Gadgetory

anyone remember these these are called cases with all the cpus and gpus lately case isn't cooling haven't gotten a whole lot of attention really out of any of the media coverage so we are back now with a case revival this is the fractal define c is a relative newcomer to the market at least in fractals lineup i'll be looking at that today it's got more of a stout nature it's professional and discreet rather than gamer ii so that means a lack of the RGB LED lighting grays before getting to the fractal case this content is brought to you by EVGA and they're 1080i FTW three icx card the FTW three will be available within the next few weeks and aims to leverage its icx sensors to track vrm and vram temperatures in addition to usual GPU temps click the link below for more information the fractal define c shifts in two main variations there's the taller version which is this one it's still a mid tower and then one that chops a few inches off the top to accommodate only micro ATX and mini ITX boards this is a full ATX support case so those are the two options that the second one is the define mini C and then there's also a non windowed variant that's got some extra foam padding in there we have the windowed variant in terms of competition the main things to look at would be things like the be quiet pure bay 600 which we somewhat recently reviewed the Corsair 400 Q and 400 C is sort of a mix in terms of fractals windowed and non windowed versions and then the NZXT s340 non elite which is the oldest out of all those cases all of those that tend to be in about the 70 to 95 dollar price range including this one which has an MSRP of $90 the define C has an emphasis on noise suppression and at $90 it's got a lot of competition in the mid tower market the price point right now is burgeoning with those options from Corsair njp be quiet fractal cooler master and basically everyone else that's a very competitive price point let's run through the specs before getting to the review the define seed measures in at 400 by 2 10 by 453 millimeters and weighs Jeff 6.8 kilograms are about 15 pounds that makes a define see one of the lighter smaller cases we've looked at in recent history and looks are pretty plain with this case tall black steel and plastic with roughly 1 millimetre thick steel for the motherboard panel construction is good and materials fit the price with cause primarily cuts in the form of acting not necessary extras like the optical drive limited drive cages and things like that externally the defined seat is made up of soft brushed plastic paneling and a steel side panels with side ventilation for the single intake van and that is in the front our version of the defined C has a window which means no foam on that side but it does have foam padding on the other panels for the most part the windowless version has additional foam padding on the left side panel and those side panels for what it's worth ends out like a door rather than relying on Eclipse and we like this small function focus move it's something that a lot of case manufacturers have started doing and hopefully they can move away from the fragile metal tabs the PSU and drive cage are hidden by a shroud that covers the entire bottom of the case as the FC xlvii of standardization a few years ago but there's one notable change here the front of the shroud on the define c can be popped out allowing the drive cage to be removed and replaced with a 120 millimeter bottom front intake fan or a radiator that covers the full height of the case or both technically the define C can support three sixty millimeter radiators in the front that would be a tight fit and restricts 3.5 inch drive support 240 milliliters is still perfectly usable and top mount radiators are also supported up to 240 millimeters this can be done by removing the ventilation cover at the top and replacing it instead with an included mesh dust filter you'll want to install the CPU cooler prior to installing the motherboard in this case as space is limited in the enclosure and doing so after the fact would be a bit rough and likewise while you're at it try to wrap those EPS 12-volt cables before installing the board for the same reason it does get tight in there once you actually have components in the system so do all the pre installation you can before actually assembling the thing cable management is done without the help of a cable management bar instead resorting to a more traditional rear panel channeling the define C has one channel that's 35 millimeters deep and that's enough to fit really every cable in the system if you wanted to with the rest of the side paneling about 15 millimeters of space still plenty though the 24-pin should probably routed through the deeper channel the define see we're looking at has its intention somewhere between the 400 C windowed and the 400 Q quiet version of the case and then the pure vase 600 which is a very quiet case so somewhere in that range the two included 120 millimeter fans that are installed on the define C are in the same orientation that these six hundreds were would be quiet 600 that is and it may be the most valid direct comparison for both thermal and acoustic tests case fans were at max rpm for all tests with the defined C and as always for testing methodology check the review link below written by Patrick lates and that's got all the test methods that we have for thermals and for noise you can learn more about how they are conducted there for performance tests we tested with the mod u vent cover on and off and the mod you vent TM is a section of top of the case that can be removed is a panel that can be pulled out and thus preserves a trademark just like the pure bass 600 the fractal defined C is able to leverage at some modularity of a top panel so you could swap in a mesh if you preferred over the cover for CPU temperatures at CPU delta T hit fifty five point eight Celsius with the top open and fifty five point seven C with top closed which is effectively identical and well within test variant the cooler we currently used for case tests is oriented so that it upholds air from the front of the case and exhausted out the back leaving that no real opportunity for air to travel upwards then escape at the top so these results make sense the vent on the top of the case is nice but there's no real reason to ever have it open unless you have a radiator up there or have mounted exhaust or intake fans at the top the CPU temperatures are okay but not incredible compared to our other reviews the BitFenix Shogun with an additional 140 millimeter fan on the front and the SP 40 elite at its maximum rpm scored similarly to the crackle to find C but neither we're cooling champions the front intake fan is responsible for aiming air at both the CPU and the GPU in this case and a few degrees of improvement could be expected from adding another fan and rearranging airflow in the front and you do have capacity to do that we need to buy an extra fan still the default fan arrangement is identical to the pure base 600 s which got a lot warmer with its tiny and restrictive air intake of the front thanks to the heavy mesh paneling two layers of it actually moving out to GPU temperatures the downfall of cases with full shrouds is normally poor GPU temperatures there was a slight improvement in GPU Delta P with the top open but that was less than 1 degree and therefore not really a significant difference it's not worth the extra dust with the radiator installed and it's really getting kind of close to margin of error or variance within test sort of outside of it but very close GPU DT was 57.4 Celsius with the top open at maximum case fan rpm making the GPU and the define C slightly warmer than the SP 40 elite despite its travels and slightly warmer than the pure base six hundreds best effort of fifty five point six degrees for hot GPUs like blower fan arrangements a low intake fan or replacement of the drive cage with a bottom intake is something we consider a must but if you have a better cooler and can withstand those slightly higher fan RPMs on the GPU as then you'll probably be okay looking at noise now the defined C windowed version has one fewer noise damping panel than the non windowed variety noise levels remain competitively low regardless of this as Patrick said and his written review the defined C is a strong contender in our quietest cases that don't directly reference silence in the brand name category at 34.8 DBA with top closed as it generally should be and fans at maximum rpm which they might not be in fact the only case which beats the defined C at a comparable fan speed is the be quiet pure bass 600 which has specially designed fans that still rotate about 130 rpm slower and bares a warmer interior this isn't a flashy or exciting case but it's well-made and logical which I suspect might be the highest praise to fractals ears that's sort of what they do in terms of GPU thermals you could run into some issues especially with those warmer blower fan setup to where you really don't generally get above 50 to 55 percent fan speed on the native serve for the fan but if you're running anything decent and are okay with a potentially higher GPA fan speed if you want to sustain those higher boost 3.0 enabled clocks on nvidia or higher boost clocks on AMD then it's not a bad case the thermals are really the only weak point here and that's not an uncommon thing when we look at cases that are somewhat silent by design or not in this case it's a pretty quiet case 34 35 decibels DBA output on the bench is one of the best performers so they have done well in that category it's also discreet it's got some professionalism to it that would allow you to put the case in an office if you want it to but if you want something more flashy clearly this isn't the right case for you there are plenty of other options and we've reviewed a lot of them so you can dig through the channel or the website for those in terms of these define C on its positioning at $90 the price seems about right it competes very directly with a be quiet pure bass 600 it's pretty close to the 400 C and Q it's about five dollars different not 100% the same market but close enough that if you wanted a mix of performance and silence we would definitely encourage looking at the 400 series Corsair cases because they're strong competitors to this the define C is well priced for anyone who wants a smaller footprint case it's definitely a stout unit and compared to some of the other things we've looked at lately and it's also a good fit if you want something that is objectively quiet it is again one of the quietest cases thermals not great as stated but you could definitely deal with them consider buying a fan with this case and throw it in the front and then offset the positioning a bit so that you can align one of the fans better with the GPU and one better with the CPU you'd be in pretty good shape overall and might even be able to drop an RPM which would mean that you wouldn't really gain in the noise category overall well built one shortfall being thermals is not a bad thing you can find at links in the description below for the full written review if you prefer the case will be linked down there as well and our patreon page at patreon.com slash gamers Nexus if you want to support these types of reviews thank you for watching I'll see you all next time you