Fractal Design Define R2 XL Review
Category : Cases
Published by Marc Büchel on 30.04.13
Almost exactly two years ago the young Swedish company Fractal Design presented with the Define R3 their first midi tower. Now they have the Define R2 XL big tower in their portfolio which should be the next step in evolution of their Define series cases. The Swedes provided this case with an increased build quality and they also added features like USB3.0.
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On the following pages we will show you the strengths and weaknesses of the Fractal Design Define R2 XL.
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 5 - Left side |
| Page 2 - Preview | Page 6 - Top / Bottom |
| Page 3 - Front / Back | Page 7 - Conclusion |
| Page 4 - Right side |
Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]
Preview
Specifications
| Model | Fractal Design Define R2 XL |
| Case Type | Big Tower |
| Dimensions | 232 x 559 x 560 mm (W x H x D) |
| Material | Steel, Plastic |
| Color | Black / Weiss |
| 5.25'' drive bay | 4 x external |
| 3.5'' drive bay | 8 x 3.5'' |
| Expansion slots | 9 |
| Form factors | E-ATX, XL-ATX, ATX, mATX, Mini ITX |
| Weight | 19 kg |
| Cooling | 2 x 140 mm Front (1 Included) 1 x 140 mm Rear 2 x 120/140 mm Top (optional) 1 x 140 mm Side (optional) 1 x 140 mm Bottom 1 x Integrade Fan Controller (5V / 7V / 12V) (Up to 3 fans, molex plug) |
| I/O ports | 2 x USB 3.0 2 x USB 2.0 Audio in / out |
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 5 - Left side |
| Page 2 - Preview | Page 6 - Top / Bottom |
| Page 3 - Front / Back | Page 7 - Conclusion |
| Page 4 - Right side |
Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]
Front
Overview |
 
|
| The front of Fractal Design's Define R2 XL is simple, elegant and timeless. As soon as you open the front door you'll see an acoustic insulation mat, helping to reduce unwanted noise. Fractal Design is very serious about noise insulation with the Define R2 XL. Therefore you also find a fan controller where you can choose between 5 volt, 7 volt and 12 volt. Right next to the fan controller you can find four 5.25 inch expansion slots. Below those there is one pre-installed 140 millimeter fan. If you want to you can add a second fan at this place. In order to keep dust outside the case Fractal Design equipped the case with dust filters. They have been place in a cartridge and they can be removed easily. Furthermore they are washable, so it's easy to clean them. |
Back
Overview |
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| Next to the usual slot bezels, of which you're going to find nine in this case, there is space for the pre-installed 140 millimeter fan, which has been placed right behind the CPU cooler. |
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 5 - Left side |
| Page 2 - Preview | Page 6 - Top / Bottom |
| Page 3 - Front / Back | Page 7 - Conclusion |
| Page 4 - Right side |
Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]
Right side
Overview |
 |
| The panel on the right side looks quite unspectacular. As soon as you take it off you'll see that there is a bit more space than you're going to find with most other cases. Fractal Design decided to build the case a bit wider. Therefore it's easier to put all the cables on the backside of the motherboard. Something one is going to notice immediately is the big hole where the backside of the CPU cooler is. Furthermore the hard drive connectors are well accessible and wiring them is no hassle. We also like the big rubber grommets through which one can route all the different cables to the backside of the motherboard tray. This is not only good from a practical point of view it's also a great feature to wire you PC neatly. |
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 5 - Left side |
| Page 2 - Preview | Page 6 - Top / Bottom |
| Page 3 - Front / Back | Page 7 - Conclusion |
| Page 4 - Right side |
Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]
Left side
Overview |
|
| Like the right side,
the left side panel is unspectacular. The only thing which looks a bit
suspicious are the ventilation holes. If you want to place a fan there
you have to remove a thick insulation pad to do so. As you can see on
the pictures Fractal Design equipped the side panel with acoustic
insulation material to further reduce operating noise. Once the side
panel has been removed one can see the four 5.25 inch slots in the top right
corner
of the case. Right below there are two hard drive cages where a total of
eight 3.5 inch drives can be installed. It is possible to remove both
cages. On the last pictures you can see our setup. We put quite a big
ASUS Matrix graphics card in place and there is still plenty of space
between the card an the hard drive cages. A closer look at the top of the case shows that there are two more of these thick insulation pads. If you remove them you can install two additional 120/140 millimeter fans or even a dual radiator. If you want to, you can realize a very efficient cooling solution in this case. There is the option to place two 120/140 millimeter fans in the front, one 120/140 millimeter fan in the back and two more 120/140 millimeter fans in the top. We also like the compartment for the power supply. There is plenty of space and below the PSU there are ventilation holes with additional dust filters. |
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 5 - Left side |
| Page 2 - Preview | Page 6 - Top / Bottom |
| Page 3 - Front / Back | Page 7 - Conclusion |
| Page 4 - Right side |
Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]
Top
Overview |
|
|
| As we've already mentioned you find two ventilation areas where 120/140 millimeter fans can be installed. As a factory default you will find two thick acoustic insulation pads on the inside of the case. Furthermore Fractal Design chose to integrate the I/O connectors in to the top of the case. In this regard you get an audio out and an audio in as well as two USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports. Furhtermore there is a power and a reset button. |
Bottom
Overview |
| At the bottom of the case you find two ventilation holes. One of which is below the PSU and the other is in the center of the case. There is also a dust filter which is easy to remove. Furthermore there are four rubber feet which provide the case with a safe stand. |
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 5 - Left side |
| Page 2 - Preview | Page 6 - Top / Bottom |
| Page 3 - Front / Back | Page 7 - Conclusion |
| Page 4 - Right side |
Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]
Conclusion
| General | + | - | |
| The Fractal Design Define R2 XL is a well though, big tower case where especially the noise insulation part is able to convince. At this ponit the engineers have really been thinking about how to reduce noise as efficiently as possible. Furthermore we also liked the two removable hard drive cages. There even is a small fan controller where you can choose between 5 volt, 7 volt and 12 volt. | -
Design - Noise insulation |
||
| Manufacturing quality / Ergonomics | + | - | |
| Overall the build quality is on a good level. Fractal Design didn't make the mistake to go for super thin side panel to save weight. They use solid metal sheets, paired with noise insulation material, therefore you get good stability and reasonable stiffness. Furthermore it has been easy to install hardware in the case. We also liked that there were several holes in the motherboard tray to route cables to the backside of the board. Fractal Design decided to make the case a bit wider, therefore the cables, which have been routed to the backside can easily be placed there. | - Build quality - Interior Space | ||
| Design | + | - | |
| Fractal Design created a very decent and good looking design for the Define R2 XL. They chose to move the buttons and connectors away from the front panel to top of the case. Like this they can keep the front plain and simple. Something else you might notice are the ventilation slots on the left and the right side of the front panel. Form follows function one might say. | - Design | ||
| Recommendation | + | - | |
| We can recommend the Define R2 XL to everybody who's looking for a big tower case that features pre-installed acoustic insulation material as well as silent fans and a fan controller. With this case it's really easy to build a silent rig. Obviously, this big tower offers a lot of space for your precious hardware. | -
Silent-PC - Gaming-PC - Enthusiast build - Desktop PC - File Server |
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| Rating | |||
| The Fractal Design Define R2 XL gets very good four and a half out of five stars. The case comes at a price point of est. CHF 132.- (est EUR 109.-). | |||
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 5 - Left side |
| Page 2 - Preview | Page 6 - Top / Bottom |
| Page 3 - Front / Back | Page 7 - Conclusion |
| Page 4 - Right side |
Discuss this article in the forums
Redacted by: m.buechel@ocaholic.ch