the first defined series case from fractal design that i checked out the
define r2 was that four years ago
man time flies anyway it delivered what was at the time a great mix of features
for the price and built-in noise dampening which is a really solid value
add but the computer industry moves so fast that to keep up with their
competition defines our three and r4 both came very quickly speaking of
coming quickly by the way look forward to our dragon age awakening video card
showdown which is coming very soon make sure you subscribe so you don't miss it
but unlike its predecessors the define r5 has actually been in development for
over two years so what the heck have they been doing
all this time
the cooler master neptune 240m features an exclusive pump design and their new
celencio fans to provide impressive near silent performance click now to learn
more well one thing fractal finally figured
out is packing material experienced companies all eventually realize that
the cost of rmas and the bad customer experiences that come with them is just
not worth it yes it's hard foam but it's
thicker and much stronger than what you'll find protecting many other cases
in this price range thumbs up onto the chassis itself the outside really is
defined through and through i mean heck i bet if you lined up ours one to five
in a taste test only a fractal product designer could probably actually pick
them all correctly but that doesn't mean that they haven't changed anything on
the top we get the usual front audio a recessed reset switch a fancy looking
power button two usb 2 and two usb 3.0 ports and oh what's this then a new
tool-less top mod event system that allows you to have zero one two or three
top 120 millimeter or 140 millimeter fan
mounts from the back while building i
didn't really like the way they handled the curved corners on the plastic pieces
but looking at it from the front the way that you'll normally see a computer case
it's much less noticeable and aside from the outlines of the pieces you've left
in place the transition actually looks pretty darn good probably because
fractal did a great job of matching the
plastic and metal finishes at least on the black and titanium models i can't
speak for the white one one compromise up here though that i don't really feel
strongly about either way but feel compelled to point out is the
asymmetrical fan mounts it doesn't look as clean to have them off to one side
like that but the benefit is that it gives the motherboard a lot more room for cooling
up at the top on the front is one of my favorite
finishes faux brushed aluminum normally i prefer real materials to fake ones but
the brush plastic looks pretty much just like the real thing is much easier to
clean and in this case keeps light reflections down making the effect of
the brushness very subtle like this and also the much easier
breathing side vents that will keep the two front 120 millimeter or 140
millimeter fan supplied with fresh air the rest of the front i have kind of
mixed feelings about the bitumen noise dampening inside the door is good the
three fan controller is good and the much better and easier to remove front
fan filter are all great additions but
while the idea of reversing the door opening direction
is good the mechanism on our unit only closes if we kind of
swing it shut rather than closing it nicely and i'm not a fan of non-standard
shaped five and a quarter inch bay covers because if you actually install
an optical drive it looks a little out of place on it just like it does on
Corsair's 900d the r5's bottom has more good stuff
though this front accessible fan filter slides in and out nice and easy and
protects her insides from unwanted junk and while there's not much to say about
the side panels the new left modu vent looks cleaner than the old style that
exposed the grille when it wasn't in use imo and the right panel now uses captive
thumb screws with the left opting for normal ones a seemingly strange decision
until you realize that you'll never use them thanks to the new
latching mechanism around the back there's not much of note you've got your
bottom mounted power supply 7 expansion slots and 120 or 140 millimeter fan
mounting slots up at the top riveting let's talk about the inside shall we
speaking of rivets the inside of the define r5 is fractal's most modular yet
with screws to hold in the bottom and top hard drive cages captive ones by the
way and even the optical cage at the top
this opens up a ton of different mounting options for the up to eight
three and a half inch or two and a half inch drive mounts including rotating the
top five 90 degrees pulling them out entirely shifting the bottom three left
and bringing the five down hanging eight or five from the top with the optical
cage removed or even just removing all of them entirely for more cooling space
and which is great because for a silent case there are a lot of spots to mount
fans and radiators in the front with all those aforementioned drive cages removed
you can put up to a triple 120 but a dual 140 looks like kind of the sweet
spot with room for a 120 140 or dual 120
in the bottom albeit not necessarily at the same time as the front rad or a very
long power supply up to a triple 120 or
140 in the top as long as the total thickness of the fans and rad doesn't
exceed 55 millimeters oh and for good measure you can throw a single 120 or
140 into the back the rest of the insides from this side are pretty
standard fare the motherboard trays only remarkable characteristics other than
the uh you know usual big CPU cutout and
well-positioned cable management holes where how surprisingly solid it is even
with all the front bays that it anchors to removed and also the way that the
motherboard area sits slightly recessed something that may cause clearance
issues with those slightly wider than atx enthusiast boards if their right
angle connectors on that edge are in awkward locations on to the build
process the inclusion of a post in the center motherboard standoff is awesome
and keeps the mobo in place while you screw it in the rest of them but the
rest of the standoffs were pretty lame to install actually fractal used to
include a metal standoff installation tool and now it's plastic or nylon or
something which prevents it from sticking to my magnetic screwdriver and
makes it harder to wrench it in tight enough but there's more positive stuff
to make up for this oversight the SSD mounts on the back of the motherboard
are better than the older screw through the mobo tray system i've seen fractal
use and as far as cable management is concerned the define r4 was cruising for
a good to very good ranking with ample
zip tie loops lots of room in the right areas behind the motherboard trader
route cables and included velcro straps and then i noticed a couple things i
haven't personally seen before cable management loops up the right panel side
of the front awesome and two different positions for three
and a half inch drive mounting on the metal rails the standard position and
one that brings them closer to the left side panel for more room behind them
finally the first define that can not
only hold eight drives but also has enough room for all the required cables
brilliant a huge improvement over the r2 that i'm using for my home server right now
which i guess is pretty much the conclusion for this video isn't it what's the define r5 well it's an
improvement over previous defines in every way
it's unlikely to compel r4 or even r3
owners to upgrade but at 100 bucks and change for a non-windowed one like this
or 10 more dollars for a windowed version it's a worthy member of the
product family and a recommended buy from me thanks for watching guys like this video
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