Fractal Design Vector RS

[Darksaber]

Fractal Design is making several bold changes with the new Vector RS mid-tower case. Unlike previous products, Fractal is diverging from their symmetric, understated look by including RGB elements in the core design of the Vector RS.

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[Raendor]

Another atx case. Don’t they have enough of those already? How about a 202 successor or at least an mITX tower to beat NZXT h200? Not even talking about something really more innovating.

 

[GlacierNine]

Hi,

So several things:

1 - I still want to see temperature and noise testing in case reviews, thanks

2 - @Darksaber are you not being rather too free-and-easy with the awards these days? In the space of reviewing the last 15 cases you've covered, only 2 cases you've reviewed, didn't receive an award - those being the InWin A1 and the Corsair iCUE 220T.

In fact, you've given away more awards than there were cases you actually reviewed:

7x Highly Recommended
4x Great Value
6x Editors Choice
3x Innovation

That's 20 awards for 15 cases.

3 - You've also given 3 Innovation awards away within those 15 cases, but two of those 3 Innovation awards were to minor revisions of cases that you've actually reviewed before - the O11 Dynamic and the Dark Base Pro 900. How can these cases be considered innovative?

Also, @Mussels 3 case reviews ago I asked if you could provide a method by which we can actually give feedback on reviews that might actually be read or receive a comment back from someone - can you please provide an answer?

 

[Chaitanya]

I would much rather wait for Gamersnexus review for thermals and noise performance of this interesting case.

 

[Flying Fish]

You've made a couple mistakes with the specs on the first page

You've listed it as having 2x USB 2.0 (it doesnt have any) and you've said it has 3 3.5" internal drive bays when it looks like there's 6....

Sorry, i'll go hide now

(aside from that it's just another R6 case so other than the different top and front panels...and RGB strip...there isn't much to talk about :| probably cools like a define S2 with storage like an R6 minus ODD)

 

[FreedomEclipse]

I would much rather wait for Gamersnexus review for thermals and noise performance of this interesting case.

Here you go -- I think the big letters tell most of the story.

Fractal Vector RS Review Disappointing Thermals

 

[Chaitanya]

Here you go -- I think the big letters tell most of the story.

Fractal Vector RS Review Disappointing Thermals

Yikes, only looks oriented and worth skipping if cooling is of any priority.

 

[djisas]

It won't even fit my HDD's inside...

 

[Turmania]

Testing thermals and acoustics of a case, is rather a dull and taxing experience for the reviewer himself and given number of manufacturers sending cases to TPU to be reviewed is alarmingly high(we wonder why?) I think we will start to see 420mm all in one liquid solutions pretty soon given where we are going with increases in CPU and GPU power consumption.

 

[GlacierNine]

Testing thermals and acoustics of a case, is rather a dull and taxing experience for the reviewer himself and given number of manufacturers sending cases to TPU to be reviewed is alarmingly high(we wonder why?) I think we will start to see 420mm all in one liquid solutions pretty soon given where we are going with increases in CPU and GPU power consumption.

It really isn't. the standard we are asking for makes it a case of *maybe* 15 minutes of "hands-on" time to run the tests and plot the results. If you knew any scripting you could automate the entire process, set it, forget it and come back in 2 hours to a complete batch of data.

Please stop making out like temperature testing is hard to do - at a high accuracy yes it is. But it is *trivial* to get a reasonable level of repeatability using nothing more than an air conditioned room, a standard set of test hardware, and free tools.

 

[Turmania]

Would be lovely to get meshify nano dark tg version perfect competitor for H200/210 and a good market for Fractal to explore.but Node 202 on the other hand is almost as perfect as it is.rgb on it would look out of place considering what it is meant for. Cooling options are already top of its class. Maybe increase the height a bit to fit more CPU cooler options? I don't know, I like it the way it is now.

It really isn't. the standard we are asking for makes it a case of *maybe* 15 minutes of "hands-on" time to run the tests and plot the results. If you knew any scripting you could automate the entire process, set it, forget it and come back in 2 hours to a complete batch of data.

Please stop making out like temperature testing is hard to do - at a high accuracy yes it is. But it is *trivial* to get a reasonable level of repeatability using nothing more than an air conditioned room, a standard set of test hardware, and free tools.

You misread or understood what I tried to say there perhaps I was vague on my wordings. I completely agree with you on thermals and acoustic testing and it should be done. The reviews here on cases is more like "UNBOXING".

 

[erocker]

Finally a case my cat will hate to lay on!!!

 

[Raendor]

Would be lovely to get meshify nano dark tg version perfect competitor for H200/210 and a good market for Fractal to explore.but Node 202 on the other hand is almost as perfect as it is.rgb on it would look out of place considering what it is meant for. Cooling options are already top of its class. Maybe increase the height a bit to fit more CPU cooler options? I don't know, I like it the way it is now.


You misread or understood what I tried to say there perhaps I was vague on my wordings. I completely agree with you on thermals and acoustic testing and it should be done. The reviews here on cases is more like "UNBOXING".

I sent them so many times over twitter and official site that meshify nano as direct h200 competitor is overdue. Surprised how they completely ignore a rather popular niche so far.

 

[kmetek]

looks bad, nothing new really.

 

[Ruru]

Another atx case. Don’t they have enough of those already? How about a 202 successor or at least an mITX tower to beat NZXT h200? Not even talking about something really more innovating.

We ATX users are and will be the majority.

Doesn't look bad, in fact it's nice to see something else from Fractal than the usual clean Define look.

 

[Minus Infinity]

I'll stick to Define S2 or R6. Only 2 USB ports on front sucks, also don't like the design. Change for change's sake, brings nothing new to the table.

 

[Ruru]

I'll stick to Define S2 or R6. Only 2 USB ports on front sucks, also don't like the design. Change for change's sake, brings nothing new to the table.

Yeah, S2 would be my weapon of choice since it has a good watercooling support.

 

[Mussels]

No mention of that awesome vent at the very top rear that lets air out of a very common dead spot, without needing a completely open top?

 

[PLAfiller]

I thought it was something from Silverstone from cover picture alone. Turns out FD. Looks good, but doesn't excite me. Last serial production case made have a second look was CM SL600M with that 200mm bottom fan.

 

[Chomiq]

I thought it was something from Silverstone from cover picture alone. Turns out FD. Looks good, but doesn't excite me. Last serial production case made have a second look was CM SL600M with that 200mm bottom fan.

Yeah it sort of looks like a refreshed PM01, with much worse airflow. Them shiny plastics though, sure they look god in pictures, but they're damn fingerprint magnets.

 

[Franzen4Real]

Would be lovely to get meshify nano dark tg version perfect competitor for H200/210 and a good market for Fractal to explore.

That is exactly what I have been holding off a new build for. I even thought of going with the m-ATX Meshify, but I'm pretty well set on going smaller. There isn't an ITX case that I feel is a must buy at the moment, so I've been hoping for an ITX Meshify while waiting for someone else to release a 'cant-live-without-it' case.

 

[GlacierNine]

No mention of that awesome vent at the very top rear that lets air out of a very common dead spot, without needing a completely open top?

Mentioning cooling features might invite comments asking about the effectiveness of those features, so coverage of such things is often omitted in Darksaber's articles.

 

[Vlada011]

This is maybe nicest Fractal Design case. Only aluminum play minor role here.
Aluminum should left impression when you hold him and hand. Mid tower case and you turn him with hands like empty box of sneakers.
Mid tower case for E-ATX or even SSI-EEB motherboard, 6-7-8kg...
But tights, precise build, smooth surface like coca-cola can... tempered glass influence on weight of full aluminum cases more then anything else.

And you see how designers left people without more options.
2 slots for vertical GPU Mount. Why can't be 4 slots. Then customer could install thicker GPU sometimes with 3 slots and could install Sound card behind GPU.
Only case should arrive with this... and people don't need to abandon dedicate sound card because vertical GPU Mount.
Every motherboard arrive with PCI-E x1/x4 slots on different place and with this extension and 4 slot people could use vertical GPU and sound card behind.

None of manufacturers didn't thought Hey what will happen with Sound Blaster? Asus Xonar? People need to sell them to use Vertical GPU?

 

[GlacierNine]

This is maybe nicest Fractal Design case. Only aluminum play minor role here.
Aluminum should left impression when you hold him and hand. Mid tower case and you turn him with hands like empty box of sneakers.
Mid tower case for E-ATX or even SSI-EEB motherboard, 6-7-8kg...
But tights, precise build, smooth surface like coca-cola can... tempered glass influence on weight of full aluminum cases more then anything else.

And you see how designers left people without more options.
2 slots for vertical GPU Mount. Why can't be 4 slots. Then customer could install thicker GPU sometimes with 3 slots and could install Sound card behind GPU.
Only case should arrive with this... and people don't need to abandon dedicate sound card because vertical GPU Mount.
Every motherboard arrive with PCI-E x1/x4 slots on different place and with this extension and 4 slot people could use vertical GPU and sound card behind.



None of manufacturers didn't thought Hey what will happen with Sound Blaster? Asus Xonar? People need to sell them to use Vertical GPU?

1 - Because that would make the cases wider.
2 - Because putting an air-cooled card in a vertical GPU mount chokes off airflow and makes the card overheat.
3 - Because thanks to point #2, vertical mounts are best used with watercooled video cards, which are single slot by default.
4 - Because very few people are using internal soundcards these days. USB DACs are much more popular with the Hi-Fi crowd, and onboard audio is more than enough for basically everyone else.