Fractal Design Define R3: A Fan Favorite Keeps the Noise Down
by Dustin Sklavos on November 11, 2011 1:22 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- mid-tower
- Fractal Design
In and Around the Fractal Design Define R3
If you read our review of the Fractal Design Arc Midi, the Define R3's interior is going to seem pretty familiar. That's not necessarily a bad thing; Fractal Design brings a lot of smart ideas to the table with the two enclosures, and the R3 in particular seems to really maximize its internal real estate compared to some of the competition. It's not a big case, but there's a lot to it.
Before we get to that, though, the basics: the R3 uses a foam-padded door on the front to keep the noise in, but unlike Antec's older P180 series designs, Fractal Design wisely places the power button and I/O ports at the top of the enclosure, above the door. The result is a door that becomes less of a nuisance and more functional. When you open it, you'll find the two 120mm fan mounts (one of which is occupied) as well as just two 5.25" drive bays. Some users might chafe at the notion of being stuck with just two bays, but I honestly prefer it for most enclosures. Surrounding the door on the outside is a ventilated region that allows the intake fan to pull in air from the sides; this is an improvement over NZXT's H2, whose door threatens to completely suffocate the intakes, but it feels minimal compared to the intakes in Antec's P180 series.
The sides and bottom of the enclosure are pretty much what you've come to expect, with two fan mounts on the top, one on the side, and one on the bottom, but the difference here is that every mount but the bottom one is basically sealed off with removable acoustic foam panels. This honestly feels like such a good idea that I'm baffled as to why it's not more common, because it basically allows the R3 to succeed either as a quiet case or as a performance case (provided you add additional fans), as well as offering several points in between. I love it, and I wish more enclosure designers would implement something like this. Moving around to the back of the enclosure we see Fractal Design's traditional set of white expansion slot covers and the white exhaust fan, but otherwise nothing particularly noteworthy.
When you pop the R3 open, though, you'll see an interior that's largely well designed and really maximizes the available space. A friend of mine is in the market for a new case, and when I showed her the R3 she actually called the eight drive trays "extravagant." That may very well be, but they're an appreciated amount of expansion (even if a touch excessive), and the lateral mounting allows for easy cable routing to behind the motherboard tray. Fractal Design also includes the usual grommet-lined holes for cable routing, but they're a touch smaller in the R3. As for expansion clearance, odds are you're not going to be fitting an AMD Radeon HD 6990 or ASUS Mars II in here, but if you can afford either of those, why are you buying a $100 case? I found the clearance for power supplies, expansion cards, and CPU cooling to be just right.
Fractal Design has also padded both side panels, a much appreciated gesture keeping in line with the R3's ambitions as a silent chassis.
Ultimately I'm a fan of the R3's aesthetics (particularly the blue LED at the top center of the case that goes up and around the power button), and it's been my experience that a lot of you also like these generally sleek, minimalistic designs. The good news I have for you is that you've spoken and it seems the vendors are listening, given what Fractal Design is doing, along with BitFenix and some others. Even a recent conversation with Antec about the upcoming P280 suggests you're being heard loud and clear.
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slacr - Saturday, November 12, 2011 - link
The main differences are:Paint, a bit less shiny and more rugged.
Sound dampening material, R2 has only bitumen where the R3 uses a mix of foam and bitumen.
Softer grommet material for cabling
Larger rear cutout
No big deal imo, I use the R2 and build a computer for my father in an R3
Juddog - Friday, November 11, 2011 - link
It seems almost like they had a NAS usage in mind when they designed the case. It would make a perfect NAS box on the cheap.piroroadkill - Friday, November 25, 2011 - link
Nah, for that, get yourself the Define Mini and use a microATX board.Has 6 3.5" and 2x 5.25" in the exact same, elegant design.
Would be nice and compact.
zero2dash - Friday, November 11, 2011 - link
Glad to see that you finally have one to review. :)-On mine, I did some fan re-configuration. I'm sure for review purposes, you have to review the case with the stock setup....in any event, in my white R3, I took out the FD fans and put 2 S-Flex SFF21E's in the front, 1 SFF21E at the bottom mount position next to the psu, and 1 SFF21E in the rear of the case. I left the ModuVent covers on the side intake and the 2 top exhausts. I'm running a 2600K oc'd to 4.6 GHz @ 1.35 Vcc using a TRUE in push/pull with SFF21E's and my load temps stay around 60C.
The point being - if you set up the R3 like most of the enthusiast 'open air' cases out nowadays, it can definitely hold it's own and compete with them. When I bought the case, I was looking for Antec 300 performance with silence....IMHO, I've achieved that goal.
-Also on mine, I didn't have the issue you mentioned with the standoffs not lining up....mine lined up just fine.
-If I have to list a gripe about the case, it's that the front dust filters are more of a PITA than I'd like to clean. The Antec 300 is a perfect example of dust filters done completely right; it takes 2 minutes to remove, rinse, dry, and reinstall a 300 dust filter. The R3 is quite different. I don't like having to grab a screwdriver to uninstall the fan/filter "sandwich" and then pry the filter off. Luckily with the door and the vents, the front doesn't get too dusty.
-One other minor gripe is I wish the case had a HDD activity light. Some people hook the power LED light up to the HDD header on the board, which does work obviously....I just wish it had a small LED at the top for HDD activity. Nevertheless, it's certainly not a deal breaker.
barry spock - Friday, November 11, 2011 - link
now do the Define Mini! That's what I have, and I really like it.derickso - Sunday, November 13, 2011 - link
agree, please review this box!earle36 - Friday, November 11, 2011 - link
I'm also an owner of this case and absolutely love it! Spec wise I have a Core i5 2500 k running stock, a 6950, and an Asus P8P67. I keep my computer on my desk close to my head, and my previous computer was obnoxiously loud - especially when playing games. When I set out to build a new computer at the beginning of this year, I had a few criteria for choosing the case. Looks, Sound, and Cooling Performance.I love the way this case looks - it's not very outlandish or super geeky looking. And considering that it sits on my desk in the living room of my tiny apartment in plain view - that's a big deal to me. I don't want to my case to have several LEDs and an eccentric shape / design that sticks out like a sore thumb.
Sound-wise I couldn't be happier. The design here is very thoughtful - love that you can open / close the vents, and that they have the sound dampening material on them too. I've left the side and top vents closed, and I bought some Nexus case fans that I put on the front, CPU, and back of the case. These seemed a bit quieter than the stock fans. I used my motherboards' software to control the speed of the fans so that they're inaudible while the system is idle (somewhere around 1100 - 1200rpm). I bought a Seasonic Power Supply that doesn't use the fan while idle. When I play a game, the fans crank up, though they're completely overshadowed by the fan on the graphics card. Still, It's by far the quietest case I've had and VERY quiet.
Cooling wise I've made a small sacrifice in performance so I could have a silent case. Idle it sits between 80's and 90's Fahrenheit, I haven' t seen it go over 120 under load.
Overall couldn't be happier with this case!
londiste - Friday, November 11, 2011 - link
I was literally buying the case when I noticed that it can barely fit 5870 with stock cooling and no way it's going to fit it with the Arctic Accelero Xtreme I have on the thing.I hate this, especially as practically every other Fractal Design case has removable drive bays - arcs, define r3 mini, but not the define r3.
zero2dash - Friday, November 11, 2011 - link
Barely fit a 5870?Considering a 5870 is 11" and I had plenty of room to fit a 6950 which is also 11", plus mine has a beefed up cooler on it....yeah there's no problem fitting an 11" gpu in the R3.
pics for ref: http://s249.photobucket.com/albums/gg212/zero2dash...
zero2dash - Friday, November 11, 2011 - link
Well mine's actually shorter than that but there's still a good 2" of clearance there, I don't think you'll have any problems fitting an 11" card.