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This video is brought to you by the Intel Core i5 4670K unlocked processor.

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Add an Intel 520 series SSD to your Haswell system for unbelievable overall

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performance. The Fractal Design Define XL is so large that I had to No, I'm

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just kidding. Actually, I raised my table a little bit. We're going to lower

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that. Uh, welcome to my unboxing and first look at the Define XLR2. This case

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from Fractal Design is pretty much as B-roll put it before we started. Is this

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kind of like the Define R4 but bigger? And I said yes. Yes indeed. It is an XL

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version of their Define series case that has that same Scandinavian clean lines

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look to it. And B-roll is indicating to me that the microphone's over here.

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Thank you for that. Um has that same Scandinavian clean lines look to it but

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in a larger enclosure. So, this case only supports four 5 and 1/4 in bays and

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eight 3 and 1/2 in or 2 and 1/2 in bays.

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So, in terms of sort of mere mortal

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expansion, the kind of thing most normal people would do with their systems, it

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doesn't really seem to offer that much over the Define R4.

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However, and there goes the chandelier. See, it is actually quite

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big. There we go. However, when you get into some of the more exotic things you

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might want to do with your system, like liquid cooling, for example, that is

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where the XR XL really shines. So, we've

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got a very hard foam here. Not my personal favorite. However, it does

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compensate by at least being quite thick. So, hopefully your case won't

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undergo more than one significant impact on its way to you, particularly if you

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have a system built and loaded into it. So, there we go. We're done with the

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packing material there. comes with a plastic sleeve over top that is of

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course, and this is very important, folks, recyclable. Okay, got that

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recycling logo on there on my side. You couldn't see it before, but don't worry

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too much about that. All right, the case itself. So, for the sake of getting sort

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of a an idea of the scale of this case, go ahead and take a step back. This is

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what it looks like next to a hulking 6'4

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figure of masculine unbelievably. No,

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actually I'm I'm 5'6, so that should give you a better idea of how big the case actually is. So, we're going to go

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ahead and peel off the front. It is available in black or titanium gray. In

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terms of the door, it's pretty much what

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you'll expect if you've ever seen a Defined Series case before. So, there is

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noise dampening foam on the inside of the front door here that helps some of

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the noise that would otherwise escape from the front be harnessed and used for

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good rather than evil. We've also got toollessly removable 5 and a/4 in bay

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covers. Hopefully I can. There you go. See, the thing about toolless 5 and 1/4

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in bay covers is that you have to not be a tool in order to remove them and put

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them back in correctly. So, if you guys uh if you guys aren't able to do it,

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don't feel too bad, but you're you're a tool. Uh so, no, I'm just kidding. At

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the front, we've got two 140 mm cooling fan spots with built-in filters that you

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can go ahead and do that with. Okay. You

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also have the option to mount 120 mm fans here using the optional holes. But

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you can see that the toolless mechanism that uses clips right here to mount the

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fan is only available with 140 mm fans. The case itself includes their new R2

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series fans which have better bearings than the older fans. They spin at 1,000

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RPM which is in line with the cool and

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quiet but mostly silent, mostly quiet theme of this particular case. You can

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also see that there are mounting options right here for 140 or 120 mm things from

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the inside as well. More on that. Look

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at this. I'm using the word tool. I'm using the word I'm not trying to

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say anything about, you know, the case. Don't worry. Good case. Fractal Design

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makes good stuff. I like it. All right. Up at the top of the case, two USB 2.0

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ports, two USB 3.0 ports, a power button, a reset button, a headphone

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jack, and a microphone jack. Also, on the top of the case, we have two modu

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vents. So, these are for 140 mm fan

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slots as well, and you can either leave them in for optimal silence or you can

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take them out for better cooling. Also, for cooling are these vents on the

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front. So, down both sides of the front of the case, there is airflow access for

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that front fan because if it was up to the door, nothing would be getting

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through. No window on this particular case, but we do find another modu vent.

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Oh, there we go. With a 120 or 140

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millimeter fan mounting option available to it, but it's screwed into the 140 mm

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fan mounts. And finally, let's move around to the back where we've got

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another 140 or 120 mm fan mount IO as

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well as nine PCI slots. So you can fit your XLATX motherboard in there and your

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firstborn child and a muffin and

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probably some like cigarettes if you're trying to hide them from your family.

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Not that I condone smoking. It's terrible for your computer. Never mind your lungs. I mean, it's bad for your

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computer. That should be all the reason you need to stop. That tar gets into

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your heat sinks and your fans and gums them up and makes it so they don't work

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very well. And heaven forbid you smoke and you have pets because then you're

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going to have tar and hair in your heat sinks. And let me tell you, heat sinks

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don't work very well when they are full of tar and hair. Speaking of things that

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are full of tar and hair, actually these are not full of tar and hair, but they are high density noise dampening pieces

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that go on both the left and right side panel of this case. They increase the

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weight of the case significantly, but they also make it more resistant to

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noise passing through it. So, I consider that a good thing. especially given that

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it's a silence optimized case, which I think I've mentioned at least a couple

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times. Now, here's the other one. So, you can see that modu has a slightly

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different kind of foam on it. It's a bit of a a lower density foam. So, it has

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some you can press it in a little bit there, but it's thicker to compensate

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because we all know, what did I say when I did my unboxing of the 900D? It's not

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about the length, it's about the girth. There you go. All right. Inside the

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case, we find five four five and a quarter inch bays rather and no toolless

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mechanisms on them. That's kind of an interesting one. Those have been standard for a while. Personally, I

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don't care. The last time I mounted something in a 5 and 1/4 in bay, it was

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a gerbble and I wasn't planning to use it for anything useful cuz what can a

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derbal do that's useful? Nothing. Let's go ahead and take off these. This is

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what I was alluding to on the inside. So, you can go ahead and remove these

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thumb screws, and that allows you to achieve something very interesting,

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which I'm buying time before I get

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to. Let's see if I can take this off. There we go. All right. So, you can

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reposition the drive cages. So, you can open this up to get more airflow access

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for your graphics cards. So, that front 140 mm fan, you can see, is right there,

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and that will allow it to blow directly on your graphics cards. This also gives

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you access to the Aha. Yes, those mounting points there. So, the Define

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XLR2 supports a 240 or 280 mm radiator

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in the front, a 240 or 280 mm radiator

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up here in the top. It also supports a 120 or 140 mm radiator in the back, and

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a 140 mm radiator in the bottom of the

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case without much difficulty whatsoever. So, it is extremely flexible in that

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regard. Radiator support on this case is

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extensive. It supports a 2x1 120 mm

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radiator in the front, a 2x120 or 2x40

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if you're using a slim radiator in the top. It supports a single 120 or 140 mm

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radiator in the back. Although I'd say 140 might be a little bit little bit

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tight, but you might be able to kind of figure it out in there. And a single 120

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in the bottom. However, it should be noted that in the bottom here, did I say

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140? Cuz I meant 120. in the bottom here. You might have a little bit of

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difficulty with that if you decide to reposition the front hard drive cage.

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So, this hard drive cage, let's go ahead and close that. Can move in about this

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much, giving you the ability to install thicker radiators up there, no problem.

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But that will obviously interfere with this fan. And then this hard drive cage,

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which I showed you before, can either be installed the way that it was out of the

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box, or check this out. It can be installed this way, giving you a good

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compromise between airflow

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and well, basically airflow, but you

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sacrifice aesthetics a little bit because instead of the hard drives plugging in in the back of the case back

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here, there we go. They plug in from the inside of the case where you would be

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able to see them if you had a window on the chassis, but we don't. So, not too

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worried about that. Also, on the back of the case, we find lots of other things.

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We've got a large CPU cutout as well as cable management holes for your 8 pin,

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your, you know, I don't know, other pin, your 24 pin, your six pin, your 8 pin,

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your other more different 8 pin, uh, your U front connectors. So, these are

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all black cables, which is nice to see. There's your front USB, there's your

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front HD audio, there's your front USB 2, as well as your power and reset. All

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things that you will most assuredly need. The case does have built-in fan

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control that I missed when I was at the front here because I totally forgot.

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12vt, 7V, and 5V are available with

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three different positions on the switch. And these can be plugged into three

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separate fans. Conveniently, the case includes three fans. Boom. Mind blown.

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So, you plug that in using this guy right here. So, there's Molex power for

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that, as well as the four three pin connectors for the fans themselves. I

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think that is pretty much going to wrap it up for the Define XLR2. Thank you for

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checking out my unboxing. Let me know what you think. Would you prefer the

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compact functionality of the Define R4, which is significantly smaller than this

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guy, or do you prefer the largess and the flexibility to add more advanced

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cooling options to the case or a longer motherboard or more graphics cards? And

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would you go with something like the Define XL instead? Don't forget to

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subscribe to this tech tips. Don't forget to like the video. It helps me out a whole lot. And just trying to

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think. Ask them to comment. Ask them to subscribe. Ask them to

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like. I could use a new hat while we're at it if that's not too much work.

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Heat. Heat.