Fractal Design Define R6

Still no tool-less hard drive cage?

nope still a screwdriver needed. I also found the tray's to be a little annoying to put back in the case especially with a HDD in them, the SSD trays behing the mobo are a lot more user friendly.
 
I'm using the AC liquid freezer 240 with the four included fans which are all daisy chained to one another, my aio goes to the CPU fan header and the fans to the CPU optional header, there is no USB cable.

It's those daisy chained cables that make a mess, not very handy with those.

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as you can see, definitely nned to work on cable management some more
 
I really like the design of this case. Tempted to pick it up when its available.

Had been thinking of picking up a Fractal Design Meshify C for when I bite the bullet and build a new system, but I'm not sure I'm quite ready to part with my optical drive. The R6 seems to be well liked going by the few Youtube reviews I watched after seeing this (I know, take with a grain of salt), but I still have an irrational concern about sound dampening foam and material... remember reading that the R5's was asphalt based (?) and don't know how I feel about fans blowing over that stuff and out into a small room for hours on end. Again, probably irrational, but just doesn't sit right.

IMO irrational is very likely the best way to word this, one gets far more crud from normal everyday stuff, OUR dirt (people shed constantly) various off gassing from textiles, paint and so forth. pretty sure you will get a small % of crud coming off everything such as case fans, thermal paste and so forth
it is good to be concerned, but be mindful of where that concern need lie.

eat well, sleep well, we have a system designed to "handle" dirt after all :)
 
So looks like Fractal Design is coming out with a new case. Thoughts? Looks like I will be finally upgrading my Antec P183 V1 that I've had for many years now.



That's exactly what I did, solid metal sides though. Added some extra filtering to the R6 up front (guards over the 140s and a thick open cell filter in place of the stock), and I am very pleased. The stock fans are awesome, I even bought 5 more in black, 2 for my H110i radiator, the rest for swapping out the white ones. Temps are so much better, with just a tad bit more noise over the P183 with Scythe Kaze Flex FDBs (great fans BTW).
 
I noticed my NVMe drive is getting pretty hot (81° according to hwinfo64) would placing it below the GPU help cool it as there would be more circulation or would that just add more heat ?
 
With a new WD Red replacing an old WD Blue, and two of the new Fractal 140s replacing the old Corsair junk 140s, it's stupid quiet. Love this case....

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I really didn't want to take the top cover off... For noise concerns and for dust. (my current case gets a lot of dust of course on the top of it. Easy to clean it off when you just wipe it)

But I may have to move my AIO to the top to improve airflow... And get my 960 pro temperature down to reasonable levels.
 
Hey does anyone have any suggestions on how to take the top off the modu-vent?

I got the whole assembly off the top of the case, but the manual is COMPLETELY USELESS in explaining how to separate the metal part from the moduvent filter and "register". I don't want to break it.
 
Hey does anyone have any suggestions on how to take the top off the modu-vent?

I got the whole assembly off the top of the case, but the manual is COMPLETELY USELESS in explaining how to separate the metal part from the moduvent filter and "register". I don't want to break it.

Good guide here, I believe he covers it in this video at 4:00
 
Thank you - I knew I had seen that somewhere, but finding it was something I thought impossible... :)
 
I found that a 140mm in the door of my R4 helped with nvme temps.

Granted swapping those out to 960's has made any throttling a non-issue.

Adding a second 140 up front was ok, direct air was better.

I ordered a scratch and ding Define C tonight bc the R4 + 280 front rad makes drive mounting a pain.

That whole older E3 build is going, new build is basically all new (to me) except for my PSU.

Liked the R4 when I was using the cages and room.

Current build doesn't need much space or attention to problems.
 
So I've had this case since Monday now...

And a couple quirks.

1) In the alternate configuration, pushing the modesty panel (drive tray holder) to the left side of the case... Will not support the external drive bay. So if you don't plan on putting tons of drives in the case and just want unobstructed airflow, there's really no way to mount a standard 3.5" drive (if you want to use that external drive bay). I get that people don't often have a DVD/Blu-Ray drive, but I do. And I would have mounted a drive or two in the vertical position supported by the alternate design, but it isn't supported.

2) My Asus Rog Extreme mounts the EZ-PLUG facing down (parallel to the motherboard), not up (perpendicular). The power supply shroud essentially abuts this connector when the MB is mounted. I'd have to cut a notch / slot in the shroud to actually use the EZ-PLUG.

That's all. The case is a great value for what you get overall.

How is the material quality/thickness of the motherboard tray, does the case have a lot of flex?
 
Since I'm purchasing the R6 sight unseen, I was a little concerned about the quality as I primarily use CM as they are well built.

I've used my R4 since 2013.
It's been stuffed full of hard drives as my VMware lab.
I ran it with ssds and an Areca card as a POC for Kubernetes in production in 2015.
I was doing hybrid N-tier builds while getting the AWS DevOps Pro cert the past couple years working in a large environment.

Only recently have I decided to retire it bc AIO support is lacking.

R5's and R6's won't be limited in cooling options.

You can get a lot done in 5 years with one.

I downsized to a Define C bc my storage requirements wont exceed 3 ssds and a pair of hard drives. That will tier down from nvme drives, or the workload will be exported to a public cloud provider if it exceeds what I have.
 
How is the material quality/thickness of the motherboard tray, does the case have a lot of flex?

When it's taken apart, I would be careful not to bend certain parts, you will be able to tell where one it's torn down all the way.
 
Since I'm purchasing the R6 sight unseen, I was a little concerned about the quality as I primarily use CM as they are well built.

CM build quality is a shadow of what it used to be. I have a Master Case 5 pro, its a good case, but it has an awful of of plastic on it. I'll be purchasing an R6 when they release. I still own a R5 Black Pearl too, Fractal makes excellent case & their construction is very solid. I think you'll be happy.
 
That may be, but for air I don't see the need.

If you don't need drive density, using an air cooler, then the Define C is better bc of it's footprint.

I have both an air cooled rig and AIO CPU/GPU.
 
What happens? I'm thinking about an H150i mounted in front in a R5 right now.

Lining up the bottom holes is a pita.
A 360 you may not have the top row line up either.
Yeah, it's nice you can clear out all the drive cages but you need a Dremel and a drill to get 280+ rads lined up.

Might as well clear out some space around the ODD bracket and slap on an extra magnetic filter.

Define S is a better choice unless you already have an R5.
 
As wide as these cases are, does it make sense to go with a 120mm-based AIO cooler?

I have the H115i, the 280mm unit, on the two front top positions in my R5, and have the 120mm GPU AIO on the back position (which is why the H115i went where it did). I had to remove all but the bottom drive cage, but no dremeling was necessary- though not all eight screws were used for the H115i up top.

And the case is still quite a bit wider than the cooler.
 
You can better cooling with air, rather than the 120mm AIO coolers. They don't make sense unless you are heavily restricted due to space, or don't care how loud they can get.
 
You can better cooling with air, rather than the 120mm AIO coolers. They don't make sense unless you are heavily restricted due to space, or don't care how loud they can get.

Agree, AIO's are a rip off. Plus they add an extra point of failure in your system. Even if the fan failed on a Air cooler the Heatsink would continue to function.
 
Agree, AIO's are a rip off. Plus they add an extra point of failure in your system. Even if the fan failed on a Air cooler the Heatsink would continue to function.

Well not all AIOs are a ripoff. The larger 2x120mm and up, can provide much better load temps than any air cooler, and take up less space while running very quiet. Even if the pump fails, any modern CPU will protect itself from damage.
 
Well not all AIOs are a ripoff. The larger 2x120mm and up, can provide much better load temps than any air cooler, and take up less space while running very quiet. Even if the pump fails, any modern CPU will protect itself from damage.

You should try using a NHD15. I think you would be surprised in how low you can get temperatures with an air cooler.
 
You should try using a NHD15. I think you would be surprised in how low you can get temperatures with an air cooler.

In my current config, it's not practical. Plus I think overall case temps (other components) benefit from having the radiator mounted in the top exhausting the CPU heat and aiding convection. But for certain, if I ever have any problems with this unit (H110i) then I will go back to air, I have a Mugen 5 revB waiting in the wings just in case. As it is now, all I hear is a little air moving, and excellent temps on everything in the case. There is no denying the benefits of the large tower coolers today, but the newer and larger AIOs are better than they used to be. I would have never considered an AIO before trying the H110i. Reliability is my only real concern.
 
Lining up the bottom holes is a pita.
A 360 you may not have the top row line up either.
Yeah, it's nice you can clear out all the drive cages but you need a Dremel and a drill to get 280+ rads lined up.

Might as well clear out some space around the ODD bracket and slap on an extra magnetic filter.

Define S is a better choice unless you already have an R5.

I already have a R5, I just bought the H150i Pro. We'll see how it does. I've mounted the smaller H100i v2 (240mm) without much of an issue in another R5.

Still waiting on a White TG R6. But realistically, I'm looking for something smaller, like a Meshify-C, but with R6 TG styling. If anyone knows something like that from another vendor, PM me (must be white).

You should try using a NHD15. I think you would be surprised in how low you can get temperatures with an air cooler.

Might not be a popular opinion here, but I don't really like the aesthetics of most air coolers. The AMD Wraith Max are an exception. At least with Corsair AIO's you get a 5 year warranty that covers not only the AIO, but the other parts as well.
 
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