Fractal Design Define XL R2 Case Review: Maybe We Can Have It All?
by Dustin Sklavos on February 20, 2013 12:01 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- quiet
- Fractal Design
- ATX
Testing Methodology
For testing Micro-ATX and full ATX cases, we use the following standardized testbed in stock and overclocked configurations to get a feel for how well the case handles heat and noise.
ATX Test Configuration | |
CPU |
Intel Core i7-2700K (95W TDP, tested at stock speed and overclocked to 4.3GHz @ 1.38V) |
Motherboard | Gigabyte GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3 |
Graphics Card |
ASUS GeForce GTX 560 Ti DCII TOP (tested at stock speed and overclocked to 1GHz/overvolted to 1.13V) |
Memory | 2x2GB Crucial Ballistix Smart Tracer DDR3-1600 |
Drives |
Kingston SSDNow V+ 100 64GB SSD 3x HGST 3TB 7200-RPM HDD Samsung 5.25" BD-ROM/DVDRW Drive |
CPU Cooler | Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo with Cooler Master ThermalFusion 400 |
Power Supply | SilverStone Strider Plus 750W 80 Plus Silver |
Each case is tested in a stock configuration and an overclocked configuration that generates substantially more heat (and thus may produce more noise). The system is powered on and left idle for fifteen minutes, the thermal and acoustic results recorded, and then stressed by running seven threads in Prime95 (in-place large FFTs) on the CPU and OC Scanner (maximum load) on the GPU. At the end of fiteen minutes, thermal and acoustic results are recorded. This is done for the stock settings and for the overclock, and if the enclosure has a fan controller, these tests are repeated for each setting. Ambient temperature is also measured after the fifteen idle minutes but before the stress test and used to calculate the final reported results.
Thank You!
Before moving on, we'd like to thank the following vendors for providing us with the hardware used in our testbed.
- Thank you to Puget Systems for providing us with the Intel Core i7-2700K.
- Thank you to Gigabyte for providing us with the GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3 motherboard.
- Thank you to Crucial for providing us with the Ballistix Smart Tracer memory.
- Thank you to Cooler Master for providing us with the Hyper 212 Evo heatsink and fan unit.
- Thank you to Kingston for providing us with the SSDNow V+ 100 SSD.
- Thank you to CyberPower for providing us with the Samsung BD-ROM/DVD+/-RW drive.
- Thank you to HGST for providing us with the trio of 3TB hard drives.
- And thank you to SilverStone for providing us with the power supply.
46 Comments
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piroroadkill - Thursday, February 21, 2013 - link
The top of the case above the mobo has plenty of space left for a rad, that was mentioned.But yes, it wasn't tested.
BlueReason - Thursday, February 21, 2013 - link
Yeah that'll fit my two ssds nicely.Affectionate-Bed-980 - Monday, February 25, 2013 - link
So you spend 2 precious reviews on these two cases, give them gold and bronze awards, and they don't show up in any other case reviews? How am I supposed to make an informed purchasing decision?Texax - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link
Pardon my ignorance but what does 12v, 7v and 5v mean? Power supply output?Nicholas Steel - Sunday, March 30, 2014 - link
Could someone explain the difference between (7v) and (12v) on the Noise and Thermal Testing page? The page explaining the system setups doesn't explain why the case is listed twice in the benchmarks with an arbitrary designation...Nicholas Steel - Sunday, March 30, 2014 - link
Oh wait, nevermind. I forgot you're testing each Case Fan Preset.