Fractal Design Define S Review
Category : Cases
Published by Luca Rocchi on 13.07.15
Almost exactly six months ago the Swedish company Fractal Design presented with the R5 their latest midi tower case. Now they launched the Define S which should be the next step in evolution of their Define series cases. Unlike the previous model, the new S model is a case designed for custom watercooling builds. There is a lot of space available for radiators and there are mounts for reservoir and pump.
Rating |
| |
Cooling |
Features |
Layout |
Build Quality |
Value for Money |
| Pros |
+ Good
compatibility for watercooling |
+ Water cooling
+ Dust filters |
+ Interior
space
+ Good space for cable routing |
+ High quality materials
+ Rubber groomets
|
+ Well priced |
| Cons |
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|
- Cheap plastic on front panel |
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Preview
Specifications
| Model: |
Define S |
| Case Type: |
Mid tower |
| Dimensions: |
233mm (W) x 520 mm (H) x 433 mm (D) |
| Material: |
Steel, plastic |
| Color: |
Black |
| Drive Bay: |
5.25": |
0 |
| 3.5": |
3 |
| 2.5": |
2 |
| Expansion
slots: |
7 |
| Form factors: |
ATX, mATX, Mini-ITX |
| Cooling: |
Front: |
3x 120/140mm (1x Fractal Design Dynamic GP14 included) |
| Rear: |
1x 120/140mm (1x Fractal Design Dynamic GP14 included) |
| Top: |
3x 120/140mm |
| Bottom: |
1x 120/140mm |
| Side: |
1x 120/140mm |
| Link to the product: |
Fractal Design Define S |
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Features
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Product overview
Overview |
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The Define S features a simple and
neat design, and is made of black metal and plastic of excellent quality. The front part is without any opening or slots, so you will be no able to install any 5.25" drives, card readers or fan controllers. On the top part we find the the I/O panel that features two USB 3.0, the power and reset buttons as well as the standard audio jacks. On both sides of the front panel there are a few small openings, which allow the front fans to
pull in fresh air. The side panels, even if they look quite simple, are actually the most important piece of the soundproofing system as they've both been equipped with thick soundproofing material, which is actually doing a great job.
The back panel is simple and you get seven PCI expansion slots, the opening for the
motherboard I/O panel, a 140mm fan slot and the opening for the standard ATX power supply. The bottom of the case has been equipped with four plastic feet with an alumium finish, which ensure that the PSU gets enough fresh air to operate correctly. |
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Installation
Overview |
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The inside
of the Define S is clean and simple, and it features a most classic design with some noticeable features. The Define S is a case for enthusiasts and for those who like custom water cooling builds, therefore you will be not able to install a huge amount of HDDs and SSDs. There is space for up to three 3.5" HDD and two 2.5" SSD, both can be installed using tool-less sledges behind the tray. The motherboard tray is made out of solid steel, and it features a big opening behind the socket,
which allow the user to install aftermarket CPU coolers without taking the motherboard out. The tray features five openings with rubber grommets to create a neat cable management. Between the motherboard tray and the side right panel there is enough space to hide
plenty of cables. The whole interior, except the back and bottom, has been padded with soundproofing material to reduce the system noise.
For our test, we used an ATX motherboard with a liquid cooling system with single 120 mm radiator. As you can see from the pictures there are
plenty of slots for the fans and radiators. The Define S is able to accommodate
a CPU cooler with a maximum height of 180 mm and graphics cards up to 425mm
long. Despite the very generous dimension of our Club 3D R9 290X GPU, we have installed it
successfully without any issues and without covering the space for the res. |
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Ventilation options
Overview |
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The Define S offers
plenty of places for fans and inside the delivery you will find two 140mm fans with white blades and black frame. Overall, the case is able to accommodate three 120/140mm fans
at the front, one 120/140mm at the rear and up to a maximum of four
fans at the top. Last but not least, Fractal Design provides a housing for a 120 mm fan on the side panel.
If you are fan of liquid cooling systems you will be happy to know that the
Define S is also perfect for that type of cooling. Thanks to the fact, that there is a lot of space available on the inside, you will be able to mount a 360mm radiator
at the front, a 420mm at the top and a 120/140mm on the rear part. |
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Temperatures
Overview |
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For testing purposes we're using an ASUS P8Z77-I ITX motherboard, an Intel Core i5-2500K CPU, which receives cooling through a be quiet! Dark Rock 3 cooler as well as a Club3D R9 290X royalAce graphics card. To put the CPU under full load, we're running prime95 for 10 min and in the case of the GPU we use Furmark also for 10 minutes. After these ten minutes, we're going to write down the temperatures. The ambient temperature is close to 27°C. |
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All noise dampening panels installed |
Idle (°C) |
Full (°C) |
|
Intel Core i5-2500K |
37 / 36 / 38 / 39 |
62 / 61 / 61 / 63 |
| Club3D R9 290X royalAce |
41 |
78 |
|
Less is better |
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Conclusion
The Fractal Design Define S is a mid-tower PC case designed for those who are looking for a silent rig, which is offering plenty of space even for high-end hardware as well as custom liquid cooling. Fractal Design decided to use the classic design of the Define series but without the front door and they removed the 5.25" slots as well. The materials and build quality are on very good level, which is something we certainly expected from Fractal Design, although we would have liked to see the use of higher quality plastic the case of the front panel.
On the insde there is quite a lot of space available. If you fit an ATX motherboard you can easily install a radiator in the front using a push/pull configuration. Apart from that all drives bays have been move to the backside of the motherboard tray, which means you won't have to sacrifice any of them if you install custom watercooling gear. Since silence is also a the key point of this case, Fractal Design also added a sound-absorbing material on each side panel. Testing the case as delivered with one 140mm fan in the front and one in the back, we found temperatures to be on a reasonable level, while the noise level was very low.
The amount of features available with the Define S are very interesting and we appreciate the good amount of solutions for water cooling setups; inside this case you can put the pump and the res without thinking too much about the space and the management of the component inside. When you have to built a custom loop you have always to figure out if there will be enough space for radiator, for fans and for every kind of support, inside this Define you have only to push inside all the components. In other words, you don't have to think about how to fix the res or if you need some extra supports because inside the bundle there are already few useful supports and on bottom of the chassis there are pre-drilled holes for your needs. We understand that the design is a important aspect specially on this kind of case but since this model is born for watercooling setups we think that a 5.25" slots could be useful for fan controller.
The Define S from Fractal Design is a PC case which we can definitely recommend. If you are looking for a mid-tower PC case with pre-installed acoustic insulation material as well as silent fans and on top of that it's fully compatible with custom watercooling gear, this is a great choice. With this case it is really easy to build a high-end rig. The Fractal Design Define S is available on Geizhals for 79.99 Euro excluding shipping costs and it is also available with side window for 99.90 euro. The Fractal Design Define S earns
4.5 out of 5 stars.
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