today we'll be unboxing the fractal design core 3000 case the first time I
had the pleasure of setting eyes on this case was actually at CES
2011 and uh it was there that fractal
actually launched a ton of new case designs including their Core Series The
Arc series and well mostly the core
series and the arc series The Define XL and the Define R3 were both already on
the market at the time I believe yeah I think so so H here we go
fractal design basically they hit the market
with Smart Designs good value cases
aimed at a silent PC
user with the Core Series as well as the arc series actually they're getting away
from the pure silence image and moving
towards a little bit more of the uh gaming oriented user so you want more
airf flow you want a more uh aggressive
looking case as opposed to just clean Sleek lines well then the Core Series or
the arc series might be for you comes with a user's manual which comes in a
bag and then it comes with a case so that's pretty much all there is to it
once again we are very used to seeing on fractal cases just a clean overall
aesthetic and we are definitely our
expectations are met with the core 3000 so the very front is just a plain
perforated Grill the whole front of the case is made up of airflow vents you can
ah sorry I'm undoing these thumb screws on the side panels here so I'm a little
bit distracted but I'm going to pull off you know what here let's pull off the side panels first we'll look at the
front in a minute cameraman so the side panel
comes off like that no noise dampening material on the inside this is more of a
value oriented case and it is not does not have some of the premium features of
the Define R3 and the Define XL uh let's have a look at the front so you can see
that there are mounting options for two
140 mm fans here in the front Okay you can see those there and you can actually
see one of the fans through the front of the case this I'm not sure how it comes
out but it couldn't be that complicated to figure out probably it comes off like
this I think well well you have to give me a moment to figure that out the front
of the case has a headphone Port microphone Port hard drive
LED power LED reset button power button
and four USB 2.0 ports we've got two 5
and 1/4 in bays and then the rest of this is just made up of filtered airflow
space and other than that is very clean very Sleek looking on the other side we
have mounting holes for a 120 mm or 140 mm fan positioned over the video card
portion of the inside of your chassis I can go ahead and take that off see the
inside uses a very standard mounting system for the side
panel and then on the inside we will find a couple of things so first we'll
find some accessories actually now I'm now I'm
being driven Crazy by this let's go ahead and oh there it goes okay so there
that's how to install another fan actually it looks like the bottom one is
only 120 mil so this is 140 mil and then the bottom spot holds a 120 mil fan so
you can go ahead that comes with a sleeve cable fractal fans are all quite
quiet so even though this is a gamer oriented case it does come with the same
quiet fans as their defined Series so
you can see all of the hard drive mounting cages through here we are using
um let's see three here and then three
on the bottom these are all compatible with 3 and 1/2 in and 2 and 1/2 in
drives also on the inside we find our accessory box which includes motherboard
screws cable ties as well as their PCI
mounted fan controller we've got one 5 and 1/4 to 3 and 1/2 in Bay adapter so
if you still use a floppy drive or if you have a card reader or something like
that you can go ahead and install that in the front these are the drive sleds I
was talking about before so you can see here the mounting holes 1 2 3 4 for 2
and 1/2 in drives or 1 2 3 4 with the
rubber grommets for 3 and 1/2 in drives
on the inside of the case you can see we have room for a standard ATX motherboard
so not a whole lot of extra width so I wouldn't expect to be installing like a
rampage 3 Extreme or anything like that in this case but any standard size ATX
motherboard will fit in just fine speaking of standard size it does have
seven PCI slots at the back so once
again you won't be installing any xlx that is extended length boards but any
normal board will be installed just fine all of your front panel connectors are
here they are all sheathed in black so we've got one two USB we've got our HD
audio for the front panel as well as our power LED reset switch power switch and
all that good stuff the power supply is bottom mounted we've got little rubber
feet here as well as a filtered air intake below the power supply so you'll
be able to install your power supply with the fan facing down which allows it
to take in fresh air from under the case rather than taking in hot air from your
video card or other components they've included all of the whoops we're still
looking here they've included all of the screw mounting holes so you can install
your power supply right side up or upside down whichever fan orientation
you prefer we've got a cutout in the back of the motherboard tray which
allows us to install or uninstall the CPU Cooler even if it has a back plate
without taking the motherboard out as well as up here okay y we've got 120 or
140 mm fan mounts on the top so you can see it comes with a 140 here comes with
the 120 in the back and then here you can put either either another 140 or a
120 mm fan because of the clearance
around this 120 mil fan I wouldn't expect to have any difficulty installing
one of those pre-done up water cooling kits so uh that is definitely a plus
because those can offer an unprecedented balance of silence and performance here
on the back you can see they've actually left a fairly decent amount of space
between the side panel and the motherboard tray as well as providing
these little Loops to attach zip ties to
and then clip down your wires to make sure that your cable management stays
tidy at the back of the case they've included a couple of holes for cable
routing although as I said before this is not as premium a case as the defined
Series so you don't have the rubber grommets to help them make a littleit
look make them look a little bit more stealthy but I think it is a pretty
reasonable compromise to make considering the price of the arc 3000 or
core 3000 thank you for checking out my unboxing of the core 3000 from fractal
design don't forget to subscribe to Linus techtips for more unboxings
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