Fractal Design Define R5 Black - Optimal Silent Computing

Fractal Design - Home

Designed and Engineered in Sweden

"All Fractal Design products have been carefully designed and tested in our Swedish headquarters. The well-known elements of Scandinavian design can be found throughout all of our product lines; a minimalistic, elegant and simple design, embracing the motto of 'less is more'."

DEFINE Series

"The DEFINE series of cases focuses on delivering the perfect balance between silent and minimalistic Scandinavian design. The understated look and feel allows for a natural fit into your home or office while never compromising on quality, performance or configurability."

The Fractal Design Define R5 

Define R5 Black - Home

"... is the next evolution in the widely popular Define Series. Packed with intelligently designed enthusiast-oriented features delivering a silent case with powerful and expansive air and liquid cooling support, presented in a stunning Scandinavian inspired construction.
The Define R5 case reaches the highest level of silent computing through strategically placed dense sound-absorbing material, ModuVent™ fan vent covers and finely tuned Dynamic Series fans.
The Define R5 was designed with configurability in mind, accommodating up to 8 hard drives and all modern graphics card. Should you wish to expand your system with water cooling components or more fans the layout can easily be configured to meet your demand."

Specifications

• ATX, Micro ATX, Mini ITX motherboard compatibility
• 7 expansion slots
• 2 - 5.25" bays (removable)
• 8 - 3.5" HDD positions (can also accommodate 2.5" units); 2 - 2.5" dedicated SSD unit positions
• 4 - ModuVent™ plates - three in the top and one in the side
• 9 - fan positions (2 Fractal Design Dynamic GP14 140mm fans included)
• Filtered fan slots in the front and bottom
• CPU coolers up to 180mm in height
• ATX PSUs up to 190/170 mm with a bottom 120/140mm fan installed; when not using any bottom fan location longer PSUs up to 300mm can be used
• Graphics cards up to 310 mm in length with the top HDD cage installed; with the top cage removed, graphics cards up to 440 mm in length may be installed
• 20 - 35 mm of space for cable routing behind the motherboard plate
• Velcro straps included for easy cable management
• Front door can switch opening direction via dual mounting system
• Left side panel features Quick Release System for easy access and provides a secure closure of side panel
• Right side panel features smart captive thumbscrews so no thumbscrews are lost
• Colours available: Black, Titanium (black case, titanium front panel), White
• Case dimensions (WxHxD): 232 x 451 x 521mm
• Case dimensions - with feet/screws/protrusions: 232 x 462 x 531mm
• Net weight: 11.2 kg
• Package dimensions (WxHxD): 327 x 615 x 540mm
• Package weight: 12.8 kg

Cooling system

• Front: 2 – 120/140 mm fans (included is 1 Fractal Design Dynamic GP14 fan, 1000 RPM speed)
• Rear: 1 – 120/140 mm fan (included is 1 Fractal Design Dynamic GP14 fan, 1000 RPM speed)
• Top: 3 - 120/140 mm fan (not included)
• Bottom: 2 – 120/140 mm fan (not included)
• Side: 1 – 120/140 mm fan (not included)
• Fan controller: 3 step fan controller for up to 3 fans
• Dust filters: Bottom and front intakes

Water cooling compatibility

• Front – 360, 280, 240, 140 and 120 mm radiators of all thicknesses (requires removal of drive bays)
• Top – 420, 360, 280, 240, 140 and 120 mm radiators. (A thickness limitation of 55mm for both radiator + fan applies on 420, 280 and 140 mm radiators) (420 and 360 mm radiators require removal of the ODD bay)
• Bottom – 120 or 240 mm radiator (Use of radiators in the bottom position limits the PSU length to 165 mm)
• Rear – 120 or 140 mm radiator

Packaging

Seems the cardboard box had received quite a few hard knocks which tore into it in more than one spot, fortunately the case itself emerged unscathed. Both the specifications and exploded view of the case makes the packaging very informative indeed

Do click on the pics for the full res views for reading the box printing..

Unboxing

Ah, someone had in haste forgotten to replace the protective plastic bag which was lying folded at the bottom of the box instead (& the user guide is also MIA). As you can see, this quickly showed up the finger print magnet the case finish can be.

Top

Showing the 3 top ModuVent™ positions - the flaps pop out with ease showing the sound dampening layer.

The front portion sports the beautiful Power, tiny Reset buttons, Power/HDD LEDs (blue), audio and USB 2/3 ports - very functionally and tastefully done.

Back

Note one of the 2 bundled 140mm exhaust fans (FD Dynamic GP14) present, white fenestrated I/O plates and the use of a spring loaded sliding lock for securing  one of the side panels with thumbscrews for the other.

Bottom

Lovely AV deck inspired chrome case feet surrounding the large bottom removable dust mesh

Left

Sports the remaining ModuVent™ flap, last pic demonstrates the metal folding.

Right

Demonstrating (more finger prints &) the captive thumbscrews, no more losing them now.  Note the generously large noise dampening layer.

Front

Noise dampened front door (with even more f... ) which swings to show the removable front fan mesh and bundled 140mm fan. The swing door can be cleverly rotated 180 degrees to swing open in the opposite direction by undoing 2 screws.

Placed flat to show the noise dampening layer on the swing door as well as the 3 fan/speed controller circled in yellow.

The ODD face plates are easily removed from the front by pulling on the catch as shown.

Next photo shows the whole front panel being popped open (via its plastic catches) and lifted over to the top to show the reverse view.

Stripping Time

Both side panels are removed to reveal the interior views, love the large CPU rear access and central mobo mounting guide.

Mobo Mounting

Space aplenty even with a full sized ATX model!

White Accessory Box

Woah, screws overload!

Initial Impressions

Likes

Aesthetic Scandinavian minimalist looks

Largely tool-free interior access

Noise dampening

Meshed intakes

3 Fan controller

Good panel fitting

Flexible front door orientaion

Rubber grommets & Velcro ties for cable management

Flexible water cooling support

Potential for high end components and abundant storage

Can be improved...

Finger prints and more f... (yeah, for now it comes down to mostly this so just wipe regularly)

Heavier than usual due to noise dampening features

The Crucial Ballistix Tactical Tracer DDR3-1600 Memory

Crucial Home

Tactical Tracer Home

• Made in USA
• Brand:  Ballistix 
• Form Factor:  UDIMM 
• Capacity:  8GB Kit (4GBx2) 
• Warranty:  Limited Lifetime 
• Specs:  DDR3 PC3-12800 • 8-8-8-24 • Unbuffered • NON-ECC • DDR3-1600 • 1.5V • 512Meg x 64 • 
• Series:  Ballistix Tactical
• XMP 1.3 Support
• Dual colour LEDs with custom M.O.D software control support
• Onboard monitoring sensors

Besides the cool looking hardware, do check out this nifty freebie utility from Crucial too!

Ballistix Memory Overview Display (M.O.D.) Utility

M.O.D Home & Download Page

The Ballistix M.O.D. utility is a customized software application designed to support Crucial Ballistix Elite, Ballistix Tactical Tracer, Ballistix Finned, and Ballistix Smart Tracer modules.

Lights on

The Ballistix Tactical Tracer is all about customisation. These modules are available in either orange/blue and red/green colour combinations. By utilizing our custom programmed Ballistix Memory Overview Display (M.O.D.) utility, you can manipulate the dual-colour LEDS in real time and switch between colour options. In addition, select from four different LED patterns, adjust brightness, or turn the LEDs on/off.

Utility work

The Crucial Ballistix M.O.D. utility allows you to view uptime, voltages, and set alarms for temperatures, making it one of the most customisable, responsive modules you’llfind. In addition to the LED light controls, this tool also lets you enjoy real-time temperature monitoring, so you can keep tabs on your high-performance memory.

PS: Interestingly, someone did their own Tracer control software which supports SPD accessing via LGA-2011 SMBus Controller too
BLT Controller Utility

Packaging

Tamper proof clear plastic blister pack as shown. Meanwhile note the Singapore office address on the back of the paper insert for locally sourced stock.

Product of USA as stated on the label sticker.

The LEDs are clearly seen in the last photo and for this particular kit, the LEDs are red-green as evident on the plastic packaging and in the part number ending in RG.

OK, here is another Tracer sample kit, can you guess what colour LEDs it has?

Hint: look at the colour boxes printed on the plastic housing and the ending 2 letters of the part numbers.

Yes, this is the Orange Blue Tracer kit with part numbers ending in OB.

Test Setup

★ Asus Z87-A | i7-4790K@4.6GHz | Crucial DDR3-1600@2133 Tracer RG  8GB Kit | Crucial M550 SSD | Corsair H55 AIO | Corsair RM850 PSU ★

The factory stock voltage is 1.50V while most enthusiast DDR3 kits are rated at 1.65V.

Sticking to a really safe low voltage of just 1.55V memory, I started pushing the clocks from the stock DDR3-1600 8-8-8 2T and easily achieved DDR3-2133 9-11-9 1T as seen below

DDR3-1600 8-8-8 2T  vs DDR3-2133 9-11-9 1T ie. higher frequency with relatively tight timings

The more adventurous can shoot for even higher speeds or tighter timings at higher voltages as this kit seems to scale well in that aspect.

* With more time, effort and voltages invested, one can expect to do better but as usual, overclocking is a delicate balance of everything including luck so YMMV.

Lights, Camera, Action!

With so many web videos already around, showcasing the bling bling of these Tracers and since everyone's got their own fave colour combination/sequence/timing, for this sharing - these sticks were left at their factory default LED settings.

Let's focus more on the bin rather than just the bling ie. how well they run (and overclock)...

Roll...

What you see on your PC screen....

And what you actually see on your rig...

UEFI SPD XMP 1.3

CPU-Z & hwinfo64

Note the onboard temperature monitoring of these Tracers as supported by hwinfo64

Mem TweakIt

HyperPi 32M

HCI MemTest Windows

Ah, 1600@2133 passed the acid test easily - no problemo, very nice!

Market Price Compare@Newegg 

With their togglable dual colour LEDs, these Crucial Tracers are actually rather unique in their aesthetic value so it can't be simply compared to any other DDR3-1600 kits on the market.

Newegg (RG is really popular... out of stock at time of checking!)

Initial Impressions

• Unique
• Affordable
• Onboard sensor monitoring with good software support
• Good bling - user customisable 
• Good bin - nice overclockling

Yes, these DDR3 Tracers are not new to the world but over time, Crucial has reportedly improved their overclockability and LGA2011 compatibility as compared to the earlier batches.

Another superb job done with these Tracers by Team Crucial cos this is great stuff, definitely recommended!