Fractal Design Define R6 Tempered Glass Edition Case Review

Reviews
By Steven Lynch
published

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Benchmark Results & Conclusion

Though we expected higher temperatures from a case with sound deadening insulation and a tempered-glass side panel, temperatures were not as high as anticipated. Thanks in large part to the airflow provided by the dual 140mm intake fans, our budget quad-core i5-7500 processor running at 3.8 GHz peaked at 44°C over the ambient temperature of 25°C. Those of you running highly overclocked systems will no doubt want to take advantage of the water-cooling friendly design of the Define R6 by adding a custom water cooling loop or an all-in-one cooler. On the other hand, GPU temperatures were fairly decent at 55°C over the ambient room temperature.

We took sound level readings with two off-the-shelf dB meters from two different angles. Thanks to the thick sound deadening material and the tempered-glass side panel, the Define R6 registered barely 28dB at idle and 31dB under load. These are some of the best numbers we've seen to date, besting even the be quiet! Dark Base 700.

Determining acoustic efficiency, also referred to as cooling-to-noise ratio, is a matter of averaging all five of our tests to determine a base value.

Added features such as the removable top cooling bracket, a dedicated fill port under the top filter for refilling water loops, and a Nexus+ PWM fan hub will make the Define R6 a favorite with performance enthusiast and water-cooling aficionados alike. The overall construction of this chassis is extremely solid, and the fit and finish are top notch. In the end, you must decide how important those features are and whether they justify the $150 price tag.


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Steven Lynch
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18 Comments Comment from the forums
  • hannibal
    Not bad at all!
    I would hope to see even one USB c-type port in the cases today and would not mind second 5.25" bay. Still use that good ole burner and then there need to be one slot for control panel. But maybe I need bigger case for that...
    But good case in any way!
    Reply
  • Dark Lord of Tech
    A bit overpriced for what you get in my opinion.
    Reply
  • TheDane
    Love Fractal Design cases! Only using them now.
    Reply
  • ddferrari
    It's hard to get excited about a $150 case with "mediocre thermal performance".
    Reply
  • madmatt30
    You pay for the build quality with the fractals.
    That is expensive though comparitively for what amounts to a tempered glass side panel over the predecessors really.

    32 pound in weight though ?!?!
    That thing aint moving once you've planted it down.
    Reply
  • hannibal
    Upgrade kit Connect D1 will offer USB c Connection so even that is as it should be. Nice!
    http://www.fractal-design.com/home/product/accessories/connect-d1
    Reply
  • Centrinox86
    Finally they put audio connector surrounded with metal instead of plastic which was prone to breaking.
    Reply
  • Jay_29
    I was never too satisfied with their cases; the sound dampening design didn’t really dampen my HDD noise all that much. The plastic cover feels cheap and the side panels warp.
    Reply
  • waylo
    What exactly has changed since the R5? Only major thing I could gather from my quick read-through was there's now a metal sheet separating the PSU area from the rest of the case? Is that a good thing?
    Reply
  • madmatt30
    ^ well you're pretty much there , both the drive bays & hard drive cages have removeable sheet metal shrouds so you dont see any non-niceties with the full size tempered glaas panel.

    Didn't matter with the r4/r5 as the panel only had a fairly mini window which hid these anyway (I do wish they included a shroud in both those former cases though -I ended up making my own)

    For me its pretty much an r5 tempered glass edition rather than a brand new case but then thats not such a bad thing.

    Too expensive though imo , retail in the uk is £134.99 - the define c glass is only £70-80, the r4/r5 can be had for less than £70 too & all the r6 really offers is a couple of extra drive bays & room.for an optical drive.
    Reply