Fractal Design Define R5 - Mid Tower Computer Case - ATX - Optimized For High Airflow And Silent - 2x Fractal Design Dynamic GP-14 140mm Silent Fans included - Water-cooling ready - Black

I bought the Fractal Design Define R5 -(Grey) case and it came with *two* fans. For the cost they are superb. I have been building computers since I was about 14 (may years ago) and the evolution in case design since then is incredible. You used to really need to know what you were doing, now an entire PC can be built with relative ease in a few hours (if you have experience) - but I'd wager anyone who could put up a flat pack could build one now with the instruction manual and a bit of research on t'internet (youtube tutorials in particular). And this case is superb, the best I've ever used to date - and it fits 280x140 water cooling radiator (it actually would fit a 420x140 as you can move the drive trays around and mount them in different locations although one suggested is directly in front of the PSU and although I've not tried it I assumed this would block the modular cable sockets. In any case there are other places to mount it though and the primary location to put the big radiators is very logical as it vents hot air directly up and awayYou can double stack 2x2 140mm fans in the front and still close the door!As for these fans - super quiet, and shift a fair volume for their price. I personally also use corsair AF120/140's - more expensive but shift some serious air in complete silence - still I also used these two after reviewing the specs alongside the others.They can be used up against a filter as they have a decent static pressure (ie. they perform well at point blank to an object through which they draw or blow). A top draw example would be the corsair SP120/140 (the sort of thing you could also use up against a water cooling radiator. The difference in design lowers the overall free throughput, but more efficiently gets the air through anything at point blank. I know it sounds like a bit of a contradiction, but I'm not an aerodynamicist. I suspect it's got something to do with air velocity as opposed to volume per unit time - and probably turbid vs lamina flow over any obstacle (the same reason a golf ball with dimples flies further than a smooth one, or a cricket ball swings towards the shiny side) lamina, or smooth flow, encounters a higher resistance.Anyway - if you can't justify a more expensive model - these fans are well worth the money, but back to the case - the fans that come with it are superb quality.PS. If you are using a water cooling radiator, and it comes with it's own fan(s) - I strongly recommend you use those for the radiator and blow the air out of the case (you don't want to project the heat into the case). This is because they're almost certainly designed to produce high static pressure to maximise cooling, even if you do have some very expensive high free flow rate fans on hand as an alternative.If this is within your price range then get it - I've built so many now - and this design is superb - almost nothing has been overlooked from an ergonomic assembly point of view, and I can't think of a critisysm, it even has two 3.5" detatchable mounting bays for SSD drives on the back of the botherboard mount! Plenty of gromit slots for tidying cables and passing them from back to front. The 5.25" drive bays can be rearranged to almost numberless combinations of 9 to 11 or ten plus an optical drive, and there are 9 places to put 140mm fans or 120mm if you prefer (& seal most locations if not being used). The whole case is lined with soundproofing, and it works very well even with the radiator mounted under the top!I'm not sure how else to sing it's praises, other than to say I'm now on to my 3rd build with the same case. If you have to to see inside the case for whatever reason then obviously you'll get the one with a perspex window, however, this really does defeat the whole pont of the comprehensive soundproofing which actually works, but probably not so well if you cut a great big window in the side! :/ Still, that's just me guessing. When I think back to my early builds and the noise and compare it to this near silence even with 3 crosfire/sli graphics fans running the difference is staggering.The front and bottom have removable dust filters, given the design promotes air intake at the front and to some extent at the bottom - furthermore, if you're going to use a radiator and expel the heat from the top, this keeps the dust out, and perfectly circulates cold air in at the bottom and hot air out the top.For the record, with this setup, I clocked an FX to 6.1GHz running stable. Using liquid N2 I stopped at 10Ghz. It's quite disconcerting watching it bubbling away like it was water on the boil! (I'm a research chemist so have easy access to the stuff. Not practical for everyday use i grant you, but I've done it beforeAnyway, that's my two pence worth - hope it helps.Enjoy

This is one of the best cases I've seen in a long time. What attracted me to it were the shear amount of options available, the thought that has gone into this is second to none.Options for drive cages: There are two HDD cages one 5 bay and one 3 bay - that's a lot of drives if you need them but the brilliance of the design is that these cages can be relocated or removed. The 5 bay may be removed completely leaving the 3 bay which can be located in 3 different positions. The optical 2 bay can also be completely removed for those that don't see a need for optical drives.There are 2 SSD mounting points the rear of the motherboard so no need to consider this as one of your HDD slots if you are using only the 3 bay enclosure.All this leaves several options for water coolers for instance. You can use the back, top or front for a water cooler - top and front will accept a double. The top mounting will accept extra long coolers if the optical drive bay is removed. All this is astounding for a midi-case, you are limited by your imagination on what and where you located your hardware - there's probably no other midi case that displays this kind of flexibility.As a low profile case it is gorgeous to look at with a reversible front door and sleek design. It's built beautifully and designed for silent operation and in this respect you have a choice of a windowed and non-windowed version. On the top are 3 panels which Fractal Design call moduvents, Each of these panels can be removed to allow a fan or water cooler to vent through the top. Kept on the case is clearly designed for silent operation as these panels along with the side panels have a decent amount of sound proof padding added to them.However, one of my dislikes regarding the so called Moduvents are the clips that hold it in place. They are really difficult to remove without breaking and it's not clear by the pictogram manual how one is supposed to remove them easily. This therefore could be something that they could improve.It comes with 2 140mm fans (one front intake and one at the back). Space for 2 at the front and optionally one could be attached to the bottom and side panel, giving a great deal of flexibility on case cooling options. They have also included a fan step down switch on the front although I expect most motherboards are now pretty capable of controlling PWM / DC fans that this is kind of redundant.Good quality screws and rubber grommets for sound proofing are supplied in an easy to understand pack with flex ties, extra fan screws and even a standoff assembly/removal tool.The Good:* Sturdy well thought out design* Quality parts and build* Looks great* Silent if need be* Loads of options / configurationsThe bad:* Moduvent system is very hard to remove* It's a pretty heavy case - once housing all the bits this will be seriously weighty.* Would have been nice to have had the 3rd fan included for the front* Fans are dead quiet but although rated at 1000rpm only seem to turn around 890rpm - they don't move a great deal of air so depending onyour needs you may need to look to better case fans.* Standoff tool breaks easily (nit picking now)For the negatives I couldn't warranty dropping even one star - half a star would be about it and so it's a 9/10 really.It's such a good case which has all the flexibility to build a great gaming rig or a docile office pc if that's what you want and it looks so neat. What more can you want?