Excellent Design: Fractal North Case Review & Benchmarks

Our review of the Fractal North looks at build quality, thermal performance, cable management, and features of the new Fractal case. The Fractal North follows-up Fractal's Pop Air, which we liked, and its Torrent, which we recommended as the best case when it launched. The company is most directly competing with Lian Li and its Lancool 216 right now, with other options primarily being the Corsair 4000D Airflow.



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TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - Fractal North Case Review
02:28 - Fractal's Lineup
04:46 - Back to the North
09:47 - Fan Bracket Problems
11:16 - GPU Size Support
14:15 - Dust Filters & Included Fans
16:05 - Cable Management & Fan Controller
17:02 - Fan Layout & Radiator Mounts
17:50 - Thermal & Noise Benchmarks
19:50 - Thermals of Various Fractal Cases
20:30 - Competitive Case Thermals
21:17 - CPU-Only Blender & Standardized Fan Tests
22:04 - Case Noise & Noise-Normalized Thermals
23:11 - Value & Alternatives

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Host, Test Lead: Steve Burke
Writing, Testing: Patrick Lathan
Video: Vitalii Makhnovets

[Lishtenbird]

I really love that case design is finally catching up with the clean, natural material aesthetic that's been around for a while in the desk setup department. Plastic has many benefits, sure, but it's often hard to treat it as a piece of more modern, solid interiors.

[tihruytssgjjvsavcxtbvhj]

In 20 years of building PCs I've NEVER seen a case that I wanted. Until this one.

I bought it on launch day. It's awesome.

[EvanOfTheDarkness]

6:14 - "It's a case made of cardboard. They claim it decomposes, we asked for one, so we could burry it in the yard and test it, and then they took back their offer and didn't send it..." - That made my day 🤣

[praxisrebourne]

Finally, we are getting polished and sleek designs in the industry. Angles, RGB and color accents are cool too, but felt like the PC gamers market been missing the other part too.

[MrAston]

This case seems to do great with a vertical GPU mount. Several people who tested it on this case show a 5-9 degree decrease when mounting the gpu vertically. Also, this solves the side bracket for extra fans problem! Having fans blowing right on the GPU only showed a 1-2 degree decrease however, I expected it to be higher. Building in this case with this setup in beginning of march once the case arrives, I'll update you :)

[timgrelka]

I don’t usually write comments, but this case really got my attention. My home office / desk is in my living room, where I am quite conscious about design choices and really picky with furniture. My desk has been kind of an eyesore (at least to me) for a long time. I try to keep it minimalist and clean, and this case (especially in the white variant) fits right in along my other furniture, which makes me quite excited about a new PC build. It’s overdue by now, though I’m still waiting on new and viable video card options (I don’t game too much, but sometimes still want to). I will probably choose this case for that build - thanks to your review, I feel like this will be a good choice! Excellent combination of both design and function. Thank you for the work you do, keeping us consumers informed with a factual basis. I believe you have very well-earned high trust throughout the community, but definitely from me.

[prierec]

Always wanted a case with nice minimalist wood accents, and fractal definitely didn't disappoint here!

[KCVitamins]

Really agree with the verdict that fractal has found a good balance here. I'm not looking for that gaudy gamer look and this hits a good balance between reasonable thermals, acceptable looks and not asking an obtuse price for it. Would be sweet to have more cases like this to have some options but as is this is highly likely the case I'll choose for my next build later this year.

[alexbisgounis]

I was watching the hardware news last night and I thought to myself "I hope they do a case review soon". You guys are the best

[DotNET]

Steve I am a critic turned fan of yours. When I first watched one of your videos I thought you were just being too critical and nitpicking everything. I was ignorant to what you were actually doing. You hold companies accountable for their often times misleading and misbranded products which forces them to evolve into better companies and interaction with their base customers. You are fighting for people who would not be able to get the results you do as we aren’t big enough to matter in these companies eyes calling out their BS on a larger platform where everyone can see. Thank you so much for what you do for all of us.

[davidbrennan]

I bought a Fractal Torrent based on the review on this channel and it is the best case I have ever owned by far. My temps dropped a lot going from a cheap mid tower case to this one. My wife even likes to clean this one because it is so easy.

[lamakicker]

I got lucky and was able to buy it the 1 day it came back in stock, absolutely love the look of it. Best way I heard someone describe it is that it’s a case that I wouldn’t be embarrassed to have in my living room. It’s a sleek looking case that isn’t so “in your face” like so many other cases.

[mightylink]

Fractal has very quickly become one of my favorite brands, I tried the Focus G Mini and s24 aio and the build quality was top notch for the price and included lots of additional screws and zip ties that could of been used on a whole second build. I also really loved that every bay was removable giving you much more airflow. Very customizable cases for a cheap price.

[ikkeheltvanlig]

Fractal North going for Nordic Minimalist. Love it. As a Scandinavian I think they've really nailed the design language (in stark contrast to all the examples shown of other cases implementing wood). As a first version they did awesome, think that will sell like hot chocolate in a blizzard over here.

[advfix]

Of all the cases manufacturers I love Fractal the the most. They seem to be the only one that looks like is playing around with design and pulling it of making very functional cases.

[goldenfalcon]

I would LOVE an mATX or at least Compact version of the North like Fractal has done with their other cases. Keep up the good work Fractal, and as always great review from GN!

[Just_a_commenter]

Not gonna lie, the first time I saw this case, I thought it was strikingly similar to an open breifcase filled with manilla folders... And I think I liked it more because of that. That aside, it's definitely a stylish case!

Edit: jeez, the NSFW bots are out in force today. Please, don't engage with them, folks.

[Vivi-tzrl]

I got this case last week, and here are a few comparisons to my experience vs this review;

- Cable management sucks in the event you have anything that you want to route through the top. There is only one hole near the rear to route things, and getting an AIO and three fans routed through it is a nightmare.
-The top mount was actively bending as I was screwing the AIO rad in. There were no clearance issues, but it's as if the top is slanted towards the front.
-As mentioned, the rear is super fragile. It was bent almost immediately to the point where the IO shield wouldn't actually contact the board. It can be bend back, but be careful.
-My unit did not have a fan hub included.
-The second HDD tray should honestly be removed from the start, otherwise standard modular PSUs will have a hard time without bending the motherboard cables at a weird angle.

Overall though, it does look pretty sick.

[CapnSnackbeard]

We are entering an exciting era in cases: good looking and functional.

[DrewbehHD]

the side-fan bracket seems like it would be a really good idea if this case had a vertical-gpu mounting option similar to the lian li o11 d mini vertical gpu bracket (to bring fresh air from the side panel straight to the gpu intake fans). it's an aesthetically pleasing enough case to consider modifying it for this, too.