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Greetings fellow Hexites,
Time for another Fractal Design review
First up, a big thanks to all at Hexus and Fractal Design for arranging this competition; it’s a really nice gesture towards the community I haven’t dabbled much in new PC hardware in a while, and winning this competition came at a time when I am just getting back into the scene. It was a really pleasant surprise – thank you!
Now, let’s get stuck in shall we…
Define S: Summary
My full case review is going to be fairly detailed, with lots of pictures, so I wanted to put a TL;DR note up front to benefit the time-limited among us!
Pros:
- Layout is amazing; allows for very clean airflow and wire routing
- Nice cable management features (hidden ports, cable ties etc.)
- Versatile options for fans and water cooling
- Can keep the noise down with lots of slow-spinning 140mm fans
- Overall design is classic – monolithic & plain
- Great pricing, especially here in the US ($69.99 at Newegg for windowless version!)
Mehs:
- Case is quite wide (necessary for 140mm fans and hidden drive bays)
- Vented PCI slots not ideal for neutral/negative pressure fan layouts
- Spartan accessory box (no spares)
- USB 3.0 internal connector doesn’t have an adapter for USB 2.0 headers
- Case sides very heavy (structural?)
- Would be nice to have more white highlights to continue the theme (power button? LED?)
- No optical drive bays
- Very large size – space feels wasted if you’re not water-cooling
- Built-in fan hub would be nice
- Despite all the space, cable routing was tricky (especially for HDDs)
Cons:
- Sound dampening material is very thin and hard – questionable effectiveness
- HDD vibration is pretty noticeable, despite the rubber drive tray grommets
- Very flimsy core (lots of chassis flex) without case sides installed - due to lack of HDD cages?
- Plastic cut-outs on top look cheap and rattle - extra gap for dust even when using 140mm fans
- Bottom of case VERY flimsy (see here)
- Front panel cables not hidden very well at top
Aesthetics: 7/10
Features: 8/10
Build Quality: 5/10
Noise: 5/10
Cooling: 10/10
Overall: 70%
Sumanji Bronze Award (70-80%)
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