Case Interior

At last we come to the section that bares great significance; the inside of the chassis! To access this, two black thumbscrews for each panel are provided; which when removed allow the panels to be pushed off!

Side Panel Thumb Screws

The panels themselves feel very solid and they do have a nice finish. The powder coating on these panels is of good quality though the coating does tend to be a finger-print magnet! Having said this, it is much better than the Mountain Mods (Mirror Black Finish) for showing fingerprints.

In the centre of the side panel, we see a fan grill that is designed to accommodate both the 120 and 140mm fan types. Just like the top panel this is also covered with a plate to prevent sound leakage, when a fan has not been utilised in this area.

Side Panel

Turning over the side panel tells us a totally new story.  To help keep the case as sound proof as possible Fractal have chosen to cover the inner part of the side panel with a bitumen covering. Though this does help to sound proof the case, there is a minor issue. The glue that holds the covering onto the side panel is not quite strong enough. This results in the cover peeling at the edges although this might not happen in all cases. Furthermore, the covering itself is not stamped down in a uniform manner; giving the bitumen a slight swimming pool effect.

Side Panel Reverse Showing Bitumen Covering

What is interesting is that even the fan grill plates have the same covering as the side panel, however this part seems to be stamped down flat. With the rest of the panels, pressing down hard with the hand made the covering more uniform.

With the side panels off, we can reveal the Fractal ‘Black Pearl’ in all its majesty.

Front angle

Panels Removed Angle Two

Upon looking at the interior of the case it bores a passing resemblance of a Coolermaster Married to an Antec P182 chassis!  This is due to the type of drive bays used and indeed the colour of them. The white does off set the black wonderfully and lends the case a striking look, rather than being gaudy!

Case Interior

The first impressions of this case are excellent with its cable management (which is self-evident) and the CPU inspection hole. The CPU inspection hole allows a system builder to install/uninstall a large heatsink or waterblock’s backing plate without having to remove the motherboard.  However  if a large Power supply unit is used, I.E one with a large cooling fan then this could and would cover up one of the cable management grommets in addition to the extra 140mm fan mounting at the floor of the case.

Internal PSU and 140mm Mounting Space

A large PSU will cover up the Grommit on the Left

Next we move to the hard drive bays themselves.  The drive bays can support either Solid State or a traditional hard drisk drives, allowing for a total of eight drives to be installed.  If the consumer has a motherboard or controller card allowing that many drives, the ability to do so is there.

Hard Disk Bays

Drive Bays Angle Two

Drive Bays Close Up

We now move on to the motherboard tray and the cable management system, can this case compete with the myriad amount of other enclosures out there in the cable management department?  Well ,to quote a line from Shakespeare Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war!

The motherboard mounting tray is a rigid and solid affair, but alas it is not removable.  In this day and age a removable motherboard tray really does come in handy.  Normally this would be a major issue! However to make up for this, Fractal have chosen to  implement a CPU inspection hole on the motherboard tray.  As mentioned earlier, this allows people to change a large heatsink or water block without removing the motherboard from the case.

CPU Inspection Hole

The cable management options in this chassis are as comprehensive as most, although this reviewer did have one or two issues!  When routing the twenty four pin ATX power lead through the system, it was a struggle, this resulted in the grommets being pushed out until the cable was fully installed.  The grommets where then installed back to their original places.  The cable management holes could have been made a little longer to better accommodate this issue. The last issue is a major one as it relates to the eight-pin EPS lead from the power supply.  If we feed the eight-pin lead through the cable management system, then indeed the lead is far too short.  The top hole for the cable management is out of position and should be placed where the eight pin EPS connector normally lies at the top edge of the system board, right next to the IO shield. Fractal should look into including a small Eight-Pin EPS Extension cable.

Lower Cable Managment

Upper Cable System

Motherboard Mounting holes

Motherboard Tray area

The USB, Power On, Power LED and external SATA leads have been firmly installed  and have been braided to a high standard.

Internal Interface Leads

The feet of the case are solid and they have been screwed into the case, rather than glued or rivited on.

Case Feet

Earlier in this reivew, you may recall mentioning  the top panel fans grils and that they were coverered with plates and indeed these plates also have a bitumen covering!

Internal Plates Covering the Top Panel Fan Grills

Lastly the case comes with a number of accesories which include a fan controller. It is worth noting that all the included screws are black, the motherboard mounting legs are the standard brass colour.