Sort of a mini-review of the Fractal Design Define 7 mid-tower ATX/EATX case. I recently completed a GPU workstation build in this case and I like it a lot. The case is just large enough to fit the Asus X99-E WS series boards (CEB size). Not all "EATX" boards will fit, since EATX isn't really a standard. So you never know what it will be.
The case is really nicely made, great build quality and easy to integrate system components. The "tunnel" for the power supply is a little bit of a struggle to get the cables run. The only other question is securing the panels. Not a problem for me in a secured home office. But in a large open office, I'd feel better having a means to lockdown the panels to prevent things walking away.
I got the solid metal side panel version, rather than the gamer-oriented tempered glass that's so common today. They included a swappable mesh top panel for those who want to do water cooling, even includes a hole for a filler port. There are a few extra drive trays included too and a lot of options for mounting drives and fans and radiators and pumps or whatever.
As seems always, the included 140mm fans with the case are throw-away 3-pin types. There's a really nicely done fan expander board integrated into the case. However, I removed it, as I didn't need it and my motherboard choice has great fan support. I reconfigured the case with 3 Noctua 140mm fans, two in front and one rear exhaust.
I opted for blower-type Nvidia GPU's and a Noctua NH-U12DX i4 air cooler (single fan, option for two fans) for my Xeon E5 2667v4. I kept the solid top panel (with sound damping) and installed an optical drive in the lone 5.25" bay. 1300w Seasonic power supply. I added a small 40mm to direct air at a 25Gb ethernet card (Mellanox ConnectX5) as it was running a bit on the hot side.
It's a very nice and quiet workstation, the door provides adequate ventilation and a good bit of sound dampening when closed. Full processor load operations with the 8 core Xeon are quiet and stay at maximum turbo speeds with nice low temperatures.
High-load GPU operations are bit noisier with the blower type RTX2080-ti cards (x2). I used the motherboards thermal sensor input to place a sensor on a GPU card to crank up the front panel fans when the GPUs are hot. The Noctua fans are excellent and add very little noise. The GPU blowers have that "hairdryer" sound at full speed. It's a tradeoff if you want the heat exhausted out of the case.
I did try Founder's Edition "fan style" cards. These have two fans and exhaust heat into the case. In reality they're not much quieter than the blowers. But have the disadvantage of dumping the heat in the case.
Mostly, I run linux and do number crunching on them. Just for fun and stress testing, I booted into Windows 10 and ran the RTX Doom demo with everything turned on to fully heat and test the GPU and cooling. The system kept good framerates staying in GPU boost very nicely and with the advantage of keeping the CPU very cool.
All in all, good quiet case, great build quality and ease of integration, incredible options for configuring coolers, drives, radiators, and a big plus for accepting the CEB size mobo.
There's a good review on youtube by Gamers Nexus on the case too. It is focused on gaming, but goes into good technical depth with some legit measurements.
The case is really nicely made, great build quality and easy to integrate system components. The "tunnel" for the power supply is a little bit of a struggle to get the cables run. The only other question is securing the panels. Not a problem for me in a secured home office. But in a large open office, I'd feel better having a means to lockdown the panels to prevent things walking away.
I got the solid metal side panel version, rather than the gamer-oriented tempered glass that's so common today. They included a swappable mesh top panel for those who want to do water cooling, even includes a hole for a filler port. There are a few extra drive trays included too and a lot of options for mounting drives and fans and radiators and pumps or whatever.
As seems always, the included 140mm fans with the case are throw-away 3-pin types. There's a really nicely done fan expander board integrated into the case. However, I removed it, as I didn't need it and my motherboard choice has great fan support. I reconfigured the case with 3 Noctua 140mm fans, two in front and one rear exhaust.
I opted for blower-type Nvidia GPU's and a Noctua NH-U12DX i4 air cooler (single fan, option for two fans) for my Xeon E5 2667v4. I kept the solid top panel (with sound damping) and installed an optical drive in the lone 5.25" bay. 1300w Seasonic power supply. I added a small 40mm to direct air at a 25Gb ethernet card (Mellanox ConnectX5) as it was running a bit on the hot side.
It's a very nice and quiet workstation, the door provides adequate ventilation and a good bit of sound dampening when closed. Full processor load operations with the 8 core Xeon are quiet and stay at maximum turbo speeds with nice low temperatures.
High-load GPU operations are bit noisier with the blower type RTX2080-ti cards (x2). I used the motherboards thermal sensor input to place a sensor on a GPU card to crank up the front panel fans when the GPUs are hot. The Noctua fans are excellent and add very little noise. The GPU blowers have that "hairdryer" sound at full speed. It's a tradeoff if you want the heat exhausted out of the case.
I did try Founder's Edition "fan style" cards. These have two fans and exhaust heat into the case. In reality they're not much quieter than the blowers. But have the disadvantage of dumping the heat in the case.
Mostly, I run linux and do number crunching on them. Just for fun and stress testing, I booted into Windows 10 and ran the RTX Doom demo with everything turned on to fully heat and test the GPU and cooling. The system kept good framerates staying in GPU boost very nicely and with the advantage of keeping the CPU very cool.
All in all, good quiet case, great build quality and ease of integration, incredible options for configuring coolers, drives, radiators, and a big plus for accepting the CEB size mobo.
There's a good review on youtube by Gamers Nexus on the case too. It is focused on gaming, but goes into good technical depth with some legit measurements.
