Designed for liquid-cooling enthusiasts, Fractal Design’s Define S could be the perfect solution for your next extreme cooling build.
Fractal Design Define S Case Review : Read more
Fractal Design Define S Case Review : Read more
if only FD would sell their cases with fans less noisy then a dump truck. the one universal problem i've had with FD cases has been the god awful case fans they come with.
The Define S is pretty much identical to the R5. all they took out of the define r5 (to turn it into the S) was the front mounted drive mounts, and did a little tinkering with the back motherboard tray, creating more room then normally would be found in a define r5/r4
As a sidenote, I've owned the R4, R5 and Arc Midi. In all 3 (though only one was water cooled) i stripped out the front drive cages because the weakness of a FD case is how badly those drive cages (even when not used) destroy case airflow. Whether i was using water or not, after removing those drive bays i have seen a consistent 5C drop in temps across the board. So for my money, the Define S is an improvement on their very good R4/R5 and Arc Midi cases.
That may be the first time I've heard someone complain about FD fans being loud.
That may be the first time I've heard someone complain about FD fans being loud.
My standard for quiet is <10db; completely sub auditory
The define R4/R5 series are fantastic for quiet, good looking cases, but the fans are all poor. They move bad air at "low" or "quiet" settings and they are far too loud at high settings, worse, they make a harmonic bearing noise, that rumbles in and out. Its not loud and probably would be drown out by a normal GPU or normal system, but i prefer dead silent rigs, so my rigs are built to be as close to 0db as i can make them. They're not the only fluid/hydrolic bearing fans out there that suffer this problem, the whole redux lineup from Noctua does the same thing (in fact many fluid bearing fans do).
As a result the first thing i do with my Fractal Design cases is strip the fans out and go with other fans, like the Phantex fans i'm currently using in my Arc Midi; or an assortment of noctuas i've found to be better then others.
That may be the first time I've heard someone complain about FD fans being loud.
As a result the first thing i do with my Fractal Design cases is strip the fans out and go with other fans, like the Phantex fans i'm currently using in my Arc Midi; or an assortment of noctuas i've found to be better then others.
I have an Arc Mini R2 and TWO Define R4's which each hold a full boat of 3.5" drives and act as servers. Temperature has never been an issue and the R4's are dead quiet.