Setup and Installation

When the Define Mini came in I was preparing for LanOC V9.0 and was not really looking forward to packing up my full sized rig to drag it to the event. I decided that this would be a good chance to put together a powerful PC in the Define Mini that could also be quiet. Here is out part listing.

Fractal Define Mini

Corsair HX620 Watt PSU

Nvidia GTX 560 Ti

Corsair H50 Water cooling

OCZ Fatality DDR3 Dual Channel RAM

Intel i7 2600 Sandy Bridge CPU

Intel DH67BL Motherboard

Western Digital Velociraptor 300Gb HD for games

Mushkin SSD for OS

To get started I pulled the hard drive trays out and installed both of our drives. With the velociraptor we mounted the drive using the included rubber mounts to keep vibration and noise down. With the SSD on the other hand, there isn’t a similar option. So it is mounted directly to the tray. Not that we have to worry about vibration from an SSD, but it would be nice for people using laptop platter drives.

Image 16

Installing the motherboard was simple. But first we had to install the motherboard standoffs and the rear I/O panel. With them installed I went ahead and secured the H50 mount loosely and installed the motherboard. Once installed, I removed the stock fan from the H50 and attached the H50 to the rear fan included with the Define Mini. Mounting the pump/heatsink of the H50 was easy with the radiator mounted. Of course before that I did drop in our i7 2600 CPU with a little thermal paste.

Before installing the video card I went ahead and started on wiring by installing the Corsair HX620 PSU. Routing all of the cables through the bottom hole was easy with the PSU’s thin cabling. I was able to hide everything behind the motherboard tray and keep everything cleaned up and free for good air flow. Sadly this is the only time it can be seen with no side panel window.

Before buttoning everything up I finished the build off by installing the Nvidia GTX560 Ti. Even though this is a powerful card, I didn’t even have to remove the second hard drive cage for extra room. Unless you plan on packing in a GTX 580 or 590 you shouldn’t have to move anything around.

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garfi3ld's Avatar
garfi3ld replied the topic: #20696 03 Nov 2011 18:53
Forgot to post here yesterday when we posted this :)
Wingless92's Avatar
Wingless92 replied the topic: #20704 03 Nov 2011 21:14
Small cases have a soft spot in my heart. Loved this case when I saw it at CES and it continues to offer great spec's for a low cost of entry.
Hasbeen's Avatar
Hasbeen replied the topic: #20718 04 Nov 2011 07:47
I have to admit it is a nice case, but I think I'd prefer its cousin the Arc Mini. It is the door that does it for me, I just don't like them. The rest of the case seems fairly similar to the arc mini so that would be my choice. Great review though and still a good case to have.

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