Fractal Define R6 Review

Up Close:  Interior Rear

It’s becoming the norm these days for there to be much more going on behind the scenes, or at least, behind the Motherboard, than there is round the front of the case, and the R6 is no exception.  Even from this overview image, it’s clear there’s a lot for us to talk about

 

 

For starters, there’s a good 23mm of cable routing space, OK, so not class leading, but 23mm is actually more than plenty for all apart from those that just stuff, cram, and hope.

 

 

Centrally located towards the top of the case we find the Fractal Nexus+ “Smart Hub”.  This little Stickle Brick of a chap is actually a fan controller hub that enables the control of up to six case fans plus three PWM devices via the motherboard. 

 

 

A little lower down we see a pair of white QR mounts for 2.5″ drives, although getting more popular, this sort of feature is far from commonplace these days and so can’t yet be taken for granted. 

 

 

The R6 will accept any PSU up to 300mm, so in other words, any PSU!  There’s ventilation top and bottom, so it doesn’t matter which way up you mount it, and either way, it’ll be sitting on four good sized rubber pads. 

 

 

Now we’re round the back we can see how the individual Drive trays are secured.  Well we could, if the camera had pulled focus correctly.  Basically each is secured by a good old fashioned thumb bolt, and any of them can be relocated to any of twelve destinations.  Each tray will hold either one 3.5″ or one 2.52 drive. 

 

Although we might be getting ahead of ourselves a little here, we will point out at this point that between the back of the fans, and the edge of the HDD trays, there’s actually 40mm of room.  What this does of course mean is that if you want shed loads of HDDs and water cooling, provided your rad is under 40mm thick it’s winner winner chicken dinner all the way.