Fractal Design Define R2 XL Chassis Review

The colossal size of this chassis calls for some equally large cable management solutions, Fractal don’t disappoint either with two large cable routing cut-outs at the top, three larger ones down the right, a huge one at the bottom and one final cut-out on the bottom left, all fitted with rubber grommets and this should be more than enough to keep your cables in check. There is also a large CPU cut out which should make for easy CPU cooler installations.

The front of the chassis features classic screw mounts for the 5.25″ drives, below which you will find a removable hard drive bay with four slide out drive mounts and one more bay with four more, all with support for 3.5 / 2.5″ HDDs.

The back of the chassis features yet another high quality 140mm fan, you can see here that all the included fans come fitted with a standard 3pin connection and high quality braided cables. Below the fan we have the 9 expansion slot covers, each cover is re-usable and comes fitted with a quick release thumb screw. At the bottom of the chassis we have the PSU cut-out which comes fitted with a foam padding, this should ensure a snug fit and help reduce both noise and vibration from the PSU.

As well as the padding around the PSU cut-out there are also two rubber pegs for the PSU to rest upon, meaning it doesn’t have to sit on the metal of the chassis, which should help further reduce any vibration. Finally, in the bottom centre of the chassis we find a 140mm intake fan which comes fitted with a protective grill, perfect for preventing your cables from jamming the fan.

In the top we see the 120 / 140mm fan and/or 120/140/240/280mm radiator mounts, these come covered with sound proofing material that can be removed and replaced should you with to install or remove your cooling solutions.

Around the back we see that the back plate is almost featureless in appearance, but a close inspection reveals a few well placed cable tie loops.

Theres 2cm of cable space back here, which is more than you find in most cases, yet given the overall size of this case, the XL R2 has a huge amount of capacity behind the motherboard.

He we have the interior of the left side panel, thickly lined with sound proofing materials, as well as featuring a covered and sound proofed 140mm fan mount, which like the ones in the top of the chassis can be removed / replaced should you wish to install or remove a fan from this panel.