Fractal Design Define S2 Vision RGB Case Review

Intro

One thing every computer needs is a case, well if you want it to look nice and function properly with airflow.  A good case has good cooling, enough space and compartments to suit everyone’s needs.  Everyone now a days makes a case but it seems that many don’t learn from their mistakes and keep building upon their prior mistakes without taking note on what the community, their customers say.

Today we will be taking a look at Fractal’s Designs Define S2 Vision RGB.  This company touts working with the community, but do they really?  Do they really listen to what we have to say about their products?  We will find out here in my review of the Fractal Design Define S2 Vision RGB FD-CA-DEF-S2V-RGB-BKO-TGD.

Let’s go over the features and specifications first, then we can take a look at the case and dive deep into it.

Features and Specifications

• Motherboard Support: ATX, Micro ATX, Mini ITX and eATX (up to 285mm wide)
• Case Dimensions: Length: 543mm, Width: 233mm, Height: 465mm
• Dark Tinted Tempered Glass Left, right, Top and Front Panel
  • Top converts between TG Cover and Filtered ventilation
• 7 Expansion Slots
  • +2 Vertical Slots (Support for Flex VRC-25 sold Separately)
• Front Connections
  • 1 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C
  • 2 x USB 3.0
  • 2 x USB 2.0
  • 1 x 3.5mm Headphone Jack
  • 1 x 3.5mm Microphone Jack
• Drive Bays:
  • 3 x Universal 3.5”/2.5 drive mounts
  • 2 x 2.5” (Behind motherboard Tray)
• Includes 2 Velcro Strips
• Cable Routing Grommets
• 23mm of cable routing space

Fan Mount Locations and Sizes

• Up to 9 Total Fan Mounts
• Front: 3 x 120mm or 140mm
  • Includes 3 x Fractal Design Prisma AL-14 ARGB PWM Fans
• Top: 3 x 120mm or 3 x 140
• Rear: 1 x 120mm or 140mm (140mm Fractal Design Prisma AL-14 ARGB PWM Fan included)
• Bottom: 2 x 120mm or 140mm
• Includes Four Prisma AL-14 PWM Addressable RGB Fans
• Includes Prisma AR-4020 ARGB magnetic LED strips
• Adjustable R1 RGB controller included compatible with Asus Aura, gigabyte Fusion, MSI Mystic Light and Asrock Polychrome

Radiator Support

• Front: 120, 140, 240, 280, 360mm
• Top: 120, 140, 240, 280mm, 360mm max 35mm MB Component height
• Rear: 120mm
• Bottom: 120, 140, 240, 280mm
• Nylon Mesh Easy Clean Filters with 2 times the airflow vs plastic filters
  • • Bottom Filter with full PSU coverage
    • Convenient Front Filter Access
    • Top Panel (if you chose the Filtered vs TG cover)
• Max CPU Cooler Height: 185mm (6.89-inches)
• GPU Support: Up to 440mm
• PSU max Length: 300mm
• Nexus 9P fan hub controls up to nine PWM devices
• Dedicated Fill Port
• Adjustable pump/reservoir brackets
• Ventilated PSU shroud with removable front cover and additional pump/reservoir/SSD mounting positions
• 33 x Vibration damped 3.5 HDD mounts
• Included 3way SATA power extension cables
• High-Density Industrial noise dampening on the side, top and front panels
• Cable Routing Space: 23mm (1 inch between motherboard tray and side panel)

Wow, a ton of features and options here, but how does it look?

Let’s check out the unboxing.

With that out of the way, let’s take a look at what comes in the box of the Fractal Design Define S2 Vision RGB.

Inside of the top panel box, is this little white box that contains a bunch of accessories, let’s go through them.

Here is what we will be going over since black and white images don’t tell the entire story:

13 x Motherboard screws and reservoir screws.

4 x reservoir brackets.

20 x HDD Screws.

4 x zip ties, they call them cable ties.  These are the thinner ones

4 x side panel screws or thumb screws, but you don’t need them and we will get into this in a bit.

12 x HDD dampeners, because if you have or had hard drives, the mechanical ones, you know they can get loud.

12 x SSD screws.

A match made in heaven here too, a motherboard stand-off on the left and on the right and a stand-off tool.  The stand-off tool, while not new, is one of the best tools to have.  It comes in very handy and I use it in the build video you will see a little later in the review.  It is used to help screw in the stand-off onto your motherboard tray.

Just a pic of the stand off screw in the stand-off tool.  You can see on the other side that it is fitted for a Philips head screw driver.

4 x power supply screws.

A Fractal Design branded cloth to wipe down your case to make it look nice and pretty after a build.  It’s sexy I know and it will help keep your case nice and sexy too.

SATA cable extenders, of which they call just plain SATA cables.  These come in handy for many things.

They call this little guy, an Adjust R1 and this is great.  I will get into this a little later on in the review.

A Define S2 Vision Users Guide, but everything inside of it we will cover here, so I got you covered.

Last but not least, the Attention sheet that discusses what you should do in the event that there is an issue with something in the box.

So that is all that is included, though I know it’s a lot of things, now we need to go over the case itself.  Let’s do that now in my next chapter Case Layout and Details.

Continue to: Case Layout and Details