Fractal Design Define R4 - FD-CA-DEF-R4-BL Boîtier PC Noir

Le choix d'un boîtier n'est jamais vraiment simple. Il en existe un très grande diversité, mais malgré cette diversité, difficile de trouver un parfait compromis entre performance, silence et design. J'ai d'abord beaucoup regardé les boitiers orientés gamers avec des designs un peu plus originaux ou agressifs (NZXT, Aerocool, certains modeles de chez coolermaster). Ce sont pour la plupart des boitiers assez onéreux et pour lesquels il semble toujours y avoir certains points négatifs. J'ai donc finalement craqué sur le fractal design. Voila ce que je peux en dire après quelques mois d'utilisation :

Extérieur :
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Le design est un point parfaitement subjectif et dépend des gouts de chacun. Il faut reconnaître qu'il est d'apparence plutot simple, des lignes assez basiques mais malgré tout vraiment très classe ! D'ailleurs, la porte, d'aspect assez glossy voir meme un peu "marbrée" (avec de fines lignes comme si c'etait de la pierre) y joue pour beaucoup. La peinture de bonne qualité, les petits détails dans la ligne, les prises d'air sur les côtés, le cercle bleu luminescent autour du bouton power ajoutent aussi à la note classe. Bref, c'est pour moi un boîtier qui a sa place aussi bien sous un bureau que dans le salon en évidence (et qui s'integrera bcp mieux que bcp de boitiers gamers avec des desgins trop radicaux).
Dans sa révision 4, le boitier propose 2 ports USB2, 2 USB 3, un prise micro et une prise casque. Ceux-ci, tout comme les bouton power et reset, sont placés sur le dessus du boitier. Je trouve l'emplacement idéal et beaucoup plus facile d'accès que lorsque ceux-ci sont en façcade. Bien sur, si votre boitier est encastré dans un bureau, cela risque de poser problème.
En facade, il y a seulement une porte qui donne accès à 2 baies 5 pouces, à une grande grille qui se déclipse pour donner accès aux filtres et ventilateurs, ainsi que d'un interrupteur pour diminuer ou augmenter la vitesse des ventilateurs (3 vitesse disponibles). Attention, il n'y a pas de baie 3,5 pouces.
Enfin, en ce qui concerne les dimensions, ce boitier est plutôt trapu. Je cherchais un boitier au format ATX mais pas trop haut. Celui ci n'est pas très haut mais assez large.

Interieur :
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L'excellente impression sur la qualité extérieure se prolonge aussi à l'intérieure du boitier.
Le boitier dispose de 7 emplacements pour des ventilos de 140mm (1 arriere, 2 avant, 1 sur la porte, 2 au dessus et 1 en bas), 2 sont livrés, 1 en facade, et 1 à l'arriere. La porte en facade et la porte latérale sont recouvertes d'une mousse goudronnée pour insonoriser et rendre le boitier plus silencieux. Les ventilos en facades sont protégés par un filtre très facilement démontable. Un filtre est aussi présent en bas du boitier pour l'alimentation ainsi que l'emplacement du ventilateur. Cela évite que l'alim aspire trop de poussière.
La plupart des vis sont des vis a mains et donc pas besoin d'outils pour la plupart des manips.
Comme je l'ai décrit plus haut, il y a 2 emplacements 5 pouces. Il y a un bloc de 5 emplacements 3,5" et 1 bloc de 3 emplacements 3"5. Pourquoi 2 blocs ? Si jamais vous possédez une carte graphique vraiment longue, vous pouvez enlever un bloc et ainsi gagner 10 bons centimètres (mais perdre 5 emplacements disque). Cependant, par défaut, le boitier accepte deja de grandes cartes graphiques (environ 30cm).
Les disques sont posés sur des tiroirs, facilement extractibles, et sont posés sur des caoutchoucs. Excellent point pour réduire les vibrations, le bruit et péréniser nos DD.A noter que vous pouvez bien entendu y fixer des composants 2,5" comme les SSD. D'ailleurs je recommande de les installer ici et non sur la plaque à l'arriere de la carte mere qui oblige à démonter la carte mere pour accéder aux vis.
En ce qui concerne le cable management, c'est du tout bon. Il y a beaucoup de place entre la porte et la plaque de la carte mere (merci aux 23 cm de large du boitier) et on peut aisement y passer tous les cables. Résultats ? Presqu'aucun cable visibles a l'intérieur du boitier !!
Pas grand chose à dire de plus si ce n'est que cette excellente qualité de fabrication se ressent à l'intérieur et lorsque vous monterez vos composants à l'intérieur. A noter que pour les amateurs de water-cooling, il est possible de placer un radiateur sur la partie haute du boitier. N'étant pas un très grand connaisseur dans ce domaine, je ne peux vous dire quelle type ni quelle taille de radiateur on peut y mettre exactement.

A l'utilisation :
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Les 2 ventilos livrés ainsi que l'excellente insonorisation remplissent leur job.
Ma config (i5-3570k avec ventirad d'origine), radeon 6950 (dans son design de base donc la plus bruyante), 5 DD + 1 SSD) est très silencieuse est bien refroidie dans ce boitier. Perso, j'ai placé les ventilos en 7V et en utilisation bureautique, mon pc est quasi inaudible (à mes pieds sous le bureau). Dans les jeux, la carte graphique se fait un peut entendre bien sur, mais c'est rien comparé à mon ancien boitier et de toute facon, le son couvre le léger bruit que génère le pc.

En conclusion :
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La plupart des avis (presse + utilisateurs) sont assez élogieux et j'en fait partie. Ce boitier est robuste, bien construit, sobre mais classe, silencieux mais performant, propose beaucoup de place intérieur dans un encombrement assez réduit (attention il est assez lourd), bref, il remplit tous les objectifs et ce à un tarif dans un bonne moyenne et qui le vaut largement !
Très content de mon achat !

Super boitier "silencieux"

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Delpy

Commenté en France 🇫🇷 le 1 mars 2014

Le Define R4 devient très populaire. C'est un boitier de type "silencieux" (enfin, moins bruyant) de très bonne facture à un prix raisonnable.

Positif:
- Livré avec 2 ventilateurs de 140mm. En tout, emplacements pour 7 ventilateurs + celui de l'alimentation.
- Modulable: les trous de ventilation latérale et supérieurs sont fermés par des éléments anti-bruit amovibles.
- Filtres amovibles en face avant et en dessous.
- Qualité de finition. Sensation de solidité.
- Beacoup de place pour les disques, dans des tiroirs blancs amovibles avec caoutchoucs anti-vibration. Si vous n'avez pas besoin de tant de place, le bloc disque supérieur est amovible, ce qui améliore le flux d'air et permet d'accueillir de longues cartes graphiques ou autres.
- Boitier large, aucun problème pour la gestion des cables sur le côté droit.
- Réduction du bruit grâce aux revêtements spéciaux (mais pas complètement silencieux).
- Look sobre façon "black box". Certains préfèrent les boitiers qui font de l'esbrouffe, je préfère un qui reste discret.
- Les connecteurs et boutons face avant sont accessibles sans ouvrir la porte.

Négatif:
- Le filtre à l'avant n'est pas facile à enlever: il faut ouvrir la porte, puis ouvrir la grille, faire pivoter le module ventilateurs, avant de pouvoir faire glisser le filtre.
- Le filtre en dessous n'est pas facile à replacer: pas facile de l'aligner dans les glissières. Le plus simple est encore de soulever le boitier.
- Le cablage des ventilateurs avants n'est pas évident: il faut laisser suffisamment de jeu aux cables pour pouvoir ouvrir l'élément de ventilation, mais il ne faut pas que ces cables se prennent dans les ventilos.
- La face avant en plastique imitation alu brossé est moins classe que le reste du boitier.
- Le tiroir disque dur du haut est trop petit: un disque dur de taille normale gratte contre la cage 5"1/4. Ma solution est de mettre mon SSD dans ce tiroir là.
- Les tiroirs disque dur sont un obstacle à la ventilation venant de la face avant. Ils sont amovibles mais avec mes 4 disques en RAID + SSD j'en ai besoin.

Autres remarques:
- Contrairement à ce que certains croient, la ventilation à l'avant ne passe pas par la grille, qui est complètement bloquée par la porte. Elle passe pas les ouvertures latérales et en dessous, qui donnent entre la grille et le filtre.
- Il y a deux emplacements pour des SSD sur le côté droit, mais il faut enlever la carte mère pour les attacher/détacher. J'ai préféré mettre mon SSD dans un emplacement disque standard.
- Equipement complet. J'ai juste regretté des vis supplémentaires pour ventilateurs, car le ventilateur que j'ai acheté pour mettre en bas n'était pas vendu avec des fixations.
- Concernant les connecteurs et boutons face avant, il sont en fait sur le dessus, ce qui est assez bizarre au premier abord. Est-ce que ça ne va pas ramasser la poussière? En tout cas c'est idéal pour un boitier posé au sol: les connecteurs sont beaucoup plus visibles et accessibles que s'ils étaient en face avant.

Le Define R4 est devenu ma référence. Je ne mets pas 5 étoiles parce qu'il y a quand même des trucs perfectibles, mais globalement je suis très satisfait de cet achat, donc 4 étoiles.

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C. J. Spencer

Excellent PC case

Commenté au Royaume-Uni 🇬🇧 le 22 février 2014

I have had this case for a few months now. It is extremely well built and feels very solid. Ample room inside the case so perfect for building your computer, it will take any size graphics card (and I know some are quite large), along with custom CPU coolers if you wish. I did purchase an additional front fan (140mm, around £10 currently) so it has two for intake instead of the one. I also removed the side panel cushion just so it had improved air flow. There is a front filter (covering the front fan/s) and a filter underneath. Both filters simply slide out and can be cleaned very easily. Even after a few months, there is little to no dust inside the case, which is quite impressive. I took out the middle hard drive rack as I didn't need it - the bottom one housed 3 hard drives, which is the exact number I had. Either of these racks can be removed though, which increases air flow.

The case has a very sleek look and even though I didn't specifically require a 'quiet case', it is still quieter than any case I've had previously, even at the highest fan setting (there's 3 to choose from, I just leave it on the highest for best intake). Yes this is a more pricier case but when you compare it with ones like Corsair Carbide 400R, it is not only cheaper but much better quality too. Obviously, if flashy LEDs are your thing then this probably isn't the case for you. Only the power button is illuminated blue.

Overall I am extremely happy with this case - it is minimal, perfect to build in and extremely well built. It should last me a long time which is great.

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Mr W

Agreat looking case, with top features and fantastic build qaulity.

Commenté au Royaume-Uni 🇬🇧 le 26 mai 2016

I bought this case to build a home server in, using existing components i had form previous builds. Therefore needed a full atx case. I was also looking for a case that, as standard could hold a minimum of 8 HDD's.

Although the Fractal Design Define 4 case is not the latest in the the Define series, (the Define 5 can be seen here: Fractal Design Define R5 Window Side Panel - Titanium Grey ), unless you need the front door to hinge on the right, there is no great reason to buy the R5 instead.

The build quality of this case, is on par with much more expensive cases. The entire chassis of the case is metal, with only the front panel, consisting of the IO panel (headphone/microphone jacks, reset button, power button, 2xUSB 3.0 and 2xUSB 2.0), side vents and door being made of plastic. (Please note there is a blue LED ring round the power button that can either be used as a power indicator or HDD activity indicator but not both.) The plastic used is off a high quality and feels very sturdy. The door is held closed via a magnet which gives just the right amount of resistance. The front of the door has a brushed aluminum finish, that looks great. (Real brushed aluminum is a pain to clean, as it is near impossible to completely remove fingerprints from, this plastic replica does not suffer from this.)

Inside of the front door is the filter for the front 2 x 120mm or 140mm fan mounts. The door itself is lined with a noise dampening foam. There is also two removable 5.25 bay covers and a 3 position fan speed controller, (5v/7v/12v). Up to 3 fans can be connected to this.

Both side panels are held in place by captive thumb screws and a re lined with more noise dampening foam. The right side panel gives access to the back of the motherboard tray and cable management options. Built into motherboard tray and tie loops that can be used to anchor cables using cable ties etc. Also there is plenty of gromitted wholes to pass through cables. On the back of the motherboard tray there is also 2 SSD mounting points, but note that these must be installed prior to the motherboard, in order to access the screws.

Removing the left hand side panel, reveals the main interior of the case. On the right hand side are the 2 HDD cages. The bottom of which holds 3 x HDD's or SSD's, and is not removable. The second that is stacked on top, hold up to 5 HDD's or SSD's. This cage is held in place by 2 thumb screws and can easily be removed. It can also be rotated 90 degrees to provide better air pass through for the front fans. All the HDD sleds (which are metal) have mounting holes for both 3.25 and 2.5 inch HDD's.

The fan grill on the left hand panel and the two fan grills on the top, are covered by removable metal panels that are lined with a noise dampening foam.

In conclusion, unless the look of case is not to your taste, I honestly don't think you'll find a better built case for the price (around £70 when purchased), in fact many more expensive cases i have used were of a much lower quality.

Whippy

Best all-round PC case for a generation? I think so.

Commenté au Royaume-Uni 🇬🇧 le 21 septembre 2014

Lots of pros, very few cons.

It's cheap to buy, it's subtle and stylish.

It's pretty small but can hold quite a lot.

It's nice and quiet, assuming your PSU and other internal components are not too noisy.

The quality of the materials is very reasonable for the price. They are completely ok and acceptable even next to full aluminium cases etc.

I've managed to route cables and make it all look nice and tidy inside.

I've built my own computers and ones for my family since the mid 90's, and this was a pleasure to work on. You can do a quick build and get great quick results, and be happy. Or you can really spend some time doing cable management etc and get a really nice result that would make any enthusiast happy.

Any short-comings can be completely ignored when you then view the price of the case. It really is hard to beat or ask for anything more.

I'd buy another but I want to build a mini ITX system next, and am very tempted by the Node 304 also by Fractal Design. Another case that seems to get completely universal praise and fit the wide and varied needs of almost any one who buys one.

Fractal Design just seem really good at these products and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend one or buy again.

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Aerion

An improvement on the R3 in every way

Commenté au Royaume-Uni 🇬🇧 le 10 février 2014

This case hardly needs another review, but here's another take on it:

The Define R3 was already a nearly flawless case, with its beautiful, understated design, gorgeous finish and spacious interior. The only real flaw was the cable well behind the motherboard, which was simply inadequate, except for perhaps the most minimal of modular power supplies. My friend's non-modular Thermaltake power supply, with eight bulky, unused molex power connectors, two unused PCI-e power connectors and two unused floppy drive connectors would simply not fit in this cable well without the side panel bulging and without a struggle to get it back on, made harder by the fact that there were no cable tie mount points to keep everything in position.
The other shortcoming was the frustrating ease with which the grommets would come out of their sockets when pushing a cable through, and the frustrating difficulty with which you would eventually get them back in position.

The Define R4 remedies this with the cable space depth increased to 26mm, 6 cable tie mount points, and grommets made of a thicker rubber, with much wider rims.

Other improvements include:
- a reset button (absent on the R3)
- two USB 3.0 sockets on the front panel, in addition to the two USB 2.0 sockets
- a nicer finish (not a finger print magnet, like the satin/rubber like feel of the R3)
- a fan controller with support for three fans built into the case, supporting 5, 7 and 12V
- the ability to use the front LED as a hard drive activity indicator instead of a power LED; you don't need an LED to know whether the PC is on, do you?

Having said that, this case is so incredibly quiet, I may need that power LED after all to know whether the PC is on or not!

The case comes including two of Fractal Design's own 140mm case fans, one fitted at the front (intake) and one at the back (exhaust). I've always been a big fan of Scythe fans, so I was expecting having to replace these 'free' fans with Scythe equivalents, but I find them to be at least as quiet as my Scythe Kama Flow2 120mm 1400 rpm fans, so I have since ordered another Fractal Design Silent Series 140mm case fan and fitted it in the second slot in the front to keep my seven hard drives cool.

I can't hear an audible difference between running these 3 fans at 5V and 7V, unless I put my ear right next to them (and even then!).
At 12V there is a noticeable increase in noise, but this is the increased air flow rather than the fans being noisy, and while loud compared to 5/7V, it is considerably quieter than my old case, with the same seven hard drives, same Zalman CNPS9500A CPU fan, same Corsair TX650w Ultra Quiet power supply.

The only differences between my old and new setup are:
- losing an Xilence Red Wing 80mm fan (extremely quiet case fan even at full speed, especially for an 80mm one)
- losing two Scythe Kama Flow2 120mm fans (extremely quiet case fans)
- losing a GeForce GT7900 AGP card with the very quiet Zalman VF900-Cu GPU fan (I now use an AMD A10-7850K with integrated GPU,so cooled by the Zalman CPU cooler)
- gaining three Fractal Design Silent Series 140mm case fans

You could argue that the net difference essentially boils down to losing the Zalman VF900-Cu GPU fan, with the only other difference being the case itself. Now losing the GPU fan itself does not explain the huge drop in noise, and yet, whereas with my old case it was a relief to turn the PC off, I can now have the PC running in the background all day long, and not notice it.

So, when summer comes, and ambient temperatures increase, possibly having to run the fans at 12V is not going to be a problem as it will still be much quieter than my old setup!

As with the R3, this case is primarily designed as a quiet PC case (as opposed to a high airflow gaming PC case). Should, however, the need for higher airflow ever arise, the R4 has room for an additional four case fans: one at the bottom, one in the side panel, and two more at the top of the case, all designed for 140mm but with mounting holes for 120mm fans.

Finally, this case is ideal for first time builders and enthusiasts alike. There is plenty of room for expansion, so if you are building your first PC and don't know yet how many hard drives you're going to get, or what size graphics card you might buy, this case provides enough room and flexibility. The hard drive bays are split in two, with the top one being removable so you can accommodate the larger cards, and if you need a lot of storage space, you have a maximum of eight 3.5" drive bays + two 5.25" bays. All the screws you could possible need are provided, including motherboard standoffs, rubber anti vibration rings and cable ties, all in matching black.

The only thing I could criticise is the supplied manual. While you don't really need one, with Fractal Design's phenomenal attention to detail (even the motherboard standoffs come with their own mounting tool (black, of course)), it is simply very sloppy to have an exploded PC case diagram with numbered legend, but the numbers have no reference in the diagram, leading to some confusion as to which description appplies to which part of the case. Also, Fractal Design is a Swedish company, but the level of English in the manual is what you would find with cheap Chinese knock-off products (no disrespect!). A problem? No, but surprising given the sheer quality of the rest of the product.

I could not wish for a better case, and can only join the other reviewers in highly recommending it!

Mr The Beard

Silence Is Golden and So Is This Case

Commenté au Royaume-Uni 🇬🇧 le 7 janvier 2015

There's just too much good to say about this case.

The Define R4 is sturdy, silent, has good airflow and is a wonder to work with. There is so much room in the case to work - especially if you remove one or both of the optional HDD/SSD bays - that you'll be giddy to get in and fiddle with it.

The case is fitted with rubber feet, soundproof material and lots of other soundproofing such as anti-vibration for the HDDs. At the front of the case there is a cage that can fit two intake fans and a normal screw-in fan for the rear output. There are additional fan spaces on the side, top and bottom. The side fans may be blocked by a large GPU if you purchase large fans. The bottom fan may be blocked if you have a large PSU.

The case also features a large amount of space for routing wires and plenty of routing holes making cable management simple even for newcomers. There is also a fan controller in the case which can connect up to 3 fans allowing you to switch between 5V, 7V and 12V.

Be you a new builder or a seasoned veteran, I can't recommend this case enough as it's got it all. Good quality, low price and sweet, sweet silence.