A Closer Look - Inside

Another nice surprise awaits on the interior of the case itself. Fractal has lined both side panels with a thin sound insulating material. While just a few milimeters thick, it weighs quite a lot. The opening for a potential side fan has been separately covered - a nice touch.


As mentioned before, the entire interior is black - well almost. The black and white contrast continues with the eight hard drive bays. Fractal Design has opted for such a large number of internal bays at the cost of external ones. Considering the fact that most of us never fill more than two 5.25 inch bays, this case is perfect for those wanting to pack it full with hard drives. Turning the case over we have a well designed mainboard tray, with multiple openings to route cable through. A large opening under the CPU area of the mainboard should give you easy access to any backplates of large coolers. Upon closer inspection I found some sort of powder covering the soft plastic protective strip. While I applaud Fractal Design for including such a strip, it is completely unnecessary, as the edges beneath it are folded and thus pose no thread to the user.


The two drive external drive bays do not feature a screw-less system and it is good to see someone not going with the flow instead of offering some half-assed plastic locking mechanism - just for marketing purposes. The eight hard drive bays have individual trays. They come pre-applied with rubber rings to kill any vibration of drives and also allow you to install 2.5 inch units in each one of them. This is perfect for those wanting to put in some SSD instead of the traditional 3.5 inch units.


Turning our focus to the rear of the case, starting at the bottom, the PSU bay is lined with foam to fight any vibrations here as well. Above are the seven expansion slots, with each cover held in place with thumb screws. In the very top you will find the 120 mm exhaust fan. This makes for a total of two cooling units which ship with the Define R2. Both feature mainboard headers, so that you can connect it straight to the included fan controller or plug them into the mainboard.


The bottom fan intake is where I placed the loose sound dampening material, as this is the only area in which it will fit perfectly. As you can see, the same material has been applied to the two openings in the ceiling.


You have to remove the front panel to gain access to the drive bay covers. Fractal Design has covered every cable in black shrink tubing, even the power and LED cables - a nice touch, which goes well with the rest of the design.