I got this case yesterday to replace my Enthoo Pro M TG which I felt had too many small faults and nuisances that I didn't like. I won't mention specs since you can find them online. This review is purely subjective. Packaging: The case comes quite well protected in foam and a plastic bag. The instruction booklet is very clear and intuitive and explains every aspect of the case. I don't remember having seen a booklet this detailed before. Features: The whole layout and the door can be flipped which is nice. If you don't need all the drive spaces next to the front fans, you can completely remove all of them or even move the backplate to the back to make it a completely open build. Tons of spots for AOI (including in the bottom which I personally liked a lot) and custom water cooling if you're into that stuff. The top is of course removable if you plan on putting fans there or AIO and the dust filter has a plastic patterns that tries to move some of the sound to the back. Both side panels come off just by gently pulling them away from the case. The whole case (except the glass ofc) has sound dampening material. Also included is a PWM fan hub but no RGB features. Building: Building was really easy since the case is large and there is tons of space for cables even though I have sleeved extensions which take up a lot of room. There are a lot of options for fan configurations including bottom intake fans (although it depends on the amount of cables you have). To save space I managed to fit both a 3.5 drive and a 2.5 SSD on the same drive tray. There are also two 2.5 trays on the back of the case. It's absolutely possible to fit larger PSUs and they can be turned both upside down or just normal. How does it sound? You can really feel that the sound dampening material helps and it does make a difference vs other cases that lack this feature. Closing the front panel also makes a difference and it doesn't seem to tamper too much with the airflow to the front. How does it cool? I've read reviews which claim that the hot air has nowhere to go but since there are so many fan options I'd say that it's not true in my case. Right now I've removed all excess drive cages but still have that panel installed (which seem to act as an air tunnel which could be a good thing) and I can really feel the cold air coming from the front (and slightly from the bottom, more on that later). In comparison to my old case I'd say that this performs slightly better at the same fan speed and sounds a bit less. The good: Lot of customization options, fan options and AIO options. Looks good! Is more silent than others. Easy to access door panels. Lots of space for drives. PWM hub? The bad: The included fans are pure garbage and move no air at all, except perhaps some at 100%. I had to replace with Corsair AF140 who move twice the air and are just slightly louder. The top panel is no longer divided into sections like on the Define S which is sad if you want to just have one exhaust and still keep the rest closed to fend off sound. The dust filter from the top panel is difficult to separate and the top panel without the filter bends very easily. The metal seems to be a fingerprint magnet. Price: You get a lot for your money but considering FD has, in the past, aimed for good quality at a lower price, this cases price point deviates from this. I think they could lower the price with about 20€ and then it would be quite attractive. I'll include a pic of my build soon
Edit : Regarding the PWM hub, I've tried to use it but so far my motherboard doesn't register any RPM from the hub, maybe since I use two different brand of fans. Thus my motherboards "Smart Fan" feature which should increase/decrease fan speed depending on CPU load doesn't seem to work at all.
This is probably my next case...and the 1# reason is the sound dampening...i hate noise. Put some photos
Hi there Thanks for review, friend have this case and we are planning building loop there in coming weeks As I thought so, these supplied fans are not best and replacing these fans only improves airflow This PWM hub I think is very similar to which is in Phanteks which converts 3pin to PWM Are you using on this hub what fans, did you tried use there same fans or similar fans ie like 3 pin or 4 pin? What I always liked on Fractal Design cases is sound dampening Hope this helps Thanks, Jura
Photos coming up this evening I'm not sure anymore about the fans, maybe they're not too bad after all? Maybe the dust filter is better on this case than on my old Define S? I've been told that the GP-14 fans might be better suited for the slight SP requirement that there is (although I didn't hear this before). I need to do more testing since I'm still not satisfied. I tried the hub but it was unsuccessful. I got no RPM signal (for obvious reasons perhaps) and the "Smart Fan" function on mobo doesn't work. Fractal told me to put in my CPU cooler fan which would solve the issue and I might try that but I still think that the CPU load differs too much from game to game for this to be a good feature.
I'll make a final attempt with this case after unsuccessful testing yesterday (temps still too high) by moving the drive cage plate to the back of the case
Bought the R6 without glass but unfortunately the front panel is broken. I did a small temp check with only three fans but it got super hot anyway (över 76 degrees).
