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
Assembling the Fractal Design Core 1000
When discussing assembling a system in the Fractal Design Core 1000, it's important to make distinctions between the inherent limitations of the form factor and places where Fractal Design could've definitely improved the ease of use. Building a system in a small case is often difficult as a point of fact, and the Micro-ATX board that we use is, while still within spec, a bit on the large side.
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It's never a good sign when assembly is difficult right out of the gate. If you'll look at the top right corner of our motherboard, you'll notice that it's cuddling awfully close to the 5.25" drive cage. To actually get the board in required a decent amount of flexing and maneuvering (mainly of the I/O shield). This was a situation that just a couple more millimeters of case depth could've made all the difference in without anyone really noticing the case was much bigger. If you have a smaller Micro-ATX board this won't be as much of an issue, but it left a bad taste in my mouth from the word "go."
The drive tray was also the source of some frustration, and part of that is due to the fact that the instruction manual included with the Core 1000 doesn't actually have any pictures of the case in it or even describe how assembly is supposed to go. Optical drives are easy enough to install, but the drive cage is initially configured for a pair of 3.5" drives. To install a 2.5" drive, you'll have to remove some of the grommets and then screw the bottom of the drive directly into the tray. For a 3.5" drive, you'll once again have to install the drive laterally and screw it into the bottom. There are no allowances made anywhere in the Core 1000 for installing a controller box like the Corsair Link (which has no bottom-facing mounting holes).
While in the open image it looks like there's clearance for longer video cards than 8.5", in practice that simply isn't the case unless you're willing to sacrifice one or both of the extremely limited internal drive mounts. That probably isn't a major loss; performance-class video cards tend to fit fairly well into the 8.5" envelope as our GeForce GTX 560 Ti proves.
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Wiring up the Core 1000 makes one yearn for a modular power supply simply because there's nowhere to put excess cables except almost directly in front of the intake fan. That's a bit of a problem with our testbed, but modular power supplies still typically command a small price premium (~$10) that could've gone towards a larger and/or easier-to-assemble enclosure. More than that, the cable clutter from a fixed cable PSU has a deleterious effect on one of the Core 1000's strongest points: its airflow design. We could try using a different PSU, but for now we're just going to recommend that interested customers shop around for a good modular power supply.
Finally, that low heatsink clearance did rear its ugly head when I went to close up. Our Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo is by no means an extravagant cooler or even one of the largest ones on the market, but its 159mm height caused the tops of the heatpipes to press against the side panel, bowing it outward a little. I was still able to secure the panel, but end users are going to want to look into a smaller tower-style heatsink like the Xigmatek Loki to really maximize the Core 1000.
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Fractal Design has, to their credit, produced a very small and inexpensive enclosure that allows for a decent amount of power. I do feel like three minor changes could've been implemented to make this enclosure easier to work with and more flexible at the same time. First, add an extra 5mm to the depth and width of the enclosure to allow "full-sized" Micro-ATX boards to go in with less difficulty and inexpensive, efficient 160mm tower-style heatsinks to fit. Second, remove the second 5.25" drive bay (and correspondingly the adaptor plate and tray), as this will both save building costs and potentially allow for a reconfigured storage design. While you do lose some flexibility, given the small form factor I think it's probably worth the trade off. Third, rewrite the instruction manual to make it easier to understand how the enclosure is supposed to go together. It's entirely possible I'm not the brightest torch in the cave, but I didn't like having to go online to see exactly how the drive tray was intended to be used.
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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?