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.......

The Z170 Pro4s only uses 2 rows of mounting holes vs 3 on full sized ATX boards. There was a locator standoff included in the case (actually screwed into it) which could have been the thinking behind the missing standoff and screw. I removed it and replaced it with a regular standoff. 

I have got to say, the thumb tightener for the standoffs included with this case is fantastic. It has earned itself a spot in my toolkit.

I really couldn't think of a better case for my needs. I am not into all the excessive "bling" in my systems, some subtle lighting sure but the flashing, pulsing, color changing thing isn't for me. If I ever use RGB it will be set to the color scheme of my build and left at a constant low setting in that color. 

I will have 3 140mm fans on the front when my order comes in, while the airflow is hardly ideal it should be ample with 3 of them running at their full 1000rpm. They are very quiet and I do like that. Add to that that there is absolutely nothing impeding airflow in the define S and it should do the job well enough. I would go with Noctua fans but I just can't stand the brown color and my local stores only stock the brown.   

I couldn't let all the water cooling potential of the Define S go to waste now could I?

And the before shot

Aside from the awesome new Corsair H105 AIO I have also added a Thermaltake Riing 140mm fan, my local store didn't have any Arctic 140s in stock and I like the more subtle not over bright ring LED effect that matches the logo on my GTX 960 G1 Gaming. I may not like the Christmas tree flashing LED effects but a subtle glow always makes me smile 

As you can see there was plenty of tubing to reach the front of the case, even if I were to have the radiator mounted against the case then fans onto the radiator. I chose this configuration because it will allow me to add a pair of 120mm fans at a later date without having to dismantle everything 

I have done a few stress tests at the same OC I was using on the Arctic Freezer 12 (modded aesthetically). I am running my i5 6600k @ 4.4ghz with a 1.3v vcore. Both configs were tested with an ambient temp of 24c and as you can see from the pics the only change is the H105, the new 140mm fan was used for both the air and water cooling tests.

Arctic Freezer 12:

Idle: 32c

Prime Load: 75c

Gaming Load: 44c

Corsair H105:

Idle: 16c

Prime Load: 51c

Gaming load: 28c

As you can see, the gaming load on the H105 is lower than the idle load on the Arctic Freezer 12  The other temps are so far below the air cooler I think they speak for themselves. Now to overclock some more and see how far I get. I topped out at 4.6ghz using my Thermaltake Frio OCK @ 1.35v and couldn't run prime without a thermal event (100c). Lets see what I can get out of the H105 

I am back to my 4.4ghz daily use OC after 7 hours of trying every combination of settings under the sun, I guess either my budget Z170 Pro4s or my CPU just are not up to the task 

None the less, 4.5ghz stable is still not a bad result I just would have liked to see more under water. It looks like I will have to wait for another board/CPU combo to try for the elusive 5ghz OC that both my previous systems denied me