Fractal Define R6 Review

Up Close:  Exterior

It's very rare for us to take a picture of the case as we're getting it out of the box, but on this occasion we felt it warranted it.  Why?  Because first impressions are important, and the Define R6 sets a good one, even by just giving us a glimpse of its underbelly.

With the R6 out of its protective wrappings we can see what a beaut it is.  The sleekness of the case may not appeal to everyone, and especially those who still crave high airflow over intelligent cooling, but there's no denying the underlying quality.  The real stand out feature here is the full size tempered glass panel, not just because it looks good, but because fractal have found a way of attaching it which doesn't require the use of over-sized thumb bolts going through the glass in each corner.  As a result it looks how we think tempered glass side panels should always have looked, but as yet, never really have.

The right hand side of the case is kept nice an plain, and as you might expect has heavy sound and vibration dampening material added to its inner surface.

At the top edge we find the front I/O which benefits from seperate power and reset buttons, along with HD audio and 2,USB3.0, and 2xUSB2.0.

Air inlet into the front of the case by horizontal slits which run the full height of the case on both sides.  

The R6 has a hinged front door, which as you can see also has a sound and vibration lining.  The door is hinged on the left, but this can be swapped over by the user or system builder.  With the door open we can see that it's hiding a pair of 140mm fans.

Behind a grill, and also, a 5.25" drive bay.  Now, this might seem a bizarre inclusion, but there are still some out there that use 5.25" devices, and with a case that has this much water cooling capability, its inclusion does also perhaps nod towards bay reservoirs.  Don't worry though, if it offends your sensibilities, it can be easily removed.  

The rear of the case is a pretty standard ATX affair, with a 140mm white bladed fan on extract duty.  The eagle eyed among you will perhaps have noticed the round protuberance at the top left hand corner and, perhaps, maybe even wondered what it was.  Well, wonder no more, it's actually a button, the depression of which releases the smooth roof panel.  clever stuff eh!

The lower half of the case rear shows that we have seven expansion slots, with an additional two for vertically mounting expansion cards such as GPUs into the popular "show off" position.  As the PSU is slid in from the rear, the PSU area has a detachable cover plate.

The underside of the case is basically one big mesh ventilation area, with a single filter covering the whole lot, which is slid out from the front.  The R6 also stands on four of the most simple yet beautiful case feet we think we've ever seen, and we've seen so many case feet that it would make a case feet fetishist feel fantastic.