Fractal Design Define 7 XL Black Brushed Aluminum/Steel E-ATX Silent Modular Full Tower Computer Case

What can I say about this case, other than "What have I done?" LOL. This case is an absolute unit, if you have kids and another on the way, you could probably use this as a nursery for them, haha. All joking aside, I can honestly say this is a solid case, plenty of configuration options for customising, I had mine set to Storage configuration within about 40mins. Admittedly, it was a bit daunting where to start but after a quick gander at the manual (not included, you have to get it from Fractals website, 60 page PDF), it started to make sense what goes where and why. Make sure you have plenty of room to work with, this is not really a bang it together on a kitchen worktop type of case, better to give yourself plenty of room to work with. This will be getting used for a planned home NAS/server setup, at the moment, this is the only part I have bought for it, so I can't comment on motherboard fitting etc. But from what I can see, that's not going to be a problem, believe it alos has room/support for ATX and defo looks like it. There's plenty of holes and cutouts for pretty much every cable you'd need or for a water cooling setup. Not sure about the 3 x included Fracyal fans, I've never used them before but having a look online shows they might be a bit poor for taste, some have recommended Noctura NF-14 redux and others Arctic P14s (cheaper but seem to get good reviews). Comes with 2 x HDD cages that have 2 HDD trays each and the accessory kit included also has 2 trays, a 5.25 cage mount for optical drives in the 2 top bays and an extra top panel for more fans/radiator/airflow. Absolutely a great buy if your needing lots of space and drive bay potential, i would say the only downsides are there is no manual included (not a biggie, just inconvenient) and that there are only two 3.5 inch trays provided for more disks (excluding the 2 cages at the bottom, which also have trays). Very good build quality, I was worried about the trays as they look flimsy but they are pretty solid when fitted and screwed in. The HDD cages at the bottom do make a bit of a rattle when the empty case is moved around, that may be sorted when disk are installed or maybe just adding a bit of diy cushioning. Anyway, if the wife kicks you oot and files for divorce after buying this absolute monolith, at least you'll have somewhere to live while waiting for the homeless team to get you a place to live :)

Case is top quality and easily worth the (discounted) price I paid, though even full price I'd say it's a good buy. Loads of room inside and very easy to configure the case how you want. Everything is well laid out and labelled with a good array of ports and additional controller for extra case fans. With the sound dampened panels in place I can barely hear fan noise from the case at all. Only disappointment was that I couldn't quite fit in my 5.25" blu-ray drives, but that's my fault for buying a 360mm radiator - I should have gone with a 280mm and it wouldn't have been an issue.

This case is a beast! The build quality is excellent and the case looks great, even if it's humoungous. As far as cooling capability, I currently have 7 140mm PWM fans installed in mine, ensuring that the components in my server, which include SAS drives, have ample airflow. The modular nature of the case also means that, if my needs change and I need to swiitch from the storage layout (where I currently have 12 hard drives installed) to a different layout, it's easy to remove drive trays, which are reusable in other Fractal Design cases I have. In my opinion, it's well worth the money.

This case is HUGE, very heavy and well-made. It offers lots of options for different uses but the manual is nearly useless when it comes to changing layouts thankfully there are some good videos on youtube which help in this regard. With so much space there are lots of channels for cable management and velcro straps make this task changeable. Be aware that you may need to purchase extension cables for the CPU power connector (8-pin etc) but these can be purchased for a reasonable price. As for price while I think the case itself is worth the price BUT the extra parts like the drive cages and trays are in my opinion overpriced and added to the cost, for example, I am using mine as a server in storage mode I needed to purchase an extra 12 drive trays which average out at £10 each (there are 4 pre-installed and an extra 2 trays provided), this with extra fans has brought the real price to about £450 but with the quality of the case, I expect it to last me for many years.

Second of these cases in my network amazing quality

Hard to ever justify a premium case generally but this is a HUGE case with plenty of options for cooling, expansion and customisation. It is also well sound insulated.

A good size case and for the most part easy to build in. The only tricky part was swapping the layout to the storage layout but after reading the manual and watching a video on the fractual youtube channel I was able to see what I was doing wrong and got it to work.

Excellent quality case, plenty of room for 2 x 360/420 radiators and motherboard fully accessible.