Fractal Design - Define R4 - tips?

Roady · 9 Oct 2013 at 16:47

I'm building my new rig in a Fractal Design - Define R4.

Follow my build log here.

Any tips on what I should watch out for in this case? I've a HDD LED mod in mind - replacing 1/both of the front headphone/mic jacks and I'll also have to do something about the [f]ugly front switch beside the 5 1/4 bays they have for fans.

Most other cases I've built in were OEM many moons ago, more recently (5-6 years ago) have been Lian li and Thermaltake.

Will probably look for a fan controller if I can match the white...

Roady · 10 Oct 2013 at 11:40

Unboxing & first look pictures of Fractal Design Define R4:

I'm very impressed with the quality of the R4 after all the horror stories I'd read. Although the case is predominatly plastic, it feels very sturdy. The plastic feels slightly flexible so hopefully it'll be quite forgiving when working on it. It's very BRIGHT! The finish is a nice matte, rather than glossy which should be perfect for me and one of the reasons I didn't like many other white cases.

First look at the front, still have the plastic film on the door:

The buttons on the front, nice finish again. The rear panels are individual so my plan of removing the front mic/headphone sockets (and replacing them with LED's) will be pretty straight forward. I'll probably be using my hot glue gun to attach them.

Behind the door (its very heavy so I'm expecting good sound proofing from it) are several grilles, I'm not overly taken with the look of the 5 1/4"'s but my plan will be to have a DVDRW and fan controller in there anyways...

The inbuilt filters and fan mount are easily accessible (tool-less) and very tidy looking. I'll probably have both 140mm fans here that come with the case and save the Corsair LED 120's I have for the rear/bottom/top where they will be more viewable.

Now my one major gripe with this case... They ruin the great look of it with a fan switch, even worse it's recessed! Making it even harder to hide! I've no idea what to do with this, but I'll certainly not be using/keeping it!

Lots of room in this case and a fantastic finish inside:

Looks like I have a lot of sleeving to do, even without the other cables I'll be adding to this build! Cables at the top left are USB/switches etc (most I'll be keeping), below those are cables to the fan switch (which will be going). The cables to the 2 140mm fans are already sleeved, but I'll redo these to match the rest... Thinking of a white sleeve with black connectors and heatshrink?

smilertoo · 10 Oct 2013 at 23:33

my first step was to rotate the middle bay so that airflow could go through it better, i removed all the drive holders.

Roady · 11 Oct 2013 at 10:09

smilertoo said:
my first step was to rotate the middle bay so that airflow could go through it better, i removed all the drive holders.

I'll only be using the lower bay (only a couple of drives) so will be removing the middle bay for better airflow.

Also looking at using the second 'mount point' for the lower drive bay so there is some clearance infront to use the 2 140mm's (that come with the case) up front!

I have some clear/white LED 120mm fans I'll be using on bottom/rear/top, those and the Avexir MPower red will be the only lighting.