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Regarding fan choice in the FT05, I like to share more of our thought process:
AP182 is an excellent fan that was designed primarily as a retail fan for upgrades. It had speed range greater than AP181 to satisfy customers that needed either lower speed for even quieter builds or higher speed for those requiring more performance headroom. But it was also very expensive (for perspective, the cost of AP181 at the OEM level is 3 times that of average 120mm case fans, and AP182 is nearly 3 times more than AP181!) so we didn't envision including this fan in our cases as standard equipment until the opportunity came about when we were developing the FT04. With a price tag that is going to be more than $200, we felt the same as many of you do now that a case at this price level should have premium fans. So we happily included it in the FT04 and hoped that the extra flexibility and quality of AP182 can bring more positive response from everyone that tried it.
Unfortunately the reality after we started selling FT04 was that very few people could appreciate AP182 as used in the FT04 because most do not have system hot enough to take advantage of the extra performance headroom. If you look at all the available online FT04 reviews, you'll see that only a few sites managed to uncover its cooling potential. In fact, AP182's air pressure and air flow at maximum speed is so forceful that it affected lesser CPU or GPU fans to actually perform worse. Even those with systems that had one powerful GPU may not see better temperatures when running AP182 up to maximum speed. Though variable fan speed controllers were included, few bothered or had the time to test out speeds in between minimum and maximum setting to find more optimum performance/noise for their system. In the end, the general consensus was that AP182, and thus FT04 as a whole, are unnecessarily loud with little performance gain to be worth the price.
So with this experience in mind, and after finalizing the design of FT05 with all costs factored in, we felt AP181 was the better choice this time around. First, it let us achieve price level that will open up the case to more potential customers and second, we will likely receive better consensus review in regards to performance/noise level than before because AP181's max speed of 1200rpm is better balanced for the majority of systems people will use. I am also quite confident that almost everyone here at Hardforum looking to buy FT05 will not be disappointed by the case's air cooling performance (unless you are running 3-way graphics cards)!
AP182 is an excellent fan that was designed primarily as a retail fan for upgrades. It had speed range greater than AP181 to satisfy customers that needed either lower speed for even quieter builds or higher speed for those requiring more performance headroom. But it was also very expensive (for perspective, the cost of AP181 at the OEM level is 3 times that of average 120mm case fans, and AP182 is nearly 3 times more than AP181!) so we didn't envision including this fan in our cases as standard equipment until the opportunity came about when we were developing the FT04. With a price tag that is going to be more than $200, we felt the same as many of you do now that a case at this price level should have premium fans. So we happily included it in the FT04 and hoped that the extra flexibility and quality of AP182 can bring more positive response from everyone that tried it.
Unfortunately the reality after we started selling FT04 was that very few people could appreciate AP182 as used in the FT04 because most do not have system hot enough to take advantage of the extra performance headroom. If you look at all the available online FT04 reviews, you'll see that only a few sites managed to uncover its cooling potential. In fact, AP182's air pressure and air flow at maximum speed is so forceful that it affected lesser CPU or GPU fans to actually perform worse. Even those with systems that had one powerful GPU may not see better temperatures when running AP182 up to maximum speed. Though variable fan speed controllers were included, few bothered or had the time to test out speeds in between minimum and maximum setting to find more optimum performance/noise for their system. In the end, the general consensus was that AP182, and thus FT04 as a whole, are unnecessarily loud with little performance gain to be worth the price.
So with this experience in mind, and after finalizing the design of FT05 with all costs factored in, we felt AP181 was the better choice this time around. First, it let us achieve price level that will open up the case to more potential customers and second, we will likely receive better consensus review in regards to performance/noise level than before because AP181's max speed of 1200rpm is better balanced for the majority of systems people will use. I am also quite confident that almost everyone here at Hardforum looking to buy FT05 will not be disappointed by the case's air cooling performance (unless you are running 3-way graphics cards)!
