We simply replaced the fans – of course with RGB LED lighting. After all, we wanted to put the tidy interior of the Define R6 in the limelight. The Corsair HD-140s run at higher rpm, but unfortunately are also louder than Fractal Design’s HD-140s. Only then did the temperature of the graphics card remain within a reasonable range, but it still became too hot when doddling graphically more demanding games. Heat Wave as Hardness Test According to the instructions, the 5.25-inch slot must be omitted in the open layout. Nevertheless, we managed to install a Blu-Ray player without any problems, even with a subsequent 280mm radiator on the upper side, even though the optics aren’t flawless anymore, because the DVD drive is then visible through the transparent side panel. PWM Fan Hub with Many Slots Of the cases we’ve tested, be quiet!’s Pure Base 600 is the closest competitor. With the tops sealed and fans at max RPM, the cases are equal in noise levels and GPU cooling, but the Define C has superior CPU cooling. This could change with different fan configurations or liquid cooling, but judging purely by the numbers, Fractal has the advantage. The R6 is well-positioned in price between be quiet!’s budget Pure Base and high-end Dark Base lines, and the tempered glass version is a bit more than the Silent Base 800. The 800 doesn’t have a TG version, though, so for now the Define R6 has little competition in its specific niche. With that established, it has got to be said that, as a general rule - there are exceptions, of course - but as a general rule and with all else being equal, quieter fans are the result if them running at a slower RPM. But slowing down the rotation speed of any fan, while making it quieter also reduces the amount of air that fan moves.

There is a single 5.25” bay included, a somewhat unusual feature in modern cases. It’s just a removable metal rectangle behind a bay cover, but it’s nice to have the option for an ODD, especially in a silent case that could be used as a media PC. Like the R5, the R6 has an oddly fancy 5.25” bay cover with a little latch with a handle that swings out for easy removal. One advertised feature of the R6 is the optional “open layout.” The conversion isn’t anything as dramatic as invertible cases like the Dark Base 900, but it’s also a little beyond just removing the hard drive cages. After the 5.25” bay and 3.5” HDD bays are removed, the metal plate used to hide the HDDs can be moved inwards to extend the motherboard tray, like the eATX plate included with the Bitfenix Shogun. This is mostly an aesthetic change, but it does remove some airflow obstructions and allow more clearance for radiators. Liquid cooling support is pretty good for a mid-tower (see the spec chart), and there’s even a space for a fill port under the top cover. Conducting thermal tests requires careful measurement of temperatures in the surrounding environment. We control for ambient by constantly measuring temperatures with thermocouples and laser readers. We then produce charts using a Delta T(emperature) over Ambient value. This value subtracts the thermo-logged ambient value from the measured diode temperatures, producing a delta report of thermals. AIDA64 is used for logging thermals of silicon components, including the GPU diode.The Define 7 has an USB Type-C port on the front panel while to get this on the Define R6 you have to either specifically buy the "Define R6 UBS-C version" or buy an upgrade kit from Fractal. The filters are massive. The top, front, and bottom sides of the case are all fully covered by individual filters, which is the most basic and practical approach possible. The one downside to the top filter not being a cheap square of mesh is that it is essentially the top of the case and must always be installed, or else there’s just a big ugly hole left behind. Top exhaust will always be obstructed by the filter, especially with a top-mounted radiator. Still, most users will probably keep the steel plate in place, which prevents top exhaust altogether. Case Testing Methodology If you instead plan on using the top for ventilation, then I prefer the look of the Define R6 since the Define 7 has a strange (horrible for me) dust filter/vent mesh combination. We tested using our new Skylake case test bench, detailed in the table below. This particular configuration is brand new with the launch of the 570X & 270R. Results on this test platform cannot be compared to previous case benchmark results, as the platform has completely changed.

My point is, we use FD cases on many of our builds here, including my own personal computers. Granted, my ears are 68 years old and I worked next to a military flight line for 24+ years, but my ears are very sensitive to fan noise. I hate fan noise. I mean I really hate fan noise. And I note FD cases, including the R6, are excellent at suppressing noise. I certainly can't complain about my cases and we have never had a complaint from any client about their FD case fans making too much noise either. If you plan on not using the top of the case for ventilation, then the Define 7 looks better because it has a full top panel.The front panel is now magnetic on the Define 7 (not a big change TBH) and the 5.25" drive bay in the Define 7 has a small dust filter instead of a plastic cover and allows for fans to be shifted "up there" meaning the front now supports maximum 3*140mm instead of 3*120mm as it was on the R6. However, rendering on the GPU, average GPU dT was 29.2. Relative to other cases, it fared better than it did in Firestrike, but still not enough to compete with the two be quiet! Cases. It did cool better than the Meshify C and Define C, though, and it beat the Enso by 3 degrees. This teaches us that the Define R6 primarily starts struggling with GPU thermals when both the CPU and GPU are under load, as it doesn’t have enough pathways for hot air to escape the enclosure. Fractal R6 Noise Levels