Fractal Design Gallery

9guns said:
hey badmau5,

can you supply us w/ details about your custom psu/ODD bay cover as well as the clear side panel? such as where did you get them? did you make them yourself? as i think i mentioned before when you first posted up this build, i'm SOOO in love w/ your build and it has inspired me the put together something similar (i7-2600k, asus maximus iv gene-z, evga gtx 580, 2x4gb corsair dominator gt, corsair ax650, noctua nh-c14, and of course fractal design core 1000).

thanks! :D:D:D
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Absolutely, so i thought that this case would look much better if 5.25" bays and psu were covered, at first i wanted to use black acrylic, but i had some super old case laying around so i just took it's side panel and cut the cover out of it, it went easier than i expected actually. to make it look better i decided to make it curved. I used $25 Black&Decker rotary tool to cut the metal and set of hand files so clean the edges.

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then i tried it on, drilled 4 holes:

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and at last spray painted it with few coats of flat black:

DSCF5847.jpg


and voila:

before:

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after:

_DSC0480.jpg


I used fan screws to mount the cover.

And to be able to show all the work i did to the case i decided to cut fully clear side panel - i used smoked acrylic which i bought long time ago but didnt use it. U can order acrylic from several websides online some even offer cut-to-size, i had to cut mine myself so i just clamped it to the table and used very sharp knife and sanded edges after. Then i drilled 6 holes in it and used thumb screws to mount it:

_DSC0524.jpg


:) good luck with your build and have a nice modding
 
Funny thing about this build - reservoir much more expensive than entire case ;d
 
Hi guys !

I'd have a question for you.

I currently have a Fractal Design Define XL.

My current CPU cooler is a crappy Zalman CNPS9700, which was fine on my old Core 2 Duo CPU, but not on my new 2700K. Even not overclocked at all, the CPU package temperature goes up to 88 degrees under heavy BOINC workload and OCCT.

I know the Noctua NH-D14 fits well in the XL, but what about the Thermalright Silver Arrow, which seems a little bit better than the NH-D14 ? Apparently, there is only a 7 mm difference in the lenght between both CPU heatsinks ( The Silver Arrow is 7 mm larger than NH-D14). Do you think the Silver Arrow will fit in the XL ? I'm not worried about the height, but more about the angled top 1800mm fan... If the CPU heatsink is too large, it could be obstructed by the top fan.

What are your thought about this ? Is there plenty of room available between the NH-D14 and the top fan? 7 mm is not very big, but enought to get problems...

Config :

Asus P8P67 WS Revolution
Intel Core i7 2700K
Zalman CNPS9700 CPU Fansink
Kingston HyperX 16 GB PC3-12800
Crucial M4 128 GB SSD
Asus Xonar Essence STX
Fractal Design XL Titanium
Corsair HX520
AMD Radeon HD4850 - To be replaced soon with nVIDIA GK-104
Windows 7 x64 Professional
 
Wow. Wish I would have found this thread earlier in the year when I bought mine from ncix.

I'm doing a new build so I'll take pics after its together again.
 
Arc Midi

PC291024-1.jpg


PC291032.jpg


Anyone else have the top a little wonky like this? Could be from shipping, something heavy on top of it or something, not a real big deal...
PC291031.jpg
 
nalc said:
Did Fractal redesign the included fans? Yours look different than the normal ones.
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The Rear, Top, and both front fans are Fractals (Took one from my wifes machine, which she got a Fractal Arc Mini)

The Bottom fan is a Xigamatek fan, one of the new "Typhoon" Series.
 
Mosher said:
The Rear, Top, and both front fans are Fractals (Took one from my wifes machine, which she got a Fractal Arc Mini)

The Bottom fan is a Xigamatek fan, one of the new "Typhoon" Series.
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I guess the reflective sticker on the hub is new, then. The fans on my Define R3 and Define XL don't have them.

Nice build, BTW. Mine is fairly similar in the R3. It irks me how the longer GPUs have the connectors facing out. So difficult to get it to look nice when you have to do a 180 degree turn. I understand why, but it would be nice for cable management aficionados if they were on the lower right corner of the card, facing right, rather than in the upper right corner, facing up (when viewing it with the PCI brackets to the left and the PCIe connector to the bottom). Wouldn't mind a shortened cable on the Hyper 212+ either, or at least a black one. At least they wisened up and put a second rubber grommet above the motherboard for the EPS 8-pin, as the R3 just has the one directly above the CPU socket. And I love how Corsair has all black cables for the AX850, not multicolored cables in black techflex.
 
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Thanks! Yea I don't like all the multi-colored wires on everything, the AX850 is a great PSU and will handle anything I plan on throwing in this system, along with the black cables and being fully modular it was just what I wanted. Eventually I'd maybe like to do an H100 or WC, a second 560 Ti, and clean up the wiring a bit more, but we will see, that stuff is not free.
 
Carbon_Le said:
Does anyone know where i can get the arc mini? Newegg is all out of stock.
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Unsure. Seems out of stock everywhere, and i sent email to their US rep earlier this week and got no response. Newegg is listing it as deactivated with no estimated date. Makes me hopeful that they are tweaking it.
 
Hello guys I was thinking of getting Fractal Design XL and I have one question. Is the rear top 180mm fan removable? If yes is there any sound dampening material in the original packaging so I can cover it? Is there a designated hole like the rest holes of the case, so I can cover it? Thank you! :D

Edit: I have a Corsair HX850 PSU and I was wondering, what's the required cable length for this case?
 
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RaiGal said:
Hello guys I was thinking of getting Fractal Design XL and I have one question. Is the rear top 180mm fan removable? If yes is there any sound dampening material in the original packaging so I can cover it? Is there a designated hole like the rest holes of the case, so I can cover it? Thank you! :D

Edit: I have a Corsair HX850 PSU and I was wondering, what's the required cable length for this case?
Click to expand...

Yes, it is. It clips into a plastic bracket which in turn screws into the case. it's a little awkward to deal with. There aren't any included soundproofing provisions for it. It's mounted at an angle and vents through a ~60mm by 180mm rectangular mesh in the back of the case right above the motherboard IO panel.

I used an XFX 650w, and I definitely needed an EPS12V extension cable in order to run that behind the motherboard. Not sure how the HX850 is, but I know my AX850 would need an extension as well (I was just barely able to get it run behind the motherboard on my R3 without an extension, and the R3 is smaller)

IMG_4233.jpg


IMG_4236.jpg
 
Honorable XL owners I need your help on this! Can the last two lower fan slots on the front side panel provide proper space for the installation of a Noctua PF-P12? Is the space too big for a 120mm fan?

If yes I should go for a 140mm fan, probably a Noctua PF-14, Xigmatek XAF, Akasa Apache or Thermalright TY-140. Which one would you recommend for a super silent operation? :D
 
Yup exactly. I had to copy about 300+ DVDs so copying 4 dvd's at once saves a lot of time. Woulda went for 5 if i coulda
 
My new Arc Mini build:

RQnYM.jpg



I was pumped when I took it out of the box. It looks beautiful in person. Much better than many review pics that I have seen.

The fan controller wiring is a tad lame, but I managed. That's the mess at the bottom. :) Fans are audible at 100%, but quiet down nicely with the controller.

Space behind MB is adequate, but not exactly roomy. I can't imagine how one wires a Define Mini with the acoustic material making that space even narrower.


Components:

  • MB: ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z/GEN3
  • CPU: i7 2600k
  • RAM: 4 x 4GB G.SKILL Ripjaws X
  • CPU cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO (adding a second fan fairly soon)
  • GPU: MSI N570GTX Twin Frozr III OC/PE
  • PSU: Corsair AX750
  • Boot: Corsair Performance Pro SSD - 256 GB
  • Data: 2 x Western Digital Caviar Green - 2 TB
  • OS: Win 7 Pro 64 bit
 
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Here's my Fractal Design Define Mini build.


Most of the components are new, except the harddrives, and powersupply.

Older picture, from my old components (forgot to get a new picture).

DVD-Burner and a card-reader that is not connected.

Components:
  • MB: Gigabyte GA-Z68MX-UD2H
  • CPU: Intel Core i5 2500k @ 3,8Ghz
  • RAM: Corsair XMS3 Vengeance DDR3-PC12800 16GB
  • GPU: Sapphire Radeon HD7950 OC
  • PSU: Corsair HX650
  • SSD: Intel X25-M G2 160GB
  • HDD: Samsung EcoGreen F4 2TB
  • OS: Windows 7 Ultimate (X64)
 
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It is, should i rather move the fan in front of the radiator? I got recommended to have the fan as exhaust.
I'm trying now as a push-fan, instad of pull.
 
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