Fractal Design: Define Mini

It is pretty nice looking though, and will most likely be cheaper than its bigger brother too. For a mATX case I think this is quality stuff. Plenty of HDD room, ample cooling and a nice understated look.
 
It's a fair bit smaller than the Mini P180 - more alike the NZXT Vulcan in size I think... (minus the handle)

I quite like it - Cube cases don't work so well on/under desks in my opinion (I had a V351 and it felt like it took up more space than my FT02 because it's wide)
 
Love it, would make a good silent pc that. Remove the centre hard drive cage to allow better air flow. Actually I think I prefer it to the R3. Just need the price now, but I'd hope for £60-70 area.
 
MADEinSTOKE said:
So is the cooling considerd poor on these cases
Click to expand...

Cooling isnt great in the XL case, according to reviews however I have not seen any of them install the optional 140mm side fan which could blow over the cpu/gpu and assist greatful in cooling....

So its a bit of a grey area imo untill its tried and tested.

You dont really get good cooling in larger towers really, not unless there noisy....its a thin line you get between silence and cooling. R2/R3 has better cooling cos its a smaller case and the fans can reach all the parts inside the case the only issue is its cramped and hard to build in and u cant fit longer VGA cards... I had to remove a 120mm fan just too install my AX850 p/s, but I gotta admit my R2 has been my top case ive had, in terms of cooling/silence.

I will hopefully get the Fractual XL since I need more hdds supported and longer vga cards and for more ease of use but will see !
 
HighlandeR said:
Cooling isnt great in the XL case, according to reviews however I have not seen any of them install the optional 140mm side fan which could blow over the cpu/gpu and assist greatful in cooling....

So its a bit of a grey area imo untill its tried and tested.

You dont really get good cooling in larger towers really, not unless there noisy....its a thin line you get between silence and cooling. R2/R3 has better cooling cos its a smaller case and the fans can reach all the parts inside the case the only issue is its cramped and hard to build in and u cant fit longer VGA cards... I had to remove a 120mm fan just too install my AX850 p/s, but I gotta admit my R2 has been my top case ive had, in terms of cooling/silence.

I will hopefully get the Fractual XL since I need more hdds supported and longer vga cards and for more ease of use but will see !
Click to expand...

What cooling improvements would you like to see with the XL?

I think replacing the top 180mm fan with two 140mm (like the Define R2/R3) would be a good move.
And perhaps even having a 180mm on the side instead of a 140mm.
 
Yeah a lot of people wanted to see 2x140mm fans on the top of the xl case rather then that 180mm fan, I think that would have made for a better cooling soloution. a lot of people complain on the reviews that 180mm fan is useless, doesnt shift much air or it can be noisy.

Perhaps replacing it with a better fan may proove better...

Yeah even a 180mm fan on the side may cover the entire gpu/cpu for additional cooling, it would be nice too see a review that adds that side 140mm fan so we see if it makes any difference.

Only thing is the fractual XL is designed for silence so higher temps/worser cooling is gonna be the normal this is always the case with larger cases that want to go the silence root, if you want better cooling u will have to put up with more noise sadly.

Another bad thing ive noticed is no inbuilt fan controller, they have however added a seperate fan controller pci slot but then the wires will dangle maybe a niggle....R3 has it so dont know why its missing on the XL.

Still as far as it goes id say Fractual XL is looking like one of the top larger/top highend cases around for silence and overall features.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom