Fractal Define R6 Review

Conclusion

It’s often the case that as reviewers we like to tease you along into reading the whole review, if not at least the whole of the conclusion.  we do this by not making our feelings clear until the very end.  On this occasion though we’re going to make things crystal from the very beginning.  We like this case.  We like it a lot.  In fact, in many ways it’s damn near perfect.  So let’s run through what we have shall we.  To begin with, Fractal market this case as “Two cases in one”.  It’s fair to say we’ve been teased by this sort of marketing hype before, where a case is clearly aimed at a certain market sector, but manages a sideways glance at another.  On this occasion however Fractal are being 100% honest and abandoning the sideways glance, are able to interdependently stare down, and some extent dominate whichever sector you care to pitch it into, so let’s take a look at them separately shall we.

OK, so case configuration “type one” is for the user who wants something ultra silent, perhaps with air cooling, or minimal water cooling, maybe in the shape of an AIO.  This user demands a lot of storage, perhaps for a home server.  If this is the case then the R6 with it’s many heavy sound and vibration absorbing panels can be configured with as many as six HDDs up front as well as two SSDs round the back, and even another two in show off mounts on the false floor.  With the case set up this way, you can still get a decent rad in the roof, as well as a rad up to 40mm thick in the front, heck, you can even do this and still retain the optional 5.25″ slot.  if you’d rather stick with air cooling then be rest assured that with 186mm of head room on offer the R6 will take the biggest air coolers on offer.

Configuration “type two” is more for the balls to the wall, custom loop water cooler, who at the same time wants something sleek and mature looking.  We’re not going to go through the water cooling options again, if you want the detail, have a look back at the tech spec, but suffice to say, we’re finding it hard to think of a case of this pedigree that offers the cooling options that the R6 does.  Seriously, and 360 in the roof, and a 360 in the front, even a 280 in the roof and a 280 in the front, or even up to a 420 in the roof and still a 280 or 240 in the front.  All of this and you still get decent storage as well as an optional show of vertical GPU mount.  Oh, and did we mention that there’s 175mm of radiator space in the front? 

Now, don’t go thinking that you have to configure the case in one of these two different ways, we’re merely showing you the two extremes, as the sheer flexibility of the R6 offers you this, and everything in between.

Have we got anything bad to say about the R6?  Well, the issue of the false floor has caused much discussion here at TTL Towers.  We think unless youre going to put loads of 3.5″ hard drives in the front you are likely to want to move the panel at the front of the case, if you have a huge rad in the front but for those of you that dont and thats probably most of you we think the case needs a panel to cover the hole and clean the line up a little.

To summarise, we’re not sure if the R6 is perfect but my God it gets pretty damn close. 

  

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