Fractal Design Gallery

Here's my Fractal Design Arc Midi. Some of the highlights then onto the pictures.

Mods:
- Custom 3 fan mount on top
- Removed lower HDD cage
- Added another fan to the bottom
- Moved front intakes closer for better aesthetics
- Side Window
- Fan shrouds to cover up the ugly parts
- 3M DiNOC carbon fiber strategically placed
- 8 x Xigmatek 140mm White LED fans
- 2 x Xigmatek 120mm White LED PWM fans

Internals:
- Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3P
- Intel i7 2700K cooled with Thermalright Venomous X
- ASUS GTX 670 DirectCU II TOP
- 16GB DDR3 G.Skill Sniper 1600
- Corsair HX850 PSU
- 2 x Intel 160gb SSD

Fist pics are with my 470 sli setup. Cards were a Zotac AMP! and an EVGA with the Zalman VF3000 cooler. Zotac was kind enough to send me another shroud and fans so the cards looked the same.

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Now for the 670!!

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So much more room!!
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Lit up
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Older hardware, but the only shot I had with the window
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Looks good. Really nice and clean. just the way I like it. The black/white theme is hott these days. I have some of those same fans. They are nice. great job
 
Questions about the Define R3 and the Arc Midi (hope this isn't too off topic- it looks like a good place to ask):

Is there any way to remove the hard drive bays in the Define R3, short of chopping rivets? If not, when the drive trays are removed, how well does air from the front fans move through the drive bays?

With the Arc Midi, does Fractal give you any way to easily block the large top vent? I wouldn't use it for fans, and would prefer to not have it at all, rather than having a giant dust inlet.
 
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JJ Johnson said:
Is there any way to remove the hard drive bays in the Define R3, short of chopping rivets? If not, when the drive trays are removed, how well does air from the front fans move through the drive bays?
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I have the Define Mini, which is similar to the Define R3, only smaller. The upper hard drive cage can be removed easily. The lower one is riveted in. It is very easy to remove the rivets, and the area underneath was painted, so you can't even tell the cage used to be there. There is a significant airflow increase with the cages removed. With just the drive trays removed, there is not a noticeable airflow increase. The sides of the cage where the trays are entered are the same size as the trays themselves. The cage itself is the airflow obstruction. With the Define R3, which only has a single cage, I would recommend removing it if you don't need the drive bays. It looks to be similar to the lower cage I pictured below.

Lower cage reinstallation can be done with standard screws and a couple little nuts. Or, if you don't have the nuts, you can use motherboard standoffs, like I did.

edit: Some pics to give you a better idea of the lower cage:

Whole box:
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Outer edge of lower cage:
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Inner edge of lower cage:
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Where inner cage attaches to motherboard "tray", screw removed:
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JJ Johnson said:
Questions about the Define R3 the Arc Midi and (hope this isn't too off topic- it looks like a good place to ask):

Is there any way to remove the hard drive bays in the Define R3, short of chopping rivets? If not, when the drive trays are removed, how well does air from the front fans move through the drive bays?

With the Arc Midi, does Fractal give you any way to easily block the large top vent? I wouldn't use it for fans, and would prefer to not have it all, rather than having a giant dust inlet.
Click to expand...

I cannot speak to the Define R3 but with the Arc Midi there are 4 rivets the need to be drilled out. Seems to be the theme with the Fractal cases. The top does not have anything to block the holes. It does come with some filter material built in so you won't see the holes and you will have some dust protection. You could do like I did and put a piece of acrylic in there, just don't cut holes in it.
 
With Define R3, it is a bit more complicated. You have 4 rivets at bottom, those are easy. Then you have 4 more rivets connecting the drive bays to the 5.25' bays, And those are an issue, because :
1) the divider plate in middle blocks you from using any drill longer than 15cm, which is pretty much all of them.
2) the divider plate is riveted in with 4 rivets too, 2 from both sides. The ones on the inner side can be removed, but the ones on the front side of the case are located exactly where you got the space covered by metal between the 2 front fans.
3) the only working alternative is to remove the top cover and drill out the 4 rivets from the top. The only issue with that are the 8 rivets which are used to hold the top cover.

So in the end, you need to remove 16 rivets and replace 8 of them with new ones (or screws) to be able to remove the hard drive tray in Define R3.
 
Posted a while ago, changed a few things since and added some top fans

used a 5.5' (140mm) hole saw... Isn't perfect but it works.. next time ill make sure i use a drill press.

Some fan grilles are on the way to make the top look more finished looking

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If you have more of the trim you can cut it at a 45 degree angle and it will line up flush rather than having that gap.
 
Very clean on the setups. Makes me jealous of what some people can do with there free time. :)
 
This is my arc midi built i did last month. hope u guys like it. its not fancy just a basic built.
serves its true purpose like a champ.

edit - sorry don't know why the pics blow up so big here, other forums the pics are resized automatically.

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juanP said:
This is my arc midi built i did last month. hope u guys like it. its not fancy just a basic built.
serves its true purpose like a champ.

edit - sorry don't know why the pics blow up so big here, other forums the pics are resized automatically.

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Click to expand...

:eek:Wow!! 2x GTX690 pretty cool dudeh!! ;)
 
I hated how little room there was inside my R2, and since I was only using 1 hdd and 1 ssd, I did what I had to.

before:

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After:

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Drilled out the stock cage
put the fan controller into the included 5.25-3.5" adaptor (backwards for ease of cable management)
elastic-mounted the hdd (no vibrations anymore)
velcro-dot the ssd onto the bottom of the 5.25 cage
zip tied the shit out of everything

10 degree drop in cpu temperature
15 degree drop in gpu temperature
 
Worth buying Define R3 with about 35% off the original price ? Was thinking about going with Define R4 (little bit more spacious)
 
laozx said:
My Fractal Arc Mini

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Beautiful setup, great job :cool: that 7970 looks a bit bent, doesn't it?

adi518 said:
unfortunately no. I'd have liked one as well. Can make a custom plexi tho. Someone over at OCN did a pretty damn good job on his Core 3000.

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thanx for linking my setup man :D actually i've just rebuilt it

blood said:
This is simply amazing.
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Thanx mate :)

Here are some more new shots

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BadmAu5 said:
Beautiful setup, great job :cool: that 7970 looks a bit bent, doesn't it?

Thanks, it's not as clean as yours tho!

Yea the card is so heavy, it does bend a little, havent found a way to raise it up yet.
Click to expand...
 
Recently got the Define Mini and stuck 2 RX120s in it... the temps were alright but ultimately I wasn't very happy with it, it's just not made for watercooling, too cramped no matter how you twist and turn.

So I got a Define R4, will post pics once the new loop is complete. For those wondering, not only is the top drive cage removable, but the bottom drive cage is now screwed in instead of riveted - a small detail often not mentioned in reviews, but oh-so awesome. Fractal noticed a lot of people were taking the bottom cage out and made it easier. The space behind the motherboard is also amazing. Pleasure to work with and great build quality as always. Stay tuned for pics.
 
Hey gang, Fractal-Design NA contacted me recently and is looking for people to submit their completed builds to their facebook page.

I'm currently customizing several Define R4s.

Contrary to what some reviewers have told people, The Define R4 will fit a Corsair H100 radiator in the top panel, however it will depend upon DDR slots and north/south/mosfet heatsink locations on some motherboard models. If you discover these elements are obstructing your 240 radiator install, You can do 2 things in the Define R4 to gain extra space for your 240 radiator install.

1. Offset 240 radiator toward the left side of the top panel, by locating the radiator to the outer screw mounting holes used by optional 140mm fans in the top panel. There will be openings for all of the radiator mounting screws in the factory honeycomb perforations.

2. Option 1. didn't buy you enough space? Then you can drill 4 additional radiator screw mounting holes toward left side of the top panel, to offset the 240 radiator even further, to clear any obstructions created by some motherboards.

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I also discovered that it will also fit a 2 x140mm (280mm) with some minor modifications! Here are the steps involved with modifying the Define R4 to fit any manufacturer brand or model 2 x140mm (280mm) Radiator in the front, HERE

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Hope this Helps!
 
My Define R3 setup

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Asus P8P67 Deluxe
Core i5 2500k 4.6GHz
Venomous X
5 x 120mm fans

Anybody tried swapping the doors on Define R3? Left door on right side with vent open under cpu socket could be interesting.

Imagebam pic not showing, not sure why. Is this site banned here?
Edit: Changed hosting site anyway.
 
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hey I just purchased the Fractal Design Arc Mini, I want to remove the bottom HDD cage - is it possible? what tools will I need, just want to prepare myself before it comes so I'm not waiting on anything. thanks!
 
Not as clean as BadmAu5 but hey I gave it a shot. ;)
Cleaned up the 'innards a bit and did some fan work.
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Power Supply cables are to long, no where to hide the excess cables.
 
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I have a question for the Core 1000, I just got mine in the mail will have pic's up for it as soon as last bit of parts get here.

but my question is will a corsair h50 reach to the front 120mm fan?
specs for this rig is primarily compiled of alot of left over gear
evga x58 micro
12gb (6x2gb) ram
antec neo 550w,
and 2x gts450's in sli.
ran off a pair of 240gb ssd's
 
my arc midi just arrived. jumped on it when it was on sale at newegg. awesome case with plenty of great features especially at this price point. can't wait to build it up. just waiting on parts to arrive.
 
I thought I would throw a few pics into this thread. I just replaced my Antec Nine Hundred with a Define R4 w/Window in Arctic White. Looks great, very classy AND quiet. Rig is in my sig. This was my first "modern" case with real cable management. What a pleasure it was to build and it looks very clean. Very happy with this one! :D


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