Review: Fractal Design Define R4
Category : Cases
Published by Marc Büchel on 05.10.12
Almost exactly two years ago the Swedish company Fractal Design presented with the Define R3 their first midi tower. Now they launched the Define R4 which should be the next step in evolution of their Define series cases. Therefore Fractal Design should have increased the build quality and should have also added features like USB3.0.
On the following pages we will show you the strengths and weaknesses of the
Fractal Design Define R4.
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Preview
Specifications
Model |
Fractal Design Define R4 |
Case Type |
Mini Tower |
Dimensions |
232 x 464 x 523 mm (W x H x D) |
Material |
Steel, Plastic |
Color |
Black / Weiss |
5.25'' drive
bay |
2 x external |
3.5'' drive bay |
8 x 3.5'', 2 x 2.5'' backside of motherboard |
Expansion
slots |
8 |
Form factors |
ATX, mATX, Mini ITX |
Weight |
12.3 kg |
Cooling |
2 x 140 mm Front (1 Included)
1 x 140 mm Rear
2 x 120/140 mm Top optional
1 x 140 mm Side
(optional) 1 x 120/140 mm Bottom (optional)
1 x Integrade Fan Controller (5V / 7V / 12V)
(Up to 3 fans, molex plug) |
I/O ports |
2 x USB 3.0 2x USB 2.0
Audio in / out |
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Front
Overview |
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The front of
Fractal Design's Define R4
is
simple, elegant and therefore timeless. As soon as you open the front
door you'll see an acoustic insulation mat, helping to reduce unwanted
noise. Fractal Design is very serious about noise insulation with the
Define R4. Therefore you also find a fan controller where you can choose
between 5 volt, 7 volt and 12 volt. Right next to the fan controller you
can find two 5.25 inch expansion slots. Below those there is one
pre-installed 140 millimeter fan. If you want to you can add a second
fan at this place. In order to keep dust outside the case Fractal Design
equipped the case with dust filters. They have been place in a cartridge
and they can be removed easily. Furhtermore they are washable, so it's
easy to clean them. |
Back
Overview |
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Next
to the usual slot bezels, of which you're going to find eight in this case, there is
space for the pre-installed 140 millimeter fan, which has been placed right
behind the CPU cooler. |
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Right side
Overview |
|
|
The panel on
the right side looks quite unspectacular. As soon as you take it off
you'll see that there is a bit more space than you're going to find with
most other cases. Fractal Design decided to build the case a bit wider.
Therefore it's easier to put all the cables on the backside of the
motherboard. Something one is going to notice immediately is the big
hole where the backside of the CPU cooler is. Furthermore the hard drive
connectors are well accessible and wiring them is no hassle. We also
like the big rubber grommets through which one can route all the
different cables to the backside of the motherboard tray. This is not only
good from a practical point of view it's also a great feature to wire
you PC neatly. It is also very handy that one can put two SSDs on
the backside of the motherboard. |
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Left side
Overview |
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Like the right side,
the left side panel is unspectacular. The only thing which looks a bit
suspicious are the ventilation holes. If you want to place a fan there
you have to remove a thick insulation pad to do so. As you can see on
the pictures Fractal Design equipped the side panel with acoustic
insulation material to further reduce operating noise. Once you've taken
off the side panel you'll see the two 5.25 inch slots in the top right
corner
of the case. Right below there are two hard drive cages where a total of
eight 3.5 inch drives can be installed. It is possible to remove both
cages. On the last picture you can see our setup. We put in an extra
long Radeon HD 6990. In this case you have to sacrifice one of the hard
drive cages.
A closer look at the top of the case shows that there are two more of
these thick insulation pads. If you remove them you can install two
additional
120/140 millimeter fans or even a dual radiator. If you want to, you can
realize a very efficient cooling solution in this case. There is the option to
place two 120/140 millimeter fans in the front, one 120/140 millimeter
fan in the back and two more 120/140 millimeter fans in the top.
We also like the compartment for the power supply. There is plenty of
space and below the PSU there are ventilation holes with additional dust
filters. |
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Top
Overview |
|
|
|
As we've already
mentioned you find two ventilation areas where 120/140 millimeter fans
can be installed. As a factory default you will find two thick
acoustic insulation pads on the inside of the case. Furthermore Fractal
Design chose to integrate the I/O connectors in to the top of the case.
In this regard you get an audio out and an audio in as well as two USB
3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports. Furhtermore there is a power and a reset
button.
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Bottom
Overview |
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At the bottom of the case you find
two ventilation holes. One of which is below the PSU and the other is in
the center of the case. There is also a dust filter which is easy to
remove. Furthermore there are four rubber feet which provide the case
with a safe stand. |
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Conclusion
General |
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+ |
- |
The Fractal Design Define
R4 is a well
though, midi tower case where especially the noise insulation part is
able to convince. At this ponit the engineers have really been thinking
about how to reduce noise as efficiently as possible. Furthermore we
also liked the two removable hard drive cages as well as the possibility
to place two SSDs on the backside of the motherboard tray. There even is
a small fan controller where you can choose between 5 volt, 7 volt and
12 volt.
|
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-
Design
- Noise insulation |
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Manufacturing quality / Ergonomics |
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+ |
- |
Overall
the build quality is on a good level. Fractal Design didn't make the
mistake to go for super thin side panel to save weight. They use solid
metal sheets and paired up with the noise isolation material you can get
good stability and reasonable stiffness. Furthermore it has been easy to
install hardware in the case. We also liked that there were several
holes in the motherboard tray to route cables to the backside of the
board. Fractal Design decided to make the case a bit wider, therefore
the cables, which have been routed to the backside can easily be place
there.
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- Build
quality
- Interior
Space |
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Design |
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+ |
- |
Fractal
Design
created a very decent and good looking design for the Define R4. They
chose to move the buttons and connectors away from the front panel to
top of the case. Like this they can keep the front plain and
simple. Something else you might notice are the ventilation slots on the
left and the right side of the front panel. Form follows function one
might say. |
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- Design |
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Recommendation |
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+ |
- |
We can recommend the
Define R4 to everybody who's looking for a
midi tower case that features pre-installed acoustic insulation material
as well as silent fans and a fan controller. With this case it's really
easy to build a silent rig. |
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-
Silent-PC
- Gaming-PC
- Enthusiast build
- Desktop PC
- File Server |
|
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Rating |
The Fractal Design Define R4 gets very good four and a
half out of five
stars. The case comes at a price point of est. CHF 118.- (est EUR
98.-). |
|
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Redacted by:
m.buechel@ocaholic.ch