good people it is here a new compact mid-tower from fractal design the
define 7 compact in short it's the same size as my favorite mid-tower from
Fractal Design the meshify C but with a really distinct and upgraded defined
series look as we have all the new upgrades that came with the bigger
Define 7 and as the name suggests it's just a smaller Define 7 the TG models
are $10 more bringing this to one hundred and nine dollars which is kind
of pricey versus similar size mid towers like the be quiet 500 DX that is $99 the
Meshify C is $89 the H510 from NZXT is $69 bucks and the Phanteks P360X is $79
and they all share that compact mid tower space meaning it's not as tall or
as long as other big mid towers for example here it is next to the 500DX
from be quiet which is another a nice compact mid Tower or Corsair One on the
left for size reference and here's a better view on what this compact
revision really means next to a much larger define 7 I will say that my
experience with the Meshify 2 years ago was fantastic and unfortunately it is
not entirely reflected with the Define 7 compact and also for air flow reasons
I did not agree with the default fan configuration but more on that later
let's begin the analysis right after this course there dark core RGB pro is a
mouse for every type of gamer with 50 million braided armor on switches
lighting blink 2 side grips for better comfort a type-c connector with 50 hour
battery life and a three-way operation mode with course there's a slipstream
hyper fast wireless technology check it out below alright so the first thing I
want to get out of the way is just how familiar everything feels like the
brushed aluminum front panel that you need to clean if a finger Grace's its
surface I guess this is a Define series after all so it's not a plastic
look-alike the side ventilation has expanded with removable dust filters
that are easy to take off and install back and the same goes for the bottom
the stoughton that spends the entire bottom and since there are no 5 in the
quarter inch drive base the panel doesn't need to swivel like a door so
it's just secured with plastic pegs and behind it you can do triple
20s or dual 140mm fan configurations with 360 and 280 rats supported I'm
really happy to see they've improved the removable cover system on the shroud so
they're just plastic and bend out of the case giving you either 7 centimeters or
almost 15 centimeters when the covers are removed and you're going to need to
slide the cage back if you want space for push pull in here included fans are
140 at the front at 1,000 rpm and the 120 for the rear at 1200 rpm the top
frame is fully modular just like with the defined 7 all tooless panels and a
cool looking dust filter that absolutely clashes with the ventilation pattern on
the mesh top panel I simply do not understand this design mess but at least
if you are using any fans up top or radiator it is a good value add now the
fan bracket in my opinion here is best-in-class secured with two side
crews and the whole bracket just simply lifts up making installations super easy
and given the short nature of the frame only dual fans are compatible with
clearance for only a 240 radiator the AO is the same as on the defined seven with
five years reports - which are USB - 2 USB 3 and the inclusion of a USB type-c
gen 2 is fantastic to see what I have here is a tinted tgd side panel which
has a beautiful full blackout look and the new tooless mechanism that sits on
pegs now unfortunately as I've discovered during my assembly procedure
there's no way to actually secure either side panel to the frame itself so if
your cables for example are chunky and you don't spend time cleaning up the
rear to be as flat as possible the panel simply will not stay closed now what I
find really strange is that we have these metal pegs on each side panel that
go inside the frame and they appear to be almost supposed to be attached to
something on the case itself but there is nothing on the case to actually hold
a screw you could still insert a screw in there that will prevent the panel
from flying open but this method is not intentional as the front panel bumps
into whatever screw you have in there and therefore isn't flush against the
frame and by the way this whole back portion is well designed for cable
management with good spacing and velcro straps but it's the thumb screws on the
drive caddies that completely mess everything
as cables from the power supply must pass through this section in order to
reach the opening in the front and given that all solid panels have noise
dampening foam it further reduces the usable space behind them on the board
and lastly the interior is nice and compact for a simple ATX setup with a
ventilated PSU shroud and easy to access PCI covers but unfortunately like my
usual refinement that I get with defined cases isn't here for one all the
thumbscrews in here are insanely tight number two some motherboards standoff
threading was bad and number three that power white LED you can actually see
here because it's kind of deep has a yellowish tint which is just unpleasant
I understand that these are minor complaints but normally with the defined
case everything is smooth and feels highly polished but not on the sample
everything and so let's finish the review with some airflow testing in my
temperature controlled environment and what we have here is a severely
restricted front intake as we've dropped 11 degrees Celsius on the CPU when I
remove that front panel I then swapped out the top panel for a ventilated one
just to see what happens and that gave us actually better CPU temperature with
a degree hotter GPU and again removing a front panel here proves how little air
is getting through I then repositioned the front fan to intake up top in front
of the CPU cooler and that didn't really help versus having the fan up front and
finally I move the fan to the back in the exhaust orientation and that gave us
the coolest CPU temperature when the front panel is installed so if we sort
this from best to worst I would highly recommend you move that front fan to the
top exhaust as this is the most appropriate fan setup for my style of
system and just for a quick comparison versus the airflow focus be quiet 500DX
you can see how the defined seven compact can be competitive as long as
you move the fan and use the mesh panel up top
alright so that is the defined seven compact really nothing special aside
from that modular top section and really if you wanted a smaller defined seven
this is literally it but I am not happy with how the drive cages thumbscrews
interfere with cable management this is something that I did not experience with
the bigger defined seven because it is slightly wider or the Meshify C because
the drive was actually slightly further back and
the thumbscrews were not there I don't like that there's no way to secure the
side panels in case Kol management does start to interfere in the back and it's
also more expensive versus similar sized compact mid towers that I mentioned in
beginning of the video that is it let me know what you think of this enclosure
I've done more cool air flow testing inside the be quiet 500 DX make sure to
check out that video subscribe more I'll talk to you in next video