[section_title title=”Closer Look: Exterior”]
Closer Look: Exterior
Fractal have a habit of making, what I think are, stunning cases. But recently Nanoxia have upped the anti with similarly styled cases, like the Deep Silence 1 Rev. B,  that are different but have become the competitor to the Define cases. That’s not to say one is better than the other, we’re not here to persuade only advise. But the R5 is no different, it continues on from the R4 with minor tweaks and improvements.
The define R5 measures in at 232 x 615 x 531mm and weighs in at 11.2 Kgs, quite light for a mid-tower ATX case. The R5comes in three colours; black, titanium and white and also comes with a window side panel option.
The front panel features a front door which can open either way thanks to a dual mounting system. Front IO is on the top of the case at the front which makes it easily accessible for under the desk users. This door hides the two optical bays and, of course, the front intake; there are side vents, however, which allow for sufficient airflow, a design quite a lot of companies currently use to keep airflow high without sacrificing on aesthetics.
Power and HDD indicator LED.
Integrated 3-speed fan controller.
Front door open. You can see 2 optical drive covers and the large intake dust filter.
The windowed side panel allows you to see the motherboard and GPU area. It keeps the other areas such as HDD cages and PSU out of sight, some prefer this, others like to see a lot more.
Blank side panel, this is covered with sound proof material from top to bottom.
The bottom dust filter runs the length of the case, this is removable from the front of the case.
The front IO. From left to right: headphone and microphone jacks, reset, power, HDD and power LEDs, 2 x USB2 and 2 x USB3.0 ports.
Fractal calls the removable top panels ‘moduvent’, these covers are tool-less and are released with very little effort. You can also remove one, two, or all three of them as you desire.
