Fractal Design North Review | PCMag

Wood accents aren’t new to the PC industry, but they’re so rarely used that they look fresh. The wood slats on Fractal Design’s new North series ($129 for the wood-faced model we tested) stand out from the competition, adding a touch of luxury to a mundane product class. Previous trendsetters included a brushed aluminum finish and tempered glass side panels, but will other companies copy the design theme? We hope so, but for now. , North is a solid tower almost in a class of its own. When most of what you see on your PC is the front, it’s hard to find a more prominent and classy panel to reveal to the world.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

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Design: Wood Eye Ever!

Speaking of themes, the North is available in black with gold and walnut trim, as well as white with silver and oak trim. Gold (or silver) trim is applied to the power button, headphone and microphone jacks, Type A (Gen 1) and Type-C (Gen 2) USB 3.x ports, as well as bands around the legs . Available in both color themes, buyers can choose between a mesh or tempered glass panel on the left.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Dust filters are only available on the front and bottom panels. The latter is a slide-out filter that covers the air intake of the power supply. The dual 140mm intake fans hidden behind the front panel tend to push air in, so this could be adequate filtration for most builds. out of other holes in the case.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Zooming out from the power filter reveals a rear panel with a detachable power bracket, seven card expansion card holes created without separators to allow vertical card brackets to be supported instead, and a length to allow vertical space A 120mm fan mount with holes appears for adjustment, and a fabric pull tab to help builders remove the top panel cover. Also note the six unused mounting holes on the far end. We will discuss this in a few paragraphs.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

The front panel dust filter can be removed from the back of the face panel. The face panel itself can be removed from the rest of the case by pulling outwards on the bottom edge.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

The right side panel is a regular painted sheet, while the left panel comes in both tempered glass and mesh facing variations. The mesh part is reinforced as shown in the photo.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

It looks like this when the cover of the top panel is removed. There are no filters, but many people who use fan mounts may configure their fans as exhaust.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Underneath the cover are mounts large enough to fit two 120mm or two 140mm fans of the builder’s choice. The additional slots that appear to hold the fan don’t seem to be aligned with familiar fan sizes.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Behind the painted steel right panel is a power tunnel with dual 2.5″ drive trays, a passive 4-fan PWM power hub, recessed cable loops, and two 3.5″ drive trays. A box for the included hardware kit is included in one of the 3.5″ bays and all additional mounting holes in the enlarged section allow one of the trays to be slid forward in 1.5″ increments . The length of the power supply may be limited to just 165 mm or extended up to 280 mm depending on the number of trays installed and their placement.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

An additional hole at the bottom of the 3.5″ drive tray also ensures compatibility with 2.5″ drives.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

The power tunnel is cut in the front to support radiators up to 1.5 inches thick. This explains why the front drive trays can be moved back 1.5 inches (after removing the rear drive trays). I like to mount a so-called 360mm radiator on the front.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

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Building with Fractal Design North

One of the 3.5-inch drive trays includes a hardware kit with 8 #6-32 shoulder screws and rubber grommets for anti-vibration mounting of 3.5-inch drives, and 8 #6-32 panhead screws for motherboard attachment. Includes pack of 1 (1 standoff). has key pins instead of screw holes), 16 M3 screws to secure 2.5″ drives, 4 #6-32 hex/Phillips combo head screws to secure power supplies, extra standoffs , and four ratcheting cable ties. The instruction manual is packed separately on the outside of the case.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Front panel cables include power switch lead, power LED, HD audio (for headphone and mic jacks), Gen 1 cable for two Type-A ports, Gen 2 cable for single Type-C USB 3.x It is included. port. Shown to the left of these are the passive fan hub and the two front fan leads. more fan. Fan hubs have no power source other than the fan headers on the motherboard, so builders should consider the power rating of the fan headers before connecting everything through the hub.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Remember I mentioned the six unused holes in the back panel? These are designed to hold accessory fan mounts in one of three positions (top/middle/bottom) behind the mesh side panels. Designed. The basket part is only deep enough to hold regular (about 25mm thick) 140mm and 120mm fans.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Components offered specifically for these case reviews include Corsair’s iCue H100i RGB Pro XT all-in-one CPU cooler and FSP’s Dagger Pro 850W power supply. The cooler’s dual 120mm fans are most often the best choice for top panel placement. This allows airflow around the motherboard’s CPU voltage regulator. Meanwhile, the Dagger Pro’s SFX housing, PS2 adapter plate, and medium-length power cable combination fits in both compact and full-size cases.

The North manual we received doesn’t mention top mounting the liquid cooling radiator, but it does leave 1.25″ of space above the board and almost 1.5″ horizontally from the board for a 120mm fan mount. Inch away, this opportunity could not be passed up. Use a cooler to ventilate the board. If there wasn’t enough space here, I’d probably mount the same cooler, with the same exhaust direction, on the highest mounting point of the optional side fan bracket.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Another thing I’ve noticed is that Asus’ full ATX (9.6 inch deep) motherboard fits perfectly 1.25 inches behind the inward-slanted cable routing holes. This means that past oversized (10.6 to 10.8 inch) enthusiast motherboards will fit, even if this case doesn’t have the Enhanced ATX (EATX) label.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

The North has no lighting features other than a glowing red power-on indicator next to the USB port on the top panel, but the illuminated internal components are easily visible through the mesh side panels or the front filter sheet visible between the wooden grill pieces. A tempered glass version is available for builders who want a clearer view of the internal components to others.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

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Fractal Design North Test: Pretty Good Wood

Some devices round the data to the nearest integer before it is graphed, so rounding issues can cause two identical results to appear one time apart. Fractal Design North appears to have the coolest CPU temperatures, but I recalled that he might actually be lining up for #1 because the air is slightly cooler.

A difference of about 3 degrees is not very fuzzy. Fractal Design North cools the motherboard’s voltage regulators better than any case in this comparison set.

Remember what we said about the slight chill in the air? North seems to be the second worst in delivering chill to the graphics card, but if it weren’t for the possibility of rounding errors, It could have actually ended up being the worst Thai ever.

Faced with the question of how to get both best-in-class voltage regulators and second-lowest GPU temperatures in a case, North’s factory front fan placement is right above the power tunnel. and determined that it is best suited for GPUs. cooling. I don’t like unanswered questions, but when one test point shows clearly good performance and another shows simply acceptable performance, why should I torture myself further?

A tempered glass panel similar to the competitor’s is also available, but the North version we’re testing has a mesh left side that leaks noise in as easily as air. Sounds equally noisy.

The mesh version is a bit noisy from one side, and we didn’t get a chance to test the tempered glass version, but when you compare the lower CPU and chipset temperatures to normal levels, the North is a solid performer. Noise emitted from the other side.

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Verdict: We say “Timmmm…ber!”

Ignoring the front, the North is a fairly typical modern PC case, whether it’s a mesh or glass side panel variant. The other accents are nice, but it’s the wood slats that make this case stand out. Performance is generally comparable, except for the GPU thermal tests we did. But that may be overkill in cases like this. Aesthetics are the real selling point.

The combination of connectors and internal features puts the North firmly in the $120 price class, leaving buyers to decide if the $129 MSRP is worth the extra $10 for the walnut or oak trim. Become.it definitely gets our vote. To see off the last pun, why don’t you try it too?