I was wondering if anyone here had experience building an E-ATX system in the Fractal Define R7.
Recently I have been watching a number of reviews including one from gamers nexus that mentioned although Fractal claims E-ATX support, there is holes for the motherboard stand-offs to actually support this. They advised that using E-ATX boards may result in covering the holes for cable management etc.
I have looked at the Fractal website here: Define 7 — Fractal Design and it lists support for motherboards 285mm in length.
I’ve been using PC Part Picker and it claims the motherboard fits, but I’m not so sure…
I have two questions regarding this:
On the Fractal website what does the length (276mm) refer to (height or width). I’m assuming they mean height and this means the board wouldn’t fit?
Assuming it won’t fit, are there any mid tower cases would fit this motherboard? So far I’m ruling out the lancool 3 because I don’t want a case where I can’t secure the side panel with screws, and also ruling out the torrent because I don’t want a top mounted PSU.
Last point to mention is that I’m located in Australia. So any case suggested must be available in this region (https://au.pcpartpicker.com/). I’d like to keep the case under $500 if possible, but can lift my budget if needed. I’d prefer something that fits a 420mm CLC but can settle for 360mm if necessary.
Thank you in advance for taking the time to read and consider.
I found this build on pcpartpicker (https://pcpartpicker.com/b/XTwhP6), showing a motherboard that is slightly shorter than mine (267mm) and it is covering half of the cut outs for cable management. So I guess that means the Define & is out of the picture.
I welcome any suggestions for a mid tower that will properly support this motherboard.
Have an empty Define 7 in my closet here, just dragged it out to check - there’s a reinforcing rib along the rear edge of the motherboard tray that I think will interfere with the backplate on that board. And yeah it’s definitely covering the cable management grommets but that’s less of an issue.
Looks like the Corsair 5000D would fit that but you’d better verify that first. Fractal Torrent supports SSI-EEB so it’s plenty big. Both look like they’ll get in the way of cable cutouts, so you might have to get creative with routing. And IIRC the Lian Li O11 Dyanamic and its variants should all support larger boards and some even came with a useless motherboard tray extension, but again it’s going to get in the way of the cable cutouts a bit. I like these cases too, but you probably won’t be able to find one.
Fractal Meshify/Define 7 XL obviously, but those are huge cases. Same with the Phanteks Enthoo 719/Pro 2.
These “EATX” boards that don’t follow any standard form factor are a real pain in the ass to deal with lol… if you find something that supports SSI-EEB it will support your board too, and that’s an actual standard.
Thank you very much for your help @NorthernWing . I have checked most of these options out already. Spent the last 2 days looking at case reviews (literally).
I was looking at the Phanteks Pro 2/19 and even they have some limitations in fitting E-ATX and as you mentioned they’re huge. If I do go for a large case it would probably be the meshify 2 XL or 7 XL like you suggested.
I’m going to take another look at the 5000d and see if I can see any pics with builds in them to double check. (I know there are some issues with compatibility.
The torrent I’m worried about, because personally I’ve never built a custom loop. I’ve probably done 30 or so builds for myself/friends/family but not too confident in doing a custom loop and because it doesn’t support top mounting a 360mm CLC I’m going to have to pass on it as I’m not sure how front mounting will affect the pump on the AIO.
I wasn’t aware about the tray extension for Lian Li, which sounds probably like the most viable option. This is something I’ll definitely look in to.
Unfortunately your link didn’t work, but I think I can figure out what you’re trying to link from the URL. Guessing you were linking me to some case by the brand “geometric”. Never really heard much about these however I’ll investigate further this evening.
Thank you again for your thoughtful reply. I appreciate the help.
Corsair 7000D/7000X is another huge tower that would work… not a mid tower but has 420mm radiator support everywhere, dimensions are about the same as the Fractal XL cases and looks like the cable cutouts should even clear the board. Expensive and big though.
I’ve had another thread going with a bunch of cases listed over here that support SSI-EEB boards, which is another ~2" + the next set of standoffs larger. So your board should fit any of those… lot of the links might not work for you if NewEgg.com isn’t loading for some reason.
Front radiator is a pretty typical configuration, the convention is just to have the tubes downward and you’ll be fine… looking closer though, the real issue with the Torrent is that it looks like you’d need a CLC with insanely long tubes to reach that far.
…I’ll admit I personally don’t like the cosmetic design of the Torrent, but that’s just me.
Correction on my part, looks like that was only for the O11 Dyanamic XL.
My NAS / VM Host / Server is in a Silverstone Fortress FT02.
And I’ve had quite the huge mobos in there.
Notice that the specs list ATX, but it’s quite a bodacious ATX at 12" x 11" - which is big enough for your E-ATX board if I read your dimensions correctly.
Now, that case I think isn’t current any more for quite a while, but they make Ravens and maybe newer versions of the Fortress line with the same layout…
… just an idea.
