Define R5 - Mid Tower Computer Case - ATX - Optimized For High Airflow And Silent - 2x Fractal Design Dynamic GP-14 140mm Silent Fans included - Water-cooling ready - Black

I bought this case to replace a cheap-o bundled case for a system I use as a home media and backup server (using the FreeNAS O/S). My original case was OK, but fairly noisy, beating my main PC for noise under the desk, so I wanted to get something both quieter and more stylish, plus with more internal drive mounting capacity. This R5 case ticks all of those criteria boxes. It is *amazingly* quiet, it has a monolithic style, reminiscent of some Hi-Fi systems, and can take up to 8 (eight) 3.5" HDD as standard - and the location of the internal drive cages has some flexibility, with several variations possible (I used the default layout). The main chassis panels (sides, front and the 3 removable top-sections) all come with a sound-absorbing material lining. It's not thick, but it seems to be very effective. My system content consists of an AMD FX-6300 CPU with stock AMD cooler (a bundled kit with the motherboard) and 5 (five) Toshiba 3TB SATA hard drives. The graphics card is a basic-as-possible PCIe card with a small 60mm fan. And the PSU of course - a 750watt bundled item I may replace later. So there are plenty of noise-making parts inside. With the two 140mm chassis fans (included with the case), the fan controller setting on "High", and the PSU, CPU + video card fans all running, there is just a very low level whisper of air movement. It's so low I visually double-checked that the fans were really all running. I could make the system even quieter if I replaced the stock CPU cooler and sourced a statically-cooled video card (which is only really required to allow the system to configure BIOS and to boot, as all other use is via the network/web browser). The case is hefty at around 11kg in delivery box, so it weighs quite a lot even before adding disks and other components. The front door panel is reversible via two clamps over the hinges (just two screws total) and is a click-shut style, requiring a small firm press to close properly - so it won't pop open by accident. Handy for me as I often end up tapping it with my right-knee as I shift around at my desk - it doesn't end up "rocking" like the old system. If you use this with a more powerful CPU that requires more cooling, there is plenty of room for adding a water cooling system, plus additional 140mm fans - a total of 9 (yes, *nine*) 140mm fans can be fitted - though some layout choices may not work depending on what components you use. The front panel has one pre-installed 140mm fan and will accept a second, or you can swap these out for water-cooler systems - or mix and match. The top panel will accept long cooler radiators, or up to three 140mm fans, or a mix and match. The rear exhaust fan (pre-installed) is another 140mm fan, which could be swapped/added to a H80 water cooler, etc. The left side-panel (as viewed from the front) can accept a 140mm fan. You can even add up to two 140mm fans to the base of the system, beside the PSU (only one is accessible by default - to use both you would need to use the optional arrangement of drive cages to remove the optical drive bays and shift the 3.5" bays to the top). The entire bottom area is protected by a slide-out-from-the-front dust filter panel. Cable management is of course catered for with grommeted cut-outs to the space "under" the motherboard. You can also mount 2 SSD or other 2.5" drives on the underside of the motherboard area. These drive mounts, plus the eight 3.5" quick-release mounts are all metal. The system comes provided with rubber grommets to mount the disk drives, to provide anti-vibration and further reduce noise. Overall a very impressive case. Build quality is great - no rough edges to any metal parts that I handled. Compact overall, but you can still fit an amazing amount of storage and choice of high-end graphics, etc, should you want to. Highly recommended. [Edit: Jan/Feb 2016] I was so impressed with this case that I recently bought a second one as part of a build of a new PC for my main system. One important point to note (and I failed to properly research) is the mix of components you use inside in terms of their <em>dimensions relative to each other</em>. As a total system build with all new components, I was adding an Asus Maximus VIII Hero motherboard and a Corsair H100i CPU-cooler. This cooler is a 280mm radiator using two 140mm fans mounted to it directly. The Asus motherboard (like many on the market now) includes a plastic shroud covering some of the components at the rear. I'm not entirely sure why they put the shroud on, whether it's for air-cooling flow, some sort of EM shielding, or just marketing "bling" (most likely), or a combination of these factors, but the result is that it reduced the tolerance available for installing the water cooler in the top area of the R5 case by around 5mm. This proved critical as it meant I couldn't fit <em>both</em> of the Corsair H100i fans to the radiator after the radiator was installed in the horizontal top mounting position, as the fan nearest the rear shroud on the mobo interfered with each other. (I didn't want to risk breaking the shroud off.) <em>Fortunately</em>, the R5 allows for several mounting points of water cooling radiators and internal drive bays. Also fortunate was that I only planned to use one 3.5-inch drive, so I only needed one mount-point out of the possible 8 this case offers. For those who may not realise it, the eight 3.5 mount points available are split between two "cages", one holding 5 drives, the other 3. These two cages can be split from each other, and the bottom one can be moved back from the normal front-of-case position towards the PSU. That's what I've done, and the "top" cage I've removed altogether. (Using a 2.5-inch HDD would have removed the need for both of the 3.5-inch drive cages, as the 2.5's would be mounted on the underside of the mobo mounting plate.) This allowed me to position the H100i in a vertical mount at the front of the case, which also allowed it to receive air sucked in with one of the case-supplied 140mm fans (the 2 photos show these), in addition to the radiator's own two fans sucking air in - so increasing overall inbound air-flow through the radiator (at least for the bottom half). So - just be aware if you are doing a new-build or a partial upgrade, check your total component set for how you think it will fit together physically - not just based on performance characteristics. Ultimately I'm still extremely pleased - I've got a <em>very</em> quiet PC with plenty horsepower and still room for plenty internal drives (including M.2 on the mobo if desired).

I've only built a couple of PCs in my time but I've bought several more, and they always come with inferior cases. So, to be able to construct my ideal PC, with an ideal case for my requirement, is a joy that only those who have built a PC from scratch will fully understand the importance of. Not cheap, but you will see and feel and appreciate the quality and value as you build, and that's how it should be. Cheap is cheap and you get what you pay for, as they say. Sometimes that turns out to be false, but in this case (pun intended), you truly get what you pay for and possibly a wee bit more. The solidity, build quality, options and sheer attention to detail make this case a joy to build with. It's well thought through, well insulated, well protected from dust, well ventilated, quiet, and it makes you feel good, almost proud, about what you're doing. Fitting expensive, quality components into a cheap or budget case is unrewarding. Buying a PC that has both is annoying too, when you come to open up the case for yourself. The best way to describe this case is that it is solid. It has all the screws, dampers and foresight in design that you would want and it's clearly been built from the pov of someone who is constantly thinking... 'right, now what would be useful/convenient/versatile as an option at this point in my build?' You spot and appreciate these details as you go. As far as aesthetics go, it's an adult's case. Functional, sleek and graceful. No NEON LIGHTS, liquid tubes or other boy-game-racer conceits. Full marks. Do not hesitate to buy if you want a good-looking, versatile, quiet case and an easy build. Just makes sure its dimensions fit the gap you intend it to accommodate. That's all you need to know. Have fun and enjoy the ride. :-)

The Fractal Define 5 case has been absolutely ideal for my home server setup. It’s incredibly practical, with eight 3.5" caddy slots, two 2.5" slots, and two 5.25" slots—just what I needed for a case that could handle a good number of drives. There’s also plenty of space to hide cables, which really helps keep everything tidy, and the case includes filters on the front to help keep dust out. There’s ample room to add fans for extra airflow as well, making it versatile for any setup. The interior sound padding is a fantastic touch, and I barely hear the server running in my office. Plus, when I accidentally misplaced some of the original screw fittings, Fractal’s customer service sent a replacement pack free of charge. Outstanding quality and support—this case is excellent value for money and highly recommended!

I have been waiting a while to see if it's really worth it. And it really is! There's a lot to talk about so let's get down to it. Delivery: it comes properly packaged, there's not much to say about this. It's a big case, more than I expected, so have that in mind. Installation: the case is really big, with lots of spaces to fit your components and the cable management is great! There's a really big space for hard drives, so you can mount lots of them. It comes with two fans already installed, but depending on the components you want to use you should consider adding one more, but have in mind that if you put it on the top of the case you won't be able to use the noise-reducing cover from the top. Performance: this is my first case with noise-reducing material and filters for the dust. It is not cheap, but it's worth it. I am almost everyday sitting close to the PC due to my job and I can't really hear it, even when performing heavy tasks on the CPU or GPU. That's one really good point, but a better one are the dust filters. After four months of use I open the PC to check how was it looking inside. 0 dust. You could see the dust in the filter where the fans are, but there's no dust inside the PC. Overall is a great case. A bit expensive, but you are paying for a really good product.

This is a truly gorgeous case with only one downside that I will get to in a minute. Got this case as my new graphics card has a lower pitched buzzing coil whine. The bane of PC gamers (Who are sensitive to high pitched squealing gfx cards which can sound like a hamster tap dancing on a hotplate. Some folks are deaf to this and cant hear it at all. I sadly can detect an active CRT monitor from a room away just from the whine.) Got this case to dampen the noise and in my case it seems to have worked. Fair less annoying with just now a little of the high frequency coming through. The case is highly modular. Has sensible fan mounts. Two good dust filters including a bottom one that can be removed from the front. (Thanks guys) 2 SSD trays that you need non - L shaped SATA connectors to fit so I would make sure you have cables with straight connectors on each end if you want to use them. Fans are quiet when under PWM mobo connectors. And it looks smart and minimalist. The down side? Its heavy. This helps to dampen any rattles but with the sides on it is very, very heavy. Without the sides its nowhere near as heavy so I would move it into position if you dont lift and then pop the sides on. :) Oh the left side has a lovely latching system to allow you to get the side on without screws. The right hand side has captive thumbscrews as does many of the 3.5" drive bay screws. (Not all the bottom of the lower one has standard screws as with thumbscrews you'd never get a dust filter on.) All drive bays are removable for more air flow. (I installed a 2nd front fan and removed the 3.5" bays for uber quiet air flow. :)

This is one of the best cases I've seen in a long time. What attracted me to it were the shear amount of options available, the thought that has gone into this is second to none. Options for drive cages: There are two HDD cages one 5 bay and one 3 bay - that's a lot of drives if you need them but the brilliance of the design is that these cages can be relocated or removed. The 5 bay may be removed completely leaving the 3 bay which can be located in 3 different positions. The optical 2 bay can also be completely removed for those that don't see a need for optical drives. There are 2 SSD mounting points the rear of the motherboard so no need to consider this as one of your HDD slots if you are using only the 3 bay enclosure. All this leaves several options for water coolers for instance. You can use the back, top or front for a water cooler - top and front will accept a double. The top mounting will accept extra long coolers if the optical drive bay is removed. All this is astounding for a midi-case, you are limited by your imagination on what and where you located your hardware - there's probably no other midi case that displays this kind of flexibility. As a low profile case it is gorgeous to look at with a reversible front door and sleek design. It's built beautifully and designed for silent operation and in this respect you have a choice of a windowed and non-windowed version. On the top are 3 panels which Fractal Design call moduvents, Each of these panels can be removed to allow a fan or water cooler to vent through the top. Kept on the case is clearly designed for silent operation as these panels along with the side panels have a decent amount of sound proof padding added to them. However, one of my dislikes regarding the so called Moduvents are the clips that hold it in place. They are really difficult to remove without breaking and it's not clear by the pictogram manual how one is supposed to remove them easily. This therefore could be something that they could improve. It comes with 2 140mm fans (one front intake and one at the back). Space for 2 at the front and optionally one could be attached to the bottom and side panel, giving a great deal of flexibility on case cooling options. They have also included a fan step down switch on the front although I expect most motherboards are now pretty capable of controlling PWM / DC fans that this is kind of redundant. Good quality screws and rubber grommets for sound proofing are supplied in an easy to understand pack with flex ties, extra fan screws and even a standoff assembly/removal tool. The Good: * Sturdy well thought out design * Quality parts and build * Looks great * Silent if need be * Loads of options / configurations The bad: * Moduvent system is very hard to remove * It's a pretty heavy case - once housing all the bits this will be seriously weighty. * Would have been nice to have had the 3rd fan included for the front * Fans are dead quiet but although rated at 1000rpm only seem to turn around 890rpm - they don't move a great deal of air so depending on your needs you may need to look to better case fans. * Standoff tool breaks easily (nit picking now) For the negatives I couldn't warranty dropping even one star - half a star would be about it and so it's a 9/10 really. It's such a good case which has all the flexibility to build a great gaming rig or a docile office pc if that's what you want and it looks so neat. What more can you want?

Needed a new case for a new PC and from all of the reviews on hardware sites it rated highly. I actually wanted the case with the side window but this wasn't available on Amazon in black and, as it can be purchased separately, I went for the non-window model. I was skeptical about how silent it would actually be so went into the build with an open mind. Firstly the case has plenty of room to work, and is modular inside. there are two slots for Optical Drives (DVD, BluRay etc.) and eight bays for 3.5" hard drives that can also take 2.5" drives. The eight bays are split into two cages which can be removed separately to give more room for longer graphics cards or extra case fans. The two optical bays can also be removed and makes room for water cooling systems. There are also two spaces where you can put 2.5" SSD Drives on the rear of the plate on which the motherboard sits. You also have a lot is places for routing cabling which makes for better airflow. The actual assembly of the system inside the case was straghtforward, all of the fixtures and fittings you need are included in a separate box and the don't skimp on screws and rubber grommets. It came as a huge surprise to me when I turned the system on for the first time and... nothing. Or at least I thought nothing, but the power light was on, the monitor sprang into life and the case was unbelievably quiet. So it most definitely lives up to it's reputation. I'd recommend this case to any builder that needs plenty of room foor kit and cooling, it will not disappoint.

The cable management options for this case are great, a nice change from the rats nest I had before, the choices for drive bays are great, personally I have the optical drive and big 3.5in bays removed and only have the small 3.5in bay making airflow pretty straight forward I have the included fan in the pulling air though the front though the air filter, which works very well, I have noticed a significant difference in the amount of dust in my room, which was bad in the first place. The built in fan controller was a nice surprise, and I use it to great effect. The good overall build quality of the case shows in the weight, it's quite heavy, but I have no intention of moving it much if at all, so this really isn't a bad point. The sound dampening is also very good although my setup wasn't very loud to begin with it certainly is noticeably quieter now. The moduvent system that fractal offer with this case is interesting although I don't use it now I plan on upgrading to a CPU radiator and the top moduvent should be perfect for that. Now we come to why the four stars and not the full 5. Well, although one of my personal favorite features is the air filters one thing about them really bugged me, especially as one of the key features was sound dampening, the front air filter rattled (it was more like a buzz, but it was really REALLY annoying), I had to wrap the perimeter of it in electrical tape to make it fit better and stop the noise. TL;DR Great case, air filters maybe not the highest quality for the price I paid for them.