Fractal Define R6... in Gunmetal :)

[deathman20]

Been looking for that just right case for a while and finally got it. Something that will last me years like my previous case. There will be upgrades and tweaks coming to the case over the coming months. First up will be lighting this bad boy up.

Reason for upgrading:
- Its new... why not
- USB 3.0 Ports on the front (can upgrade to get a USB-C connector on the front too
- Way better cable management
- Possibilities of expanding to water cooling in the future
- Tempered Glass
- Lights lights lights! Show off that interior more
- Basement in case... really hides all that cable crap out of the way.
- Aaaand did I mention its a new thing? Been at least 5-6 years since I got a case so again excited

Pictures coming soon... Formatting is messed up on them so working it out and might have to post them later tonight.

 

[deathman20]

Here is a few of the case itself.

 

[Nebulous]

Freakin' awesome!! I know the feeling when you get a brand spankin' new case after several years of hacking up the old case to fit your upgrades.

Congrats bro! Looks like it's gonna be a sweet re-build!

 

[deathman20]

And thought I had a few better pictures when I was building but sadly i didn't. Most of it is final result and just took off the top sound deadening plate. Needed a little extra air output in the case. All fans (3 case and 2 cpu) are hooked into the fan hub on the backside of the case.

With the case i was able to get rid of the evil molex cables, and an additional SATA cable from the PSU. Going to fix the cable runs more in the back of the case once I get my light fans installed (month or two). Least right now going to figure out the fan controller a bit more. I know it modulates a little. Also probably will mount an additional 2 SSD on the back side of the motherboard tray as well.

Having the front door open or closed has very little if any effect on case temps with the current fans (2x 140 front, 140 back, 2x 120 on CPU heatsink very old too). Removing the top panel dropped GPU temps under stress about 5C.

The case is very roomy and really liking the feel / look and the ease of hiding cables in the configurations that it has internally.

 

[deathman20]

Freakin' awesome!! I know the feeling when you get a brand spankin' new case after several years of hacking up the old case to fit your upgrades.

Congrats bro! Looks like it's gonna be a sweet re-build!

Thx. Yeah old case did some minor tweaks to it but... it was nice, better than a previous case but this one is a drastic jump in "case" compared to other ones I've used. As for re-build wise, looking forward to seeing what GPU / CPU updates come out. Might do full upgrade if I really move forward with water.

Oh added note yes the front door does minor temp change, was only noticing a 0-1C difference before, its more like 2-3C difference in the GPU's at least that I've noticed, but a drop in noise that I can tell if the door was closed/open sitting next to it. Still its quieter than my old case which I'm thrilled about as well. Thank you sturdier case / sound dampening material for this, and probably notable mention is much newer / better case fans. Not to picky at least with it right now but should probably remove the plastic film on the outside of the glass next

 

[RollingThunder]

DM,

Great choice of a case, that is REALLY gorgeous. What are the dimensions (L x W X D)?

 

[deathman20]

DM,

Great choice of a case, that is REALLY gorgeous. What are the dimensions (L x W X D)?

Really big [emoji3]. Is slightly shorter but nearly 1" wide and thick 3.5" longer than my BitFinex Shinobi Window case I got a ways back. The whole case is way more roomy. More space behind the motherboard tray, more space least what it feels like between the case side and my monster heatsink. Way more space up front thanks to basically the removal of the 5 1/4" bays. It does have one and I could use it but got myself an external DVD burner so no need for that internally now.

Copied right from NewEgg.
(H x W x D) 18.3" x 9.17" x 21.38" with feet/screws/protrusions 17.64" x 9.17" x 21.06" without feet/filters.

 

[Nebulous]

Dang DM, you ain't waste any time and looks really nice and clean! I was under the impression your setup was watercooled. Never thought I'd see an air cooler!

All jokes aside, it does look sweet! One hell of a build! Enjoy it bud!

 

[deathman20]

Dang DM, you ain't waste any time and looks really nice and clean! I was under the impression your setup was watercooled. Never thought I'd see an air cooler!

All jokes aside, it does look sweet! One hell of a build! Enjoy it bud!

Actually wasted lots of time just posted everything at once
Got the case Thursday, spent Friday night taking all out of my old case and then trying to decide how I wanted the front drive cage to show... weather it I'd keep it or push it back to the motherboard tray (which I did). Then Saturday morning / afternoon got all the wiring connected up. One of these years hopefully GPU manufactures will realize that having cables coming out the front side of the GPU is not cool and put it closer to the motherboard tray area so we can hide the cables better. Anyways keeping the cables tidy was... easy with such an excellent case setup.

Ha yup can make jokes about that water cooling, been talking about it for a few years, and more so in the past few months. So indecisive with it especially with past experiences and the fact my wife will not understand at all. Started eyeing up the idea once I started looking at a new case really. Now I got the room to do so, rad in bottom, top, front, back... where ever I want one it can be placed. Now its just deciding how I want to proceed, if its just the CPU or adding the GPU into the mix. If I do the GPU do I just make sure I have the best of the best now and not worry about upgrading for a few years? Way to many decisions since I know upgrading items will be more difficult once I do go that route.

Anyways more case shots and updates will come once I get more things purchased and done for her. She looks so blah with no case lighting. Sadly my GPU is the only thing lite up right now, guess I'll have to update my motherboard so I can get lighting on it haha. That odd ball of a CPU heatsink, curious how that will play out with lighting on it... since its sooo big.

 

[RollingThunder]

You'll need a hand truck to move it!

 

[deathman20]

You'll need a hand truck to move it!

The case is 29.x lbs. With everything else in it, at least 45lbs I'd assume. It's heavy.

 

[custom90gt]

The case is 29.x lbs. With everything else in it, at least 45lbs I'd assume. It's heavy.

LOL I can totally relate. I love my R5 but with 8 8tb drives and 6 2.5" drives along with the rest of the goodies, it's just heavy...

 

[deathman20]

LOL I can totally relate. I love my R5 but with 8 8tb drives and 6 2.5" drives along with the rest of the goodies, it's just heavy...

View attachment 197717

Wow... nice mini server you got going there. Are all the 2.5" drives behind the motherboard tray? With the new case the drive enclosure tray could cover up all those drives so you don't see them, but would limit you to just 1x 5 1/4" bay. Still its a sweet looking case. I know I looked at the R3/R4 a long time ago but just couldn't justify it then. Now I know if you want a good case pay the little extra for it, it goes a LONG ways.
Hows that Corsair treating you for cooling the CPU? Running it 24/7? Was looking custom but might just go this route with 2-3 fan solution least initially.

Anyways speeding up my fan purchase... thank you Newegg for running a deal on the Corsair LL fans that I wanted to get, and emptying my wallet a little more. In packing now and 2 day ship so we'll see it light up sometime mid week.
3x 140mm Fans
3x 120mm Fans
1x Light Strip Kit Extension
1x Controller Pro

Idea behind this right now is to replace the 3x 140's with the new LL's. Place the 140's that came with the case on the top, with the light strips on the top to light it up. The 120's would go on my heatsink and have a spare right now.
Eventually water cooling the 120's would replace the 140's on the top with a 2 or 3 120mm rad rad.

My case is so clean its... well not sure what to do with all the space yet. Might get additional colored cables eventually on the GPU and CPU connectors. Maybe get the riser kit to mount my GPU vertically.

 

[custom90gt]

Wow... nice mini server you got going there. Are all the 2.5" drives behind the motherboard tray? With the new case the drive enclosure tray could cover up all those drives so you don't see them, but would limit you to just 1x 5 1/4" bay. Still its a sweet looking case. I know I looked at the R3/R4 a long time ago but just couldn't justify it then. Now I know if you want a good case pay the little extra for it, it goes a LONG ways.
Hows that Corsair treating you for cooling the CPU? Running it 24/7? Was looking custom but might just go this route with 2-3 fan solution least initially.

Anyways speeding up my fan purchase... thank you Newegg for running a deal on the Corsair LL fans that I wanted to get, and emptying my wallet a little more. In packing now and 2 day ship so we'll see it light up sometime mid week.
3x 140mm Fans
3x 120mm Fans
1x Light Strip Kit Extension
1x Controller Pro

Idea behind this right now is to replace the 3x 140's with the new LL's. Place the 140's that came with the case on the top, with the light strips on the top to light it up. The 120's would go on my heatsink and have a spare right now.
Eventually water cooling the 120's would replace the 140's on the top with a 2 or 3 120mm rad rad.

My case is so clean its... well not sure what to do with all the space yet. Might get additional colored cables eventually on the GPU and CPU connectors. Maybe get the riser kit to mount my GPU vertically.

The 2.5"s are actually in a 2x5.25" to 8x2.5" hot swap bay:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817392073

The case panel with the window has enough metal to cover up the ugly drives/cables so it doesn't look too bad when the side is on. I really should spend some time cleaning up the cables again, the computer has changed so much since the initial build but I haven't devoted any real time to making it look better.

The Corsair is fine for the 7920x, not going to be able to high really high clocks but it is fine for 4.4-4.6ghz on all cores and keeping prime95 temps in the low 90's. I'd love to go with a custom loop, but I don't have room for it (if I went that route I'd have to cool the GPU as well, lol).

I love the LL corsair fans, they look amazing. I do have some ML140 RGB pro fans in front of the case, I just wanted something with a little more static pressure than the LL's have. I think you'll really like the fans though, they really do look cool.

 

[deathman20]

The 2.5"s are actually in a 2x5.25" to 8x2.5" hot swap bay:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817392073

Very nice, I use to use a 2x 5.25" with 3x 3.5" drives previously. Very nice to cram a bunch of drives into a space that wasn't utilized that well back in the day.

The case panel with the window has enough metal to cover up the ugly drives/cables so it doesn't look too bad when the side is on. I really should spend some time cleaning up the cables again, the computer has changed so much since the initial build but I haven't devoted any real time to making it look better.

Oh yes totally forgot that it was hidden in the older version covering that up over there with the metal panel.

The Corsair is fine for the 7920x, not going to be able to high really high clocks but it is fine for 4.4-4.6ghz on all cores and keeping prime95 temps in the low 90's. I'd love to go with a custom loop, but I don't have room for it (if I went that route I'd have to cool the GPU as well, lol).

Well that's good to know. Course I'm not running a 7920x, but like hearing that it runs well. You got the 2x 140mm version, hard to tell in the image. I don't have my CPU at full tilt for extremely long periods of time so getting anywhere close to prime95 temps is well not going to happen for my setupo. I know I've been considering custom loop myself, but still like the flexibility of easily changing hardware too. Guess not ready to give up full flexibility that I have on my air setup just yet but yeah if it was custom I'd really consider the GPU as well since that seems to benefit the most from a water loop

I love the LL corsair fans, they look amazing. I do have some ML140 RGB pro fans in front of the case, I just wanted something with a little more static pressure than the LL's have. I think you'll really like the fans though, they really do look cool.

Yes that is the reason why I've been looking at them, the dual lights just look sweet with the soft lighting they have compared to some other vendors. Figured if it needs to be a little louder or warmer, I'd sacrifice for the cool look of the fans.

 

[custom90gt]

Yeah it's the H115i. It worked great on my 7700k at 5.1ghz as well. You're right that it's hard to give up the ease of rebuilding/flexibility that an AIO provides.

 

[Blaylock]

Would you recommend this case to other members? Should I add it to the recommended list?

 

[deathman20]

Yeah it's the H115i. It worked great on my 7700k at 5.1ghz as well. You're right that it's hard to give up the ease of rebuilding/flexibility that an AIO provides.

Perfect! Just looking at it now and checking how light my pocket book will become haha, the H115i Pro is most likely my route I'd go. deciding where to place it in the case and all that I think I'd feel safe with it that way. Could even do a push/pull config since I'll have spare 140mm fans truly. I sense testing involved. Anyways probably next month after I pay off my case and $300 worth of fans, or sooner if a deal comes up.

Would you recommend this case to other members? Should I add it to the recommended list?

I'd say absolutely yes. Between all the reviews I've looked at and the crazy setups you can do in this. Its highly flexible with water cooling, cable runs are great, and at a price you can add vertical GPU and USB-C port to the front of the case. Along with the fact that the drive bay can exist but hidden (behind the metal plate) or make room for some massive cooling / clean look in the case. Guess maybe the only downside is there is no way to seal up the basement. Either case I'm impressed with it and give it a nice 4.5 Stars. Always room for some improvement.

 

[deathman20]

Got to love Newegg with free 2-Day Shipping (Checkout Shop Runner if your credit card offers it!!!!). Packed and shipped yesterday, arrived just 20min ago.
So first up, fan and lighting goodness arrived today (pics and videos potentially later). Now since I have no personal control if I want to do something I ordered the Corsair H115i Pro yesterday and if like the fans could be here tomorrow.

Overall looking forward to some building fun in the case.

 

[deathman20]

Fans, fans, and lights... more to come