Specifications, Availability and Pricing

Since Fractal Design covers the fans first, let's start there. There are two 1200 RPM fans installed inside of the chassis when you get it. There is one in the front delivering the inflow of air to the Define Mini, while the other is in the back working to exhaust the hot air. Besides that pair of fans, Fractal integrates three other locations to place fans as well. One goes in the floor of the case, one can go in the left side panel and one can go in the roof of the Define Mini. Due to the incorporated sound matting and the pair of removable covers, you do need to remove the one from the door and the one out of the roof before placing fans there or even to use them for passive ventilation. The whole design of the front of the case, the way it takes in the air and the padding on the doors, really takes care of internal vibration and fan noises from the users ears.

Inside the chassis you will find room for two 5.25" devices and in the lower bay there is an adapter included for a floppy drive or card reader. Under those you will find six locations to install both 2.5" and 3.5" storage drives broken up into two three drive cages. The top of these cages is removable to allow for longer video cards. The internal layout of the motherboard tray offers room for a Micro-ATX or Mini-ITX motherboard and has a 4+1 expansion slot configuration in the back. The I/O offers things like the power and reset buttons and the LED lighting, but it also offers both USB 2.0 and native USB 3.0, too. And with the front door that covers the front of the Define Mini, you are left with a sleek looking little tower with all the functionality one would desire in a mini-tower design.

The thing that is currently going to be doing the most damage for the Define Mini is the listed prices I am seeing currently. As I looked around the best deal seems to be the listing at Newegg.com for $116.99 and there is $15 shipping to add to that. Essentially you can get the Define R3 mid-tower case for less than this mini-tower and that just doesn't make any sense to me. This is a pretty big thing to over look, but I still plan to bring you my views of what the case offers and see if it is worth your money.

For me I don't have any space issues and I use mostly ATX motherboards, so the Define R3 is the obvious choice for me. I do however understand that space can be at a premium and you may be willing to pay a little extra if the case is a perfect fit to your needs.

Well, if that is what you are in search of, continue on and see what Fractal Design does with the Define Mini.