I think Fractal design has nailed it with the Torent line. If I'll be making a build solely for myself, I'd go for the Nano. If I have to make a build to double as a workstation, I'd go for the Compact
@@BrazenFond I left the huge front fan in place, got an Noctua NH-D15 as the CPU cooler (only the middle fan mounted) with an additional Noctua NF-A12x25 as rear exhaust. All fans are CPU-Temp controlled with max 60% speed settings. But keep in mind, that my CPU (i9 12900k) will still reach its thermal limits under full AVX load. For me its not a problem as I have no realworld workflow that uses 100% of the CPU.
Great case if you want to fry any high capacity hard drives that you're still using for mass storage, since SSD's in the capacity are way too expensive. That whole part of the case for cable management and SDD/HDD storage is totally flawed.
15 years ago: we moved the power supply to the bottom, so innovative! Today: we moved the power supply to the top, so innovative! Great review none the less guys 👍
Honestly I always preferred the PSU to be at the top, but in it's own chamber with adequate cable management. Whereas old cases just had it hangin out in the same cavity as everything else and spaghetticables floating freely
My last build was for my son and he chose the nano. Honestly it feels like a great middle ground for small form factor. No wasted space, decently small footprint, and uses a standard power supply. I think it's worth the price.
I got into the ITX space when doing the "tiny living" thing for a year and needed to move from my full tower down to an ITX build. I got the Fractal Designs Core 500. I loved it. I recently transferred that build into a Micro ATX case from Micro Center, the Lian Li LanCool 205M on sale for $60. There is no way I could justify spending the money on the Nano for double that price.... So I will probably just end up doing it.. NO justifying it at all.
I love that design. With front and bottom intakes together that case should keep the whole system really cool with minimal fan noise. I'll definitely be using that case when I do my next major upgrade. EDIT: They lost me by having a tempered glass cable management panel. I was really into that case until I found out. That just adds fragility without any real visual benefit. I'm not sure why they made that choice, but I hope they change it or offer a version with a glass side panel on the other side but not the cable management side.
One of the trends I'm noticing with many pc parts manufacturers, including Fractal, is the absence of Micro ATX parts in many line-ups. I understand that the Torrent Nano is built with 3x Slot GPUs in mind, but it is LITERALLY one slot away from being M-ATX compatible. Not to mention, the lack of Mini-DTX motherboards. Is just me or do these 2 form factors seem completely underrated and underrepresented in the PC space these days?
@@terrasai2857 yeah I thought there were like a couple of mid range mATX boards. Itx boards, on the other hand, are getting better and more high end by the year! There is almost no reason you would need bigger than itx for a gaming machine. Love mine in the ncase m1!
That's because, if you can sacrifice some pcie slots, you can sacrifice all of them. Plus, if you wanted to size down, going mini itx is far superior for its size.
@@thetechrealist a gamer has not been needing any more pcie slots besides the gpu one (even soundcards got out of fasion fast 10 years ago) for like 15+ years now. I think technology had to progress enough for it to be good AND be affordable to make sense. Glad it is now!
I think the Cooler Master NR200(P) is a great contender to the Nano and I hope that this competition will drive the price of the Fractal case down. About the Compact, it's just as unique as the bigger size one and there's really not much competition for a similar case made for air cooling.
You'll probably see a bump in price for all new cases in 2022, across all manufacturers. Steel and raw material prices have gone up significantly in the past few months; this is just the first case you've seen released with properly adjusted prices.
Absolutely stunning. I thought there will never be a case that can replace my meshify c mini, and when they released the regular torrent, I knew a more compact version is coming. I’m so getting one!
Just bought the original big torrent case and I love it. Keeps both gpu and cpu around 60 degrees Celsius under load with just the case fans and a Noctua NH-D15 cpu cooler. Also note I capped all case fans to 50% so they are very quiet. Components were very easy to install because it's so big and there is lot's of room inside, my old case was about as big as the Compact version and I hated it.
Off topic, but Microcenter Is the best store i have ever experienced. The Managers at the St.Louis Park, Minnesota store should train every industry in customer relations.
The full size is larger than it looks but has great cooling. Cable management is easy with all the extra space. Ordered the compact for a new build that does not require a GPU.
The Torrent is my new favourite case. I just built an air-cooled threadripper system, and the torrent provides awesome airflow. I love having the PSU at the top because it allows my gpu to receive so much more air.
Yeah I thought top mounted PSU was a thing of the past until Fractal brought back this Silverstone RVO2 style design. I'm sure we'll start seeing lots of new designs borrowing from this, with front & bottom intakes and sealed tops.
For Nano I would have used sfx power supply and placed top front to reduce size. That way you could have exhaust fan in top back. Otherwise your 120mm in back is going to have to spin fairly fast to remove the air coming in from that 180mm. Or at minimum use sfx in back and allow micro atx in this case. There's plenty of room.
This is a better direction for the compact line - not making it too thin. I hated how Meshify C and Define C you couldnt fit large air coolers for example.
OK... I completed a Torrent Nano build, and have some observations. First, if you buy a Dark Rock Pro 4 air cooler, know that once you install the cooler on the motherboard BEFORE putting the motherboard in the case, you either have to remove the motherboard to change a CPU, or you have to butcher the case bottom to make a hole through which you can insert the larger heatsink fan. This cut into the mounting holes for a bottom fan, but I was not going to do so anyway. Second, a large air cooler like the Dark Rock comes very close to touching the bottom of the power supply tray. This precludes access to pin headers on the side of the motherboard that buts up against the PSU tray. This time, you end up cutting away pieces of the tray to give you access to those pin headers. You also need to trim away some more case material to give you enough room to install the CPU cable. I put a Seasonic Prime 750 watt PSU in the torrent, and little space is left to mash up cables. It's not that much of a problem, but you'll spend a fair amount of time spreading the cables across the cable guides and velcro ties. All said, after considerable case butchery (it's steel, and fairly thick), I can install the ARGB splitter you'll need to buy if you want your 180mm fan, PSU highlight, exhaust fan, and for that je ne sais quoi, a tasteful LED strip on the bottom to all light up in proper sync as well as upgrading CPU w/o having to pull the motherboard. OY GEVALT...
I think the price of the Nano is very reasonable because you tend to pay a premium in this space and the options offered are great. I am currently using an NR200, which is baseline $100. I wish the nano was released a year ago, don't get me wrong the NR200 is a great case for airflow, but is cramped and did limit my cooler choices. The NR200 also has massive issues with having to disconnect everything and dust it out at least once a month. Not a great case for anyone with pets or high dust levels. Plan to upgrade once I have everything lined up.
There's a reason why the top and side pannels are sealed while the front and back are full open, to chanel air in one direction, hence the name Torrent.
Why? With top and bottom intake, having sides/top sealed makes perfect sense. Everything just pours out the extremely open back panel, the 180s move an insane amount of air.
The Torrent line overall is great but for myself the Compact takes the number 1 spot. Big enough for every kind of hardware a normal user could dream of and way better priced then the normal model.
For personal use I tend to build ITX and do like the nano, but it’s too big IMO. My NR200 is smaller (SFX PSU) and I use it with a Noctua NF-u12A air cooler with the rad bracket removed and have a pretty big GPU with bottom intake fans. I find the NR200 is still hard to beat for compatibility and performance not to mention the price.
I agree; it looks great, but seems quite wide. I'm running a SAMA IM01 Build, which is similar in size to your case (4 litres greater than NR200), and it does quite great at this size. How are you finding your cooler? I have the Noctua U9S and it's pretty solid for its size
@@Baldwhip that’s a nice case. Are you running mATX? As far as the cooler, there is no comparison. I used to have a D9L which is similar in performance to your U9S. It is similar in performance to a 280mm aio or full size tower cooler and very quiet. On the other hand, it’s also expensive.
Just finished my build in the Nano super case for sure, and looks good as my new media server in living room, as well i used 120mm water cooled aio to at the back slot to cool the 5600G! looks great and cool as F
I have to full-size Torrent myself, only problem for me is popping back on the front panel as it seems to be slightly mismatched and needs a lot of force.
did build a am5 with 7900 xtx, it's great to build in and looks great. the reason the white is more ruff is because it's painted, price would be even higher if the sanded or polished it, also who cares about the sound of a case when you scratch it with your fingers, it's not something you do anyway unless you're weird. I live close to Sweden so price is a lot more reasonable here
I built my first PC in a Fractal Case. Then I started building a second PC in a Cooler Master case to save $75 from the cost of the Fractal case. 3 of the 5 MBO screws stripped out from barely turning the screws. The difference in quality in cases between manufacturers became very apparent. I returned the Cooler Master and now have two Define 7 cases.
I love Fractal products, and the best reasons for it you can't even understand until you work with them. They're built like a tank, all the metal panels are thick, heavy, solid, and there's never any sharp edges to anything, everything is so well done with a lot of attention to detail.
I have the large version, It's great but far from perfect. Too many youtubers out there praising it more than they should without calling out the bad parts, No where near enough cable management on the backside of motherboard once you start actually filling that case up with high end hardware and HDD/SSD's, Need another 20-25mm because despite doing a reasonbale job with all the cables, The 24 pin power was still bulging out and I needed to screw the glass panel in so it doesn't pop out from all the cables pushing against it. PSU space at the top is also a struggle for large 1200w PSU's to route the cables, Space needs to be extended further forward so you don't have to try bend cables 90 degrees to get them routed behind. Front grille should have been metal instead of plastic for the price. Having said all the negatives, It is by far the best air cooling case I have used in the past 30 years, I would like to see Fractal Design do a revision 2.0 of it in future with the following improvements. 25mm more cable management space behind motherboard and side glass panel,A couple more 3.5 HDD bays, Extend PSU space forward another 40mm more(There is plenty of room there to do it where they have large hole for water filling)so we don't have to bend cables on larger PSU's.
If you aren't putting fans at the bottom, you could always put a few hhd brackets down there. I haven't looked to see if stand alone brackets exist but normally if I can think of it, Amazon sells it. 🐻
This style of not super compact sff cases is definitely my favorite trend of the past year. I just wished this was available six months ago when I bought the cooler master nr200p. We’re absolutely past the point of sff being any sort of compromise for modern systems, especially with nvme storage getting as high capacity as it is. Because of the small footprint of cases like my nr200p, I don’t think I could recommend a midtower to any college students out there as traveling and keeping a beefy case in your dorm is just a hassle. I started college with a nzxt h510 and it was sucked having to check it on a plane. With these sff cases one underrated feature is the fact that you can just straight up use it as your piece of carry on luggage which can really ease the mind when you’ve got 2k in parts. Never know what the people at the airport are gonna do to your pride and joy so why risk it?
Anyone else here old enough to remember when having the power supply up top was the standard ATX layout and putting it at the bottom was the new hotness?
since 1994 first crapy AT pentium you lern and move on^^ P2 still lernd not enough crappy ATX case with power supply too cheap blew up. 1 ramstick and a floppy3.5 only survivors^^
I bought the Torrent Compact as soon as I was able to, and just transferred my build from the Meshify C to it on Tuesday. I love this case. It's a bit tight for cables in the back, had to be creative and spread out the management around the whole thing to make it work well.
I got the white Nano in the mail yesterday. It's GORGEOS. Yes i think it was 20 to 30 dollars too much, but fractal makes good quality stuff and I am ok with it. If it was 150 or more I would be more weary of it. Also, for the first time ever i will have a fully modular psu and an m.2 ssd. Big time upgrade and literally halving the size of my pc. Cool stuff. Now if i could just get a 3060/3060ti for msrp...
I really want the Torrent Compact since it gives so much breathing room for the GPU (unlike my current mATX case with the PSU on the bottom). Unfortunately the only place that seems to have it in the US is Newegg...which after the whole Gamers Nexus debacle I'd really rather not support Newegg =/ Hope other retailers pick it up soon
I am thinking that if it was for myself, I would not go for these. Fractal has, in my humblest of opinions, better cases out there. I just finished my build in the Meshify 2 Compact, and that case I will keep for a long time. It harbors my 4070 triple blade and still has plenty of space left at the front fans. Got a 240 AIO cooler in the attic. Not sure if I am going for the basement yet or leave the 3 120mm in place.
I've gotten reviews for these cases in my recommended like 5 times and I JUST FINISHED MY LAST BUILD. I don't have the money to think about doing another one! But these cases look so good!
Too many people have complained (and rightly so) about the lack of space for cables in the Torrent Compact. I already own & love the standard Torrent, so with that and what I just said in mind, I've decided my next build will be with the Torrent Nano.
I'm still somewhat considering one of the Torrent cases but I think I'm going to go with the Lancool 3. I've been using the Lancool 2 Mesh since it first came out and it has performed incredibly well for me. Plus, I've gotten totally spoiled when it comes to having a very spacious lower compartment and covers for hiding all of the cabling behind the motherboard. Its kind of a cheat code, really. I still cable manage everything quite well just because I'm pretty fastidious with that sort of thing but being able to easily hide every bit of cable mess is a major feature of the Lancool cases that the Torrent models just cannot compete with. The Phanteks G500A is also a serious contender, as is the Corsair 5000D Airflow. I bought a 5000D Airflow a few days ago but will be returning it, as it had one or two annoying panel gap issues and 3 of the 4 rear thumb screws which secure the side panels were crookedly threaded. I might buy another one and see if I get a better example because I actually really like the look of the 5000D but I am leaning a little more toward the Lancool 3.
Love Torrent series design ~ looking very unique and beautiful. I bought Torrent & Torrent Nano already and feel quite satisfied. I build Torrent Nano system myselft. although its bigger than usual itx case, it is easy to install things inside. and cable management is pretty easy for me. (System in my Torrent is built by computer shop. I just don't want spend time build a large system 😂)
I was immediately in love with the look and size of the Nano, its perfect for a reasonably powerful gaming rig to commute with. However I agree the cpu plug was problem I ended up plugging it in before installing the motherboard. If I did it over again I would suggest installing the cpu cooler mounting hardware but not the cooler till almost the end. I wanted to mount fans in the bottom under my 2slot 3060ti but its really too tight for comfort. With adding a 120mm exhaust fan my thermals have been very good, I used the new Bequite RGB fan. my final note is to used a modular power supply with custom cables, this really keeps things from getting too cluttered on the back side.
Thanks for sharing your experience. I am looking at this down the line and figuring the larger non-compact will be needed due to what you describe re: the bottom area. Cable routing looks very tight for fan configuration there, and as you say, more space would be better between those fans and the thicc GPUs these days. In any case, this case line looks like it improves everything from the Meshify I bought back in 2018. Glad you are rocking a great case, and thanks again for the details.
Really like the design of this case , there is a lot of completion in the mid size right now that also have great airflow with better rad support. I think opting for the 180 fans may have been a mistake as I've seen videos where mounting a 240 rad to the front prevented the from from closing with the dust filter on it.
I've built my 12th gen system in my old Define R4, and I'd really like to move it to a new case at some point. I think the Compact might be it. Thanks, Dmitry!
I fell in love with the look, build ease and performance of the full size Torrent. But yeah I would have considered a compact if it was available at the time. All my components would have fit very easily in that frame too.
Bought the Torrent Compact. My biggest gripe is that I wish it had, even just ~0.5cm of extra space, for cable management behind the motherboard. It's not a huge issue for me, as I'm not adding any extra fans. But if you do add something extra, like an AIO or more fans - or if your PSU cables are a little bulkier - you will have to spend some extra time to get your cables to fit without bulging your side panel. Apart from that, the price for the Compact is suitable for being a well-cooled "mid-range" case, and it's actually about the same height as the Define R5 (which I also have from my previous build) while being a few inches narrower from front to back, so it also has plenty of room for a full ATX motherboard. That said, I do personally wish it were a little bit shorter - a couple inches or so - since I was aiming for an mATX build. It's not the biggest issue, but bear that in mind if you're looking for an actual mATX case. All-in-all, if you want a good mid-sized case, the Compact is a great case. It runs cool, isn't atrociously loud with the stock fans, and is pretty easy to build in - again, as long as you don't have too many/too bulky of cables to work with behind the motherboard.
I have a torrent, it is definitely worth it. Easy to build in, easy to manage everything, excellent airflow. I have a 12900k cooled by a Noctua D15 and a 3080ti, no thermal issues.
which torrent do you have? I'm wanting the compact but have a huge Evga Geforce RTX 3080TI FTW Ultra and measurements see to be different with a lot of videos. 🐻
Going all black build with the black Compact. Spent extra bucks on this case as I do not want to go extra miles in buying fans for a case I bought for over 100 bucks already. Also the stocked fans seemed like very quality fans with built-in hub too. No extra headache with those. Very much looking forward to building my first pc with this case.
I had a Meshify C a few years ago. It actually fit an EVGA 2080Ti with a front mounted 140mm radiator. Barely, but it did fit. Now I’m running Meshify 2’s, but I absolutely would consider a Torrent for the appropriate build.
I wouldn't agree that it's only for air cooling. Alpha Cooling has a 400mm rad that can fit 200mm or 180mm fans, and EK is working on a 360mm (2x180) rad. So, there's no reason you can't do an open loop.
I would much rather choose the Fractal Meshify 2 Compact instead of the Torrent compact. The PSU in the top eliminates the possibility to have an optimal water cooled solution, so as also mentioned in the video this would be for air cooled builds. Also, the Meshify 2 compact is a bit cheaper, has a bit better cable management and is a bit easier on the eyes in my opinion.
I configured a simple 12700K ITX system with the Nano, 1TB SSD, 16GB, U12S cooler, PS and it ran over $900. So $20 or $30 extra for the case is noise level. I also configured the same system with the Sama IM-01 ($70 case) but I would have to add 2 or 3 $20 fans. So I'm going with the Nano.
Why are your prices so out of whack. They seem to be about 25-30% under what they actually sell for compared to 1:00. For Canadian customers just double what you see here.
Only thing I wish was that they had more options to mount Hard drives. This case would make an otherwise boring, black box look pretty nice in my living room.
I've been using Evolv ATX TG since 2017, and I never found any case that I like more, until Torrent came out. But only 1 3.5" HDD slot is a deal breaker for me. 2 would be perfect.
Love this case. Bought the white torrent and it's really worth it. I knew from research not to go with AIO but still went that route. Was alot of extra work but is do-able. It just took an extra 2 or 3 hours of my time. Had to undo a few things over and over if you want to change something, so pure air cooling Will be much easier. Excellent case still.
thanks! it was hard to the info that I needed for this case "buy this case if you are air colling only" I have a massive NZXT Kraken that it wont fit on this case :D
I’ve personally preordered the Torrent Nano RGB for my next build 🥰😍🥰😍 I love the Torrent design since I first saw it. But I wanted an itx version before pulling the trigger on a purchase and when they were available for preorder, I was booked in!
Fractal TORRENT Nano is my next PC case. I am not an overclocker, I don't care about fancy RGB and because of that I Don't care about water cooling. This case is an air cooling dream for someone which wants a smaller than mid-tower case that is easy to use and is compatible with big performance air coolers like Noctua U12A.
Thanks for the review of these. I got a Torrent Compact and built it without needing the side panel screws.. definitely possible. This replaced my old-as-hell Antec P182.
Yeah, it’s a bit expensive but I love this case. Only buy it if you want a full air cooled build, and set aside some cash for individually sleeved cables as the space for cable management sux especially for the sata power for the ssd trays.
My wife has a torrent case and I'm drooling over it and I have lian-li 001. The airflow is insane... I might have to pick one up myself. Also, there's a MicroCenter by my job and it really is everything they claim to be. It's like a playground for everything gaming/tech.
That price is a bit of a kick in the nuts (especially if you're looking at a case for a "simple" build - assuming you equate "simple" with "budget") and I feel like they're both around $20 over where they should be (Phanteks feels like the company to beat in the space, since they have both excellent airflow and good value pricing on lock), but I'm almost inclined to give Fractal that extra cash just because they seem to be a company that wants to do right by their customers, and that's becoming an increasingly harder thing to find these days. Plus, I just really love the design of the Torrent line and I'm so happy to see them shrink it down a bit (without compromising airflow/thermals), as I'm completely over the whole massive monolith case aesthetic. Bummer about the white paint texture, though, as that would've been my preference. Hopefully it's something they fix on future production runs.
