Gadgetory

this video is brought to you by the Intel Core i5 46 70k unlocked processor add an Intel 520 series SSD to your Haswell system for unbelievable overall performance the fractal design define excel is so large that I had to no I'm just kidding actually I reused my table a little bit we're going to lower that welcome to my unboxing on first look at the define XLR to this case from fractal design is pretty much as b-roll put it before we started is this kind of like the define r4 but bigger and I said yes yes indeed it is an Excel version of their defined series case that has that same Scandinavian clean lines look to it b-roll is indicating two microphones over here thank you for that has that same Scandinavian clean lines look to it but in a larger enclosure so this case only supports four five and a quarter inch base and eight three and a half inch or two and a half inch bays so in terms of sort of mere mortal expansion the kind of thing most normal people would do with their systems it doesn't really seem to offer that much over the define r4 however and there goes the chandelier see it is actually quite big there we go however when you get into some of the more exotic things you might want to do with your system like liquid cooling for example that is where the XR XL really shines so we've got a very hard foam here not my personal favorite however it does compensate by at least being quite thick so hopefully your case won't undergo more than one significant impact on its way to you particularly if you have a system built and loaded into it so there we go we're done with the packing material there it comes with a plastic sleeve over top that is of course and this is very important folks recyclable got that recycling logo on there on my side you couldn't see it before we don't worry too much about that all right the case itself so for the sake of getting a sort of a idea of the scale of this case go ahead and take a step back this is what it looks like next to a hulking six foot four figure of masculine unbelievably anise no actually I'm Vaughn five six so that should give you a better idea of how big the case actually is so we're gonna go ahead and peel off the front it is available in black or titanium gray in terms of the door it's pretty much what you'll expect if you've ever seen a defined series case before so there is noise dampening foam on the inside of the front door here that helps some of the noise that would otherwise escape from the front be harnessed and used for good rather than evil we've also got two lessly removable five and a quarter inch bay covers hopefully I can you'll see the thing about tool is five and a quarter inch Bay cover is is that you have to not be a tool in order to remove them and put them back in correctly so if you guys are if you guys aren't able to do it don't feel too bad but your your tool awesome not just King at the front we've got two one hundred and forty millimeter cooling fan spots with built in filters that you can go ahead and do that with okay you also have the option to mount one hundred and twenty millimeter fans here using the optional holes but you can see that the tooless mechanism that uses clips right here to mount the fan is only available with one hundred and forty millimeter fans the case itself includes their new are two series fans which have better bearings than the older fans I spent at a thousand rpm which is in line with the cool and quiet but mostly silent mostly quiet theme of this particular case you can also see that there are mounting options right here for 140 or 120 millimeter things from the inside as well more on that look at this I'm using the word tool I'm using the word moron I'm not trying to say anything about you know the case don't worry good case fractal design makes good stuff I like it alright up at the top of the case wah two USB 2.0 ports two USB 3.0 ports a power button a reset button a headphone jack and a microphone jack also on the top of the case we have two modules so these are for 140 millimeter fan slots as well and you can either leave them in for optimal silence or you can take them out for better cooling also for cooling are these vents on the front so down both sides of the front of the case there is airflow access for that front fan because if it was up to the door nothing would be getting through no window on this particular case but we do find another mod you vent ah there we go with 120 or 140 millimeter fan mounting option available to it but it's screwed into the 140 millimeter fan mounts and finally let's move around to the back where we've got another 140 or 120 millimeter fan mount IO as well as 9 PCI slots so you can fit your XL ATX motherboard in there and your firstborn child and a muffin and probably some like cigarettes if you're trying to hide them from your family not that I condone smoking it's terrible for your computer never mind your lungs I mean it's bad for your computer that should be all the reason you need to stop that tar gets into your heat sinks and your fans and gums them up and makes it so they don't work very well in heaven forbid you smoke and you have pets because then you're gonna have tar and hair in your heat sinks and let me tell you heat sinks don't work very well when they are full of tar and hair speaking of things that are full of tar and hair actually these are not full of tar hair but they are high density noise dampening pieces that go on both the left and right side panel of this case they increase the weight of the case significantly but they also make it more resistant to noise passing through it so I consider that a good thing especially given that it's a silent optimized case which I think I've mentioned at least a couple times now here's the other one so you can see that maje of nth has a slightly different kind of foam on it's a bit of a lower density foam so it has some you can press it in a little bit there but it's thicker to compensate because we although I did my unboxing of the 900 D it's not about the length it's about the girth there you go all right inside the case we find five four five and a quarter inch bays rather and no toolless mechanisms on them that's kind of an interesting one those have been standard for a while personally I don't care the last time I mounted something in a five and a quarter inch bay it was a gerbil and I wasn't planning to use it for anything useful because what can a gerbil do that's useful nothing let's go ahead and take off these this is what I was alluding to on the inside so you can go ahead and remove these thumb screws and that allows you to achieve something very entry sting which I'm buying time before I get to yeah yeah let's see if I can take this out there we go all right so you can reposition the drive cages so you can open this up to get more airflow access for your graphics cards so that front 140 millimeter fan you can see is right there and that will allow it to blow directly on your graphics cards this also gives you access to the haha yes those mounting points there so the defined XLR to supports a 240 or 280 millimeter radiator in the front a 240 or 280 millimeter radiator up here in the top it also supports a 120 or 140 millimeter radiator in the back and a 140 millimeter radiator in the bottom of the case without much difficulty whatsoever so it is extremely flexible in that regard radiator support on this case is extensive it supports a 2 by 120 millimeter radiator in the front a 2 by 120 or 2 by 140 if you're using a slim radiator in the top it supports a single 120 or 140 millimeter radiator in the back although I'd say 140 might be a little bit a little bit tight you might be able to kind of figure it out in there and a single 120 in the bottom however should be noted that in the bottom here I'd I say 140 because I'm at 120 in the bottom here you might have a little bit of difficulty with that if you decide to reposition the front hard drive cage so this hard drive cage go ahead and close that can move in about this much giving you the ability to install thicker radiators up there no problem but that will obviously interfere with this fan and then this hard drive cage which I showed you before can either be installed the way that it was out of the box or check this out it can be installed this way giving you a good compromise between airflow and hem well basically airflow but you sacrifice aesthetics a little bit because instead of the hard drives plugging in in the back of the case back here there we go they plug in from the inside of the case where you would be able to see them if you had a window on the chassis but we don't so not to worry about that also on the back of the case we find lots of other things we've got a large CPU cutout as well as cable management holes for your 8 pin your you know bottle no other pin your 24 pin your 6 pin your 8 pin your other more different a pin your you front connectors so these are all black cables which is nice to see there's your front USB there's your front HD audio there's your front USB 2 as well as your power and reset all things that you will most assuredly need the case does have built-in fan control that I missed when I was at the front here because I totally forgot 12 volt 7 volt and 5 volt are available with 3 different positions on the switch and these can be plugged into three separate fans conveniently the case includes three fans boom mind blown so you plug that in using this guy right here so there's molex power for that as well as the four three pin connectors for the fans themselves I think that is pretty much going to wrap it up for the define XLR - thank you for checking out my unboxing let me know what you think would you prefer the compact functionality of the define r4 which is significantly smaller than this guy or do you prefer the largeness and the flexibility to add more advanced cooling options to the case or a longer motherboard or more graphics cards and would you go with something like the define XL instead don't forget to subscribe - tech tips don't forget to like the video it helps me out a whole lot and just try to think ask them to comment ask them to subscribe ask them to like I could use a new hat while we're at it if that's not too much work you