This case got Wood... and airflow! The Fractal North Ultimate Case Review

[@davyrando1203]

My personal rig was built in this case. I absolutely love it. This is the case for the person who has wood furniture in their gaming room. For the person who buys Noctua fans BECAUSE they are brown. For the person who uses a leather "manager" chair as the gaming chair. For the person who begrudgingly bought an RGB keyboard, but exclusively uses white light purely for the utility of the backlight. For the person who has a potted plant that is actually still alive after three months. For the person who buys things not to impress random people on the internet, but purely for themselves. This is the anti-RGB case. (Personally, I also feel like this case is going to age very gracefully and not look tacky or dated as quickly as other cases.)

[@JamieR]

It looks beautiful with muted static RGBS though. GearSeekers did a few builds in it, and the one in black TG with gold theme looks stunning.

[@crathob]

For the man who they call: The most interesting man in the world

[@professornuub]

@@JamieR Agreed, I've got some light strips in my case to highlight the internals and it couldn't look better.

[@HalcyonDaze33]

This case will be in my next build. Finally a case I won’t mind staring at on my desk for the next 5 years!

[@JoeyFucktwice]

How can this channel only have 18800 subs? Everything about this channel screams 1 million subs or more. The production value is through the roof!

[@zhengjingjiejie]

It blends in with my furniture🎉, doesn't stand out too much in my living room like other pc cases. 😊

[@slowlymakingsmoke]

I just built my first PC after 15 years in laptop land and got the Chalk white mesh case. All I can say is I am in love. Just love the simple clean lines. I quite liked your simple RGB on the exhaust fan. Might steal that idea.

[@Steve-i1q]

how well can you see any white lights through the mesh? I kind of want a cooler that reads the temps with the mesh case but idk maybe the TG

[@janosmaiden8219]

I bought one today, it arrives in middle of May so yes they are hard to get a hold of. But I love the look of it!

[@I3urton]

Huh, I bought one a week ago and it arrived two days later. I even got it at a discount! Sad it takes so long to get to you, but imho it's a beautiful case and it's a joy to build in! You can be excited for it :)

[@vencler]

Mesh panel is a dream for overclocking. With waterblocks, you don't need space either for gpu or cpu, and with sidepanel fans, especially blowing at ram/ssd, you get better temps. So there are little to no compromises, while you get lots of benefits.

[@tomr3319]

Installed an EK-Nucleus AIO CR240 Dark on the top to cool my i7-13700k no issues, super happy with it. Also installed a RTX 4080 FE with the case side fans (*mesh chalk white case) brilliant build. No RGB

[@tonac13]

Bought it the day it was released in december ❤ and love it ❤

[@jaspardark7938]

I had planned to make a monster in a white Y60 from Hyte - but finding white hardware is not easy and I didn't want to be constricted by color - actually decided to scrap the project when I fell over this case. This case in black with the walnut is just too perfect - my work room has sound dampening with walnut wood on the walls :D Gonna make it like this: CPU and cooler: 7800X3D with Noctua U-12A Chromax MOBO: ASUS ProArt B650-CREATOR RAM: 32 GB G.Skill Ripjaw 5600 CL36 2x16 GB ( will upgrade later to 64 gb ) GPU: 6800XT Merc from XFC 16 GB - I would love somthing more in theme - but I AM constrained by money haha... COOLING: 6 Noctua 120 mm Fans ( 3 front 2 top and 1 back ) POWER: be Quiet Straight Power platinum 11 - 750 W ( draw is about 580 w according to PCpartpicker ) Going with tempered glas - I think the mesh is cool but as the system seems really good airflow-cooling-wise I just don't see the need for the mesh sides.

[@Drewboy22]

I love that case with the walnut! I would love one!

[@juniorthomas6404]

Reminds me of a case for architects or people who does designing.

[@zhengjingjiejie]

Agree! It'll look good in their office, for work and gaming.❤

[@Benagins1]

Do* designing.

[@Rayu25Demon]

The case is not for kids

[@HughesEnterprises]

This case got me to build a PC after living with a pre-built since 2015. I7 12700k, 4070 Super FE, 64GB DDR5, 2 TB NVME, 16TB HDD. Should last another 10 years of CAD design and occasional gaming! Probably swap to a I9 14700K and 50/6090 and 128GB RAM when they get cheap in 5-10 years.

[@renelackner3081]

@Robeytech I am late to the party, but my guess, regarding the sidemounted fans are that they are there for topmounted AIO-s. Since the largest AIO you can mount is a 240mm. The sidemounted fans could assist getting fresh air to the smaller loop, keeping it cooler and/or running at a lower RPM.

[@stephenwoodard7756]

Quite obvious; vertical mount the gpu, put the sled in line with it and intake air through the mesh side panel to give it more air.

[@Luke_4044]

this case looks isanely good

[@Tgaddy314]

i could imagine vertical mounting the GPU with the mesh siding would make the side fans make more sense... you aren't choking off airflow and even helping disperse heat from the case

[@rkbearthegolden]

Hey Robey, I recently purchased this case. I attempted to front mount a 360 aio, but I didn’t have the clearance paired with a 4080. I went with top mount 240 aio, and I have dominator ram sticks. I agree with you that it was a pain fishing all my cables through that one top hole was the most time consuming part. I pre-routed cables through and plugged into mobo before aio installation. I planned on installing side mount with two 140 fans. Due to the size of the gpu, I was limited to mounting side bracket at top position. I couldn’t give up rear exhaust fan. I have the mesh version

[@brandonking1680]

So you were able to get dominator ram and 240 aio on top? Aaking for a friend before they pull the trigger.

[@slaiff.]

​@@brandonking1680ik your comment was a month ago, but I just built mine yesterday and I could not fit my 240mm aio and Corsair RGB vengeance ram, so most likely, no.

[@slaiff.]

I had to front mount

[@brandonking1680]

@@slaiff. Still haven't pulled yet, appreciate the reply... What's your aio?

[@slaiff.]

ofc, glad to help. It's a Corsair h105 extreme, I'm using Corsair LL120 fans as well.

[@epicmike3915]

Over 3 months and you can't buy it. Fractal sucks at supplying this case to the people.

[@TomasRamoska]

Mine arriving tomorrow after 1.5 months of pre-order

[@Ruiso7]

I hope they make an XL version of it.

[@khosrow]

Your prayers have been answered!

[@Bari_Khan_CEng_CMarEng]

This guy is funny, nice review, subscribed. Background music is a bit annoying after a while, makes it hard to concentrate on the verbal/speech.

[@passionsydney]

thank you so much for this vid - the insight betweeen air vs liquid cooling with the mesh being 1 degree celsius just goes to how awesome the airflow architecture is

[@eetohi]

started building in the case on 08/12. its now 08/24 and i still havent finished it. its my first pc build. ran into a few problems (wires and bios update needed) and im not going to lie idk what to say. the case is beautiful but the build experience isnt the best for a first timer like me.

[@CertifiedGameDev]

Anyone have experience with the mesh version of this case for dust control? Better to just go with glass panel if you live in dusty area?

[@HalcyonDaze33]

I own a super dusty timber frame log home and was thinking glass panel for the same reason.

[@KTamas27]

So you said it can fit the Corsair shift PSUs? Do you think it could fit 6x2.5 ssds, put on top of each other with double taped thermal pads in the place of the 2x3 6 brackets? Also do you think i can fit the MSI liqued 4090 with 4xphanteks t30 fans 2 on both sides, and with lower clearance ram, 41.2 Kingston ddr5 6000mhz cl32 64gbx2 128gb ram? And also can i fit 3x phaanteks t30 30mm fans in the front instead of the factory 25mm thick fans? May plan is to put a 360 38mm thick rad behind it with also 3x 120 phaanteks t30 30mm fans behind it. Because of the liqued i should have clearance issue , i think though as i checked the liqued also around 30 centimeters long so I don't know , but it looks to have a huge cutout in the front for extra thick aios with fans at the PSU side. What do you think? Please help 😅😊❤

[@CheeseDoodle]

Thanks for the video! I'm struggling between mesh and tempered glass for a 4080. I want as low noise as possible, so I'm leaning towards glass to isolate noise and create a stable airflow. However, I imagine the GPU might get better cooling with the mesh and therefore it doesn't spin as fast, thus making less noise. Any thoughts on this and what might be the quieter option?

[@klm2fm4]

From what I’ve seen from other reviews, you can’t really fit any side fans with a 40 series, and you don’t gain any significant cooling with the mesh no fan versus the glass Edit, I think it was a gamers nexus review

[@MHAAAAANZ]

Did you make the build? Does it fit a 4080 with a 360 radiator?

[@stevevlahos1]

Love the black case with the walnut. I have 4 3.5” drives that need to fit. 🤔

[@TomasRamoska]

My case in white mesh arriving tomorrow. NZXT H5 going back to Amazon 😅

[@jdijkstra8115]

Are the 2 fans in it enough for a build if your 2070s has goof fans, the PS has a fan and my cpu air-cooler? I forgot to order extra fans 😭

[@brandonpare2349]

Is it possible to vertical mount a 4090 FE and use an phantom spirit air cooler at the same time?

[@lolboy-642]

how noisy is it?

[@bobyaheadtothis2567]

Could this fit an Asus Rog Strix 4090 OC and an Asus Rog Strix B670E-E?????

[@nadtz]

As a torrent owner I wish the north was a little bigger but considering you can't actually get one of these right now it's a moot point.

[@itspappy]

I want to switch out my fractal torrent for this

[@edmac1090]

I love the look of this case, but I’m on the Torrent- a case so good I may not buy a new case for my next build.

[@philmarion9170]

guess I'll just saw up some broken hockey stick shafts and DIY my own

[@MissMan666]

actually the glass panel causes slightly better airflow

[@Physics072]

Wow you must be a crazy storage guy to want 3.5" High capacity drives. Hmm Videos are larger not smaller now. 20TB enterprise drives very useful.

[@fullblastman]

18.5" +feet high is not a small case in 2023!

[@miniblasan5717]

Fractal Design North is more or less made for only air cooling for an Intel i5 13th Gen and very minimal RGB preferably no RGB at all with fans in the front and top.

[@QuietOC]

ATX really doesn't make any sense. GPUs should use the same cooling as CPUs.

[@Physics072]

I regret buying the North. It has to be the worst case in 30 years for 3.5" drives. Its a mess underneath all the cables from the power supply mixing in the drive bay area poor ventilation with no exit path. The drives mount so low you can't get a SATA power plug on them and the right angle plugs are backwards. You could mount the drive upside down but then the clearance of the front fans leads to easily damaging the pcp board of the HD on the corner of the steel fan mount. Also the right angle SATA plugs will not work unless you purchase left (reverse) right angle sata cables. You can mount the drive higher making it easier to plug in the power and sata but then the drive will not clear the fan mount. which means you can't mount 2 drives side by side. Mounting a drive upside down puts it so close to the power supplies cables. So 1 3.5" works but ended up using a straight sata cable and bent enough to get the rear door on. I don't think they ever tested it with 3.5" drives in it with all the cables hooked up, if they did they would have adjusted some things for clearances. I give it a F on 3.5+ bays. Its got a wood front and some of the wood is not even finished they missed the finish on the sides of some, poor quality control on that. It was made for looks more than function. Its not quite either the mesh does not block sounds. Its not cooler than my other case. The side fan bracket is useless if you have a tall heat sink.

[@exveee2995]

First

[@Drewkungfoo]

Nobody cares

[@Luke_4044]

@@Drewkungfoo well i certainly do!