Fractal Design 7 or 7 XL

[IAmAndre]

Hi,

 

I am offered three cases for about the same price as they are all in the €130-€150 bracket. These are the Fractal Design 7, the Fractal Design 7 TG, and the Fractal Design 7 XL. I don't consider myself a PC building enthusiast, actually I hate building PC's and I'm not particularly great at it, and I almost never open the case once the build is complete. I'm only interested in a case that's easy for maintenance, cable management, and overall building experience.

 

I'm not doing any fancy custom watercooling and I'm using a regular ATX motherboard. However I like the XL variant, just because I think it looks good, but I like the other ones too. My question is whether there is any advantage of buying an XL case for a "regular" build, especially in terms of building experience, silence, and airflow. I currently have a Ryzen 5 2600X (which I'll upgrade next year to a high end Intel or AMD CPU) and a rather beefy RTX 3070 that barely fits in my current case (Aerocool Shard).

 

So which version would you recommend going for?

[Robchil]

2 hours ago, IAmAndre said:

Hi,

 

I am offered three cases for about the same price as they are all in the €130-€150 bracket. These are the Fractal Design 7, the Fractal Design 7 TG, and the Fractal Design 7 XL. I don't consider myself a PC building enthusiast, actually I hate building PC's and I'm not particularly great at it, and I almost never open the case once the build is complete. I'm only interested in a case that's easy for maintenance, cable management, and overall building experience.

 

I'm not doing any fancy custom watercooling and I'm using a regular ATX motherboard. However I like the XL variant, just because I think it looks good, but I like the other ones too. My question is whether there is any advantage of buying an XL case for a "regular" build, especially in terms of building experience, silence, and airflow. I currently have a Ryzen 5 2600X (which I'll upgrade next year to a high end Intel or AMD CPU) and a rather beefy RTX 3070 that barely fits in my current case (Aerocool Shard).

 

So which version would you recommend going for?

unless you need alot of disks in your system. go for the normal version. 

you don't want to showcase a build or inventory so go for solid sides, so NOT Temperd glass version. 

so the normal define 7 .. 

 

I've had the Define R2 XL, and Define R6 TG USBC ..  both great cases.

XL has more space and fits real nice under a desk.. i've used the Define 6 on top of the table. 

 

for a large GPU you can adjust the front part of the case on either normal and XL for more space, by moving it back. You will loose space for 3.5 inch harddisk on the normal one tho, but if you only use 2.5 inch disks if any or just m.2 it's no problem. there should be possible to mount a few 3.5 disks on the backside after you have moved a few panels. look at the pictures on their website. 

 

edit: there is a tray for 2 3.5inch disk at thebottom if you move the front part back flush with the mainboard tray on define 7 so.. it's basicaly just about estetisk for you

[IAmAndre]

1 hour ago, Robchil said:

unless you need alot of disks in your system. go for the normal version. 

you don't want to showcase a build or inventory so go for solid sides, so NOT Temperd glass version. 

so the normal define 7 .. 

I actually have a windowed case currently. I did a pretty good job on the front side with very few cables visible, and some RGB on the motherboard and graphics card, so I'd take the windowed version. However, I was thinking that the XL would be easier to maneuver in terms of cable management and overall convenience since everything is supposedly larger (I have large hands). Does the extra size make a difference on this aspect on is it only for extra drives and watercooling?

[Robchil]

6 hours ago, IAmAndre said:

I actually have a windowed case currently. I did a pretty good job on the front side with very few cables visible, and some RGB on the motherboard and graphics card, so I'd take the windowed version. However, I was thinking that the XL would be easier to maneuver in terms of cable management and overall convenience since everything is supposedly larger (I have large hands). Does the extra size make a difference on this aspect on is it only for extra drives and watercooling?

nice,  well it depends on how you configure it, the XL will have alot more space for a big powersupply at the bottom, altho i have a EVGA 1600W supernova G2 that are HUGE.. 22cm deep and had a 14cm radiator and fan in the bottom of my define with it, if you don't need the 3.5inc drivetrays at the bottom it's alot of space there. There is plenty space behind the mainboard tray too, altho with thick cables i had to cable strategigly to able to close the door on that side. 

[IAmAndre]

1 hour ago, Robchil said:

nice,  well it depends on how you configure it, the XL will have alot more space for a big powersupply at the bottom, altho i have a EVGA 1600W supernova G2 that are HUGE.. 22cm deep and had a 14cm radiator and fan in the bottom of my define with it, if you don't need the 3.5inc drivetrays at the bottom it's alot of space there. There is plenty space behind the mainboard tray too, altho with thick cables i had to cable strategigly to able to close the door on that side. 

That's good to know. I just realized that only the TG variant had a window among the options so I think I'll go for that non-XL case.

[Robchil]

On 1/27/2022 at 2:14 AM, IAmAndre said:

That's good to know. I just realized that only the TG variant had a window among the options so I think I'll go for that non-XL case.

TG is short for Tempered Glass..