The move my PC from a 15 year old computer case - Big Tower 190x660x420 (WxHxD) - in this Fractal Design Define R4 PCGH Edition computer case - Tower 235x465x525 (WxHxD) - went unspectacular.
However, I must confess that I was both positive and negative surprises out of the box and open the housing. On the one hand there is the continuing even up to a perfect and absolutely vibration-free Super Silent housing a simple functional design with elaborate design elements and on the other hand, the lack of consistency.
Here is my review on the installation of all components and 2 weeks Terms:
Positives:
+ Simple timeless design designed in Sweden and manufactured in China!
+ Solid screw, thumb screws for housing sidewalls and ODD drives
+ 4 chassis fan 140/120 mm possible, including 2x front (1x incl.), 1x base, 1x rear (1x incl.)
+ Behind the front door 2 external 5.25 shafts and fan control (5V / 7V / 12V) for 3 fans
+ Two internal cages with 3 or 5 drawers for 8 drives (HDD 3.5 / 2.5 HDD / SSD 2.5)
+ The central cage with 5 drawers can be removed to mount even long graphics cards (up to 400 mm)
+ The 3.5 HDD's are mounted on the drawers by means of special rubber bushings + special screws
+ The 2.5 HDD's are mounted with rubber wheels + screws
+ Between Motherboard and side wall there is the possibility to install 2 additional 2.5 SSD
+ All necessary screws and mounting parts are available
Negatives:
- There is only one LED for power indication, either POWER ON or ON HDD
- The brightness of cool white (not blue, like on some product pictures) LED is extremely bright and displayed enormous
- I have front-facing part of the LED lighting area need to mask off with black tape, so it's bearable. Now the ring only lights around the power button.
- Why it does not work with subtly illuminated LED in orange or blue, like on my monitor or my external HDD's?
- From the case only the 2 sides and the top are covered with 3 mm thick anti-drone matting, the rest is blank
- The front door, made of high gloss black Plasikmaterial is internally covered with a 3 mm anti-drone mat plus a 5 mm thick foam board
- I can "hear HDD's (in the old housing they hung in 5.25" The vibrational noise of 2 old 3.5 manholes in rubber buffers, no metallic connection and no sound)
- Connection of the 3.5 "HDD's using the special rubber bushings and screws can not prevent the spread of the vibration noise of the old HDD's
- A totally free-swinging mounting the HDD's (suspension in rubber buffers) is not possible.
- The drive cages are firmly screwed to the housing (by a minor design change this could be mounted on rubber pads)
- The firm screw the vibrations to the entire computer case be transferred
- Are even more to hear the vibrations in computer case closed than in open condition
- As a front case fan can be mounted two fans in size 140 mm with double-frame construction (eg Fractal, NOCTUA, Pabst), because they are attached with clips
- For example, "Silent Wings" and "Shadow Wings" fans of "be quiet!" only a middle frame. To Screw holes must be drilled!
- Only for 120mm fans are screw holes exist
Reconstruction of housing and installation of the components:
To improve the sound I have pasted all metal surfaces inside the enclosure, including the bonded with anti-drone matting surfaces, with 10 mm acoustic foam. This acoustic foam has a high tensile strength and elastic 30 micron thick polyurethane coating that is easy to clean and still has a large airborne and Körperschallabsorbtion. The acoustic foam normally used in the computer industry are usually coated with a layer of fabric or a perforated leatherette layer
The 2-mounted fan "Fractal Silent Series R2" (140 mm) I have replaced with 2 fans "be quiet Silent Wings 2" (140 mm) - 1x front and 1x rear.
I was taken aback, which are major difference there between these two types of fans.
The be quiet! Fans run even at 12 V (max. Speed) quieter than the fractal fan at 5 V. The two fractal fan produce at 12V (max. Speed) unbearable vibration noise.
As CPU Cooler I have the ARCTIC Freezer Xtreme Rev. 2 (fan 120 mm, weight 600 g) installed. Despite its enormous dimensions of 130x100x130 (LxWxH) is still a lot of space around (in height, up to the side wall, there are still 50 mm) and 4 RAM spaces are freely accessible.
After assembly, I had my Supersilent computer only a faint noise of 120 mm power supply fan can be heard
Summary of all components that have contributed to my Supersilent computer:
+ Computer case described here "Fractal Design Define R4 PCGH Edition"
+ Acoustic foam - acoustic foam with foil selfadhesive !!! 100x200x1cm Noncombustible P063 - necessary is only 1 m²
+ 2 chassis fan - Silent Wings 2, 140mm be quiet!
+ Power Supply - "be quiet EQT E8-400W!" - This power supply is currently not available for purchase Amazon
+ HDD (old) - 1x Seagate 500 GB, 5 years in operation and 1x Samsung 320 GB, 2 years in operation
+ HDD NEW 2 piece - Seagate SV35 Series ST1000VX000 Internal HDD 1TB (8.9 cm (3.5 inch), 7200 rpm, 8 ms access time, 64MB cache, SATA-600)
+ Motherboard Gigabyte - Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 motherboard Socket AM3 + (ATX, AMD Phenom / Athlon, 4x DDR3 memory, 6x SATA II, 4x USB 3.0)
+ RAM - Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1333 MHz (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory (CMX8GX3M2A1333C9)
+ CPU Cooler - ARCTIC Freezer Xtreme Rev. 2 - processor cooler for power users - Compatible with Intel and achieves 160 Watts cooling capacity by 120 mm PWM fan - also for AMD3 +
+ CPU - AMD Athlon II X4 640 Quad Core processor (3GHz, Socket AM3, 2MB cache, 95W) - currently unavailable
+ Operating System: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
Conclusion:
The Fractal Design Define R4 PCGH Edition computer case is a good case with a large room for improvement. Who makes himself the trouble and the housing,
like me, with acoustic foam lining (it is sufficient 1 m² acoustic foam with foil selfadhesive !!! 50x50x1cm 4 pieces Non-combustible P154) and the supplied
Case fan against the 140 mm fan "Silent Wings 2" from be quiet! replaced, and a silent CPU Cooler (the original fan is extremely loud) used, which gets a really
silent computer case.
For the case with the good expansion possibilities there are of me 4 stars, despite the small weaknesses.
Addendum 11.17.2013:
The vibration noise of old hard drives - 1x Seagate 500GB, 5 years in operation and 1x Samsung 320 GB, 2 years in operation - are by the acoustic foam
become quieter, but not gone, because acoustic foam absorbs mainly the airborne sound and not the structure-borne noise.
Because of Schwingungsgeräuse I have the old hard drives now expanded.
The 2 new hard drives - Seagate SV35 Series ST1000VX000 Internal HDD 1TB (8.9 cm (3.5 inch), 7200 rpm, 8 ms access time, 64MB cache, SATA-600) -
are not heard, absolutely silent and cold (max. 34 ° C operating temperature, because right behind the front fan).
And the ARCTIC Freezer XTREME cools the CPU to 35-45 ° C operating temperature, depending on the load.
[...]