Fractal Design Vector RS

Compromises and direction.

It seems we’re long past the days of Fractal’s iconic Define series. With the launch of its Vector RS chassis, it’s left a lot of questions among the tech community as to where the company is heading. Compared to the prestigious Meshify and Define R6 cases, the Vector RS is somewhat lacking. Both the quality of the materials and the design decisions fail to keep up with modern expectations, and those failings don’t help justify that $300 price tag.

Yet before we consign this to the sin bin, let’s look at what it is, exactly, that’s grinding our gears.

At first glance, and on Fractal’s website, the Vector seems to be a stylish chassis. Its clean sharp lines convey a sense of modernity, following in the footsteps of the dramatic Meshify series. Its angular roof, solid front panel, and melding of tempered glass, RGB, and metal bring it to life in a way that, from the site at least, give it some serious character. In real life, however, things are not so good. The black glass is prone to fingerprints, the angular roof less than desirable, and the standard painted steel that lines everything else attracts every mark going, and is something we’re more used to seeing in the sub-$200 market. Some may find it stunning, but it’s just not that appealing to us especially with the likes of the Phanteks Evolv X and NZXT H710i costing around the same.

Then there’s the airflow. To be fair, the front of the chassis has a good half inch of ventilation running down either side, but there’s not a whole lot front or top. In its default configuration, you get just two 140mm fans, the same ones found in the Define R5 and R6, and that’s about it. The roof panel is also a solid tempered glass affair, but Fractal does include a replacement mesh option with additional mounting for a top radiator, too.

The interior layout is as strong as we saw in the

Define R6, which launched in late 2017. Mostly because it’s identical. For those keen on 3.5-inch hard drives, this supports up to 11, with six included, all mounted in the front of the chassis; the drives and caddie are removable to allow for better airflow or liquidcooling support. But bear in mind that if you do take that route, there’s no obvious way of hiding the cables from the front I/O and any fans behind it, once the towering HDD structure is gone.

You also get two 2.5-inch hard drive mounts on the back of the motherboard tray, a full-length PSU cover, plenty of rubber cable grommets, and mounting locations for a vertical GPU (for which you need to buy a separate adapter).

Once you’re past the poor quality materials and aging interior design, and have circumvented the airflow issue with some powerful static pressure optimised fans, the Vector RS is quite pleasant to build in. We didn’t find any major foibles outside of having to rigorously cable-manage our front fans.

The thing is, the Vector RS is just a two-year-old case design with some new panels and RGB thrown on top, and that’s not good enough. You can pick up a Define R6 for around $200 now, so you’re paying $100 more for some angular external panels. This might have been fine back in 2017, but when you have the likes of the H710i, Evolv X, Lian Li PC011-Dynamic, Silent Base 801, Enthoo Luxe II, and H510 Elite all nipping around the same if not lower price point, it makes the Vector RS feel utterly lackluster. Unless you absolutely need 11 3.5-inch drives, the Vector RS is one to be missed.

Verdict

Strong internal layout; poor default airflow; pricey; two-year-old internal design.