Fractal Design Define 7 Mini: Even the soundproof case now smaller

SSD cooling test and temperature underneath the ceiling

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.

Basic parameters

Elegant exterior

In the cardboard box you will find accessories in the form of screws, single-use cable ties, a tempered glass cleaning cloth as well as a perforated top panel of the cabinet. This is a signal that you will be able to customize the cabinet, as is also the case with the larger case versions.

At first glance, the case is robust, even though it is small and compact. The tempered glass is 2.9 mm thick, just like the more expensive Meshify 2. You will appreciate the retained latching mechanism on both side panels. This is really useful for quick manipulation inside the case. Simply pull at the back and the side panel is in your hands. I even feel like it holds tighter than other Fractal Design cases that have passed through our hands.

The front panel is brushed aluminium, giving the Define 7 series its typical premium look. It can be easily snapped out of the structure for easier fan handling and cleaning. Air intake is through the sides of the panel. The dust protection here is a little weaker though. There are removable grilles on the sides that are easy to clean but the perforation of the grilles is on the larger side. The center of the panel is filled with foam, which should dampen the noise coming out of the cabinet. The same foam is also placed on the right side panel.

Behind the panel you have one 140 mm fan from the Dynamic X2 GP-14 series for the intake. This is the 3-pin version (i.e. with DC control only). If you’d like to add another 140 mm, you have room for one more or they can be replaced with three 120 mm fans. Alternatively, the case can accommodate a water cooling radiator up to 280 mm in size with a maximum width of 146 mm on the intake.

The trend with the latest cases (Meshify 2 Lite and Pop Air) from FD has been that you have to buy the USB Type-C port separately. Fortunately, the Define 7 Mini has avoided this, so you get up to five USB ports, one of which is Type-C. That’s already a decent amount of connectors. Another part of the front I/O panel is the large round on/off button. The responsiveness of the button is great. There are two 3.5mm jacks for headphones and a microphone. I often got the reboot button confused with the adjacent jack, as it is harder to palpate without sight.

The top panel can be swapped out for a perforated version from the accessories if you prefer. The only caveat is that you have to remove the front panel to swap out the top one. This will subsequently make cleaning the filter under the ceiling more difficult. The latter is also just slid onto the structure. What I have to praise is that the entire replacement process is tool-less.

Even though the ceiling has to be unscrewed, I don’t see it as a bad thing. It has to be firmly anchored to the structure so that it does not transmit vibrations when it is possible to place two 120/140 mm fans or even a water cooling radiator up to 240 mm on it. When installing, I definitely recommend putting the ceiling down even if you don’t plan to put anything on it. This will open up the space inside the case and also give you more freedom to handle the hardware.

With the smaller case, the back also comes with fewer covers for PCI Express expansion cards, specifically four. Everything else on the back has remained the same. A slot for the motherboard I/O panel, next to it the 120 mm fan exhaust, and a hole at the bottom with a frame for mounting the PSU.

Four feet with non-slip pads on the underside of the case hold it in place. I’m probably most surprised that there is no fine dust filter to protect the inside of the case and the power supply itself from dust either. The dust grille is held firmly in the grooves, even being quite difficult to remove even though it has a handle. I always had to lift the case up for a better grip.

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.

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.

Test methodology

A 140 mm Dynamic X2 GP-14 fan is placed on the intake to provide cool air. This one is a breakthrough after a long time, where after multiple cases with large perforations in the front, the vents are limited to just the right and left side of the front panel. The exhaust also houses a Dynamic series fan but in a 120 mm version. Since a perforated top panel is also included, we used that for testing. I myself am curious to see how the smaller Define 7 Mini case handles cooling components despite the smaller number of fans and less perforations on the front.

For testing purposes, we always leave the fans in their original positions.

Testing is done in a home environment where I strive for the most accurate results possible. In the room during testing, the air temperature in front of the case is 23 degrees Celsius and the minimum noise level I can measure with the Voltcraft SL-100 noise meter is 32.4 dBA. The sensor of the noise meter is aligned to the center of the top of the case at a distance of 10 cm, for the best measurement of the speed difference of the fans, which I change using the motherboard. For easy comparison to other cases, they are always regulated to fixed noise levels.

Individual components are heated for 10 minutes in FurMark synthetic stress tests and with Prime95 (custom settings) at the same time. This time is long enough to allow all components to warm up sufficiently. There are then 15-minute cooling breaks between tests, during which the component temperatures (and the case air temperature as well) are brought back to default.

Modes noise levels:

• 36 dBA
• 38 dBA
• 39 dBA

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.

CPU and GPU cooling tests

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.

Motherboard cooling tests

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.

SSD cooling test

Temperatures underneath the ceiling

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.

Conclusion

Even though there are only two fans in the case, it can effectively cool even powerful components. For the processor and graphics card, the case was not embarrassed “temperature-wise” even compared to larger cases with more fans and perforated front panel. Only the cooling around the socket is a bit weaker, the temperature of MOSFETs is higher and only Deepcool Macube 110 achieves worse results from the cases tested so far..

The design of the case is both robust and attractive to look at, thanks to the brushed aluminium front panel. There are also plenty of connectors, with up to five USB ports on top, including one Type-C port. There’s also the benefit of a fully removable ceiling to make it easier to mount your hardware into the case. The only drawback I see is the lack of fine mesh dust filters. Even if they weren’t on the intake, at least they could have been used on the bottom of the case.

Hardware installation went smoothly except for the long cables from the USB ports. Since there are three of them and their length is longer than necessary, you have to fiddle with them when organizing the cabling. There is a tray space on the left side that you can probably get by with, but working with cable management will require more time.

The recommended retail price from the manufacturer should be 130 euros, which is an adequate amount for the quality and design of the case. However, as we know, the price can go up a bit more in stores. But we will only find out at the end of August, because the container intended for the Slovak and Czech markets will be delayed.

Even though the Define 7 Mini has smaller dimensions, it owes nothing to its name and the quality of the design does not disappoint, rather it exceeded my expectations. Although it is not the best in cooling, it can cool even more powerful hardware to an excellent temperature, which earns it the “Approved” award.

English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš

• 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