Fractal Define R4 Mid Tower Case

H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
If you are on the hunt for a new mid-tower case, those crazy crustaceans over at Mad Shrimps say the Fractal Define R4 is a good value.

Swedish Company Fractal Design is renown for their sleek enclosures. In typical Scandinavian style their product range can best be described as: A minimalistic yet striking design, where less is more. Quality, functionality and pricing go hand in hand. Today we introduce one of their latest creations: The Fractal Design Define R4 enclosure.
Click to expand...
 
I've seen a few people fit a Corsair H100 in the front. The Define R4 should be able to fit a NZXT Kraken X60, 280mm radiator in front according to my measurements. I've always seen everyone remove both harddrive cages when they do this. However, I've discovered that you can actually shift the lower hdd cage and still have enough room for a front radiator if you wish. You will lose some rigidity of the lower cage by taking two of the 120mm fan screws. I used a set of rubber spacers that come with the case to help keep the hdd cage sturdy. You can shift the lower cage 1-11/32 inches (34mm) supporting a total radiator thickness of 1-9/16 inches (39.5mm). A front radiator is good for silent builds and moderate overclocking, but be aware that you'll increase the case ambient temperature under cpu load.

IMAG2348X_sm_zpsa2c48fa1.jpg
 
Last edited:
I just put the NZXT X60 in the front of my new R4 case for work yesterday and basically, it fits wonderfully if you can deal with a quirk or two. You do have to drill a few holes up in the front plastic to get the 140mm fans right next to each other instead of spaced apart and to securely mount the rad, but it comes together very nicely and fits very cleanly. The one downside (if you can even call it that) is that you then no longer can use the front filter due to screw heads, and you can't easily remove the rad or replace the fans as the front section no longer unlatches and tilts out because the rad (and more specifically hoses) are just a tad too tall for that. In addition, you can't do push/pull with the cage in there at all at least not with a standard width fan on both sides.
 
DevilSun said:
I just put the NZXT X60 in the front of my new R4 case for work yesterday and basically, it fits wonderfully if you can deal with a quirk or two. You do have to drill a few holes up in the front plastic to get the 140mm fans right next to each other instead of spaced apart and to securely mount the rad, but it comes together very nicely and fits very cleanly. The one downside (if you can even call it that) is that you then no longer can use the front filter due to screw heads, and you can't easily remove the rad or replace the fans as the front section no longer unlatches and tilts out because the rad (and more specifically hoses) are just a tad too tall for that. In addition, you can't do push/pull with the cage in there at all at least not with a standard width fan on both sides.
Click to expand...

Good to know. I still haven't decided what I'm doing for a cpu cooler yet. Indeed, I was wondering if the screw holes would be an issue after I double checked my measurements and realized there was a 9mm gap between the fans. I thought about zip ties, velcro on the sides, or gluing a hex nut into the plastic for a reverse screw. Personally I'd be fine with something like a single 140 mm H90/X40, but they cool worse than the H80 at the cost of reduced noise. Which keeps bringing me back to the X60, H80i, or an air cooler.
 
I've posted a few of the pictures in a SkyDrive album that I took of the minimal modifications required to make it fit up front, as well as a few overall placement/fitment pictures as well.

http://sdrv.ms/WS5Z8M

Should have the system up and running this week hopefully, looking forward to my new 3930K development and multiple VM system. Not looking for a huge overclock, would be pleased with 4.3-4.5 on it with very friendly temps which I feel won't be hard to do at all.
 
Is there any really negative effects on cooling by not bringing in cool air to your case, by mounting a 240 rad in the front? Don't you want cold air to intake to the rest of your case, and not warm air?
 
I've been trying to decide between the Silverstone FT02, Antec P280, Corsair 550D, and Fractal R4 for the past two weeks. I saw that NCIX-US has a sale on the usually hard to find Fractal R4 Black Pearl windowless version today for $89 so I finally pulled the trigger on a new case to replace my P182. Hope it's good!
 
Seeing as how it won the recent comparison test against all those others - for cooling vs noise reduction...

Yep, I think you made the right choice. Great price!
 
Any of you have experience with Fractal's customer service? Bought a used case to use in a mod but the rear fan mesh had been cut out ( only noticed after receiving the case :( ) and was left wondering if there's any point trying to contact Fractal to ask for a new rear bit? I know Lian Li does mobo trays and such but are they the only uber case makers in this respect?
 
Question for R4 owners:
1) Did you guys replace the stock fans or are they pretty decent?
2) Did you install additional fans or is the 1 front / 1 rear default setup sufficient?
 
Egami, I wouldn't bother. They aren't going to just send you free parts because someone cut parts out of the unit. Nothing is defective in this case, rather something has been physically removed on purpose.
 
chineseman said:
Question for R4 owners:
1) Did you guys replace the stock fans or are they pretty decent?
2) Did you install additional fans or is the 1 front / 1 rear default setup sufficient?
Click to expand...

Stock fans are actually really good and with my 3570k at 4.0ghz the cooling is sufficient, just make sure you have good cable management.
 
Egami said:
Any of you have experience with Fractal's customer service? Bought a used case to use in a mod but the rear fan mesh had been cut out ( only noticed after receiving the case :( ) and was left wondering if there's any point trying to contact Fractal to ask for a new rear bit? I know Lian Li does mobo trays and such but are they the only uber case makers in this respect?
Click to expand...


Is the cut-out area at least cleanly done?

I'd just buy an aftermarket grille - there's enough variety of those out there that you could probably hide even a ragged hole - these examples are all 140mm to match Fractal Designs rear exhaust...

Anything from this:

BlackFanGrill_t_LRG.jpg


Or this:

BP-140CFG1BK-BK_03.jpg


To this:

ppc_120mm_grill_360_BK_03.jpg
 
Mysticode said:
Egami, I wouldn't bother. They aren't going to just send you free parts because someone cut parts out of the unit. Nothing is defective in this case, rather something has been physically removed on purpose.
Click to expand...

True. I was actually thinking if they'd sell me one Lian Li style. Not really the kind of person who leans on everyone for freebies. :)

Oh well, the cut is nice and clean so guess will have to slap one of stratosrally's after market meshes on them. Or just go the hard way and pick up the putty tube again...
 
Last edited:
Hey some of those grills are really nice looking! I'd slap one on.

Would you guys recommend keeping the 140mm fans this case comes with, or replacing them with quieter 140mm(or 120mm) models?

I did a search on the Corsair AF140 silent, and reviews agree that at it's full 12v (full speed) it really isn't a silent fan anymore. This got me wondering what could still output a good CFM at 12v, and be more silent than the AF140.
 
The Noctuas are crazy silent. Dunno if the fans I got are just particularly good "individuals" but put side to side, they're quieter at 12v than my phobya nano-g's at 5v. :eek:
 
chineseman said:
Question for R4 owners:
1) Did you guys replace the stock fans or are they pretty decent?
2) Did you install additional fans or is the 1 front / 1 rear default setup sufficient?
Click to expand...

The stock fans are pretty decent, and they're fluid dynamic bearing fans. With the fan controller, they're pretty flexible for airflow vs noise. Pretty quiet at 5v up to slightly audible but not annoying at 12v.

I went with an extra 140mm intake so I could run the fans at 5v and still get enough airflow over both the drive cages and to give my GPU some extra airflow. Probably not necessary now that I've moved cards around, as previously I had a sound card blocking the lower half of the GPU fan. I still haven't bothered rotating the upper drive cage to direct more airflow to the GPU, as it's not necessary for me anymore.

1 front/1 rear may be sufficient, depending on fan speed and upper drive cage placement.
 
Thanks a bunch! Picked this up with a H100 for an additional 69.99 after rebate! Seemed like a good deal, might as well upgrade my old first gen h50 in the process. Saving the 15.99 on shipping the H100 was only 54.99 more. Seemed like a killer deal to me. For 129.98 with free shipping it seemed like a great deal. My old case is just to loud for my liking. I just hope I can install the H100 in the front. I've seen a video of it but I've also read that it's to short. Wish me luck.

:)

Note this was originally a reply to the Deal forum, but I don't have enough posts yet. Still this seems like a good place and I will report back my success/failure.
 
I JUST got this case yesterday. All white, no window. I'm very impressed with this case. a much nicer case then the Antec P180 that I had before.
 
Quicksilver_ said:
are Fractal Design cases not well known here? They're the only cases one of our suppliers sell.
Click to expand...
They are quickly gaining popularity in the states.

Ment to add in my last post that I'm really surprised at how well this case it built.
 
I built a new desktop for a friend last week using a black R4 with a window. Overall it was a pleasant experience, even for working with a steel case. My biggest complaint is there the top mounted I/O being part of the removable front panel. It was a pain not being able to completely remove and set aside the front while working on it. I didn't look long enough to see if the cables were easily detachable though.

I'm honestly thinking about downgrading to a SB/IB air build using this case. I enjoyed it that much, especially for the price.
 
Just got my R4 with window yesterday and did the swap. Really glad I purchased this case. The noise insulation is great. Moved both included 140mm fans to the front intake and added the 2 clear red led 120mm fans from my previous at the bottom by the psu as intake and in the rear as exhaust. I liked how much room there was behind the mobo tray bc I fit 95% of my unmodular PSU cables back there. Not sure what you need to remove the front? I popped it off just being curious and it was easy even with the I/O being on top
 
Not sure if it'll fit up top, but I've seen people put them where the front intake fans go
 
Scheibler1 said:
Not sure if it'll fit up top, but I've seen people put them where the front intake fans go
Click to expand...

I think you'll see that those are H110 coolers (240mm), not the new H110 (280mm).

Not saying it won't fit, but you'll likely need to do some modding.

I did a quick search and didn't see a H110 build in the R4 yet...
 
Scheibler1 said:
Sorry read that wrong. Thought I read H100
Click to expand...

No probs at all, when they released it with that model number I actually figured it would be hard to keep straight! :D

I would have changed it to something else... but they have their own reasons for following their numbering/naming scheme.
 
Scheibler1 said:
Not sure what you need to remove the front? I popped it off just being curious and it was easy even with the I/O being on top
Click to expand...

Well it was to zip tie one cable to a few others that was blocking the top 5.25" bay from allowing a DVD/RW drive from aligning correctly. I already had all the cables plugged into the motherboard and zip tied to the back of the motherboard tray so I would have had to redo it all if I wanted to get some more slack to get the panel farther from the case. I was just used to how the LL PC-7B's front panel completely removed because the buttons were mounted to the case, not the removable panel. It was just a bit ackward trying to hold the front panel without putting too much strain on it while zip tieing those cables real quick.

But the experience did help me fix it first on the one I just received for myself since it had the same cable hanging down into the top 5.25" bay. I shouldn't ever have the need to remove the panel now too. I guess that's probably why on the PC-7B the I/O was mounted to the case because you did need to remove the front panel when installing a front fan, etc.
 
A 2x140mm (H110 or X60) works just fine up front the same way a H100 does as I posted earlier in the thread, including pics in my link, except you can't do push/pull. The required modding to do so is simply hole drilling through plastic to line up fan holes correctly for some (15 vs 20mm fan spacing and or to get correct alignment/placement) and remove the middle cage and move the lower cage back. If you can drill holes in plastic, that's all it takes.
 
For you R4 owners out there. This case allows you to mount two SSDs to the back of the motherboard tray, but I've never seen pics of this on reviews or pics from Newegg or the Fractal Design site.

Do any of you mount SSDs to the motherboard try (or behind it?) Is it a viable option or some BS feature that really isn't an option for whatever reason.

I'm thinking I'd remove the upper 5-bay drive caddy for better airflow to video card, but that would only leave the 3-bay drive caddy. I eventually hope to have 2 SSDs and 2 or even 3 HDDs in the system. If I could mount the 2 SSDs to the tray that would leave me 3 bays for HDDs?

What do you think? Thanks.
 
The motherboard plate is drilled for 2 SSD drives so that you install them on the backside first, then your motherboard (otherwise you can't get at the screw heads).

Many people today just use Velcro strips to place SSDs wherever they want, they work fine and take the hassle of screw mounts out of the occasion. Mine is mounted vertically on the back of my 5.25" bays and has functioned perfectly for 3yrs.

If you have 2 or 3 HDDs to install, the lower bay is perfect for them. I'd make sure and have both front 140mm fan locations of the case populated so that the lower fan cools the HDDs (as unlike SSDs, they get hot) and the upper cools your GPU & CPU without the obstruction of a HDD cage.

You can install your SSDs either in the factory screwed in locations, or with Velcro in the same spots or wherever!

There's over an inch of space behind that motherboard tray, that's why they put the screw holes there - you can still route all the cables without a problem.

If you want even more cooling, there's that extra 120/140mm bottom fan mount right behind the lower HDD cage, before your PSU...

Great case, HTH!

Picture showing location of holes (courtesy of Legit Reviews):

Define_R4_46a.jpg
 
I have been using air cooled megahalems with a noctua fan in an R4 with 5x140mm fans for 6 months now and max temps on [email protected] was 86c, so I just ordered the x60. Still havent decided how to mount it for best overall cooling with filters intact. Anyone able to fit x60 in the front without removing the filter?

Am I crazy to consider mounting the lower drive bay in back top mount fan slot? The drive bay will mount anywhere there is a 120mm fan slot.

I really want the filters in place (keeps cooling effective), so I won't top mount an intake RAD
, but has anyone ever played with a Top mount exhaust rad
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top