There are two drive bays and the top one can be removed by hand, and the bottom using a screwdriver, and then turned in case you have a need to position the drives differently – for example if you have a large graphics card in the box. To do this you just unscrew two screws, pull out the bay, turn it, slide it back in and then screw it back into place.
You can also fit up to two SSD’s on the underside of the case, but make sure you fit them before you attach the motherboard.
Both side panels come with noise absorbing material.
There is also a fan controller on the front of the case that enables you to set the fan on low speed (5v), medium speed (7v) and full speed (12v).
Fitting a motherboard into the case was very simple as well – just fit the screw mounts into the case (depending on the size of the motherboard) and then fit the motherboard itself.
And this is what the back looks like when a motherboard and power supply are fitted:
And this is what the R4 looks like next to my trusty R3 (the R4 is on the right):
Final Thoughts
The Define R4 case is yet another amazing product from from Fractal Design. You can easily see how much time and effort has gone into designing and building it. This is actually the case (no pun intended) with every single Fractal Design product.
The noise absorbing material works really well – I was concerned that with the ability to hold 8 hard drives and also the various fans, that it would sound like a jumbo jet engine, but the case does a really good job of limiting the noise – in fact sometimes you forget the PC is even switched on!
The ability to clean the dust out of certain parts of the case without the need to dismantle the case is a really good idea as well – this again seems to be the norm for some of the Fractal cases.
The Define R4 case comes in three different colours – Black Pearl (which is the one I am reviewing here),Titanium Grey and Arctic White. Frankly all of them look stunning!
The manual, whilst only being a few pages long, does provide a very detailed installation guide. So make sure you do take a few minutes to read it as it is time well spent. The only thing I would say is that there is no information in the manual about the fitted cables. Most of them are labelled so it’s not much of an issue, but some are not so you have to figure out what they belong to.
Opening the case was simple and only involved using my fingers to turn some screws – and the same goes for the screws inside the case holding the drive bays in place.
There is space for 2 optical drives (or you could use a kit to mount additional hard drives if 10 were not enough), all of which provides more than enough storage space!
Having 4 USB ports (two of which are USB 3.0) on the top front of the case make it very easy to use.
There are even holes for water cooling – not that I have tried using water cooling myself. I am still a little nervous about putting any liquid in a computer, even if it is a tried and testing method. But the point is Fractal have thought of everything.
The R4 even provides more room for cable routing over that of the R3 making it even easier to route your cables neatly.
Bottom line is that this a fantastic case with just about every possible thing you would want and more! This is my new favourite case!
Price wise, you can pick up the Define R4 for around £90, which given it’s size and design is a bargain.
And I seem to say this every time I review something from Fractal Design, but great job – you have yet another winner on your hands.
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