New exciting case: Fractal Design - Define R2

sunefred · Post by **sunefred** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 6:54 am

Here is a heads up to what seems to be a very well thought out case; Fractal Design - Define R2. I can't wait for a review from SPCR to pick it a part. Fractal Design have taken the good things from the P182 ( space behind motherboard tray, clear front --> back airflow design ) and improved several aspects ( cables to hardrives are routed from the back, hole in motherboard tray behind CPU). The chassi has apparently had alot of feedback from sweclockers.com members during development which might explain the excess of fan mounts =)

http://www.fractal-design.com/?view=pro ... =2&prod=32

Here are some random thoughts:

+ Cable management is awsome. Harddrive cabling from behind the motherboard tray removes all need for cables inside.

+ Room for two large front fans with removable dust filter.

+ Lots of easy access harddrives slots.

+ Very clean look

+ Sound dampening materials on front and sidepanels.

+ Cheaper then P182, currently around 70 euros at swedish retailers.

- Way too many fan positions in my opinion. I would block the two top fans and the side fan for optimal quite airflow front ---> back.

- Way too many harddrive bays. With SSD coming fast and storage moving to NAS devices I would like to see a smaller design but with 0 (zero) harddrive bays.

- Front door doesnt seem to open 180 degrees.

jhhoffma · Post by **jhhoffma** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 7:26 am

The sideways HDD trays will block a lot of airflow from those front fans.

I do like the dampening and cable mangement.

new2spcr · Post by **new2spcr** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 9:00 am

I like the detachable mobo tray lid and also the neat rubber that cover the cable holes. I wonder why they didn't look further at P18x and added a separate PSU chamber.

Big Pimp Daddy · Post by **Big Pimp Daddy** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 10:06 am

Am I the only one who clicked this link expecting to see some crazy concept case based on actual fractals? I suspect I am...

Pleasantly surprised though, this will be an ideal new case for my server which is currently squeezed into a heavily ghetto-modified beige box. Space for 8 soft-mounted hard drives, room for multiple 140mm fans, sound damping material, sweet cable management options, intake filters, and sexy as phuck to boot! After seeing the 70EUR price, I'm ashamed to say I'm sporting a semi...

sunefred · Post by **sunefred** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 10:12 am

The sideways HDD trays will block a lot of airflow from those front fans.

I agree about that, but its a trade off I suppose. Mounting harddrives the normal direction will instead yield a cable hell inside the box.

By the way, I own the P182b and really love it. However I never did understand the benefit of having a separate chamber for the PSU. All good PSU's except maybee the Antec NeoPower and the Antec Signature series has the fan facing donwards and is closed in the direction of the airflow. If anything the chamber will block hot air from the harddrives in the bottom chamber from being dissapated. I definetly prefer this open design.

Regarding the many uneeded vents; I read somewhere that the vents on the side and top are covered by the dampening material (styrofoam?) and if you wish to use them you have to remove a patch of dampening.

cordis · Post by **cordis** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 2:50 pm

Hey, now that's a pretty cool case. I do with the little hard drive trays had shorter sides so that the drives would get more airflow, but all in all, that's pretty cool. Any idea when it's coming to the states?

JamieG · Post by **JamieG** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 4:15 pm

sunefred wrote:However I never did understand the benefit of having a separate chamber for the PSU. All good PSU's except maybee the Antec NeoPower and the Antec Signature series has the fan facing donwards and is closed in the direction of the airflow. If anything the chamber will block hot air from the harddrives in the bottom chamber from being dissapated. I definetly prefer this open design.

The benefit of having a separate chamber like in the P182 is that hot air from the CPU and graphics card doesn't get drawn into and exit through the PSU. As I understand it, this hot air causes the PSU's internal temperatures to increase, which can cause the PSU's fan to ramp up to cool the PSU some more.

This case does look pretty good though. From what I can tell, the PSU can be orientated with the fan facing down and drawing cool air in from the underside of the case and exhausting it directly out the back, so the PSU stays nice and cool. Doing it this way avoids the need for a separate PSU chamber.

The case looks like a pretty good compromise, as it seems that all the fan holes come with covers (like the plastic cover that comes with the NSK2480) that also have that damping material applied to them.

It looks like it could also be possible to remove that HDD rack.

All in all, it is an interesting case that might provide a bit more flexibility for higher end but still quiet gaming systems than the P18x series

bonestonne · Post by **bonestonne** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 5:37 pm

ha, i like that case. get rid of the main front door, make the facade look better, but leave in that filter door for the front fans, and make it look flush.

i'm sold. I've wanted to mount my hard drives so the cabling is hidden, but it's just not possible in my case.

aztec · Post by **aztec** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 11:20 pm

bonestonne wrote:ha, i like that case. get rid of the main front door, make the facade look better, but leave in that filter door for the front fans, and make it look flush.

i'm sold. I've wanted to mount my hard drives so the cabling is hidden, but it's just not possible in my case.

Agree.

that is a nice case. I just can't get over the door.

Lt_Dan · Post by **Lt_Dan** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 12:37 pm

looks good.

nice to have an alternative, possibly, for the p182/

on the other hand, why take something that is LIKE the p182, and not the p182 itself?

barefootzero · Post by **barefootzero** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 12:20 pm

JamieG wrote:
sunefred wrote:However I never did understand the benefit of having a separate chamber for the PSU. All good PSU's except maybee the Antec NeoPower and the Antec Signature series has the fan facing donwards and is closed in the direction of the airflow. If anything the chamber will block hot air from the harddrives in the bottom chamber from being dissapated. I definetly prefer this open design.
The benefit of having a separate chamber like in the P182 is that hot air from the CPU and graphics card doesn't get drawn into and exit through the PSU. As I understand it, this hot air causes the PSU's internal temperatures to increase, which can cause the PSU's fan to ramp up to cool the PSU some more.

As he stated and and as you did in your next paragraph. If you use a PSU with downwards facing fan then it doesn't draw air from inside the case anyway rendering any sort of chamber useless.

Bakkone · Post by **Bakkone** » Sun Oct 04, 2009 7:02 am

I hope they make a matx version of this. Wouldn't mind CPX-support as well.

mdcobra · Post by **mdcobra** » Fri Oct 09, 2009 2:39 am

Nice case!!!
Just 1 question: will a HD5870 fit ?

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Fri Oct 09, 2009 4:35 am

Hello & welcome to SPCR,

Does the HD5870 project beyond the motherboard? If so, how much?

mdcobra · Post by **mdcobra** » Fri Oct 09, 2009 7:13 am

Thanks mate!
Yes it does go beyond the mobo.

So it is 11.1" - 9.6" = 1.5" bigger, it will be a close call I think

BlueSkies · Post by **BlueSkies** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 3:41 am

Looks like a nice case.
I've actually ordered one.

The 5870 should fit since the case has room for 30 cm long cards.

There is an image at Sweclockers . com with a GTX 275 installed, and room to spare, but I cant post URL's...

mdcobra · Post by **mdcobra** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 1:02 pm

Thanks for your reply BlueSkies!
Just put the review through google translate, looking good.

piglover · Post by **piglover** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 2:23 pm

Here's an idea: put a hot-plug backplane behind those 8 HDD bays inside. Pre-wire it to two PSU connectors and two SFF-8087 sockets. Then you've essentially pre-wired the whole thing and there are NO extra power cables or SATA cables running around. Then put some kind of damping in/around the drive trays to handle the mechanical noise.

With that this case would AWESOME! for disk hounds (video editing users like me, a non rack-mount storage server, etc).

kevral · Post by **kevral** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 6:44 am

Thanks for the heads-up; this case became available in my country this week and I've gone and ordered one for my WHS box.

steppinwolf · Post by **steppinwolf** » Sat Nov 21, 2009 6:40 am

Wow, I've been researching cases for a month and nothing fits what I'm looking for as well as this case appears to as far as silence, case layout and fan placement (airflow), cable routing, external port placement and style. Beautiful design.

Looking forward to some feedback/reviews from those lucky enough to get their hands on this. Hope it will be available in the U.S. soon...

At a glance, the only thing I'd want to change is the drive cage. I only need 4 bays. Would be nice if it came in two sections so one could be removed for increased airflow, space or external drive mounting options.

ThaArtist · Post by **ThaArtist** » Sat Nov 21, 2009 7:59 pm

I do really like this case. Black inside and out. Sleek. Sound dampening. Love the power button and inputs on top. Wish there was firewire also. I swear no case has firewire, esata, and usb, on the top of their case for easy access. I would have no need for 3 thousand hard drives but i would have need for more then one 5.25" bay!!! I like the feet, the pull out hard drives etc. Great case! It better not be more then like $130 hehe

So that should be the only thing I would like to see in a diff version. Plus antec has it right with the exhaust on the top but with a cover directing the airflow backwards.

Oh yeah and get one of them PSUs that have the detachable cords so you only use what you need. Clutter free.

kevral · Post by **kevral** » Sun Nov 22, 2009 5:33 am

I've had this case up and running for a little while now.

It's not Antec quality. Build quality is not bad, but the sheet metal is very thin so I guess it really needs its stick-on asphalt dampening plates. Speaking of the dampening plates; I just received a replacement set from Fractal Design free of charge, since the original plates were very poorly glued on (and stank of tar). The new ones are great and apparently now come standard on all new cases.

The harddisk cages restrict air flow by a bit, but I'm getting good temperatures with a total of 3 slow-spinning fans.

The PSU is drawing air directly from the outside through a filter. It is scewed to the case, but has a thin foam gasket in between that I guess might help with vibrations a bit. Either way, mine always runs cool and never ramps up.

As for the thin case metal, I imagine hard-mounting high-speed fans would cause some serious vibrations. My setup is really quite quiet, though; the two 1000rpm fans that were included set as intakes in front, speed reduced by the included fan control; and a Scythe 1200rpm PWM fan as exhaust, attached to the motherboard and running around 600rpm most of the time.

Front and bottom fans are mounted in clip-in brackets; back, side and top fan mounts have screw holes. Air filters have a rather large mesh, but it's too early for me to tell how effective they are.

Price in Norway was just about exactly half of the price of an Antec P183.

Chocolinx · Post by **Chocolinx** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 3:03 pm

kevral wrote:I've had this case up and running for a little while now.

It's not Antec quality. Build quality is not bad, but the sheet metal is very thin so I guess it really needs its stick-on asphalt dampening plates. Speaking of the dampening plates; I just received a replacement set from Fractal Design free of charge, since the original plates were very poorly glued on (and stank of tar). The new ones are great and apparently now come standard on all new cases.

The harddisk cages restrict air flow by a bit, but I'm getting good temperatures with a total of 3 slow-spinning fans.

The PSU is drawing air directly from the outside through a filter. It is scewed to the case, but has a thin foam gasket in between that I guess might help with vibrations a bit. Either way, mine always runs cool and never ramps up.

As for the thin case metal, I imagine hard-mounting high-speed fans would cause some serious vibrations. My setup is really quite quiet, though; the two 1000rpm fans that were included set as intakes in front, speed reduced by the included fan control; and a Scythe 1200rpm PWM fan as exhaust, attached to the motherboard and running around 600rpm most of the time.

Front and bottom fans are mounted in clip-in brackets; back, side and top fan mounts have screw holes. Air filters have a rather large mesh, but it's too early for me to tell how effective they are.

Price in Norway was just about exactly half of the price of an Antec P183.

What? Half the price of a P183! I want one now. For that price it almost seems like a steal. This reminds of Arctic-Cooling's early days when all their stuff was like super cheap.

steppinwolf · Post by **steppinwolf** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 6:51 pm

sunefred & keveral, thanks for giving us an early look and feedback on the Define R2.

kervral, nice idea to use the two stock fans up front and a Scythe for the rear exhaust. How easy would you say it is to remove/clean the front and bottom (PS) fan filters?

After a lot of research, my #1 and 2 choices for case were Lian Li PC-B10 and Antec P183. Now I'm having a hard time deciding between the Lian Li and this Fractal Design case!

Tephras · Post by **Tephras** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 7:44 pm

Currently, I believe, products from Fractal Design can only be found in Europe, see this link: Where to buy.

steppinwolf · Post by **steppinwolf** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 8:50 pm

Tephras wrote:Currently, I believe, products from Fractal Design can only be found in Europe.

I noticed that too, thanks. As for me, I'm just gathering info so I can pounce when it's finally available in the U.S!

kevral · Post by **kevral** » Wed Nov 25, 2009 7:42 am

steppinwolf wrote:How easy would you say it is to remove/clean the front and bottom (PS) fan filters?

The front filters are a little work to remove. The filters are attached to plastic brackets; the fans clip into these brackets; and the brackets are screwed (4 small screws each) to the case itself. I imagine I will just be opening the front doors and cleaning them in place, though, that's what I do with my P182.

The PSU filter just pulls out to the rear, so real easy to remove and clean.

steppinwolf · Post by **steppinwolf** » Wed Nov 25, 2009 4:32 pm

kevral wrote: ...I imagine I will just be opening the front doors and cleaning them in place, though, that's what I do with my P182.

The PSU filter just pulls out to the rear, so real easy to remove and clean.

Cool. I can probably run a vacuum across the front filters. Sounds like Fractal Design paid attention to details. Now I just hope the Define R2 is available in the U.S. soon. I was planning to build a new system in December, but I'd be willing to wait a little longer for this case.

JamieG · Post by **JamieG** » Wed Nov 25, 2009 5:40 pm

FWIW, I have been in contact with an Australian retailer that showed a demo system built using this case (article, gallery).

Here's the latest update:

www.scorptec.com.au wrote: At this stage there is still no ETA for this case.

The manufacturer was making some changes to the case based on our feedback which has delayed things a little longer.

Once there is an ETA we will list it on the website to generate some interest.

steppinwolf · Post by **steppinwolf** » Sun Nov 29, 2009 7:31 am

I didn't think drooling made an audible sound, but I can almost hear it!

Wonder how much it would cost to ship one of these from Europe to the US? Probably as much as the case itself or more...

The following issues with my other top case choices show why I'm gravitating toward the Fractal Design case:

Lian Li PC-B10: (1) reports of insufficient space behind the MB for routing cables; (2) prospect of having to add sound deadening material to the thin aluminum case walls and (3) high price (which I wouldn't mind as much if it weren't for the first two issues).

Antec P183: (1) don't want top fan adding to noise; (2) marginal cable routing/space behind MB and other areas of the case; (3) reportedly not as quiet as P182; (4) case is tall for my needs (closer to full tower); (5) don't like the front bezel/door (prefered the cleaner look of the P182)

New exciting case: Fractal Design - Define R2

New exciting case: Fractal Design - Define R2

nice!