Review: Fractal Design Define R5

by Parm Mann on 24 November 2014, 12:00

Tags: Fractal Design

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qacluz

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Specification and Test Methodology

Fractal Design Define R5 specification

Form Factor Mid-Tower
Motherboard Support ATX, Micro-ATX, Mini-ITX
Dimensions (H x W x D) 462mm x 232mm x 531mm
Drive Bays Front 2 x 5.25in
Internal 8 x 3.5/2.5in split across two HDD cages (5+3)
2 x 2.5in on rear of motherboard tray
Cooling Front 2 x 120/140mm fans (included is 1 x 140mm Dynamic GP14 1,000RPM)
Rear 1 x 120/140mm fans (included is 1 x 140mm Dynamic GP14 1,000RPM)
Top 3 x 120/140 mm fan (not included)
Bottom 2 x 120/140 mm fan (not included)
Side Panel 1 x 120/140 mm fan (not included)
Radiator Support Front 360, 280, 240, 140 and 120mm radiators of all thicknesses
(requires removal of drive bays)
Top 420, 360, 280, 240, 140 and 120mm radiators
(A thickness limitation of 55mm for both radiator+fan applies on 420, 280 and 140mm radiators)
(420 and 360mm radiators require removal of the ODD bay)
Bottom 120 or 240mm radiator
(Use of radiators in the bottom position limits the PSU length to 165mm)
Rear 120 or 140mm radiator
Fan Controller 3-step fan controller for up to 3 fans
Dust Filters Bottom and front intakes
Expansion Slots 7
I/O Panel 2 x USB 2.0
2 x USB 3.0
Headphone and Mic
Power button with LED (blue)
HDD activity LED (blue)
Reset button
Power Supply Standard ATX (not included)
Clearances CPU Cooler 180mm
Power Supply 300mm (190/170mm with a 120/140mm bottom fan installed)
Graphics Card 310mm (440mm with top drive cage removed)
Weight 10.2kg
Colours Available Black
Titanium (Black case, Titanium front panel)
White
MSRP £82.99 (£89.99 windowed version)

Test System Configuration

Motherboard Asus Sabertooth Z77
CPU Intel Core i5-3570K @ 4.4GHz
CPU Cooler Arctic Cooling Freezer 13
Memory G.Skill Ripjaws-X 8GB (F3-12800CL7D-8GBXH)
Memory Speed and Timings 1,600MHz, 7-8-7-24-2N
Graphics Cards 2x Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 OC in CrossFireX
Storage 120GB SanDisk Extreme SSD
Optical Drive Pioneer DVR-S19LBK DVD Writer
Power Supply Corsair HX1050W
Monitor Philips Brilliance 272P (2,560x1,440)

Our Z77 test platform consists of an ASUS Sabertooth motherboard, an Intel Core i5-3570K processor overclocked to a modest 4.4GHz, an Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 cooler, 8GB of high-performance G.Skill Ripjaws-X memory and two factory-overclocked Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 OC graphics cards in a CrossFireX configuration.

To find out how well the chassis can cool this particular setup, we record the CPU temperature during a 15-minute stint of the Prime95 small-FFT stress test. In order to provide a stabilised reading we then calculate an average temperature across all cores from the last five minutes of testing.

To get an idea of GPU cooling performance, we then record the highest GPU temperature after 15 minutes of running Aliens vs. Predator with maximum image-quality settings at 1080p. Last but not least, we also measure chassis noise by using a PCE-318 noise meter to take readings when idle and while running Aliens vs. Predator.

All chassis are tested only with the standard manufacturer-supplied fans (any/all of which are set to 'silent' in the Asus BIOS or low-speed using a fan controller if present), and to take into account the fluctuating ambient temperature, our graphs depict both actual and delta temperature - the latter is the actual CPU/GPU temperature minus the ambient. For the record, room temperature while testing today's chassis was recorded as 20.9ºC.