Fractal Design Define R6 Tempered Glass Chassis Review

A Closer Look – Exterior

Out of the box, the Define R6 is one impressive looking chassis. It’s easy to see that it still maintains much of the aesthetics we loved about the previous Define chassis. However, a substantial tempered glass side panel goes a long way and gives it a slick high-end look. What’s very clever is that there are no thumbscrews on the side panel for the glass. It uses a push-peg mounting system, with two screws at the rear to secure it, giving it a much cleaner look vs many rival tempered glass chassis.

The Moduvent top panel design is super slick. By default, it’s a closed and heavily soundproofed panel. However, you can open it up and leave the mesh ventilation section in place for added airflow. Of course, you’ll need to remove the cover if you’re mounting radiators in the top, but the choice is yours.

Front I/O

The front panel is neat and tidy, with all the usual bits and bobs, as well as a nicely designed power button.

The right side panel is a just a clean black panel. However, it’s super chunky and a very heavy duty panel, with a thick layer of noise dampening material on the interior too.

Brushed Aluminium

The solid looking front panel is gorgeous. It features a thick brushed finish to its aluminium skin. When the light hits it, it looks dazzling the way it refracts the light and gives it a premium look we wanted to see. It’s fully soundproofed too, but there’s a massive amount of ventilation on the sides to keep airflow as high as possible without compromising on noise dampening.

The panel can be mounted to open from the left or right but opens on the right by default. Behind this, you’ll find many more hints of the lovely build quality and design that has gone into the little details. The door is pretty thick, with sound dampening material neatly installed and a magnetic locking system. There’s a massive bank of ventilation for the front mounted cooling too.

Pre-installed 140mm Fans

A large removable dust filter keeps the airflow nice and clean. Of course, there are two pre-installed fans hiding in there too.

Around the back, you’ll find another pre-installed 140mm fan, giving you great airflow right out of the box. There are seven expansion slots, each fitted with a reusable ventilated cover, and another two for the optional vertical expansion card mount. The PSU mounts from the rear of the chassis, with a removable faceplate allowing you to easily install your hardware.

In the top left, a large push button allows you to quickly and easily release the top panel cover for the chassis.

Removable Top Cover

Push the button, and you can lift the panel out with ease.

Once removed, you can remove the top cover section and have a filtered ventilated cover that matches the design of the front panel ventilation.

There are mounts for both 120mm and 140mm fans/radiator spacings in the top, with up to 480mm radiator support for enthusiast cooling solutions.

More Filters!

Need even more airflow? There’s a full-length dust filter on the bottom too. Everything fits with extreme precision, and there’s zero airflow into the tightly sealed chassis that doesn’t come through a high-quality filter first!