Gadgetory

what is up all you hardware junkies this is Jays two cents and we're checking out the defined XLR to full tower case by fractal design when it comes to the packing there's nothing really much to say here they do put a lot of foam protection on this case so I don't worry about it getting damaged in shipping now on the surface this case does not really appear to be much of a flashy case don't let that fool you there's a lot of design effort that's gone into the appearance of this case this model is called titanium and the front door is a brushed aluminum and it does have a titanium tint to it it's very attractive but the details don't stop there even the case feet or chrome the top of the case natively supports either to 120 or to 140 millimeter fans as well as an optional 120 or 140 millimeter fan mount on the side panel take notice though that there is no side window in this case so if you want to show off the guts of your PC to add a rear of the case has a 140 millimeter fan pre-installed and nine expansion slots the PSU does mount at the bottom and it has a rubber ring installed to reduce vibrations from the power supply also located in the rear is a fan filter that runs the entire length of the bottom of the case to keep dust from making its way inside your system but keep in mind if you have the system close to a wall it'll become difficult to pull it out on the top of the case in the front you will find your headphone and microphone jack a reset button a very cool looking power button with an LED ring around it two USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 on the inside of the front door you'll find four or five and a quarter expansion slots and a removable air filter for the front intake fans you'll also notice some foam on the inside of the door but we'll get to that a little bit later behind the front grille you'll find a pre-installed 140 millimeter fan as well as an expansion for an extra 120 or 140 millimeter intake fan as well as the intake filter which the fans are mounted to and is tool is removable for easy cleaning fractal also includes a 12 7 and 5 volt fan selector that can control up to three fans allow for either performance or silent operation one of the things that fractal design is really known for their efforts and soundproofing computer systems the side panels on this case are lined with about 1/8 inch sound deadening material that make the side panels very heavy even the unused fan slots in this case are using the same sound deadening material in order to keep dust and sound from making its way in and out of this case remember the foam on the inside of the door that we mentioned earlier yep soundproofing material to further make this case as quiet as possible fractal definitely didn't leave all of its design innovation only on the exterior of the case the inside is very roomy you have 8 hard drive expansion slots and you have a 140 millimeter intake fan pre-installed in the bottom of the case the front IO cables are sleeved in black so that they're not very unattractive but they do leave a little link to be desired I do however recommend moving the 140 millimeter fan to the front of the case for an extra intake one of the features that I really like about the hard drive cages is that you can remove the middle cage and reinstall it sideways to get better air flow across the intake and into the case or if you're not going to install any hard drives in that cage at all you can always remove it for optimal air flow one of the things that I find very unacceptable though is the fact that the five-and-a-quarter bays are not to list I have a hard time with that considering even $50 cases have to list five and a quarter base today now if you're considering going water cooling in this case you can fit a 240 millimeter radiator up front as well as a 240 millimeter up top now keep in mind in order to fit the radiator up front you're going to have to remove both harddrive cages which will require other options for mounting your hard drives when it comes to motherboard options it does natively support ATX micro ATX mini ITX e-atx and XL ATX motherboards and all included hardware comes in a box that has every single screw that you could possibly need to install any component now it's time for my two cents and how I feel about the fractal define Excel are two full tower gaming case I wouldn't really say it's a gaming case technically it's more of an elegant case that you would put somewhere that it's going to be seen where you care about how sleek the case is you're not interested in showing off your components because there's no side window but I have to tell you the sound deadening features of this case are unlike anything I've ever heard indeed if you run your fans on the seven volt or even the 5 volt setting on this case it is absolutely quiet I've built four systems in this case this year alone and have never had anyone be dissatisfied with this case it's awfully heavy though when you take into account the side panels and the sound deadening material that's inside this case I don't like the fact that they installed the 140 millimeter fan in the bottom when you install a fan on the bottom and you're pulling air up from the ground or the carpet of the floor even though you have a filter there you're going to pull a lot of dirt in with it so like I said in the review I definitely recommend that you take that bottom fan and move it to the front that way you have two intake fans in the front unfortunately the front of this case is very restrictive when it comes to intake fans especially if you're running the hard drives right behind those fans I haven't noticed any sort of temperature issues inside the cases whatsoever including the fact that I was overclocking an AMD 8 core 8350 in one of these with absolutely no issues whatsoever and that was on air cooling not water you can't install water cooling in this case but it's going to be a bit tight up top because there's not a whole lot of room between the top of the case and the top of the motherboard so you can easily fit a 30 millimeter thick radiator as well as 25 millimeter fans in either push or pull but push-pull configuration is not going to work with this case at least not on the top of the case because you're going to have clearance issues with the motherboard however on the front of the case you have plenty of room to do a push-pull radiator configuration I definitely feel that this case is worth it if you're looking for something that's different than your standard flashy you know crazy curves crazy design looking case this is definitely the way the brushed aluminum front is just sexy as hell there's no way around it and it's definitely worth looking at every time you walk by this case and you look at it you're going to look at it you're going to think wow that is just an awesome looking case the side panels are a little bit boring especially with the 120 or 140 millimeter intake square on the side but you can obviously mod the side panel if you want to go that route but anyway this has been Jays 2 cents thanks for watching this video sick or not I wasn't going to let this review last or go any longer without being brought to you guys because it's already been sitting in my harddrive long enough as always show your support by hitting that like button if you stumbled across my channel hit that subscribe button I look forward to seeing you in my future videos don't forget to have a Facebook page and a have a Twitter I'd like to communicate with you guys on there so hit me up and as always I'll see you in my next video when I see you