Introduction

In the computer industry, cases are a rather hit and miss affair. With some monstrosities such as the forthcoming Thermaltake Ten to the elegant Lian Li cases, we have seen computer chassis come and go.

Remember the days when computer cases were a drab off-white colour and full of razor sharp edges?  In those days building a computer was considered baptism by fire!  The nearest a consumer could get to an elegant case was from Apple and these had the resemblance of boiled sweets  In today’s  world we  see many types of computer enclosures and in many interesting shapes. To add another factor into this ‘whirlpool’ of chassis configurations; we now have the consumers themselves making their own cases!

Company Background

Fractal Design was founded in Sweden in the year 2007 by a Mr Hannes Wallin! They first entered the Scandinavian Market in 2007 and two years later they had explored additional markets in Europe; namely Germany, France, Switzerland and the UK amongst others.  They also have recently signed a contract with their new distributor in Australia.  In addition, during the second Quarter of 2010 they will enter the North American market!

Their goal is to be widely recognized for a high end level of design and products.  Fractal is putting great effort into choosing the right partners in each region, and their strategy is to work with a good structure of selected distribution partners and retail/e-tailers!

One of the core ideas of Fractal Design is to provide products with an extraordinary design level. The principles of their products have been stylish, simplistic and clean; which they prefer to call the Scandinavian design! Their ethos is to produce products that incorporate the above, but without compromising quality, functionality and pricing.

Packaging, and Specifications

The Box

The Fractal-design box deos look to be the very essence of professional packaging! With its carbon-black looks and minimalist styling it indeed catches the eye; less is truly more! The description on the box mentions that this is the ‘Black Pearl Edition’, it would be interesting to judge if this case is indeed a pearl or a black coloured rock? Let us move on and find out.

Specifications

The Recommended retail price of this chassis is around £79.99 and offers fair specifications for its price.

• Eight 3,5 inch HDD trays, compatible with Solid State Drives.
• Two 5,25 inch bays, with 1x 5,25>3,5 inch converter included !
• On top of front panel: two USB 2.0,
• eSATA and Audio I/O
• No Power Supply Unit included (removable filter below PSU)
• Motherboard compatibility: Mini ITX, Micro ATX and ATX .
• Seven expansion slots; with sleek white painted brackets .
• Supports graphic card lengths up to circa 290mm and CPU coolers with height of maximum circa 165mm
• Supports PSUs with a depth of maximum circa 170mm, when using bottom 120/140mm fan location. When not using the bottom 120/140mm fan location, the case supports also longer PSUs, typically 200-220mm.
• Case size (WxHxD): 207.40x440x521.2mm
• Net weight: 12.50kg

(http://www.fractal-design.com/?view=product&category=2&prod=32 accessed 26/02/2010)

It is interesting to note that the above specifications do not include a removable motherboard tray feature!

As is usually the case (pardon the pun) the inner packaging was made from foam inserts and a polyurethane bag in order to protect the product itself. After earnestly stripping off the inner packaging; this reviewer experienced a wonderful sight! No we are not talking about a beautiful red-haired woman (unfortunately) but rather the Fractal chassis itself!

The Case Exterior

This Fractal chassis sports clean lines down the sides and the front of the case. Rather than being fancy to the point of gaudy (like a lot of other cases) this chassis was a wonder to behold indeed; due to it’s less is more approach. Other cases (especially such as Airocool) will aim to dazzle you with lights and fancy fan controllers.  Fractal has chosen to ignore  these solutions and aim for a more simple approach.

The rear of the case has four holes that are designed for the inlet and outlet water cooling tubes to pass through. In addition we also have a rear120mm exhaust fan included with this case.  Although the fan is of an unknown quality at this point; Fractal has chosen to braid the three pin wire! This is always a good sign of things to come.

Moving onto the power supply mounting area; it is of interest to note that the PSU can be mounted in both orientations; which allows the consumer to have that little bit of extra freedom while planning the layout of their system build.  This reviewer is finding the PCI plates in addition to the fan, a stark contrast to the overall scheme, and is appreciative of this aspect.

Moving to the base of the case, we can see a 140mm fan mounting hole and where the power supply unit would be place underneath. It is of interest to note that they have included a removeable filter for this area to trap any potential dust particles. Having this filter aids in prolonging the life of a power supply or the units fan!

The top panel of the chassis sports a rather interesting design as the grills at the top can accommodate both a 120 and a 140mm fan! This again will allow any air cooling enthusiast the ability to choose a solution that best suits their needs. The grill will flex a little when touched as the aluminium panel is only 1mm thick. Having said this, the grill panels need to be as thin as possible in order to cut down the amount of noise made by passing air.

Even viewed from the exterior the fan holes have been covered by a plate. Could this be the much  vaunted ‘moduvent  as displayed upon the fractal website? Well we shall move on and see in due course.

At the side of the case near the front door is a series of notches, one is unsure if they perform any function, but it does add a certain amount of ambience to the chassis.

Next we come to the front of the case. Normally this reviewer does not like doors on a case; as they are more of a hindrence than a help!  This case has not changed the aforementioned statement; however it does help to give the chassis a clean and smooth look.

This then leads us to the front or rather the top panel, where the input ports are located.  In addition to the power switch, there are two USB 2.0 ports,  one E-Sata port, and audio  I/O jacks. What is apparent is that this section simply blends in with the overall case and does not stick out like Simon Cowell in a heavy-metal concert. Almost straight away one will notice the absence of a reset switch! However this is not needed, as borne out in the past with the rather excellent Lian LI V2000 case.

There is also a lack of a Hard Drive LED feature again this could be overlooked. However there is one issue that does concern this reviewer. There is no rubber covers placed upon the External SATA and USB ports.  Dust covers would be a good feature here as they would prevent the possibility of dust build up inside the aforementioned ports.  This would be more of a crucial issue should the case be placed on the floor. If the ports where mounted at the front of the chassis then this would not be an issue.

Opening the front door we discover that the inside has received a foam-backing plate. This is in order to ensure that sound leakage is minimized from the fans. Whilst the front door is made from a polymer substance (at Overclockerstech we shy away from the word plastic, as that is a property not a material!).  The door, with its magnets, does open and shut with a smooth and solid feel.  Once the door is opened we come to the front of the case.

The door hinges do feel solid, however the door does not open at a wide enough angle for this reviewers liking.  The door’s swing limit is shown on the image above.  While it does allow access to all aspects of the front of the chassis,  it does not open as wide as one would have liked.

The  case only features two 5.25 bays, the reason for this is now apparent as the front of the case houses two 120mm fans (one included). These fans have their own access doors and the consumer can simply press these doors inward until an audible click  is heard, at which time fans are uncovered.

What is apparent are the dust filters, which are screwed down to the housings. One simply requires a screwdriver to remove the filters for washing and replacing.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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!

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.

Summary and Conclusion

This is a computer case that is pleasing to the eye; in addition to being able to tick all the correct boxes!  For this products price point, the design is excellent, with its clean lines and smooth finish! The ability to mount extra fans at the top by means of the ‘Moduvent’ and even a 140mm cooler on the floor of the case is a great bonus. However this is by no means where this story ends. To quote a famous line from Winston Churchill that would compliment the sheer amount of ideas crammed into this case:

This is not the end,
Nor is it the Beginning of the end.
But it is perhaps the end of the beginning!

The reason for this quote is not only because you can fit so many fans in this case, but the consumer also has the option of installing plates (which are covered with bitumen) in order to sound proof the case. The same idea has also been extended to the side panels; albeit with mixed results!

The top panel is a work of understated elegance; indeed this statement could be extended through out the rest of the case. The only small issue one finds is with the top USB/Fire wire ports is that they should have grommets covering them in order to prevent dust build up inside these ports, thus ruining the effect of the top panel! Another is the incorrect placement of the top hole in the motherboard tray, which allows routing for the eight-pin EPS lead!

The amount of hard drive bays is also a nice stroke, with their ability to mount either a traditional or a Solid State Drives.

Going back to the side panels, this is a major issue for this reviewer.  The side the panels feel nice and solid and give a nice ‘thunk’ when screwed back into position, the  included bitumen panel coverings that prevent sound leakage are another good aspect!  However, here lies the problem with this case.  In some instances (not all) the bitumen coverings were starting to peel around the edges and were not stuck down flat, this review sample indeed had this issue!  It was left to this reviewer to smooth out the coverings by hand! A stronger glue to take the weight of this covering should be applied in order to remedy this situation!

It is with relief that Fractual-Design has gone with a matt-black effect with this case rather than a polished look, as this helps it to create the understated elegant appearance that was described earlier.  Another important aspect to this case is that the finish is of high quality and is resistant to light scratches and knocks. In addition, unlike the more ‘flashy’ of cases, it is not a ‘fingerprint magnet’ and should retain its look for a long time indeed.  For a recommend retail price of £79.99  a lot of thought has gone into this case. It is also fair to say that even at this price the retailers are making a healthy margin.

A note to make is that this case has clearly been designed for air cooling enthusiasts.  There is a slight nod towards the water cooling side of things also; with two inlet and two outlet holes at the rear of the case. This then leads to a possible future ‘higher specification’ chassis.

If there was as little as another six or seven centimetres clearance between the top of the motherboard tray and where the top panel fan ports are placed then a Internal Thermochill/XSPC 120.2/240MM radiator could be placed there.

Lastly the front door once again is a work of elegance, with too small doors placed on the front panel. Each of these spaces can contain a 120mm fan-complete with a dust filter!

At he risk of repeating oneself, the price of £79.99 really does set the standard for this case and indeed helps it to stand out amongst its peers!

Conclusion

This chassis-given its price point has set a new standard in this reviewers opinion! Yes there are some aspects that could be improved; as shown in the summary. However there are a few down sides to this case (again as shown) and this forces this reviewer to choose between a gold and a silver award. However the price-point of this case, does indeed win out and as such this case is awarded the coveted gold awardand scores a 9/10!  The design and price of this case should force other manufacturers to step-up their game.  This chassis is indeed a black pearl amongst the rest.

Pros:

• Elegance, Elegance and….Elegance!
• External Water Cooling friendly.
• Removable drive bays.
• CPU insepection hole , allowing the HSF removal without removing the motherboard!
• Colour Scheme and finish.
• Size.
• Quality (except side panel coverings)
• Moduvent Idea.
• Top panel power switch.
• Bundled fans are near silent.
• Front inner doors for the 120mm fans.
• PRICE PRICE and PRICE!

Cons:

• Not internal water cooling friendly.
• Non removable motherboard tray, however it is offset somewhat by the CPU inspection hole.
• No rubber grommets to cover the top panel USB ports.

Best Price £79.99 from Overclockers.co.uk

Author: Gilgamesh