Fractal Design Define R4 Case Review: Evolution, Not Revolution
by Dustin Sklavos on July 20, 2012 6:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- mid-tower
- Fractal Design
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.
- Thank you to Puget Systems for providing us with the Intel Core i7-2700K.
- Thank you to Gigabyte for providing us with the GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3 motherboard.
- Thank you to Crucial for providing us with the Ballistix Smart Tracer memory.
- Thank you to Corsair for providing us with the Corsair Link kit.
- Thank you to Cooler Master for providing us with the Hyper 212 Evo heatsink and fan unit.
- Thank you to Kingston for providing us with the SSDNow V+ 100 SSD.
- Thank you to CyberPower for providing us with the Samsung BD-ROM/DVD+/-RW drive.
- And thank you to SilverStone for providing us with the power supply.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
54 Comments
View All Comments
Freeform - Friday, February 1, 2013 - link
Quote:"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."
This is incorrect.
The power LED connection from the front panel harness can just as easily be plugged into the HD activity stand-offs on your board as to the regular spot indicating power on. This is a huge misconception that I've seen paragraphs dedicated to in all of the Define reviews.
There's nothing stopping you from having a really annoyingly bright blue LED HD indicator on this case! It's working on mine right now.
Lonerski - Sunday, March 31, 2013 - link
I would like to compare that case with the Lian-Li P-90, but as you see it is impossible as there is no tested case in common (http://www.anandtech.com/show/5556/lian-lis-pc90-t... So is there a way to make any comparison ? Is the Lian-Li louder at low and high performance ? I would like to use an O/C i3570K and a 560Ti within. My current case is an Antec 1080 Plus.Lonerski - Sunday, March 31, 2013 - link
note : would probably use a rheobus for reguling fan speeds.dwbarron - Friday, January 3, 2014 - link
I just bought this case and have not yet done my (first) build, but re: the 'power' light: it clearly states on page 4 of the manual, "Define R4 features a power LED; by switching the connectors on the motherboard, the power LED can function as an HDD activity LED."Another option, and probably the one I will take. My PC is usually left on anyway, so a power light is less useful to me. (Not that I look at the HDD light too often, but sometimes I do if the machine appears to be hung, to see if it's access the HDD.)