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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Iketh - Friday, April 13, 2012 - link
^ThisPLEASE GET RID OF SIDE VENTS, THX
Casper42 - Friday, April 13, 2012 - link
I agree as well.I think if this case was like a 1/4 inch wider, they could have gone with a 120mm Exhaust and all but eliminated the need for the side port.
If they had either dropped to 1 optical bay or made the case a smidge taller, they would have completely avoided the problem with the Optical bay mount contacting the Mobo. The reviewer said to make the case longer, which might help for his mobo, but someone comes out with a mobo thats slightly longer and that plan goes to hell. Make the case a smidge taller and virtually any mATX board will now fit because you are under the 5.25 bay.
My ideal mATX Case would have 1 5.25" Optical bay, 4 HDD mounts and 2 x 120/140mm intakes on the front.
Then 120mm exhaust above the IO shield and some perforations above the PCIe slots so any lingering GPU heat can be pushed out due to positive pressure.
On a normal ATX case, something I don't think most if any case builders have figured out is that you can really easily fit a 92mm fan in 4 empty PCIe slots mounted either inside or outside the case. This helps again with exhausting latent GPU heat.
I'm a big proponent of traditional front to back cooling.
JarredWalton - Friday, April 13, 2012 - link
I'm not sure it was intended as a negative; Dustin is merely pointing out the various aspects of this small enclosure that you don't get. I'd agree that the lack of bottom/top/right vents isn't a bad thing for the intended market. That's sort of the point: don't get this type of case for a high-end setup. Know the limitations (i.e. it works best with a smaller mATX mobo and modular PSU) and set your expectations accordingly.Spivonious - Friday, April 13, 2012 - link
Can we get something listed with each case for the size? Obviously a full ATX case is going to cool better than a tiny mATX case.Leyawiin - Friday, April 13, 2012 - link
Pop in an i3-21XX and a compact card like an HD 7850 and you'd have a decent little system. Both have pretty modest thermal output in relation to their performance.Silenus - Friday, April 13, 2012 - link
I recently built a gaming system for a friend with this case. We were trying to keep it as small as possible while squeezing the budget as much as possible. In it are:Z68 board, i5-2500k overclocked, 92mm tower cooler, Radeon HD 6850, 2 x 3.5" hard drives.
All told it works great. It is definitely tight but with some care taken on install and cable management it all works nicely. There is no room for expansion but we knew this going in. For the money and size it's a nice budget option IMO.
TrackSmart - Friday, April 13, 2012 - link
Sounds like a great build, though probably more CPU and GPU than I would have put in this little case - particularly with the overclock! I would have imagined something akin to a Core i3 + 6750/6770 and no overclock (i.e. a true budget system with modest gaming chops).Your build should be within the thermal limits, even if a bit hot, based on Dustin's overclocked configuration. If you have some thermal numbers for gaming situations (i.e. CPU/GPU temperatures) I'd love to see them.
marc1000 - Friday, April 13, 2012 - link
I still dont understand how is it possible to fit 2 drives in there. the drives will go with the cables coming to the BACK of the case, is that it? wouldn't they interfere with the cables for the GPU?Belard - Friday, April 13, 2012 - link
Or its sister case, TJ08B-E?These mini-towers will only hold mATX motherboards (4 slot), and in reality - most people simply don't need 7/8 slot boards anymore. We can do SLI/CF with many mATX boards nowadays. I remember the says of having the HUGE Antec cases that were heavy and required 4 LOUD cooling fans to keep things... cool.
I've gone as small as i can with my Antec P150, which has a regular ATX board that has never had anything more than a single video card nor a 2nd optical drive.
I've seen this SS SST-PS07B in a FRYs store, it looks great inside and out... its $95, but doesn't look cheap at all. Includes 2 huge front fans with a easy to remove & clean filter. I'd prefer round power buttons, but oh well. It does have 2 USB 3 ports on the front.
There is room for cable management in this flipped motherboard layout (Case opens from the right side, mobo upside-down).
About this review on the Core 1000... it doesn't look good. Spend $5 more and get a much bigger HAF912 or an Antec 300. There are some people who will side mounted ports. I have my P150 inches from my keyboard. I wouldn't mind having the SS replace it (I think) as long as it performs well and can hold 3-4 SSD/HDs.
Hence noise is important to me. My case is almost silent. There are louder things in my home, my room and outside. Reasons for a case OFF the floor is dirt, easy access to drives/ports, pets - like dogs can mean more hair getting into the vents. Cases on desks don't get kicked. Kids knocking into cases.
Each their own... as people have different needs. A friend has little needs, but has a HUGE Thermaltake tower from 6+ years ago that is heavy... it'll hold 8 HDs easily. But he wants no computers on his desks... So we'll soon gut it out and stick in an i5-35xx in their soon. :)
Dustin Sklavos - Friday, April 13, 2012 - link
Covered them both.Look for TJ08-E and PS07 in our search bar.