Fractal Design Define R4 Full-Tower PC Chassis Review

With the side panel off we see that the high contrast black and white detailing from the back of the chassis continues inside. The motherboard back plate features a nice size cutout to help with CPU cooler installations, as well as a decent amount of cable management cutouts each fitted with rubber grommets, with 2 small cable management holes at the top, two large vertical ones on the right and the largest only the bottom of the backplate. On the right we have 2 x 5.25″ bays, and two removable hard drive bays in a 5+3 layout, each featuring a high quality metal mounting tray which are painting in high quality gloss paint.

Here we can clearly see the 140mm pre-installed rear fan, which just like the one hiding in the front panel are Silent Series R2 fans, featuring hydraulic bearings for maximum performance.

These front drive bays can be moved slightly to the left, thanks to an extra set of holes that Fractal fitted in the chassis, this allows you a little extra room, should you require it to install a radiator in the front of the chassis, or leave them where they are to make more room for graphics cards and other components if you’re air cooling your system. Inside the chassis everything is finished to a really high quality too, which I’m sure you would really appreciate if you went for the windowed side panel, but everything fits perfect and rattle free.

In the top of the chassis we can see the two fan mounts, both of which can handle 120mm or 140mm fans, these both feature removable covers just like the ones on the side panel which come heavily lined with sound proofing material on one side and a metal plate cover on the other.

Around the back we can already see the cable management is doing a great job, and with a whopping 26mm of clearance behind the back plate you should have any trouble finding room for your spare cables.

With the side panels removed, we can see each comes lined with a high quality and heavy duty noise reducing material, again we can see the left side panels removable padded cover for either a 120mm or 140mm fan. Both side panels are seriously heavy duty too, heavy and thick materials that will definitely help keep noise to a minimum and I wouldn’t be surprised if they could stop bullets (please don’t test that theory) they feel that strong.