Fractal Design has announced a new case in the Meshify 2 lineup, called the Meshify 2 Lite, as spotted by ComputerBase. The case comes in the same form factor as the standard Meshify 2, but with less modularity reduce cost. As a result, the case is substantially cheaper in Europe, coming in with a price tag of 127.99 Euros instead of 179.99. US pricing in the states is unknown but we should see a very similar discount once the Lite makes it here.
According to ComputerBase, the biggest change to the Meshify 2 Lite is in its new frame, which lacks additional hard drive support. Fractal Design engineered a brand new body purposefully for the Lite that is less flexible than the standard Meshify 2, using a fully unified rear back panel.
As a result, users cannot remove the part of the rear backplate – next to the front intake fans, as you could on the standard Meshify 2. This prevents any additional hard drives from being mounted in the front of the case. This adjustment limits the Lite’s hard drive capacity to just 6 drives – compared to the whopping 18 supported on the Meshify 2.
Another change made to the Lite version is in the top and front covers. The top is now firmly attached to the chassis and can no longer be removed to access the dust filter housed just underneath it. As a result, Fractal Design has opted to use a flappy magnetic mesh dust filter instead of the solid one used in the standard case. Similar changes have been made to the front panel as well, with the front cover now permanently holding the dust filter instead of it serving as a removable piece.
Thankfully, these changes do not affect the case’s cooling capabilities. Both top and front panels still have the same size dust filters, and fan support remains identical to the standard Meshify 2.
The rest of the changes made to the Mesify 2 Lite are quite small, but they do reduce the case’s capabilities in some regard. One is the removal of the built-in fan controller, forcing users to either use their own controller or only use the fan headers on the motherboard itself.
Another change is the lack of vertical GPU mounting support. The two vertical PCIe slots previously found on the Meshify 2 are no longer available on the Lite version, replaced by a ventilation grill. However, this is probably for the better. Mounting a graphics card so far forward in the standard Meshify 2 forces the GPU’s cooling fans to be positioned right against the tempered glass side panel which can cause serious cooling issues. Another change worth mentioning is the removal of the front panel Type C header for the lite version. Instead replaced by another Type-A USB 3.2 port.
The last change worth noting is the lack of a bottom rear cover to hide your PSU and PSU cables. This is purely an aesthetic change, and shouldn't affect the case’s performance.
Like the Meshify 2 with its new RGB version, the Lite model will come in both RGB and non-RGB flavors. The only changes made to each is the addition or removal of RGB chassis fans. The Lite will also come with the same amount of chassis fans as the standard model, featuring three 140 mm intake fans and a rear 140 mm fan, despite the Lite lacking a fan controller.
As far as we know, the Lite will only come with a tempered glass side panel. There's no word has on a solid steel panel version.
It appears Fractal Design has stripepd as many non-essential features out of the Meshfiy 2 Lite as possible in order to reduce its price. This should make the case very attractive to mainstream buyers and PC gamers since the case’s large form factor and cooling potential have not been changed from the regular version, while at the same time being much cheaper than the original Meshify 2.
