Assembly

Installing the mainboard is nothing out of the ordinary and is achieved by using the included spacers along with the fitting black screws. Even with the full size ATX mainboard there is plenty of space to the side and above to route any cable. Even with the large CPU cooler, you should be able to connect everything easily, except for the CPU power plugs. Due to the angled fans, reaching this will be fairly tough.


Installation of the hard drives is done the same way as we have seen in the Define R3. Using the rubber mounted holes in the white trays to secure the drive, then sliding it into place and you are done. Simple but very effective. The connectors also face toward the mainboard so you can easily hide any cable mess.


Inserting an optical drive is also nothing new when compared to the R3. Just pull out the drive bay cover, slide the device into the chassis and then secure it with thumb screws.


The PSU on the other hand is a bit different as mentioned before. Fractal Design provides a foam lined frame which you have to attach to the PSU and then slide it in through the rear of the chassis. This allows you to use larger units which would not fit otherwise.



After some creative cable management as far as the fan contoller is concerned I ended up with an incredibly clean chassis. While it is only filled with the basics, the result should not vary greatly even when placing more parts within the Define XL. The entire build is as clean as the Corsair Obsidian 700 or 800D. In other words, it is one of the best cases in terms of cable management I have had the pleasure of reviewing. Even the large opening under the mainboard tray gives way to the underside of the mainboard perfectly.

Finished Looks

Once everything is installed and the side panels are placed back unto the chassis, turning it on resulted in a Deja Vu of the Define R3, as the XL version looks, smells and even sounds like the smaller brother. The fans are not the quietest at full force, but are very good when turned down, as the sound dampening manages to drown most of the noise in the upper spectrum.


The bright blue LED is also present in the Define XL, so you can always can easily see if the chassis is on - no matter how silent the system is.