Eyes On with Fractal Designs Core X3 Series

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Hot on the heels of its value-priced Core X5 series, Fractal Design launched its Core X3 at Computex Taipei. We wanted to get a look at these cases so we paid Fractal a little visit at Computex in Taipei.

These cases boast an even lower cost than the X5s. The catch is that you'll give up the fan controller. That's probably not even a factor in the decisions of builders who use motherboard-integrated temperature-based fan control, so $10 saved becomes $10 earned. Included are the $60 Core 3300 oversized ATX mid-tower, $50 Core 2300 standard ATX mid-tower, and $40 Core 1300 Micro-ATX mid-tower. Each are made of the same thin steel as most other mainstream cases, and all have a brushed-finish plastic face panel that simulates the appearance of anodized aluminum.

Among Fractal Design's major selling points is that these reduced-price units carry the same drive cages as their pricier siblings.

The top panel features offset fan mounts to provide motherboard-to-radiator clearance for compact liquid-based CPU coolers, and the widest Core 3300 can even fit a gigantic 185 mm tall air-based CPU cooler if desired. Full specs are available today on Fractal's website for each of these new models.

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Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.
8 Comments Comment from the forums
  • thundervore
    Maybe I am blind but I cannot see the difference between their current cases and these new cases. It looks exactly the same to me, even the layout.
    Reply
  • ubercake
    I agree with thundervore. I'm not seeing a whole lot of innovation here.
    Reply
  • Crashman
    13433487 said:
    I agree with thundervore. I'm not seeing a whole lot of innovation here.
    I think a lot of viewers didn't read the part about these having no fan controller and being $10 cheaper. There is no innovation award for cost-cutting.

    Reply
  • Johan Kryger Haglert
    What a joke Fractal Designs is.

    The Core 1300 is about three times too big to be called extremely compact. Half volume and it may be something you could say but it's huge as (or bigger than) many regular ATX cases.
    Reply
  • Johan Kryger Haglert
    Core 1100 not much smaller. Sure these have support for ODD drives and there's benefits for that and credits for that if you need/want them but at ~50-60 liter you could get room for more and it's not compact even less so extremely compact.
    Reply
  • That_Guy88
    Fractal why you no refresh define series?
    Reply
  • dark_knight33
    I purchased one of the X5 cases from a local retailer, got it home and assembled it. The side panel was tweaked like a cookie sheet that got too hot, and would not fit correctly. I took it back and assuming it was a one-ff defect, exchanged it for another. Took that one out of the box outside the store, same problem. Took that back and looked at 3 other units in the store, all had the same defect. Cost cutting is all well and good until your case is so cheap it doesn't fit together right. That's a problem.
    Reply
  • Crashman
    13461433 said:
    I purchased one of the X5 cases from a local retailer, got it home and assembled it. The side panel was tweaked like a cookie sheet that got too hot, and would not fit correctly. I took it back and assuming it was a one-ff defect, exchanged it for another. Took that one out of the box outside the store, same problem. Took that back and looked at 3 other units in the store, all had the same defect. Cost cutting is all well and good until your case is so cheap it doesn't fit together right. That's a problem.
    How about the title "Fractal Design Removes Fan Controller From Cheap Case, Renames It, Charges What It Should Have Cost In The First Place"?

    Too long, sorry.

    Reply