Inside the Fractal Design Define XL
Contents
Both panels are attached to the chassis using black thumbscrews. As mentioned before, the side panels are extremely heavy, as they have a thick layer of polycarbonate with a cloth coating applied to them in order to reduce the noise produced by the computer.
Figure 14: Polycarbonate layer with cloth coating
The motherboard tray supports the installation of E-ATX motherboards, and has a huge hole for you to access the backplate of the CPU coolers without having to remove the motherboard from the case. However, differently from all the cases that we’ve reviewed so far, the Define XL comes with a plastic lid on it. The motherboard tray also has several holes protected with rubber covers for you to route cables behind it, and several metallic clips for you to fasten cables using cable ties.
Figure 15: Overall look
Figure 16: A view behind the motherboard tray
In order to improve ventilation, the case is divided into two separate compartments: the motherboard compartment and the power supply compartment. See Figure 15. On its default configuration, the front fan cools down the motherboard compartment, which has four of the available 3.5”/2.5” bays. You can either move this fan down or install a second fan to cool down the power supply compartment, which has six of the available 3.5”/2.5” bays. There is a plastic lid on the wall that separates the two compartments that can be removed if you think it will improve ventilation (for example, if you decide to install the power supply with its fan facing up instead of down). See Figure 17.
Figure 17: Plastic lid separating the two compartments
Leave a Reply