Fractal Design Define R6

dexvx said:

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).



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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I have a Define C that my air cooled 7700k is finally living in. I had a ~2mm clearance prob with a 1080yi ftw3. 1070ftw2 lives in it now and all is well.

The R5 is getting cleared out for a 7820x and an H115i I've been bouncing around builds. I'm not clocking it bc I'm using 64gb 3200 kits. I need stability more than anything else out of the R5. Higher freq ram is preferable for my use case than balls out clockspeed.

I'd agree that air coolers aren't the most attractive, but if I cared about that more than anything else my builds would be in P3's mounted over the tv on my desk. They're cheap and cheerful and I used to use air for things I couldn't have down.

Rads aren't going to be eating burgers on the hood of a car in a Carl's/Hardees ad either.

If I wasn't building a 2nd box I'd probably have gone with a 240 aio bc they fit everywhere.

R5/R6 has the advantage that if you are running something that needs airflow you can go big up top and suck tons of air in from the front/back/side/bottom.

I do wish that someone would update the Silverstone Fortress 02 for those extreme use cases.

somebrains said:

I do wish that someone would update the Silverstone Fortress 02 for those extreme use cases.

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I had really wanted to use that enclosure at one point- it's basically perfect if you're using a 120mm AIO on the CPU and two or three blower-equipped GPUs- but even with the intakes, that'll just never be quiet.

Off topic, but wish I could get an R5/6 HDD cage/mount for my Define S. The back mounted HDDs get a little warm in the summer, and I find it a pain to route the last SATA/power cable to the top. I'd really like to be able to use one in the traditional position so I can get some good airflow over it and the rest be in the back.

Flogger23m said:

Off topic, but wish I could get an R5/6 HDD cage/mount for my Define S. The back mounted HDDs get a little warm in the summer, and I find it a pain to route the last SATA/power cable to the top. I'd really like to be able to use one in the traditional position so I can get some good airflow over it and the rest be in the back.

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My R5 cages are all sitting in a box.
I had to do this crazy mod to my R5 bc the 7820x was sitting around 91c. Guess having just a 280mm aio in front isn't so great for HEDT.




There are use cases that make a 3rd front fan desireable. Ideally blowing across the vrms.

I have found that if your radiator is mounted up front with the fittings on top, it can cause issues, it seems that any air in the system will stay higher and cooling will suffer. My h110i actually made a lot of air noise in that config.

I would like to use this case for NAS but need ateast six 3.5 HDD. Looking at the pictures, it seems that you can put atleast 9 drives. Fractal only include 6 HDD trays, anybody knows where to get more of these?

trumee said:

I would like to use this case for NAS but need ateast six 3.5 HDD. Looking at the pictures, it seems that you can put atleast 10 drives. Fractal only include 6 HDD trays, anybody knows where to get more of these?

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Call Fractal.

The front has two 140mm fans, however there is space at the bottom. What size fan can you mount at the bottom?

The front is for 2x140 or 3x120.

I am running short of HDD trays on R6. Anybody got spare trays to sell?

Can anyone tell me if I can run a 420mm rad up top and a 360 in the front at the same time? If I am reading the diagram correctly, I believe I can only run a 420mm up top and then a 280mm in the front. I had bought a 420mm rad and fans from a member here to go with my 360 I currently have for the new build in a TT Core x71 but that case arrived with the plastic on the tempered glass door damaged and it is super cheap feeling.

If I can not make a 360/420 combo work, can anyone recommend a case to look at it for under $225? If I can't find anything I guess I can just use the 420mm since I am only cooling a pair of VEGA 56s and a Ryzen 2700. Just hate to have a nice rad sitting around not being used.

Just built my new system in this case. Only grip is if you have radiator mounted up top the screws keep the filter/panel from laying flat. I can force it in but it causes the filter stick out a bit. Need to get some flat head scews.

ccityinstaller said:

Can anyone tell me if I can run a 420mm rad up top and a 360 in the front at the same time? If I am reading the diagram correctly, I believe I can only run a 420mm up top and then a 280mm in the front. I had bought a 420mm rad and fans from a member here to go with my 360 I currently have for the new build in a TT Core x71 but that case arrived with the plastic on the tempered glass door damaged and it is super cheap feeling.

If I can not make a 360/420 combo work, can anyone recommend a case to look at it for under $225? If I can't find anything I guess I can just use the 420mm since I am only cooling a pair of VEGA 56s and a Ryzen 2700. Just hate to have a nice rad sitting around not being used.

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280mm is the largest you can go in front with a 420mm in the top. You would still have space for an additional 140mm rad in the bottom, though.

vegeta535 said:

Just built my new system in this case. Only grip is if you have radiator mounted up top the screws keep the filter/panel from laying flat. I can force it in but it causes the filter stick out a bit. Need to get some flat head scews.

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This is the first I've heard about screw head clearance being an issue. What model rad is it you're using?

Fractal Design NA said:

This is the first I've heard about screw head clearance being an issue. What model rad is it you're using?

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Using a h100i v2 with the stock mounting screws that came with it. I tried both rails and still had clearance issues.

Interesting. By no means an uncommon cooler so it seems like there surely would have been another complaint by now if all of them had this same issue with the R6. I'll check with the support team and see what they've heard. Maybe they can suggest some sort of fix as well.

Fractal Design NA said:

280mm is the largest you can go in front with a 420mm in the top. You would still have space for an additional 140mm rad in the bottom, though.

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Thanks for the reply! Sadly I already have 2 very expensive high end 360 and 420mm rads so I guess I am going to have to go with the ThermalTake View 71 that [H]ard gave a gold award too. Really wanted to give you guys a try but I will have to wait until next time!

Fractal Design NA said:

Interesting. By no means an uncommon cooler so it seems like there surely would have been another complaint by now if all of them had this same issue with the R6. I'll check with the support team and see what they've heard. Maybe they can suggest some sort of fix as well.

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It is not a huge deal to me but here some pictures. The screws get in the way no matter how I mount it. I can push the edges down but then the middle pops out.

vegeta535 said:

Just built my new system in this case. Only grip is if you have radiator mounted up top the screws keep the filter/panel from laying flat. I can force it in but it causes the filter stick out a bit. Need to get some flat head scews.

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Or you could dremel away a little plastic on the vent where the screws are.

Also, when you try to latch all three points, it helps to hold two down two while you do the last one, or hold in the button on the back while pressing it flat, then release the button. I have stuffed a low density filter in there before and still latched it.

When ever you press one in, it pushes the release bar forward just like the button does, so any points not held down will pop up.

vick1000 said:

Or you could dremel away a little plastic on the vent where the screws are.

Also, when you try to latch all three points, it helps to hold two down two while you do the last one, or hold in the button on the back while pressing it flat, then release the button. I have stuffed a low density filter in there before and still latched it.

When ever you press one in, it pushes the release bar forward just like the button does, so any points not held down will pop up.

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Oh I can fix it no bit though it be worth a mention. If I force them all in they will still pop out the sec I let go. Like I said it is not a big deal and can be remedied easily.

vegeta535 said:

It is not a huge deal to me but here some pictures. The screws get in the way no matter how I mount it. I can push the edges down but then the middle pops out.

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I don't see anything unusual about those screws, so as far as I can tell they really shouldn't be giving you so much grief with the top filter alignment. In my experience, the best way to get the top filter lined up just right is to lay it in and then push along the edge from the center out, sort of like closing a tupperware dish. You might try that if you haven't already.

If it still keeps wanting to stick out along the edges though, it could also be that there's too much tension on the springs (the two metal tabs angled up slightly on either end of the radiator bracket). If that's the case, you might try bending each of them down ever so slightly so they're not putting so much force on the edges of the filter.

Unless you're doing a case mod or something you really shouldn't have to resort to rotary tools to make it look right.

I wonder if you move the radiator to the outer position (further from the motherboard) if it will fit right. That's where mine is, and I have the H110 kit with I assume the same screws, maybe thinner washers though.

Fractal Design NA said:

I don't see anything unusual about those screws, so as far as I can tell they really shouldn't be giving you so much grief with the top filter alignment. In my experience, the best way to get the top filter lined up just right is to lay it in and then push along the edge from the center out, sort of like closing a tupperware dish. You might try that if you haven't already.

If it still keeps wanting to stick out along the edges though, it could also be that there's too much tension on the springs (the two metal tabs angled up slightly on either end of the radiator bracket). If that's the case, you might try bending each of them down ever so slightly so they're not putting so much force on the edges of the filter.

Unless you're doing a case mod or something you really shouldn't have to resort to rotary tools to make it look right.

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I tried bending down the tabs a bit and it all snaped into place. Maybe I was a little to rough with it when I took it apart. Everything is peachy now. Thanks for the advice. Now I have no issue with the case.

Does anyone know if the hard drive cage needs to be removed in order to install Silent Wings 3 for their intakes in an R5? It looks as if the mounting solutions would only work from the back, but I'm not sure.

Can anyone confirm if fans are mountable on the PSU shroud? If not, it could be a good mod to add fans under the GPU to route intake air from the front directly up into the GPU.

Sherloc09 said:

Can anyone confirm if fans are mountable on the PSU shroud? If not, it could be a good mod to add fans under the GPU to route intake air from the front directly up into the GPU.

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There are two 140mm fan positions in the base but not on the PSU shroud itself. Personally though, I think the ideal approach here wouldn't be to add fans closer to the GPU so much as getting the existing airflow to go there on its own (rather than taking the path of least resistance directly to the top and/or rear exhaust). Fans do work for that of course, but by my line of thinking so should a solid panel. The modular plate might actually have some hidden potential here if you're thinking about modding. I'm just thinking out loud here, but if an HDD bracket positioned in the center of the chassis was to be made wider, longer, and more solid, you'd basically have a wind tunnel forcing 4 intakes out of 5 directly to the GPU. This is actually something I'd like to experiment with myself as I think GPU airflow (and airflow control in general) is something that that could definitely be improved in future cases.

Fractal Design NA said:

There are two 140mm fan positions in the base but not on the PSU shroud itself. Personally though, I think the ideal approach here wouldn't be to add fans closer to the GPU so much as getting the existing airflow to go there on its own (rather than taking the path of least resistance directly to the top and/or rear exhaust). Fans do work for that of course, but by my line of thinking so should a solid panel. The modular plate might actually have some hidden potential here if you're thinking about modding. I'm just thinking out loud here, but if an HDD bracket positioned in the center of the chassis was to be made wider, longer, and more solid, you'd basically have a wind tunnel forcing 4 intakes out of 5 directly to the GPU. This is actually something I'd like to experiment with myself as I think GPU airflow (and airflow control in general) is something that that could definitely be improved in future cases.

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Yeah, I'm thinking of modding a Noctua or two to the PSU shroud to direct front intake on the lower half of the case into a low pressure area under the GPU; by adding a fan to the PSU shroud believe you'd be forcing air out of the area underneath the GPU which should pull the intake air into the GPU more than up above it into the HSU. Since the PSU shroud sits next to some of the grommets, it'd allow the modder to pass the fan wiring behind the backplate with minimal cable management.

Can someone please measure the psu shroud width?
Just need to know if I can fit a mini-ITX mother board on top of that

This:


I’m building a new pc for unRaid (NAS/Plex server), windows VM (gaming) and macOS VM (day use). My plan is to build everything in the R6 so I got 2 ideas:

1) Threadripper build with GPU passthrouth and VMs (my initial plan)
2) 2 pcs in the same case. Using mini-itx motherboards (1 running unRaid with pcie SATA controller and 1 running windows/mac with dedicated GPU)

Many people say not to do NAS and gamming on the same system because of instability and power consumption (would be running 24/7), that’s what got me thinking about the second plan (could turn the windows one off when not in use), but I still need to figure it out how to adjust pwm case fans to fallow the load of the 2 boards.

Esus said:

Can someone please measure the psu shroud width?
Just need to know if I can fit a mini-ITX mother board on top of that

This:
View attachment 116348

I’m building a new pc for unRaid (NAS/Plex server), windows VM (gaming) and macOS VM (day use). My plan is to build everything in the R6 so I got 2 ideas:

1) Threadripper build with GPU passthrouth and VMs (my initial plan)
2) 2 pcs in the same case. Using mini-itx motherboards (1 running unRaid with pcie SATA controller and 1 running windows/mac with dedicated GPU)

Many people say not to do NAS and gamming on the same system because of instability and power consumption (would be running 24/7), that’s what got me thinking about the second plan (could turn the windows one off when not in use), but I still need to figure it out how to adjust pwm case fans to fallow the load of the 2 boards.

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I'm working something very similar in unRAID with a Threadripper this weekend. I will update you on that method once I get it working.

Esus said:

Can someone please measure the psu shroud width?
Just need to know if I can fit a mini-ITX mother board on top of that

This:
View attachment 116348

I’m building a new pc for unRaid (NAS/Plex server), windows VM (gaming) and macOS VM (day use). My plan is to build everything in the R6 so I got 2 ideas:

1) Threadripper build with GPU passthrouth and VMs (my initial plan)
2) 2 pcs in the same case. Using mini-itx motherboards (1 running unRaid with pcie SATA controller and 1 running windows/mac with dedicated GPU)

Many people say not to do NAS and gamming on the same system because of instability and power consumption (would be running 24/7), that’s what got me thinking about the second plan (could turn the windows one off when not in use), but I still need to figure it out how to adjust pwm case fans to fallow the load of the 2 boards.

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~7 inches or ~175 mm.

mashtub651 said:

I'm working something very similar in unRAID with a Threadripper this weekend. I will update you on that method once I get it working.

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Thanks, I will problably start the build next year so maybe with Threadripper 3, but will buy Case and PSU first. I believe 16 cores would be the sweet spot for this project, setting NUMA with 8 cores and their PCIe controller for the VM, and the other die running unRaid/Plex.

Sherloc09 said:

~7 inches or ~175 mm.

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Thanks, it would be tight but should fit a 17x17cm mini-ITX and run it headless. Just need to decide which idea would be best.

I have 6 3.5'' drive trays (black) that I can sell to someone if they need them. Sorry if i'm breaking the rules, but figured it was more relevant to post it in here if someone was interested.

This is my first fractal design case and overall i'm very pleased. The quality of construction is the best I've personally seen. I'll quick list a few gripes though.

- I really, really, hate those tiny flat screws that hold the top radiator mount thing into place. Maybe i'm just getting old, but these things suck.

- The quality of construction is the best I've seen in a case, but some things still weren't perfect. The farthest back most metal tab that holds the glass side of the top radiator mount in my case gets stuck. It requires immense force to remove it and not completely destroy everything around it in the process. I ended up just grinding the tab down so I never had to deal with it again.

- Please re-think the 2.5'' SSD holders behind the motherboard. When brand new these things are a royal pain to remove/install with the metal tab design. Just make it a thumbscrew up top and a thumbscrew on the bottom.

- The middle plastic tabs on the front cover. Just get rid of these things. Make them screws. Every time I take off the front cover I worry about breaking it because these plastic inserts hold too much.

- Use a higher quality front panel USB 3 header cable. This thing is just way too stiff.

- Finally, and again i'm getting old; Please enhance the instructions a little. Make the booklet bigger, full pages if possible, and most importantly - Label the screws! Converting the case to the open design has a mixture of different types of screws and my old brain forgets what screw went where and the instructions don't clearly show what screw is what.

I realize all of this sounds like nitpicking, but over the duration of putting things together some of these things caused way more frustration then was needed. Again though - this case is outstanding compared to anything else I've used. Given the size of the case and still having so much room really goes to show the engineering put behind it. I've had much larger cases that ended up being less functional.

Oh, and I saw another poster had issues with the top dust cover not fitting with a rad mounted - I had the same issue with my Corsair h150i. This was easily fixed by not using the included washers as the washers added just a little bit too much height, and honestly they weren't needed as it was.

Just another question...

Does the R6 solve the noise/vibration problem with HDD trays/bottom filter of the R5? I’ve read a some complains about this with some people having problems with vibration constantly activating the HDDs protection on systems with a full HDD cage.

I know the trays were redesign, but it looks less stable than the prior one.

Esus said:

Just another question...

Does the R6 solve the noise/vibration problem with HDD trays/bottom filter of the R5? I’ve read a some complains about this with some people having problems with vibration constantly activating the HDDs protection on systems with a full HDD cage.

I know the trays were redesign, but it looks less stable than the prior one.

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Never used a R5. The R6 HDD trays have a big rubber grommet on the front where they attach to the panel, and on top of that a bunch of grommets are included for all 4 screw mounting points from the tray itself to the HDD as well. I don't see vibration being an issue.

I just built a system in an R6 with two busy spinning disks, vibration’s not an issue.

Esus said:

Just another question...

Does the R6 solve the noise/vibration problem with HDD trays/bottom filter of the R5? I’ve read a some complains about this with some people having problems with vibration constantly activating the HDDs protection on systems with a full HDD cage.

I know the trays were redesign, but it looks less stable than the prior one.

Click to expand...

Hey ! I'm havjng this exact issue on my R5 right now and its absolutely annoying me to death.

The lower cage vibrates at a rate to create this super buzz sound and I don't know how to fix it.

I wedged some thick folded paper between the cage and the fan and that worked for a little while but it always came back.

You sound like you are fully aware of this problem, so maybe you might know a solution for it too ? or can you link me somewhere to someone who has conquered this problem ?

No clue as I don't use any on my R6. The HDD holders all have soft rubber connections on it that should prevent said issue though.