Fractal Torrent Compact Case Review: Just One Problem
video description
Date: 2022-02-27
Related videos
Comments and reviews: 10
chippster
I went with the larger Torrent case, but had this one added to my cart by mistake, I cought my error before I checked out, but it looks like I would have been fine either way, one thing about adding more cable management space, and that would be nice, if they did this, you would have less room for cpu cooler height? in looking this over the d15 air cpu cooler with the optional heatsink cover will stand 165mm, the larger case has clearance of 188mm, seems to have a little room here for R and D, but not much. what I think would work better, is an optional cable management bracket, that replaced the spinner hard drive sleds, I don't think most people have use for them, other than video production, post work, or IT ? in music production I have been solid state for years now, at work , all workstations have been solid state for about the last 5 years. I for one would give up the spinner sleds for a cable management compartment.....just my take, thanks for the video Steve.
reply
I went with the larger Torrent case, but had this one added to my cart by mistake, I cought my error before I checked out, but it looks like I would have been fine either way, one thing about adding more cable management space, and that would be nice, if they did this, you would have less room for cpu cooler height? in looking this over the d15 air cpu cooler with the optional heatsink cover will stand 165mm, the larger case has clearance of 188mm, seems to have a little room here for R and D, but not much. what I think would work better, is an optional cable management bracket, that replaced the spinner hard drive sleds, I don't think most people have use for them, other than video production, post work, or IT ? in music production I have been solid state for years now, at work , all workstations have been solid state for about the last 5 years. I for one would give up the spinner sleds for a cable management compartment.....just my take, thanks for the video Steve.
reply
Twigg
One note about tempered glass. One of my hobbies is fish keeping. Aquariums use tempered glass for the bottom sheet because of how strong it is. A 50 gallon aquarium puts 0.59 PSI of pressure on the glass due to the weight of the water. Larger tanks put even more pressure. What tempered glass really doesn't like is ununiform pressure. That's why you can smack it with a hammer and it'll be fine, but an icepick with a half as much force will cause it to shatter. A bulge in your panel won't necessarily lead to it shattering. When you fill aquariums, the glass literally bulges out from the weight of the water a quarter of an inch or more depending on the capacity of the tank. People build frameless tempered glass tanks. All depends on the thickness of the glass.
reply
One note about tempered glass. One of my hobbies is fish keeping. Aquariums use tempered glass for the bottom sheet because of how strong it is. A 50 gallon aquarium puts 0.59 PSI of pressure on the glass due to the weight of the water. Larger tanks put even more pressure. What tempered glass really doesn't like is ununiform pressure. That's why you can smack it with a hammer and it'll be fine, but an icepick with a half as much force will cause it to shatter. A bulge in your panel won't necessarily lead to it shattering. When you fill aquariums, the glass literally bulges out from the weight of the water a quarter of an inch or more depending on the capacity of the tank. People build frameless tempered glass tanks. All depends on the thickness of the glass.
reply
yellowshka
the o11d is extremely popular and i have the o11 mini. uphere fans are a game changer. i have two 140mm and five 120mm uphere fans. and two 120mm fans from the 240 aio. that's a total of 9 fans. because uphere fans are so cheap, it might be interesting to see how case temperatures might change when increasing fan count to the maximum additional uphere fans/ and running at low speed (my cheap fan controller has low and high speed. i use low speed to keep the noise level down). your testing needs to be controlled; however, because uphere fans are so cheap, even budget builds can afford to have the maximum additional fans. quality vs quantity. except for cheap fans, almost all my build came from your recommended list. thanks g.n.
reply
the o11d is extremely popular and i have the o11 mini. uphere fans are a game changer. i have two 140mm and five 120mm uphere fans. and two 120mm fans from the 240 aio. that's a total of 9 fans. because uphere fans are so cheap, it might be interesting to see how case temperatures might change when increasing fan count to the maximum additional uphere fans/ and running at low speed (my cheap fan controller has low and high speed. i use low speed to keep the noise level down). your testing needs to be controlled; however, because uphere fans are so cheap, even budget builds can afford to have the maximum additional fans. quality vs quantity. except for cheap fans, almost all my build came from your recommended list. thanks g.n.
reply
Emblem
I built a Fractal Meshify 2 rig today. Having experience with mostly compact Fractal cases in the past (yeah yeah I'm a fan; I have a soft sport for their designs, sue me) using a large case today was suuuuuuch a breath of fresh air. Cable management was a pleasure, not a challenge. Everything was easily reachable. My rule-of-thumb advice is to buy the biggest case you can. If you don't absolutely positively 110% need a smaller case due to space constraints, do yourself a favor and go big. You will not regret it. (BTW, the Meshify 2 is smaller than the Torrent. The Torrent is kinda especially humongous.)
reply
I built a Fractal Meshify 2 rig today. Having experience with mostly compact Fractal cases in the past (yeah yeah I'm a fan; I have a soft sport for their designs, sue me) using a large case today was suuuuuuch a breath of fresh air. Cable management was a pleasure, not a challenge. Everything was easily reachable. My rule-of-thumb advice is to buy the biggest case you can. If you don't absolutely positively 110% need a smaller case due to space constraints, do yourself a favor and go big. You will not regret it. (BTW, the Meshify 2 is smaller than the Torrent. The Torrent is kinda especially humongous.)
reply
equisetum
Can someone give me some advice? I have a phanteks enthoo pro full tower and I need to do sth because the acrylic panel is scratched and the paintjob is also a bit used. Was thinking of a new case, but I already have 3x140mm noctua pmw14 chromax fans and a 240 mm aio and overall my old case performs flawlessly. Is there a case that can come without fans so I can use my old setup? Enthoo Pro Is a very big case, would like to buy sth a bit smaller this time but with good cable managment options. Thats why Torrent is a no go for me.
reply
Can someone give me some advice? I have a phanteks enthoo pro full tower and I need to do sth because the acrylic panel is scratched and the paintjob is also a bit used. Was thinking of a new case, but I already have 3x140mm noctua pmw14 chromax fans and a 240 mm aio and overall my old case performs flawlessly. Is there a case that can come without fans so I can use my old setup? Enthoo Pro Is a very big case, would like to buy sth a bit smaller this time but with good cable managment options. Thats why Torrent is a no go for me.
reply
kodongo
This would be my perfect case with a few minor adjustments :
- widen the case to 235 mm (instead of 222 mm) to allow 33 mm of cable routing space behind the motherboard
- option for clear tempered glass on the frontside of the case (right-hand side of the case )
- option for no tempered glass in the backside of the case (left-hand side of the case )
The Fractal Torrent Compact is a great case but with a few small changes it would be so much more practical to use and versatile in its usage.
[ edited for clarity]
reply
This would be my perfect case with a few minor adjustments :
- widen the case to 235 mm (instead of 222 mm) to allow 33 mm of cable routing space behind the motherboard
- option for clear tempered glass on the frontside of the case (right-hand side of the case )
- option for no tempered glass in the backside of the case (left-hand side of the case )
The Fractal Torrent Compact is a great case but with a few small changes it would be so much more practical to use and versatile in its usage.
[ edited for clarity]
reply
hey
I know these compact cases from Fractal get a lot of praise. But it annoys me in that there's really no reason they couldn't make these compacts about an inch bigger in height and depth to get rid of virtually all gpu and aio compatibilities while still remaining compact . I don't want or need one of their full sized cases that's almost 2 ft deep. But I would like a compact case where I don't have to worry about the length of gpu or if I could mount a 280mm rad at the top.
reply
I know these compact cases from Fractal get a lot of praise. But it annoys me in that there's really no reason they couldn't make these compacts about an inch bigger in height and depth to get rid of virtually all gpu and aio compatibilities while still remaining compact . I don't want or need one of their full sized cases that's almost 2 ft deep. But I would like a compact case where I don't have to worry about the length of gpu or if I could mount a 280mm rad at the top.
reply
Jafnv gi
Good timing, I had just picked one up in white (which I believe does have a steel back panel) for an all air-cooled build, so we'll see how it fares. I'm coming from a Meshify C (original) so from reviews I can already see ways it's more convenient to work with comparatively but also now I can see how cable management may be a challenge...maybe not as bad as some old school cases but I bet it'll be fine with some planning. Cheers!
reply
Good timing, I had just picked one up in white (which I believe does have a steel back panel) for an all air-cooled build, so we'll see how it fares. I'm coming from a Meshify C (original) so from reviews I can already see ways it's more convenient to work with comparatively but also now I can see how cable management may be a challenge...maybe not as bad as some old school cases but I bet it'll be fine with some planning. Cheers!
reply
colemanerik
How is the grounding between the case frame and motherboard tray? The company I work for used to build PC's with the R4 case and found bad grounding which caused our National Instrument PCI cards to give bad readings. We had to connect a wire between the tray and the case frame. It was caused by the coating they give the metal and was curious if they ever fixed the problem.
reply
How is the grounding between the case frame and motherboard tray? The company I work for used to build PC's with the R4 case and found bad grounding which caused our National Instrument PCI cards to give bad readings. We had to connect a wire between the tray and the case frame. It was caused by the coating they give the metal and was curious if they ever fixed the problem.
reply
Chaos
It seems like we should be having much less cable work in cases by now and be using things like backplanes with maybe short jumpers to components. Nearly everything is standard enough that it wouldn't take much more. At least for a baseline setup. Cabling would always be an option for more advanced setups but MB/GPU/1-4SATA could require 0 internal cables at all.
reply
It seems like we should be having much less cable work in cases by now and be using things like backplanes with maybe short jumpers to components. Nearly everything is standard enough that it wouldn't take much more. At least for a baseline setup. Cabling would always be an option for more advanced setups but MB/GPU/1-4SATA could require 0 internal cables at all.
reply
Add a review, comment
Other channel videos
