exact 2 cases that I was looking at. If you have a founders edition card like the 3070, I think the Dan A4-H20 is the better choice you can create a space for the flow through design. But the Terra looks better to me, especially in the green.
Just to add to this - you can offset the PSU in the Terra to also create some space for flow through designed cards. I was so close to purchasing it, then I realised the cooler I was going to get; Noctua NH-L12S, did not fit onto my B660i motherboard so I scrapped whole idea as I was just spending money for looks and no performance gain. Then I used that money to upgrade my RTX 3070 FE to an RTX 4070 Super FE.
Solid overview of both cases, just got the A4-H20 and generally not as user friendly especially because of the aio tube routing and wb tube fittings make cable management very important. Great production quality I see your channel growing much larger
This was exactly my dilemma when I built my current PC one year ago. I would have chosen the Fractal Terra but it was due to be released and I needed to have the machine running ASAP. Ended up getting the Lian Li, but I definitely do like the looks of FT much more
5:00 Here is an idea; turn down the pump speed. Some AIO pumps have use a 3 pin fan header for power and can be throttled down to something inaudible. You don't need to be balls to the wall for the pump speed unless you are hitting the CPU hard. But for idle use or office applications you can keep the pump at a lower flow rate. The best AIO for the A4 H20 is the Fractal Lumen and some Noctua static pressure fans; generally speaking, you will want to stick with an AIO with the pump located in the radiator.
I feel like if Fractal released a Terra variant that basically just adds some extra room at the top for an AIO, but is otherwise exactly the same, they would break the SFF market. I've heard way too many people say they love the look of the Terra but it's a non starter purely because of cooling concerns. But all this time later, and we've still not seen such a product. I guess Fractal hates money or something.
Well. It's easy. U wanna air cool the cpu? Go with the Terra. U wan't an aio? Go for the A4-H2O. I had the A4-H2O. But i switched from water to air cooling at the beginning of the year. Used a L9a-AM4 by Noctua on my 5800X3D. It was pretty decent. After the release of the Terra I couldn't ignore it. Switched to the Terra. Now my 5800X3D is getting cooled by a L12 Ghost S1 Edition. Works pretty well with my RX 6800. P.S.: The fan of my cpu cooler is doing intake as well. Temps are way better than doing outtake there. The bottom fan is doing outtake. In so small cases, there is no need to get fresh air there. So my gpu and cpu sucking in some fresh air.
The design was too lovely to pass up and Jade was such a unique color while still being understated and appealing. I wish I went with an L12 Ghost so there's absolutely no chance of interference with the air slats but I'm going to try using the CPU fan as an intake, and there's still plenty of room with the IS-55 to not cause any weird resonance issues paired with my GPU, so it stays quiet. So the GPU and CPU (and PSU) will be taking in fresh air from the sides and the bottom fan will exhaust out hot air, while the rest of the hot air naturally leaks out the top.
It would be quieter without the GPU but the case isn't really built around low noise levels. If your CPU isn't power hungry though it would likely be fine
hey man great video, can you please tell me if the Terra can fit the noctua L12S cooler and a 7900 xtx. I have heard that the 7900 xtx is pretty compact when compared to its nvedia counterpart. Really wanna bult a terra but if it cant cool the stuff inside I don't see the point. Really appreciate you time, thank you.
@@SmallBoxCentral That is true. I've narrowed down my cases to Formd T1 and H2O. Your current comparison video is awesome and clean. Hopefully you get your hands on a Formd T1 soon, so I can make an informed decision based on your review.
The audio level of your commentary is REALLY waaay to low. Had to crank it by 50% to make it audible, compared to like every other video on UA-cam (but I used a few by Samcrac to compare).
@@mathew6097 during booting and at sometimes when my small 65 mm Noctua Fan is on max i hear it clearly and kind of annoying when. But i bought the wrong RAM not low profile. Get low proflie RAM and then u can fit a Noctua L12. Thats my next projekt on my Terra ITX Build with 7950x3d and Proart 4080.
Of corpse the Terra is easier to build in. After all, they copied a lot from other smaller cases, eg. the Formd1 or the Ncase M1 (and even the Meshlicious).
My problem with A4-H20 is that its options are superior, but aesthetically it screams tasteless techbro. It has _no_ soul. Anyone can design a square metal box that doesn't look stupid, but where do we go from there?
The Lian Li design looks cheap and bland for that premium price tag and the Fractal Tera is very limiting for CPU specially,it’s not practical unless you go low end CPU.
Correction: at 2:55 you say the H2O can only fit air coolers up to 44mm height when it can actually fit air coolers up to 55mm height. Nice video otherwise!
You are correct, thanks for pointing that out. I'll pin your comment so others can see
Im gonna build a h2o with aircooling, just ordered the parts, hope its all gonna fit :P
AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D Boxed
ASUS ROG Strix B650E-I GAMING WIFI
ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12GB GDDR6X OC Edition
Lian Li A4-H2O (PCI-e 4.0 riser cable) Zwart
Thermalright AXP90-X47 FULL
2x Phanteks PH-F120T30 Single Fan, 120mm
Kingston Fury Beast KF560C30BBEK2-32
Crucial P3 Plus 2TB (CT2000P3PSSD8)
Samsung 850 EVO 1TB (Old drive I have from old PC)
@@Okkebeltman haha let me know it goes because thats my exact build I want too! Any reason why you arent going AXP90-X53?
@@calebintal806 3 reasons. 1 I wasnt aware the 53 existed when I made my buildlist at first, 2 the all copper 47 was mentioned to be perfectly capable of cooling the 7800x3d, and 3 the slightly more distance to the edge of the case is supposed to reduce chance of turbulence noise.
I have now made the build and im very happy! fits like a charm. Only downside was that I couldnt get the phanteks (they were out of stock at most places) so went for the noctua fans instead, which work perfectly well. Also replaced the axp47 fan with the noctua version and that also works very well and very very quietly.
@@Okkebeltman Hey there, I'm rocking the A4 H2O too. So far I've tried the noctua NH L9 and Alpenföhn black ridge. The NHl9 was unable to cool the r5 7600 as it kept recycling the hot air. Was using Gigabyte B650i Aorus Ultra at that time, but it kicked the bucked few weeks ago and now I'm on Asrock A620 lightning. The Alpenföhn Blackridge was a miracle that thing cooled the 7600 better than my CoolerMaster Master liquid 240 AiO. But in order for it to do so you'd have to flip the fan to pull the air throu the fins which in turn caused turbulent air and sounded like a hairdryer. Now I'm waiting for AXP90-X53 so once it arrives in couple of weeks I'll share my two cents on it.
Just got myself a silver terra last week, couldn't be happier to see more video about this case!
Hell yeah brother. Glad you're enjoying it
I'm not a fan of water cooling at all so the Terra suited me perfectly. Still has high-end components, no problem.
Thx 4 the comparison... Good job. This should help quite a few newer builders. 👍😎
Thanks for your comment!
The exact 2 cases that I was looking at. If you have a founders edition card like the 3070, I think the Dan A4-H20 is the better choice you can create a space for the flow through design. But the Terra looks better to me, especially in the green.
When ur 3070 ist bigger then 2,5 Slots the Terra may be a bit small
Just to add to this - you can offset the PSU in the Terra to also create some space for flow through designed cards. I was so close to purchasing it, then I realised the cooler I was going to get; Noctua NH-L12S, did not fit onto my B660i motherboard so I scrapped whole idea as I was just spending money for looks and no performance gain. Then I used that money to upgrade my RTX 3070 FE to an RTX 4070 Super FE.
I love the terra, I would have gotten the nzxt h1 if the terra wasn’t released before I bought it.
A4-H2O supports 240 AIO. Terra doesn't. Decision made.
Hi my name is the Fractal Era
Solid overview of both cases, just got the A4-H20 and generally not as user friendly especially because of the aio tube routing and wb tube fittings make cable management very important. Great production quality I see your channel growing much larger
This was exactly my dilemma when I built my current PC one year ago. I would have chosen the Fractal Terra but it was due to be released and I needed to have the machine running ASAP. Ended up getting the Lian Li, but I definitely do like the looks of FT much more
5:00 Here is an idea; turn down the pump speed. Some AIO pumps have use a 3 pin fan header for power and can be throttled down to something inaudible. You don't need to be balls to the wall for the pump speed unless you are hitting the CPU hard. But for idle use or office applications you can keep the pump at a lower flow rate. The best AIO for the A4 H20 is the Fractal Lumen and some Noctua static pressure fans; generally speaking, you will want to stick with an AIO with the pump located in the radiator.
I feel like if Fractal released a Terra variant that basically just adds some extra room at the top for an AIO, but is otherwise exactly the same, they would break the SFF market. I've heard way too many people say they love the look of the Terra but it's a non starter purely because of cooling concerns.
But all this time later, and we've still not seen such a product. I guess Fractal hates money or something.
Well. It's easy. U wanna air cool the cpu? Go with the Terra. U wan't an aio? Go for the A4-H2O. I had the A4-H2O. But i switched from water to air cooling at the beginning of the year. Used a L9a-AM4 by Noctua on my 5800X3D. It was pretty decent. After the release of the Terra I couldn't ignore it. Switched to the Terra. Now my 5800X3D is getting cooled by a L12 Ghost S1 Edition. Works pretty well with my RX 6800.
P.S.: The fan of my cpu cooler is doing intake as well. Temps are way better than doing outtake there. The bottom fan is doing outtake. In so small cases, there is no need to get fresh air there. So my gpu and cpu sucking in some fresh air.
do you have video how you build your terra? planning to build it next week
The design was too lovely to pass up and Jade was such a unique color while still being understated and appealing. I wish I went with an L12 Ghost so there's absolutely no chance of interference with the air slats but I'm going to try using the CPU fan as an intake, and there's still plenty of room with the IS-55 to not cause any weird resonance issues paired with my GPU, so it stays quiet. So the GPU and CPU (and PSU) will be taking in fresh air from the sides and the bottom fan will exhaust out hot air, while the rest of the hot air naturally leaks out the top.
Which case would be best suited for an i7 12700? not overclocking. Just gaming.
The A4-H2O will always be better for performance
Would you be able to make the fractal quiet if you only use an integrated GPU? Or is it always gonna run noisy due to the design?
It would be quieter without the GPU but the case isn't really built around low noise levels. If your CPU isn't power hungry though it would likely be fine
hey man great video, can you please tell me if the Terra can fit the noctua L12S cooler and a 7900 xtx. I have heard that the 7900 xtx is pretty compact when compared to its nvedia counterpart. Really wanna bult a terra but if it cant cool the stuff inside I don't see the point. Really appreciate you time, thank you.
Can either one comfortably house a 5800X3D and a Hellhound 7900 XT?
Both could, but the A4 would have better temps and noise.
Any plans for comparing Formd T1 vs H2O?
I'd love a Formd T1 but they're never in stock unfortunately
@@SmallBoxCentral That is true. I've narrowed down my cases to Formd T1 and H2O. Your current comparison video is awesome and clean. Hopefully you get your hands on a Formd T1 soon, so I can make an informed decision based on your review.
does a4 h2o can handle 14700k? with pl and 2x t30?
Such a nice wideo for all the ssf compiter fans
Merci beaucoup pour votre vidéo, vous avez fait du très bon travail 😊
The audio level of your commentary is REALLY waaay to low. Had to crank it by 50% to make it audible, compared to like every other video on UA-cam (but I used a few by Samcrac to compare).
What about Phanteks shift xt ?
I haven't tried it
A4 safter 1 year still the best mini itx on the market
5:53 dude your voice is majestic. We need more videos from you. Especially this well thought out
Hahahaha what a kind comment. Thank you sir
U can easily run an Highend CPU like the AMD 7950x3D in the Terra with the Noctua. Not noisy at all.
you sure? i have 7900x3d and planning to put it in smaller case
@@mathew6097 during booting and at sometimes when my small 65 mm Noctua Fan is on max i hear it clearly and kind of annoying when. But i bought the wrong RAM not low profile. Get low proflie RAM and then u can fit a Noctua L12. Thats my next projekt on my Terra ITX Build with 7950x3d and Proart 4080.
Of corpse the Terra is easier to build in. After all, they copied a lot from other smaller cases, eg. the Formd1 or the Ncase M1 (and even the Meshlicious).
Here from your facebook marketplace post
GOOD JOB
Pretty green boy
But then I went with an Evolv XT instead
How is it?
@@SmallBoxCentral It was interesting in the least, Much more fascinating than the Terra but when done building, its very heavy.
the dan a4-h2o is way better. It allows for a proper 240mm rad for the CPU along a big GPU and has way lower airflow noise.
S400 shiny snake is better XD
My problem with A4-H20 is that its options are superior, but aesthetically it screams tasteless techbro. It has _no_ soul. Anyone can design a square metal box that doesn't look stupid, but where do we go from there?
The Lian Li design looks cheap and bland for that premium price tag and the Fractal Tera is very limiting for CPU specially,it’s not practical unless you go low end CPU.
Formd t1 better
cost twice as much and is never in stock
@@megadeth8592 Exactly. Does it even exist?
None. S300 ftw
Liquid Dan A4-H2O > Terra