Gadgetory

excellent when Josh from fractal design asked to meet me discreetly at an undisclosed location I suspected a variety of outcomes but I was in for a surprise Josh the master of disguise actually had a new case for me to look at the define r5 this is a mid tower ATX case and the successor to the immensely popular define r4 with two years in development at a host of new features many of them directly requested by fractal fans Josh already demonstrated his confidence in the define archives packaging it uses hard film but there's plenty of it to keep things safe if you're planning to reship a finished build I have the black version of the r5 with the solid side panel for maximum noise dampening it will also be made available in white and titanium gray and windowed side panel versions are also in the works MSRP is $110 u.s. for this version and $120 for the windowed ones aesthetically the r5 can easily be mistaken for the r4 or r3 for that matter when your calling card is minimalist Scandinavian design I suppose it's difficult to make things much more minimalist II so stick with what works right the black painted steel and black plastic are matched perfectly though and the swinging front door has a full brushed metal panel it has a more matte finish than earlier versions and does a pretty good job resisting fingerprints this door is padded for sound dampening and is also reversible so it can open either way it does require a screwdriver but it is a simple change to make behind the door you've got a couple five and a quarter inch bays with easily removable panels and below that a large front intake with a dust filter that's also easy to remove and reinstall and has angled fins to direct airflow and further reduce any noise that might be trying to escape from inside the case behind it is a single 140 millimeter fan but more on that later and space for another 140 fan or water cooling radiators also more on rad support in just a moment one of my favorite new features of for the r5 is at the bottom here and that's the full-size dust filter that covers all the bottom intakes on the case while being accessible from the front this means that you can clean all your intake filters without needing to access the back or bottom of the case other than that on the bottom you have some pretty standard raised feets with rubber pads and removing the filter shows all the mounts for fans and or radiators moving to the top of the case front io includes your standard mic and headphone jacks recessed reset button power button with blue LED backlights with a more recessed activity light just below it and four USB ports with the two SuperSpeed ports labeled as 3.0 rather than having blue plugs because fractal these are also spaced out pretty well too for plugging in more sizable USB devices the r5 does still have a 3 speed 3 fan controller built in the switch for that is tucked it just inside the front door beneath the top IO and is powered with a standard SATA power plug now you may have spotted the module vent panels at the top of the case these three panels are also padded for sound and can be removed individually so you can have that perfect mix of airflow or noise reduction on the back of the case you have a 120 or 140 millimeter fan or radiator mount at the top its slotted so you can shift your fan up or down for proper spacing there's an IO shield knockout of course additional hex grilling for ventilation seven expansion slots and a bottom mounted power supply the side panels in traditional define series fashion are dense and thick with full padding for noise reduction the right side has captured thumb screws so you won't lose them and the left side has an optional 120 or 140 millimeter fan mount although it is not filtered but not a huge deal and another cool upgrade on the side panel is the latching system for easy access to the cases main chamber this was a feature that I really liked the side panel swing out for removal now to instead of using catches along the top and the bottom also an upgrade before we move to the interior here's a look at accessories individually bagged black screws a standoff tightener that's unfortunately plastic instead of metal and lovely rubber washers for reducing hard drive vibration inside we've got traditional white accents on things like the expansion slots fan blades and drive cages which just looks cool these drive cages are all metal and support up to 8 3.5 inch drives in a couple positions within each sled as well as 2.5 inch drives and again they are metal and way better than plastic ones sure you need screws to mount the drive to the sled but I'm ok with that for hard drives the drive cages themselves can be removed complete we turn sideways although I don't see much call for that these days or move to the middle mount closer to the PSU or hung from the top of the case all by removing some cleverly placed two thumb screws the cages also have a more open design to allow more air flow over the drives the five and a quarter inch cage is also easily removable the thumb screws although the lowest drive cage and the top bracket for the OD D Bay's requires a screwdriver if you want to pull everything up for maximum radiator support so I've shown you radiator mounts on the front bottom top and back but what actually fits there the easiest way to show you is to take a page out of the well-written define our five manual literally which shows up to three hundred and sixty millimeter support up front up to 240 on the bottom 120 or 140 at the back and up to 420 on top but bear in mind that for wider RADS those are the ones highlighted in blue you're limited to 55 millimeters max thickness for the radiator and your fans and of course you couldn't do all of these at the same time as a thick three hundred and sixty millimeter read at the front for example is going to block the available space at the top and the bottom just kind of make sense the motherboard tray is finished in a beautiful black paint job along with the rest of the Interior is a fixed raised standoff at the center which we're seeing a lot more on cases these days definitely and plus a generous CPU cut out and plenty of well positioned rubber grommet cable pass throughs also the PSU mount at the bottom has some rubber cushions to minimize your power supply vibrations the two included case fans are also new from fractal design they're the dynamic GP 14 models and have hydraulic bearings angled struts and notched and grooved fan blades to smooth out the noise profile and reduce humming they are three pin only so no pwm support but they do run very quiet and can spin as low as 1000 rpm behind the motherboard tray we have thoughtfully placed cable tie downs and a wonderful section running down the middle with velcro straps for your beefier 24 pin and GPU power connectors there are also recessed areas for tucking away cables at the bottom and towards the front drive cages with plenty of space between the tray and the side panel finally we have two more hidden 2.5 inch drive mounts back here and they've been upgraded with removable trays so you don't have to pull your motherboard out to swap a drive I'm going to go ahead and take credit for this particular upgrade since I complained about that shortcoming with the define r4 so is this case quiet well preliminary testing of the include advance indicates yes and I've spoken with some friends who have confirmed that with a full build installed the sound dampening on the side in front of the r5 does a very very good job fractal has built upon their past successes with the defined series they've delivered a case that has all the things that made the r4 so popular while adding features that fans have been asking for for a while I particularly like the versatility that the case has thankfully modularity of the drive cages and the extensive radiator support so my only question now is what system should I build in the define r5 I feel like I could do anything from a sensible budget rig to an all-out custom water-cooled monstrosity so let me know what you think I should do in the comment section down below like and share this video if you enjoyed it subscribe to my channel if you haven't already I'll be back again soon with more tech videos