Fractal Design Define Mini Build

Moved my system out of my FT03-T into a Fractal Design Define Mini that I purchased from MicroCenter locally where I live, also upgraded the motherboard for a future upgrade and SLi support as my other board only supported CrossFire and I personally prefer nVidia.

I also was able to stuff two Antec 620's in this awesome case using a bracket made by Dwood on oc.net I was able to put one on my GTX 570 that was heating my home during these warm summer days in MN.

While running BF3 on Ultra I'm at these temps:

GTX 570 ~55C
2600k ~55C

With all the fans running at max I can barely hear anything through the cases sound deadening material!




Had to use slim fans to fit both coolers at top back corner of the case, but they cool very nice, buying two more to get push pull on both cpu and gpu in the coming weeks.

Cable management was a little tough behind the motherboard tray but nothing I havent dealt with before

All fans run at max and you can barely hear it? What RPM are the fans running at? I have the same case, haven't had a chance to install hardware into it yet.

All of the fans are running ~1600 rpms, I have three fans going through the fan controller that fractal design includes with this case, the two up front are on the motherboard to be controlled via the Asus Fan XPert software to scale with CPU temps.

I was nervous about getting the slim fans even though they were Scythe because they were 28 dba: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185138&Tpk=sy1212sl12m but I'm really loving them, I can't believe that just one of the fans in PULL configuration is keeping my GTX 570 at ~55C during BF3.

I still need to get a cool vga heatsink kit for my card as I don't want to just rely on fans to keep the ram and vrm cool.

xyexz said:

also upgraded the motherboard for a future upgrade and SLi support as my other board only supported CrossFire and I personally prefer nVidia.

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How would you cool a 2nd card with this setup? A 3rd 620 Kuhler?!?!?

HoseHead said:

How would you cool a 2nd card with this setup? A 3rd 620 Kuhler?!?!?

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Yup

That's my idea anyways, I may just use the 570 and OC it since it is running very cool now and then perhaps upgrade for a 690 a year from now when they are cheaper.

Before I would bite on another 570 gtx (getting cheaper by the week now) I would need to know if I can crank the hoses to point the opposite direction on a 620 (essentially what would be towards the processor).

Reason being the hoses of the 620 I have mounted now would run right into my other 570 unless I can sli with the lowest pcie port on this board (any ideas on that?).

The third 620 would probably be mounted towards the front of the case and I would add a side fan to replace the front intake I would lose... I love all the options this case supports for fans in a mATX form factor - crazy!

That thing looks sweet. Dwood makes the best brackets. Fractal mini is probably one of the top 3 best matx cases.

EQWoody said:

That thing looks sweet. Dwood makes the best brackets. Fractal mini is probably one of the top 3 best matx cases.

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Yeah the bracket got f'd in the mail thanks to USPS but I was able to bend it back flat just with my hands which kind of made me nervous about it's clamping strength but it all worked out awesome and real holds nice.

And I'm definitely loving the case, I would agree with your opinion as well.