Fractal Design - Define R4 Case - Black
Model: FDCADEFR4BLW
SKU: 7323151
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Customers love the Define R4 Case's excellent fan support, citing its ample space for multiple fans and its ability to accommodate various fan form factors, including water cooling loops. The case's built-in fan control is also a significant plus for many users. There are no reported negative customer comments about this product.
I bought this case to replace my old derelict case from the XP era. This case has lots of features that you can read about in the product description, I am going to talk about my experience with the case when it comes to airflow, how easy or hard it was to build in, and the over all look it has on my desk. When it comes to options for airflow this case is no slouch, it has plenty of mounting points for fans or radiators or both. You can fit two fans up front, two on top, one in the back, and one on the bottom. The two tops fans can be added by taking out the noise absorption material, but the mounting points and the ventilation holes are already there for you to install your fans. The front fan mounts use clips rather than screws, to my surprise. They attach to an assembly that consists of the fans, the bracket, and the dust filter to keep as much dust as possible out of your computer. I used this to my advantage when removing the rear fan and moving it up front so I could mount a single 120mm radiator to the rear. The front drive cages also sit in front of the fans and they can be left there, re-oriented, or removed altogether to improve airflow. Onto building in the case. This case is magnificent to build in. I have built in the non windowed case as well and both are a dream to build in. There is plenty of room for cables to run and not interfere with the back panel, the motherboard tray is massive allowing for even EATX boards, however this would cover the grommets for the cable routing holes. I was able to mount all of my hardware without any issues whatsoever. There are very few tie down points on the back of the motherboard tray however so keep that in mind when routing your cables. As for the case as a whole, the thing is solid. It has no flex in it at all and it is pretty dense on account of the sound dampening material that Fractal uses. The side panel is Plexiglas and very cheap at that, it scratches super easy. The only reason I gave this case 4 stars is that the fan mounting bracket door to remove the dust filter is damaged and does not close all the way.
Posted by Animekid117
I was looking for a quiet, easy to cool and clean case and this did it all. Tons of room for fans. You can put in a rad if you want to also. I love the filters for the fan intakes. I have a lot of pets and they have helped keep the case free from dirt and dust. The only issue that I have is that it is very heavy and if you pick it up close to the front panel it comes off kind of easy. I just built my wife her computer with this case and am planning on buying another one to build myself one. You can't go wrong with this case.
Posted by Kevin
This case was my fifth- or sixth-place option after a decision to use a rather large sum of My Best Buy reward certificates to buy a new case. Up at the head of the line was the NZXT Phantom 240, which went out of stock the day my certificates arrived, and stayed that way for an unnerving length of time. I selected THAT case because it had a streamlined, high-tech design, accommodated a large number of fans in a large number of form factors including my water cooling loop, had a see-through side window both for the purposes of permitting quick inspection and for sating my need for vanity, as well as removable filters over all intakes. After deliberation I decided to go with this case instead. It was about twice what I originally wanted to spend, but for the difference, I got the following: -Original features desired -MASSIVE cable management bay behind motherboard -Durable matte black finish (I would have gone with white in a heartbeat, but it was not available) which seems very easy to clean and resistant to scratches -One of the best designed and constructed quick-change drive bay designs I've ever seen -A removable drive stack which provides either for the installation of five extra HDDs when installed, or permits straight airflow from the front high-side fan (not provided, though the low fan can be moved up very easily if you prefer) when removed -Removable insuilation/silencing plates which can be installed on the top, should I decide in the future to switch to a fully water-cooled system with a larger central radiator, thus negating the need for a CPU radiator -A built-in rheostat to control fan voltage to up to three system fans, which I have found extremely useful during recording sessions in quieting down the computer What I don't like so much, is how wide the case is, though that's a simple part of the design. It has to be this wide to permit both cable management, sound deadening materials and airflow over the side of the full-sized graphics card. When I talk about quiet, I mean quiet. With the exact same fans as in my MSI Nighthawk case, and in the same positions, I can no longer hear the case running at full idle power while wearing my headphones with nothing playing. I've reduced core temperature by over 10 degrees celsius, as well as reducing my GPU core temperature at idle by 6 degrees and processor core temperature by another thirteen, though that could be the result of installing the water cooler instead of the stock Intel LGA1155 air cooler. Overall, I'm very glad I ended up purchasing this case instead of the other options, both with regard to functionality, performance and aesthetic. Build- Gigabyte Black Edition Z97 full-ATX motherboard EVGA GTX970 SSC Intel i7-4790K Corsair H100i 16gb Corsair 1866 RAM Intel 535 series SSD, 240gB 2x 2GB Western Digital HDD 4x Thermaltake Riing 120mm 2x Fractal 140mm low-noise
Posted by Redtail
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