Smaller interior here and there
Fractal Design has apparently decided to roll out all of their cases in smaller designs as well. The latest in compact designs is the Define 7 Mini, which fits a Micro ATX motherboard. Even though the dimensions have shrunk, they haven’t cut corners in other ways and this new case maintains a high quality standard. The kind of quality we are used to with Define series cases.
Smaller interior here and there
The interior, even for the more modest dimensions of the case, can accommodate most hardware. In addition to the motherboard support, which ends at Micro ATX, you also need to watch out for the length of the graphics card. Especially if you own models with three fans. With a fan mounted in the front of the case, you have room for a graphics card up to 306 mm in length. If you were to give up the intake, your space would increase to 331 mm. But the compactness doesn’t limit tower CPU coolers. You can fit such “giants” as the Dark Rock Pro 4 from Be Quiet! or the NH-D15 from Noctua into the Define 7 Mini, as the case will let you get up to 167 mm high.
Rubber caps are fitted on the grommets for safer cable routing. Although the hole itself is narrowed and the cable routing is tighter, at least the caps hold the cable firmly in place and do not come out. Even the grommet on the tunnel has a rubber cap. Next to it, two 2.5″ storage compartments can alternatively be placed on the perforation of the tunnel with using a bracket. I’m a little disappointed that they didn’t also think of placing the fan directly under the graphics card in these places.
There is also a fan from the Dynamic series in the X2 GP-12 version mounted on the exhaust. And as on the intake, it is also only the 3-pin version. Instead of the manufacturer’s parameters, here’s link to our detailed tests.
The entire structure is made of thick (0.85-0.90 mm) steel plate. The skeleton is strong and does not succumb to the action of even the greater force that can normally be exerted on it.
On the other side of the tray, six Velcro strips are ready for cable management. I didn’t even need more positions when installing as it is a smaller cabinet. It’s worse with the length of the cables for the USB ports, though. These are up to three for the three port types. For me, their length is counterproductive, as you either choose to mess with them in the narrower space designed for them or bring them all out the other side, where they would spoil the look of the mounted components.
The cable management space is less than 25 mm deep but only at the deepest point. It’s cut at an angle, so you have to squeeze in a relatively small space along with the cables from the power supply and USB ports.
Two 2.5″ storage units can be attached to the tray via brackets, but they must not exceed eight millimetres in thickness, otherwise they would interfere with the side panel. Alternatively, if they do exceed the thickness, you can place them on the tunnel on the other side of the cabinet. The tunnel is ready for an ATX-format power supply, and just behind it is a drawer with two hybrid positions for 2.5″ or 3.5″ storage. Fortunately, the drawer can be moved, because with the pre-installed placement, my power supply and cables did not fit in the tunnel. At worst, you can take it out of the cabinet completely.
Arranging the cables to fit them all behind the side panel gave me a bit of trouble. But everything worked out well, and although the cabling was slightly obstructing the side panel, there was no sign of the cables bulging it out when closed.
Although the interior looks a bit cramped, stacking the hardware inside the case was easy, mainly due to the removable ceiling which provided a lot more space. The EPS cable for the CPU power supply was easy to plug in as well.
- Contents
- Elegant exterior
- Smaller interior here and there
- Test methodology
- CPU and GPU cooling tests
- Motherboard cooling tests
- SSD cooling test and temperature underneath the ceiling
- Conclusion
Thank you for this helpful review. Would you recommend that I add two more fans to this case, an additional 140mm at the front and another 140mm at the top?
What is the purpose of increasing the number of fans? Do you consider the current cooling performance to be poor (is it not enough to increase the speed?) or do you want to achieve quieter operation by adding more fans? With four fans you will achieve the same air flow naturally at a lower noise level than with only two fans, if you now have two fans running at higher speeds. Although the Dynamic X2 GP-14 has only DC control, its curve as well is actually usually adjustable in motherboard BIOSes.