Thank you for your review, I have probably seen all of the reviews out there on this case, and this one was the most detailed. My minimal storage build with only a m.2 storage shouldnt make cable management a big of a hassle, and my main priority is the big thermal air cooling performance. Gonna order it next week!
Great review, one thing I barely see anyone mentioning is dust management, it seems some of the best performing cases like from Lian Li are starting to have Mesh grills everywhere which is good for airflow but at the expense of more frequent dust cleaning required, 215 and 216 don't even have filter on the front, I am leaning toward this case because it has filter in the two sides where it is open for intake. Also lots of cases only have the bottom filter accessible from the back which means for most scenarios when it is against a wall, it would be a hassle to remove them unlike with this case.
Meaning to purchase the Fractal Torrent normal, I accidentally ordered this one instead and received it this week: thank you for the clear review and I subbed!
Amazing review, helped me with the decisionmaking to buy my case. I got the big torrent case in grey for 180€ since it fits my b550 mag tomahawk mobos color and the peerless assassine 120SE coolers metal look really well+ 230€+ for the black version is just too much for me to pay for a case. Since Im only used to build in like 15 year old cases which are horrible to work with, sharp corners everywhere, no cabel management, 0 user firendlyness whatsoever :), I found the fractal torrent amazing to build in. -There is not much room in the back for cables, but if u dont max out the SSDs, there is no problem with cable space in the back. -Didnt have any issues with the fans whatsoever. Since I value good cooling for my hardware, I couldnt go around checking this case out. Compared to my already well cooled old case (3x120mm fans, 1x big 170mm Noctua fan inside the case door) I got around 7-9 °C of improvement, which is a big deal. My R7 5800x3D CPU and my 6700XT GPU are both at around 37 °C in 2D mode, just amazing. In my old case the CPU was at 45 °C and the GPU at around 49°C. And the fans are only at around 60-70% speed now. -Yes there is quite a lot of plastic, but it doesnt feel or look cheap. Its quite sturdy and thick. The front can come off if u lift the tower grabbing it, so I would be VERY careful when lifting and carrying the big tower, especially if it is heavvy and packed with lots of components. The same goes for the compact version. -I didnt use the fanhub, cause I got a ton of PWM headers on my board and I want a dynamic fan curve in my case+ I trust my motherboard more than a fan hub in terms of regulation :) I dont think there is a huge difference to the compact version, except for the size (prolly some difference in the thermals; I much prefer big towers anyways). The price is overall a bit high and there are prolly a lot of cases for much less money with better aspects like building quality, more RGB for less money and better AIO solution. But this case emphasized on air cooling and its the best case for that. I feel like a lot of the price goes into the development of the airflow-centered design, whereas in other standard cases the design is "standard" but the airflow is by far not as good. So if u r into excellent airflow, a refreshing look, looots of space in the big tower version but the rest being about average, the fractal torrent is a solid recommendation.
Good review. I had that case few weeks ago and end up returning. Overall built quality feels cheap, all plastic and aside what you mentioned which I agree, the biggest gripe I had with it were the side panels. The snap on, no thumb screws idea is terrible, even upon lifting the case, inner of the frame mechanism wearing out and both panels can pop open whey to easy, especially with such small room for cable management.....yah, I wish Fractal add thumb screws as 99% of case makers do. I end up getting Air Mini and the built quality and features are night and day, absolutely love Lian Li Air Mini.
I totally agree with you that the cable management space is not enough and a lot of plastic is used in such a high priced case. I have also watched others building pc with this case and a lot of them have to screw the panel on the top losing some big points.
They make this case with a solid side, instead of the window. Then you don't care about the cable management so much. Thats what I decided. The solid case. I watched a video of a build in one of these and supposedly a dark rock 4 air cooler will fit. I don't have a decent video card to worry about cooling yet for it. So maybe just going to use the two front fans and one in the back for now. When I get a video card , one in the bottom blowing up should do the job nicely.
The biggest issue for me was the Drive Cage. If you have the impertinence to actually wish to install a 3.5 inch spinning drive there has been no consideration for proper clearance for the SATA cable connectors. I tried both straight and 90 degree types, (you also are forced to attach the cables before screwing the drive into the cage to avoid damage) and neither cage position will allow it to fit period - the cage retaining screw will not align. I can only think I will have to secure the cage at an angle with a cable tie if I want to use the drive at all! ☹
thankyou for the review. i don't feel the need to watch another review of the fractal torrent compact after this.. satisfied with the info in the vid 👍
The "main issues"-part was the most important one for me. I have seen various reviews, and I did not hear one of them mentioning the finish. The other parts I heard earlier (bad cable management, and so on). Well.. then this case-line of Fractal Design Torrent cases will not be for me. It's just impractical.
While I do love the looks of the case I wish they would just sell a metal cover for the cable management side. As a band aid fix that would satisfy me.
It wasn't long after I got the original Torrent that they release the Compact & Nano. I kind of got that early adopter jealousy since the Compact performs just as good but just smaller. Then after seeing how they put even less space behind the board tray, and the lesser clearances, honestly I'm kind of glad I just got the full size. It's already on my desk, most of the space saving is just height and depth so, kind of dimensions that are just taking up unused space anyway.
If the compact were just a tiny bit wider, it would be so much easier to buy. It's like the most insignificant dimension so it hurts so much that it's the biggest flaw in the case.
@@kingoffongpei I'd argue width is the most significant dimension. It is the dimension that determines how it fits on your desk without making the pad, keyboard and such feel cramped.
A little bit wider and Torrent becomes a brilliant Air flow. However, both the Lian Li Lancool 216 and the Lancool 2 Mesh are much better value. Why do you not try the simple but great FanControl prog to control the vents? No hub is needed.
Think most of the stuff said is valid in this video. Got the compact more or less at launch after the early reviews where out. This is a grate review just a pity it took so long to come out. I like the case and really all in all the complaints have no teeth to them. Sure the back part is tight. There is a real risk of the PSU cables being a pain if you need gaming GPU. Even with a APU currently the cables have a hard time to get under the HDD cage and back in the cable nest at the back. Just to tight all in all! But I will manage since I got the all metal case with no widows. No RGB or crap. But anyone into glas and RGB's are going to hate the compact! And water cooling is just a strait no for the Torrent line. Just as glas is stupid in any computer that is not explicitly about showing off. RGB is almost always just bad and in general I had not gotten the compact if anything I just said sounds off... This is not the case for you! The plastic on the top is really bad. Is going to be the first thing to brake on this thing. Trying to pick the case up and the thing just falls right off! You can really drop the computer due to that shit! It is a real hazard and a real weak spot together with the cable routing at the back/PSU. Also I almost forgot! The CPU pins are in a really bad spot! It is really hard to get the CPU power to fit. Really really a flaw with the PSU mounted at the top AND poor cable management room. Anything high end nowadays needs 2!!!! CPU cables to get to that spot! 2!!! The price the price. Really the fans are worth some money too. And Torrent looks really good even in all back no windows. And to be honest it had almost no defects when I got it even with the dings to the packaging. Small tiny faults in the pain that you never going to notice since it was inside of the case. And I had a drop test done to it to check build quality :c No components in it but still a good test non the less. Never put a PC on the chair! Was just going to let the cat in and it went of the chair with a BANG. Can almost not tell that is was in a accident. It is a really solid case even with the shit plastic on the top. Side panels are easy access and works well. Front panel even if you have to pull it off feels like quality and should last very long. Really can not complain about build quality outside of the TOP PLASTIC! It is a solid case with faults. Top cover is going to brake first even if it is made well. (plastic garbage for premium price) Cable managing is what it is. And the only thing yet to brake is the fan filter under the case. It happened in the drop test. Small scratches to the paint but the major damage was to the filter. Picking or placing the computer down your risk of damaging the bottom filer. It is in a real danger zone so you can scratch/punch it apart very easily without knowing. But really all in all I think the price is fair if the plastic was removed. Hate it the most. Then the CPU cable problem. And then PSU cable routeing. I still like the case. But really the big shit thing I talk allot about is the plastic! The front is also plastic but I like it and it feels premium! But the top plastic is just a strait up shame. It has plastic bits that can easily brake off it feels like. And they are the core thing that holds the plastic top in place. Just get that stuff out of a premium case! I rather have to use thumb screws and take a plastic thing off then whatever this hot garbage is. I rather have no plastic at all due to it being such a weak point for this case. The important thing to remember is that your limiting what you can put into this case. Your stuck with ATX motherboards. Nothing bigger. Not really impressive GPU length. And the PSU is at the top so somewhat top heavy. No problem and I like the layout overall. And the fans are still not proven. But I think the compact makes more sense to have this big fans in then the Nano or normal big tower Torrent. I love big fans and I want 140mm to be the standard! 180s are real nice ;) The AMD APU cooler freebe is a unbalance mess and makes more noise then the big 180mm do! Going to get myself a heavy Noctua D15 soon and something better then the APU. I still like my HAF XB EVO the most. But really there is far worse cases out there for a weirdo like me :) But outside of them counting stuff so strangely. In some cases I think they do it on purpose to not oversell how many SSD's you can have etc. I really think there is not really anything wrong with the case. Maybe the fans are still a ?. You know from the stuff that should not go up in flames reputation. But really I rather have thumb screws for the GPU screws. That is a sign of a premium case to me. There really is nothing wrong here outside of the obvious stuff and the CPU power cables. That one I have not head anyone talk about! So blessed by my HAF XB that I never gave that a think before buying! My nit pick is that you can not mount 140mm fans at the back as you can with the big Torrent! >:( I knew that before buying but WHY. There are mods to make it work but WHY Fractal!
I actually have the lancool 215 and I may just get this case when the RTX 40 series comes out. I really like the look of the front panel. I'll also put a slim 280mm rad at the bottom, and vertical mount the gpu and do a custom loop - hopefully it comes out nicely🤞
I love your reviews and this one is no different. This case is deeply flawed when it comes to cable management and for the price, the top panel and front should be metal. But there is a lot of irony here criticizing Fractal's documentation when you make mistakes throughout the video regarding fan size, hard drive size compatibility, etc. It should be simple, and should be correct, as you'd say if you reviewed your own review.
Get used to it--cables are going the way of the dino: modular power supplies, NVME drives instead of SSD, usb drives and downloads instead of DVD, etc, etc. My build of this will have all NVME and just one extra fan on the back so cables needed will be very minimal.
You forgot to mention the marketing to fellow sailors. Fractal went all in on the Linux.iso’s but they forgot the drive cages needed (compared to the Define 7 XL). I agree on too much plastic for the money. Thanks for the review. I went for the white 510 flow.
I currently got one and it is sitting on the tempered glass panel trying to train the cables flat on the back side.. On a towel of course with the film still on it..
I got the full size torrent and I'm happy but I'm not using any water cooling and it seems they did mess up the compact in the sense that the rear panel is too close to the interior of the case. Personally my PC sits on the floor and I clean it out every few weeks or so so I got the solid, if I wanted a display case... Well I don't so it' a moot point. Otherwise solid review, I'm glad I got the full size and not the compact. You are also the second person who I've noticed mentioning the manual is wrong, fractal really needs to fix that.
really good video the real nightmare is fitting 420mm aio for me and that's it which was actually fractal mistake of marketing it and then correcting it as it doest support 420mm aio
Glad I saw this video, I think I'll stick to my Meshify Compact 2 for another year and hope they make a revised version with better cable management next year. Like it looks amazing and the cooling benchmarks are super encouraging, but I tend to set things on top of my pc all the time and I thought this case would be mostly metal like my meshify, that plus my ocd with wiring might make me abstain for a bit. Great content btw!
I ordered one. It’s really fragile! Immediately 3 plastic hooks of the top panel broke 😤 Also one of the 180mm fans has a slight clicking noise. Pretty annoying. Also, I don’t like the air noise generated by the 180mm fans. They should have used more material for hooks and higher quality plastic, IMHO. There are plastics which don’t break as easy. I really liked the PSU placement, putting cables into the psu was a blast compared to bottom-tunnel mounted psus.
I have a NZXT H500 and I've recently upgraded to a 5900x which gets quite hot during certain workloads(my CPU Cooler is a Noctua U12s). I've considered switchting to the H510 Flow since it is the same case with mesh front but from what I am seeing online it may not be good enough. Right now I have a RTX 2070, which doesn't get really hot, however, if I wanted to get a big, powerful and power hungry GPU next year I would need a case with better gpu temps. Linus's video shows the Flow isn't much better on gpu temps compared to the H500/H510. He says there is not enough exahust so hot air recirculates in the system, also big graphics cards get pushed right against the front in that case. Both Linus, Gamer Nexus and other techtubers like DawidDoesTechStuff show that the flow is at least 10°C better on the CPU than the sealed version but still really warm on the gpu. GN and Linus in particular got higher GPU temps by adding 2×140mm intakes at the front. Optimun Tech recently made a high tier build in it with the same cooling solution I would use(Noctua D15+2×140mm noctuas at the front, although I would wait for Noctua to release new versions of both) and shows high temps too. I know the Torrent line of products isn't a top performer on the Gpu side and that CPU temps wise other cases get really close. I need help to choose a new air coolig solution. I'll wait for noctua to release their "next gen D15" cooler so I can wait maybe Q1 2023 for the case too if that helps in terms of new releases. Most important of all: I need a full ATX case that is not too heavy, if the Lancool 2 mesh wasn't 11kg I would have got that a year ago but sadly my pc is on a shelf above my desk so size and weight matter quite a bit.
I agree. The plastic panels are really disappointing for this price point. The included fans are not very good quality either unfortunately. The surface finish is so bad. I love the look and performance but it needs a revision or a price cut.
I'm trying to think of the best fan configuration for this case for a balance between temperature and performance. I will keep the 2 stock 180mm fans up front and will get an additional 120 mm fan from fractal for exhaust in the rear, but I'm wondering if you think I will benefit to placing an additional 2 140 mm or 3 120mm fans on the bottom? Any help is greatly appreciated. Great video btw!
Honestly, I'd probably just go for a single extra in the rear. The included fans are solid, so getting more fans on top isn't going to improve the situation much (a few degrees tops) and will just make the build more expensive. If you want more fans for the look, that's fair. But for performance, spend it on the CPU cooler or something else IMO.
They're both great cases. I personally would go for the Lancool 3 since it's more robust, and less likely to get scuffed and scraped. It depends if you really like the look of this case though. But if you like both equally then I'd suggest the Lancool 3.
Check out the testing section, I did testing with a rear 120, I don't think it can take 140mm fans in the rear, at least as standard. Maybe you could squeeze one in with some elbow grease.
Main difference for me between old & new cases is front I/O. For myself, that makes the difference of expandability & that 'can' be a big deal when you're working with an ITX board that has very few headers to begin with, and the feature of being able to connect via USB-C to a hub with a high refresh display & fast external SSDs or something sure beats daisy-chaining out of a slower port. But if that's not your use-case, nothing wrong with older cases at all.
You can't find it, you have to make it. Took me weeks, maybe over a month of grinding to make it work. And it's all linked so intricately together it almost gives me a heart attack if I think I've found a broken formula 😅
Pretty much. You can get the same performance for less than that, and even more than the Torrent Compact. I think the price tag is more relative to the build quality and the interesting design over anything else. Heck, you can get better performance without a case :D Kind of obvious stuff I guess, but worth bringing up.
i also would prefer the nano for micro atx. but my alternatiive the thermal taake core 21 or what its name is just is a microwave in black. good for my cat but i want something that suits into this room
@@KingCrimson82 When i was deciding about MATx, i stopped on Meshify C mini. Now i want something with some extra airflow, cause my 6800xt on 80c, which is ok, but i want to drop it a little.
