Fractal Design Define R3 Build Log

Build Complete

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Above the power supply, there is a small hole just big enough to pass the front panel audio cable and heads through. To keep cables neat, it’s really important to pass them through, behind the motherboard tray as much as possible. Out of sight, Out of mind certainly applies here.

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Noctua NH-D14 installed. We also installed 2 Hard drives to do an initial test to make sure everything was OK.

At this stage, if there is a hardware issue, it’s better to know before you put all your drives in as it’s easier to remove parts.Initial tests were done using the onboard intel HD3000 graphics as this is how the server will be used in the long term.Once the tests were done, we loaded the remaining drives in, connected them up and also installed the discrete Gigabyte GTX580.

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Here is the Fractal Define R3 with everything installed. Our only regret here was that we didn’t have another GTX 580 – we were surprised how much room we had left after installing a NH-D14, 7 Hard Disks and an SSD. With the side panel on, the ultra low noise adaptors on the NH-D14 and the 3x120mm fans on the middle setting of the included fan controller, the case was still very quiet.

The loudest part of the above rig is the GTX 580 as it has a stock cooler. For normal use, the GTX580 will be removed and the home server will then be barely audible.Heat was our next concern. There have been a number of posts on forums asking about heat in the R3 and how suitable it could be as a gaming rig. Time for some thermal testing!

‘Dude can you hear that?’

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There was one thing about this case that caused much irritation to Phil. Just some background here, Phil is one of those people who can’t tolerate noises like a dripping tab, rattles, resonance or buzzing – these things are guaranteed to drive him nuts.

You guessed it, there was a buzzing intermittent vibration in the case that presented itself on the first day. We were instantly disappointed because the build quality was otherwise fantastic.

Before long, the cause of the vibration was discovered. the face plate in the 5.25 and 3.5 inch bays at the top of the case were vibrating. These are the parts that you can remove if you want to use these bays. After removing the temporary plates, the vibration noise stopped and has not been heard in the 2 weeks that followed. If there was resonance or vibration to be heard, Phil would have noticed it 🙂

 

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