Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/6102/fractal-design-define-r4-case-review-evolution-not-revolution



Introducing the Fractal Design Define R4

Around November of last year we had a chance to take a look at one of the most popular enclosures from up-and-comer Fractal Design, the Define R3. Impressions were good if not absolutely amazing, but it was easy to see how the case had gotten so popular. A competitive price tag, solid acoustics, understated aesthetics, and fairly flexible design all conspired to produce a case that could conceivably be a silver bullet for a lot of users.

Today Fractal Design is launching their next revision of the Define, the R4. It's easy to mistake it for its predecessor, but as is often the case, the devil is in the details. Fractal Design hasn't radically tweaked the formula, but they've rounded some of the edges and added more value to their design without making very many sacrifices in the process. They've done a lot to improve the Define in the R4, but have they done enough?

Incremental evolution isn't altogether unheard of in the enclosure business, but I'm used to seeing vendors release outright new models or heavily revamp existing ones instead of steadily iterating like Fractal Design has done with the Define. I can see users being a bit underwhelmed by the changes Fractal Design has made to the Define with the R4, and I myself am a bit underwhelmed, but let's see if we can't unpack things and get to the heart of what they've done and haven't done.

Fractal Design Define R4 Specifications
Motherboard Form Factor Mini-ITX, Micro ATX, ATX
Drive Bays External 2x 5.25”
Internal 8x 2.5"/3.5", 2x 2.5"
Cooling Front 1x 140mm intake fan, 1x 120mm/140mm fan mount
Rear 1x 140mm exhaust fan
Top 2x 120mm/140mm fan mounts
Side 1x 140mm fan mount
Bottom 1x 120mm/140mm fan mount
Expansion Slots 7+1
I/O Port 2x USB 3.0, 2x USB 2.0, 1x Headphone, 1x Mic
Power Supply Size Standard ATX
Clearances HSF 170mm
PSU 170mm with bottom fan, 270mm without
GPU 11.6"/295mm with drive cage, 430mm without
Dimensions 9.13" x 18.27" x 20.59"
232mm x 464mm x 523mm
Weight 27.12 lbs. / 12.3kg
Special Features USB 3.0 connectivity via internal headers
Removable drive cages
Integrated three-step fan controller
Support for 240mm radiator in top of enclosure
Price $109

The Define R4 is ever so slightly larger than the R3 and features essentially everything you already liked about the R3, making it a pretty direct replacement of its predecessor in much the same way as Antec's P182 obsoleted the P180. Fractal Design parted ways with eSATA in the I/O cluster in favor of a pair of USB 2.0 and a pair of USB 3.0 ports and it's a good transition. eSATA never seemed to quite catch fire; USB 3.0 offers most of the bandwidth with much easier connectivity and fewer hiccups. Meanwhile, I still don't think we're at the point where we can completely deprecate USB 2.0 in favor of 3.0, so having them both represented on the front of the case is appreciated.



In and Around the Fractal Design Define R4

It's going to be difficult to go through this review without talking about the Fractal Design Define R3, so while I don't like assigning homework, reading our review of that enclosure can at least help put this new one in perspective. Essentially what we're looking at, though, is a mid-tower engineered primarily for silent running but capable of going the opposite direction in a pinch. This is in many ways a spiritual successor to Antec's P182 and P183, and in some ways I think it's actually a better engineered descendant than Antec's own P280 is. Fractal Design hits a lot of beats with the Define that Antec missed with the P280 and NZXT missed with the H2.

It starts with the front door. The R4's door is hinged on the left and has an attractive black brushed aluminum finish; the inside surface of the door features an acoustic foam that is used pretty extensively on the inside surfaces of the case. When you open the door, you'll see just two 5.25" drive bays and a pair of 120mm intakes hidden behind a door that pops open handily. There's also a removable fan filter in front of the fans. On the whole I like that Fractal Design has deprecated 5.25" drive bays, as it allows them to move the intake fans further north which in turn creates a better directed airflow towards the CPU heatsink. Next to the bays is a three-setting fan control switch, a great feature that was missing from the R3. With most fans (and most cases), full bore often isn't the most efficient setting to run at; usually there's an inflection point where the improvements in airflow become minimal compared to the amount of noise generated.

The top of the R4 is going to be pretty familiar; I/O and buttons are at the front of the case, striking a compromise between users who put their towers on the floor versus users who put their towers on their desks. There are also two blocked off 120mm fan mounts; Fractal Design includes removable, acoustically padded panels behind the unused fan mounts that gives the enclosure some flexibility. If you want to increase airflow and mount additional fans, you can do so, but if not you can block those vents off and muffle noise in the process.

Side panels are basically the same, although our review unit was a bit stiff. The panels are held in place with thumbscrews, and the left side one has a 120mm fan mount with the same padded panel behind it. If you want to add a side intake, you have the option, but again not opting to doesn't mean having to deal with increased noise from an open vent. Finally, the back of the case presents one difference from the R3: Fractal Design got rid of the rubber-grommet holes typically used for external watercooling in favor of just adding an auxiliary expansion slot. I'm all for this change; most custom watercooling loops these days are completely internal and use cases that can accommodate them, so reclaiming that space for something that could conceivably be a little more useful is appreciated.

Open up the Define R4, and you'll see that while not a whole lot has changed from the R3, Fractal Design did make one very interesting change: the drive cages are now removable. They still have a staggering eight drive trays (again benefitting from the reduction in 5.25" drive bays), but the middle cage is easily removable with two screws and the bottom one can be removed by unscrewing it from the bottom of the case. Being able to ditch that middle one is a big, big win, as it allows you to completely unobstruct the primary front intake fan without sacrificing too much in the way of storage; conceivably you can still install two 2.5" drives (mounted to the back of the motherboard) and three 3.5" drives in the remaining drive trays, which should be plenty for most users.

While I feel like the R4 is in some ways still too conservative a jump from the R3, pretty much every change Fractal Design has made here has been an improvement, full stop. If you were interested in the R3, the R4's design squarely obsoletes it. I do think there's a missed opportunity in not shifting the top fan mounts over to the left and thus reducing any potential clearance issues with 240mm radiators; Fractal Design cites compatibility with 15mm-thick radiators, but I honestly just wouldn't try with this case and would probably stick with a 120mm rear-mounted closed-loop like a Corsair H80. An enterprising builder could probably get at least a little bit of watercooling action going in the R4, but it's really not ideal for it.



Assembling the Fractal Design Define R4

Much as with the Define R3, Fractal Design takes a few cues from Corsair in the ease of assembly arena. Despite having been under the weather with tension headaches and a stomach bug this week, the Define R4 was still pretty easy to put together.

Fractal Design doesn't include the convenience of pre-mounted motherboard standoffs, but it has all of the necessary mounting points for Mini-ITX, ATX, and large Micro-ATX boards like the one we use in our testbed. The I/O shield snapped in easily enough, and the motherboard went in without any real trouble. Vertical clearance is a little crunched (hence my reservations about using a 240mm radiator in the R4), but this is also a relatively small case compared to some of the monsters I've tested recently. The R4 really is a mid-tower or as most users would say, "reasonably sized."

Installing drives in the R4 is relatively easy, too. Fractal Design doesn't go the toolless route anywhere, but that may be to minimize vibration. There are silicone grommets on the drive trays for mechanical drives, and 2.5" drives just screw in directly to the bottom of the trays. These trays are designed primarily for bottom-mounting drives but there are a pair of holes in the sides for the oddball device that won't mount that way (like our Corsair Link unit). The drive shields for the 5.25" bays also lock in and pop out easily; they use a small lever you can lift with your thumb as a locking mechanism.

Expansion cards and the power supply are basically the same story. The expansion slots use thumbscrews as is de rigeur, while the power supply mount has padding behind and below it. Nothing entirely notable here, although it's worth mentioning again that the eighth expansion slot is positioned laterally above the seven and intended for adding ports or whatever other accessories might fit there. Doing this saves on the height of the case, but in the process it does crunch the space between the power supply and bottom of the motherboard some.

Where things start to go a little topsy turvy is with cabling. The rubber-grommet lined holes in the motherboard tray seem a little on the small side, which can be a minor inconvenience. I was disappointed to see Fractal Design still hasn't really fixed one of my big problems with the R3, though: the AUX 12V routing hole above the motherboard. They increased the space between the back of the motherboard tray and the the right side panel, but that doesn't change the fact that the AUX 12V line routing hole is essentially parallel to the panel rails. In the R3 I just plain couldn't use the hole, while in the R4 I could shimmy the cable through with a little effort. This still feels like a big oversight that needs to be corrected somehow, though. Fractal Design may want to consider switching over to a hinged side panel mounting design for the next revision to clear this gap.

By and large, though, assembly was pretty easy and I can't complain too much outside of the cabling snafu. What's worth pointing out is that the R4 does not feature an IDE indicator LED despite having space for one. The LEDs surrounding the power button and breaking the center of the front door are power indicators only. This is an unusual omission that doesn't affect the usability of the case too much (many notebooks these days don't include IDE indicators either), but it's worth mentioning.



Testing Methodology

For testing Micro-ATX and full ATX cases, we use the following standardized testbed in stock and overclocked configurations to get a feel for how well the case handles heat and noise.

ATX Test Configuration
CPU Intel Core i7-2700K
(95W TDP, tested at stock speed and overclocked to 4.3GHz @ 1.38V)
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3
Graphics Card ASUS GeForce GTX 560 Ti DCII TOP
(tested at stock speed and overclocked to 1GHz/overvolted to 1.13V)
Memory 2x2GB Crucial Ballistix Smart Tracer DDR3-1600
Drives Kingston SSDNow V+ 100 64GB SSD
Samsung 5.25" BD-ROM/DVDRW Drive
Accessories Corsair Link
CPU Cooler Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo with Cooler Master ThermalFusion 400
Power Supply SilverStone Strider Plus 750W 80 Plus Silver

Each case is tested in a stock configuration and an overclocked configuration that generates substantially more heat (and thus may produce more noise). The system is powered on and left idle for fifteen minutes, the thermal and acoustic results recorded, and then stressed by running seven threads in Prime95 (in-place large FFTs) on the CPU and OC Scanner (maximum load) on the GPU. At the end of fiteen minutes, thermal and acoustic results are recorded. This is done for the stock settings and for the overclock, and if the enclosure has a fan controller, these tests are repeated for each setting. Ambient temperature is also measured after the fifteen idle minutes but before the stress test and used to calculate the final reported results.

Thank You!

Before moving on, we'd like to thank the following vendors for providing us with the hardware used in our testbed.



Noise and Thermal Testing, Stock

For testing the Fractal Design Define R4, I made a decision that's probably going to seem a little controversial: I elected to remove the middle drive cage. My rationale is consistent with a decision I made when I decided to revise our testing methodology, which is to test cases the way they would most likely be assembled with our testbed. I suspect the R4's middle drive cage is going to be removed by the vast majority of users, as they simply won't need it when the case already supports two 2.5" drive mounts behind the motherboard tray and three drive trays in the bottom cage. So unless you have a great need to load up the R4 with drives, odds are that cage isn't staying in.

I also tested the case with all three fan settings to give an idea of how well the fan control works and what the ideal setting might be for most users. It's easy to forget, though, that if you need an extra kick of cooling performance it's very easy to just bump the R4 up to the 12V setting and then switch it back down when you're not running as heavy a load.

Ambient temperatures during testing hovered around ~24C.

CPU Temperatures, Stock

GPU Temperatures, Stock

SSD Temperatures, Stock

At the risk of spoiling the rest of the review results, I will tell you the fan controller's 7V setting is easily the best balance between performance and acoustics. While all three settings are below 30dB, the 7V setting is virtually impossible to distinguish from the 5V. Our major competitor for the R4 is going to be the Corsair Obsidian 550D, but keep in mind the 550D is also at least $30 more expensive.

CPU Fan Speed, Stock

GPU Fan Speed, Stock

Fan speeds are all basically comparable and competitive with very little notable variation. What's interesting is the remarkably even spread between the three fan controller settings (keeping in mind that the CPU fan and GPU fan are governed not by the case fan controller but by the motherboard and graphics card respectively). It'll be interesting to see if this even spread remains consistent under our overclocked testing.

Noise Levels, Stock

There are a couple of vital points to make here. First is that because our sound meter doesn't register below 30dB, the chart doesn't tell the whole story. Noise at idle between 5V and 7V fan controller settings is nigh indistinguishable, but the 12V setting does produce a noticeable increase. It's still very quiet, but there's a low-pitched whooshing that becomes audible.

The second point is something I've become very keen to point out whenever possible: running fans too low can actually result in higher noise levels than finding a more optimal fan speed might. When the case's cooling system isn't producing adequate airflow, the cooling on the graphics card and CPU has to pick up the slack, and that's how you wind up with test results where the middle fan setting is actually quieter than the low fan setting. This is something I've experienced even with my personal desktop, and it's absolutely worth keeping in mind on any build.



Noise and Thermal Testing, Overclocked

Our overclocked testing can be remarkably brutal for many systems, and a lot of the time we wind up hitting not just the thermal limits of the enclosure, but also its acoustic limits. Incidentally this is also a point where cases engineered for silent operation sink or swim, since they oftentimes have to get by on the merits of their acoustic optimizations instead of raw thermal performance. It will be interesting to see how well the Fractal Design Define R4 performs here.

CPU Temperatures, Overclocked

GPU Temperatures, Overclocked

SSD Temperatures, Overclocked

Thermal performance in the Fractal Design Define R4 is actually a little disappointing. The competing Corsair 550D isn't a particularly stellar performer, and I figured the open intake area should've given the R4 a bigger edge. Unfortunately things just don't seem to be working out that way.

CPU Fan Speed, Overclocked

GPU Fan Speed, Overclocked

As expected we're also pretty much at the limits of our thermal headroom with the R4, too. Our medium fan setting, the 7V, was a big winner at stock but under overclocks seems to have a harder time justifying itself.

Noise Levels, Overclocked

And this is where it gets really interesting. The Corsair Obsidian 550D did a much better job of muffling the noise it generated and ran cooler in the process. Meanwhile the R4 actually seems a bit starved for air; our 12V fan setting, though anecdotally (just not immediately measurably) louder at idle, actually runs quieter at load as it's able to do a better job of keeping the internal heatsinks fed.



Conclusion: Iterative, But Still Needs Work

With the Define R4, Fractal Design has again produced a solid case that has a lot to offer end users. I'm very fond of case designs like this one and the AZZA Genesis 9000 that give the user a great deal of flexibility in how they want to assemble their system, and I like that Fractal Design lets you optimize for acoustics or for thermal performance. The included three-channel, three-setting fan controller is also greatly appreciated and a marked improvement over the R3.

As a general rule it's good to continually reward improvement and innovation from vendors, and the Define R4 is absolutely a better case than the R3. The problem is that enclosures are one of the places where a lot of innovation is occurring on a regular basis as companies continually revise existing designs and introduce radical new ones in a bid to further optimize system cooling. System cooling is a science that is still miles away from being perfected and probably never will be if for no other reason than that there are simply too many variables to take into account. Engineers have to find the right balance for their product and plant the flag there.

I don't think Fractal Design's engineers were daring enough with the Define R4. This is by no means a bad case, but there are places where technology has improved that Fractal Design could definitely have adopted. For example, SilverStone's Temjin TJ04-E aligns the top fan mounts to the left side of the case in order to improve clearance for increasingly popular 240mm radiators. This is an easy enough change to institute that notably improves the usability of the case. Likewise, switching to hinged side panels allows for clearance for routing the AUX 12V line. Fractal Design could also save some width by introducing cabling channels in the motherboard tray similar to what Corsair did with the Vengeance C70. These aren't changes that are going to dramatically improve the R4, but they're easy ones to implement that make the case more usable without driving up the cost.

Speaking of cost, that's one place where I do think Fractal Design nailed the Define R4. While I wasn't supremely impressed by its thermal performance, I do think it's worth the $10 premium over the NZXT H2, and does a better job acoustically than the $10 pricier Antec P280. $109 is a great price for a case this feature rich and well built, and while the Corsair 550D is a generally better performer, it also has more trouble spots that give me some pause in regards to its longevity. Couple that with an extra $30 on the price tag, and the Define R4 looks a lot better.

Ultimately, I think if I were building a quiet system on a budget for someone, I'd have an awfully hard time finding a better choice than the Define R4. The case absolutely has room for improvement and I wonder if potentially more efficient case fans like SilverStone's AP121 or Corsair's new line wouldn't give us better thermal results, but the $109 price tag is very hard to argue with when you take into account what you get. The R4 isn't a slam dunk, but it's definitely worth your consideration.

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