Fractal Design Core 1000: How Little is Too Little
by Dustin Sklavos on April 13, 2012 11:35 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- MicroATX
- Mini-Tower
- Fractal Design
Conclusion: A Strange Balancing Act
Producing a good enclosure for the extreme budget sector of the market is, as far as I can tell, an incredibly difficult balancing act. There's a lot of balancing that honestly goes on with any enclosure south of $150, but the latitude you have with which to work just gets smaller and smaller, and when you eventually get down to the $40 price tag that the Fractal Design Core 1000 is sitting at, you start actually having to see if the case supports everything you specifically need.
I don't think the Core 1000 is a bad case by any stretch of the imagination, and it's definitely in the running for the smallest case you can buy at the lowest price. So if you want something small at the exclusion of virtually all else, I just don't see how you're going to beat it. The cooling system is also, at least on paper and mostly in practice, very efficient and a far cry from the old school cheapo boxes with a single sad 80mm exhaust fan in the back. Finally, the build quality is actually quite good, and Fractal Design includes a lot of trimmings that some of you may appreciate.
The problem is that I feel like those trimmings came at too high a cost, and that in a broader sense I'm just not sure the Core 1000 is competitive with more generic budget cases. Much is sacrificed to get this low, and I'm not talking about niceties, either; I'm talking about not being able to have more than two 3.5" hard drives, the one component users are most apt to keep adding over time. The difficulty of installing a full-size mATX motherboard is also a problem, and putting the I/O ports on the right side of the case is a mistake in our opinion. The only other case we've reviewed in this price bracket is the BitFenix Outlaw, which at $10 more is still a slam dunk over the Core 1000 as far as I'm concerned, unless the jump to full ATX is too much.
At $40 it's hard to necessarily go wrong with the Core 1000, and I have no doubt that some users are going to point to this case and say, "See! You don't need to spend more than $40 to get a good case!" The problem is that the Core 1000 is also difficult to work in and with even by Micro-ATX standards and it's frankly pretty noisy for higher spec components. Basically, you need to choose you components and set your expectations properly if you're in the market for this sort of system; we'd recommend a slightly smaller mATX motherboard along with a modular PSU, a modest CPU and GPU, and don't get a large tower cooler. Even then, we feel Fractal Design makes better cases that are better values, but it's like the old saying goes: you get what you pay for. If what you want is an inexpensive mATX case, the Core 1000 is worth a look; just be sure you understand the compromises made with such a platform.
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sicofante - Friday, April 13, 2012 - link
Sharkoon makes two models almost identical to the one reviewed here, the MS120 and MS140. The differences are: front ports are actually at the front, and the HDD tray is not removable. Otherwise, the manufacturer is obviously the same. The MS120 has two 120mm fans at the front. The MS140 has a single 140mm fan.http://www.sharkoon.com/?q=en/content/ms120
http://www.sharkoon.com/?q=en/content/ms140
I found them while searching for an alternative to the Fractal Design model because of the side ports. The price is virtually the same too.
Sabresiberian - Saturday, April 14, 2012 - link
Haha "almost identical" - except the ports, the hard drive tray, and the fans?Sorry, not really picking on you but that made me laugh.
There seems to be this thing these days about using words or phrases like "identical" and "exactly like" when those adjectives don't apply at all. It either makes me laugh, or if it's someone with a computer problem I'm trying to help, it makes me roll my eyes; It seems to me that when someone says something like "My friend Joe Bob has a computer exactly like mine, and it doesn't do that", I find out that Joe Bob's computer is only alike, most often, in that they are both computers.
;)
sicofante - Sunday, April 15, 2012 - link
Have you even checked the links?The boxes are identical indeed where it matters: the architecture of the chassis. It's the finishing that changes, exactly on the places where it's needed by many (front ports or fan choice, and the tray being removal or not). So "almost identical" is exactly the right expression here.
valinor89 - Friday, April 13, 2012 - link
Well, if it has decent thermal and acoustic qualities and everything I need fits inside I don't need much more. I have allways used crappy boxes and I put them on the desk besyde me.I just use headphones when playing or up the volume when I'm alone.
I prefer to spend my money on a better GPU than on a box which I open once in a wile to clean. I usually avoid changing the mobo or CPU as far as I can so ease of use is not a factor for me.
If I had to change those every week I would tell you diferent but...
The only problem I see is the lack of USB 3 but I can allways use the rear ports if I need to.
Rick83 - Friday, April 13, 2012 - link
You might want to be able to fit a mATX mainboard though ;)This, depending on the specific board, is apparently very tricky, due to the missing few millimeters of overall length.
So, there's probably other boxes that may be slightly better, within this same price bracket.
Sabresiberian - Saturday, April 14, 2012 - link
I tend to agree that if you want to save money on your build, the case is the best place to do that, because it least effects the quality when your system is up and running. The potential problems are, of course, cooling and noise, especially cooling, as a system that's too noisy for you will still run, but poor ventilation can stop you dead.That being said, a case lasts a long time, and can easily be used for several builds. I have an Antec that's around 10 years old that I still use, and I don't see why I couldn't use it, aesthetics aside, for another 20 - except it's too small for my main computer build. Back then, overclocking-intentional CPU coolers weren't half the size of a shoebox, and I wasn't thinking about a multiple graphics card setup, or even having more than 2 hard drives (one was enough for me at the time). The cooling design is weak, and I've heavily modified it for the build that it holds now..
So, if I buy a case today, I want a case that will be able to handle all I can foresee doing with it, which really means a 10-slot case. I want it to be able to fit whatever PSU and cooling solution I put in it. I may actually build in that case for the rest of my computer building life. Viewed with all those points in mind, how expensive is a $200-300 case, when it lasts me at least a decade?
Viewed that way, such an investment could be seen as the cheapest way to go, in that it gives me more proverbial bang for my buck, and it will be very unlikely that I need to replace it for hardware build reasons. Regardless, viewed as $30 a year, a case price of $300 isn't all that much, even if your income and budget make a $300 price tag a big deal for you..
;)
PubFiction - Saturday, April 14, 2012 - link
I think most people skimp on the case and PSU, Neither has much effect on performance. The problem I see with this is that, the case is the one item you can carry through multiple builds without any problems. It also has a decent resale value, a good case is almost always good. So I prefer to buy a good case I like and then skip on one of the parts that will be replaced in a year or so anyway like the GPU.Taft12 - Friday, April 13, 2012 - link
My cousin has this case, and I have a very different opinion than Dustin. It's absolutely perfect for any low-mid range system. Many of the complaints are about things nobody should be doing with a $40 mATX case:-aftermarket tower-style 120mm CPU cooler
-higher-end video card with 2 PCIE power connectors
-more than 2 hard drives
For anything up to and including a Llano or i3 system with or without a no-power-connector video card, I couldn't name a better case since it fits in the budget perfectly. Even a modular PSU is not budget-appropriate, but I expect readers of this site would know to use a zip tie to bundle up all those unused connectors and stuff it into the space between the top of the case and the optical drive.
If we move up a notch to an i5 or FX CPU plus a HD6850 or better video card, a $40 case is no longer in line with the budget, and we'll move up to something with the frills Dustin has been spoiled by that come with cases 2-5x more expensive.
Looks great of course, much better than anything you could find at Newegg at a <$50 price point.
Dustin Sklavos - Friday, April 13, 2012 - link
I'd be willing to concede on some of those points, but I've known too many people that keep adding more hard drives, and a thermal design like this one benefits strongly from a tower style heatsink.Meaker10 - Friday, April 13, 2012 - link
At the same time, so long as you are not in the business of replacing the cooler often, what difference does it make?