Fractal Design's Define S2 - An Iteration on Excellence

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enso today we welcome a new member to the defiance series from fractal design the long-awaited define s 2 now the initial define s was released over 3 years ago and was very popular for its open-loop water cooling potential and the s2 I would say is definitely an appropriate iteration with impressive radiator support and reservoir mounting options the define s2 feels eerily similar though to the define r6 which uses the same frame and was released roughly 10 months ago essentially if you were looking to buy the define r6 but you want slightly better open-loop water cooling potential from your case the defined s2 is an appropriate alternative and slightly is an important keyword there because they honestly haven't changed a whole lot here from the define r6 and at 149 US dollars it's priced identically to the r6 so there's no extra to pay which is definitely nice but how different really is the s2 well from the exterior they are actually identical there's no RGB or airflow choking front panel fractal design are refusing to adopt common market trends and instead stand true to those who want a classy streamlined enclosure for their powerful system and for 149 dollars I'd say the design is definitely on point I really loved the professional look of the define r6 and the s2 for that matter it's no different at all on the exterior with a brushed aluminium front panel and flush tempered glass side panel which slides in and locks in via these push pins which are slowly becoming a lot more common both side panels utilize these pushpins and they definitely lock the panels in nice and tight they're secured with two of these thumb screws at the rear but in my opinion these are optional if you're not transporting your case around the result is a flawless surface for the glass without any interruption from side mounted thumb screws definitely a big plus here there's also a decent layer of sound dampening material on the right side panel and also at the front as well this does keep the case very quiet on a subjective note no hard data here unfortunately so you'll just have to take my word for it and here's a look at the s2 next to its little brother the mesh fic and also next to a recent case that we've reviewed on the channel the fantex evolve X the proportions of the s2 are generally quite long as it's not as tall or intimidating as the Evolve x but some of you may prefer that aesthetic the s2 comes in a few different color options including black with white fans black with black fans or white with a black front panel and then my personal favorite gunmetal a beautiful dark grey with a slight metallic finish even the interior of the case and the metal behind the glass panel are matched the same color now it's not until we open up the case and take a look at the interior that the s2 starts to differentiate itself from the r6 and the biggest change is that towards the front of the interior where the additional three and a half inch drive bays would otherwise be there's now a vertical slots for reservoir mounting and the mounting brackets are included in the accessory box up to an e ATX motherboard will fit but do keep in mind it will overlap the rubber grommets so support here isn't exactly perfect before we talk about radiator compatibility let's take a look at what we're working with behind the motherboard trade and despite not offering as many storage options as they define r6 does seeing as that's not the focus here we still have what I believe is sufficient for most users there's three three and a half inch drive cages directly behind the reservoir and pump mounting channels and these are solid looking cages I really appreciate that these antique generic and common ones that were so used to seeing in cases and we also get two two and a half inch drive positions directly behind the motherboard these can also be located on top of the perforated power supply shroud if you wish cable management is average I would say it definitely feels like a step back from the mesh fic which had proper routing depth for the 24 pin cable and here it feels a bit 2016 and a bit bare there's two velcro straps and some zip tie points but that's pretty much it for my test systems I used custom length cables so I didn't have any issues personally but I can't guarantee the same thing for a bulky stock 2014 cable the top panel is completely blocked at the top with no ventilation out of the box but this can be reduced to the completely ventilated panel that sits inside it although it is quite hard to remove also the push button release is definitely a nice touch here and this also secures the top mounted radiator bracket as well there you'll find a position for a fill port for easier maintenance of your custom loop but oddly enough you'll also is feature only define our six vertical GPUs can also be utilized here but no included bracket or riser cable is included however not really worth doing unless your water coin in my opinion 3 140 millimeter fans come pre-installed and they stop out at around 1000 rpm each overall this is fairly sufficient for a stock air-cooled configuration so no complaints here now on to the radiator compatibility which is definitely one of the strong points for the s2 and was for the r6 as well for that matter and I say that because it's identical there's room for up to a 420 millimeter radiator at the top a 360 at the front and up to a 280 at the bottom of the case but keep in mind clearance day is going to be very tight against a full length power supply and cables if you're running a top-mounted 140 to 80 or 420 millimeter radiator you are limited to just 35 millimeter height memory modules so just keep that in mind but clearance for the front mounted radiator is plentiful and really will only be bound by reservoirs that are mounted behind it in terms of system temperatures it was a bit of a mixed bag for our standardized test system which features a risin 5 1600 and a GTX 1060 and the system is in the process of a refresh with higher TDP components to give us a larger range of results so stay tuned for that on the CPU side of things the de finest 2 is looking pretty decent placing just behind the mesh fic and a couple degrees cooler than the fantex evolved X so pretty good airflow here but again we are using a low TDP part with a top-down cooler so keep that in mind GPU temps were definitely on the warm end of the stack though and I'll be enough we're getting similar attempts to the fantex evolved X now a design trait that these two cases share is the fact that the front intake fans are so far away from the GPU and this means that they don't improve thermals a whole lot although that's not to say that the front panel wasn't at least a little bit restricting as we did improve GPU temps by about 2 degrees C by removing it overall that's a pretty good margin so if M was were okay here and for a custom loop things will definitely be ok there as well for air cooling just keep an eye on that GPU and I definitely recommend swapping to some more effective for an intake fans and running them at a higher rpm if possible ok so I have some closing thought here regarding the define s2 and although I've never had lead our six here on the review table from what I've seen online these cases are very very similar and I understand that fractal design doesn't have to bring out a completely new case for the s-series and I do appreciate fractal designs refinement of essentially the same design over the last few years the result here is one of the best-looking enclosures that I've reviewed on the channel with a lot of potential for your system I just don't feel like there's enough there to differentiate it from the r6 personally for example I really would have liked to see a location for a drain port like we saw with the evolve X possibly some cutouts in the power supply shroud for tubing to reach the bottom mounted radiators and features like that at the moment the s2 is basically an r6 with an interior panel for pump and reservoir mounting now although that sounds like a bad thing it really isn't and the reason for that is because the r6 was already a very capable enclosure that I understand would be very difficult to iterate on and honestly as it stands now the define as to is one of the best mid towers that I've seen here so far but still I can't ignore the fact that this conservative iteration on the r6 has taken almost a year and I personally would have liked to see a little more but as always guys I'm interested to hear your thoughts on the s2 down below and whether you think this case differentiates itself enough from the r6 and how it stacks up against something like the evolve X which in my opinion is pretty much one of the best sort of custom loop ATX or e ATX towers that you can get at the moment I will be doing a custom loop in this case very soon pretty much as soon as this video is up so stay tuned for that that's coming out this weekend as always guys a huge thanks for watching subscribe if you haven't already and I will see you all in the next one\n"