My new review platform

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   As some of you may know I write reviews on various ASRock motherboards here from time to time. One of the problems I have been having is, well, space. With the amount of time I spend swapping out motherboards from my test setup I really needed a case with a bit more room inside that would really showcase the products I review. No one likes working in a cramped space all the time, especially when you do so on a regular basis.
Enter the Fractal Design Define S 

Sadly I don't have all the boxes that my hardware came in anymore but I did still have these.

System Specifications: 

CPU: Intel Core i5 6600K
Motherboard: ASRock Z170 Pro4s
GPU: Gigabyte GTX 960 G1 Gaming 2gb
RAM: 8gb (2x4) Corsair Vengeance DDR4 2800
SSD: Pny Optima 256gb
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1tb
PSU: OCZ Fatal1ty Champion Series 1000w
Case: Fractal Design Define S

Bare in mind the motherboard in this system is changed fairly often but this is my test bench as it stands now.

On to the case:

The case it self is pleasantly understated, the only more striking aesthetic is the windowed side panel which was protected on both sides by cellophane, which means my window arrived in pristine condition. I have read more than a few reviews on this case and the window is one of it's letdowns. It is exceedingly easy to scratch so if you plan to build in one of these, handle with extreme care.

This is the main selling point of this case in my opinion, look at all that space. Not a single ugly (unnecessary) drive cage in sight. Lovely large grommets to keep your cables neat and tidy and accommodation for 140mm fans in every slot. 3 spots on the front, 3 on top, 1 on the back and 1 in the floor of the case though the last is blocked by my large PSU.

The dust filter on this case is a thing of beauty, semi hinged on one side with powerful magnets on the other to hold it in place meaning no rattle or gaps, just what I like to see. There is a second dust filter covering the bottom 2 intakes for the PSU and 140mm fan (should you use a fan there). Some have complained that the bottom dust filter pulls out from the back but that is of no concern to me as I have access to both the back and front of my system the way I have it oriented on my desk.

Another great feature is the sound dampened rear side panel, the panels are interchangeable too which is neat if you want to show off your cable management and drives for some reason. The material used is not too thick which is great if you are trying to tuck away a lot of cables, it also adds a lot of stability to the panel.

The sheer amount of space in this case becomes even more evident once you get all your kit installed. I have never built a system more quickly and easily than this one. The attention to detail, convenient placement of grommeted holes and uncluttered layout was a dream to work with. 

I don't know many people who don't hate cable management, especially when dealing with individually sleeved power supply leads. Don't get me wrong, I love them, they look fantastic and add a bit more durability to the cables but man are they annoying to try and tuck away. As you can see here though, the Define S makes the process almost completely painless with fantastic Velcro tie downs and numerous mounting locations to move them to. Because my PSU cables are so bulky and awkward to deal with I chose to move the tie downs from their default location to the one next to the recessed hard disk mounting area. There is a lot more room in there and my side panel goes on without touching the cables. I could probably have done a better job back here but this is more than good enough for my needs.

The end result is clean (unlike my desk ) tidy and very stylish in my opinion.

This has got to be the most fun and painless build I have ever done. I have dealt with all the headaches builders face over the years and this case is the first one I have used that completely sidesteps almost all those issues.

Things left to do:

1. I have another Fractal 140mm fan ordered to put in the front bringing the total to 3 140mm intakes and 1 outlet. There are plenty of vents to allow the extra air to escape.
2. Get some temp readings to compare to my old Deepcool Tesseract case.
3. Update this post with said temps 

Special thanks:

ASRock as always and Wardog for all his help with this project. Many thanks and crazy feels 

More to follow.......

Edited by Xaltar - 11 Nov 2016 at 1:46am