Fractal Design has simply launched a classy-looking new case that’s perfect for a mini gaming PC construct. The brand new Fractal Period 2 contains a equally curvy design to the Period ITX case the corporate launched in 2020, however with a walnut panel on the highest as commonplace, and a few extra room for elements.
In actual fact, there’s technically simply sufficient room to squeeze an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Version into this chassis, which is a tremendous achievement for such a small case. Putting in such a strong GPU might push the boundaries of this mini case’s thermals, however with its Nvidia SFF-ready specification, this tiny new Fractal Design chassis is licensed to work with a number of of the very best graphics playing cards you should buy proper now.
This doesn’t embody the RTX 4090, however there’s assured compatibility with plenty of Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 fashions, in addition to the RTX 4070 Tremendous Founders Version. When you’re in search of the very best PC case for a small-but-mighty construct, then this might effectively be it.
Sensibly, the case additionally features a PCIe 4.0 riser to hyperlink the graphics card to your motherboard’s PCIe 4.0 slot. Even now, some SFF instances nonetheless include PCIe 3.0 risers, which trigger issues when you run your motherboard’s slot in PCIe 4.0 mode.
Cleverly, the Fractal Period 2 has a movable motherboard wall, relying on which elements you need to set up in it. Which means there’s room for as much as 70mm of CPU clearance if you wish to use a two-slot graphics card, however you would set up a triple-slot graphics card with a smaller cooler, or certainly probably the greatest AIO coolers. You possibly can even set up an honest one of many latter, with room for a twin 240mm radiator within the roof.
In the meantime, a big opening within the entrance of the inside cage allows you to set up massive graphics playing cards by passing them by the entrance. At its restrict, the case can maintain a graphics card as much as 326mm lengthy, 137mm vast, and as much as 63mm thick. House efficiencies are additionally launched by the PSU assist, with the case having room for both an SFX or SFX-L energy provide, however not a full-size ATC unit. You will get severely highly effective SFX PSUs nowadays, although, with 1,000W fashions accessible from Corsair, and Cooler Grasp even providing a 1,300W mannequin.
I used to be additionally comfortable to see the case’s entrance ports being genuinely mounted on the entrance, relatively than the highest, which is the place you need them on a PC that’s going to be sat in your desk. What’s extra, one in all them is a full-fat USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 port with a full 20Gbps of bandwidth, which is nice if you wish to plug a speedy exterior SSD into your rig.
Constructing a PC within the Period 2 appears like fairly a fiddly and concerned affair, however Fractal has made it as straightforward as doable by offering quick access to the inside. You pop off the highest walnut panel, flip a swap, after which raise off the 4 foremost partitions (constituted of aluminum) in a single go.
All in all, this appears like an excellent piece of mini-ITX case design to me, however I’ll reserve my ultimate judgment for after I’ve examined it for myself. Within the meantime, try our information to the very best mini gaming PC, the place we run you thru all our favourite SFF and compact rigs proper now.
