like any of our case reviews this video about the fractal design core 3500
starts with the package if you know what I
mean the Corsair flash Voyager go is the
easy way to move photos music and videos between your Android device and your PC
click now to learn more of course I meant the Box fractal
uses a hard foam here that isn't my favorite close cell foam
would be that but considering the price point of the case and the expected
weight of a completed system it should keep your goods well protected in
transit if you know what I mean inuendo aside though once we get the case out of
the box we're greeted by the traditional clean lined fractal design aesthetic the
front features a brushed plastic finish 2 5 and 1/4 in Drive Bays a small logo
that seems to be designed to be easily replaced with something else are we
targeting system Builders here fractal and long filtered mesh strips that will
feed the included front 140 mm fan and the optional second mount underneath it
with fresh air the mesh looks good but it's the first of a number of things I
noticed about the case that just aren't up to the usual fractal design standard
much like on my wife's older Ark midi the dust filter system for those front
intakes can't be easily removed for cleaning and because the mesh is so fine
you can expect some Wicked dust to visibly build up there I'm also not a
huge fan of the top of the case as a cat owner top iio is already not my favorite
thing in the world but having the power and reset buttons so close together and
so easily accidentally pressed feels like a move from the 2010 case
manufacturing Playbook rather than the 2014 one and the fan mounts up here
which support dual 140 or 120 mm fans
and up to a dual 120 mm radiator just
didn't seem robust enough to handle the
weight of our closed looped water cooling system the way it flexes might
have been F on a $70 case where I'd be thankful to have rad mounts at all but
this one has an MSRP of $90 the outside
isn't all bad though the right side panel is solid and black just the way I
like him while the left one has a large slightly tinted window that I found
quite tasteful on the bottom we find plastic feet and what is now a more
traditional pull it out of the back when you need to clean it fan filter then on
the back we've got a noise isolated Power Supply Mount seven expansion slots
a second included 140 mm fan and a fan
control switch whose location is going to put the core 3500 back on board the
Pain Train let's open her up shall we
this this fan controller I don't say
this kind of thing often so when I do I
hope manufacturers pay attention fractal
I love you guys but what were you thinking these are some examples of the
100 more sensible places you could have put this it's got a green PCB that's
visible from the window the Molex connector sits either next to your power
supply or it runs across your PCI slots
and the fan leads aside from being impossible to Cable manage nicely have
some of the worst sleeving I've ever seen on a fractal product it's this
inflexible heat shrink stuff that doesn't even go to the end of the
colored wires the only good thing about the included fan controller is that we
used an ASUS motherboard in this build which has onboard fan control and the
wire harnesses come off so we only have to look at the unsightly PCB instead of
the entire thing actually you can take the PCB out too it just leaves a little
hole in the case so that's another good thing about it and there's some other
bad stuff in here too the 5 and 1/4 in Bays don't Inspire much confidence and
the clearance for both the top mounted and front mounted radiators could be
better with the top rat installed it is impossible to access the top portion of
our board we could barely even get it in with the 8 Pin power connector
pre-installed and for the front mounted rad you need to shift the hard drive
cage inward for it to fit which will interfere with a second high-end
graphics card and this could be a problem if your whole reason for
installing another Radiator in the front is that you want your SLI or Crossfire
setup to be adequately cooled but like the outside the inside isn't all bad the
solidity of the 3 and 1/2 in and 2 and 1/2 in Drive cage is among the best I've
ever seen at least when it's screwed into the front of the chassis the
included rubber grommets ample space behind the motherboard tray and metal
Loops for zip ties make Cable Management pretty easy funny note here actually
fractal includes exactly as many plastic zip ties in the Box as the case has
metal Loops I I definitely L about that but then I stopped laughing as I was
working on cable management at the back and realized that the Dual 2 and 1
halfin SSD mounts on the back of the motherboard tray are the older style
screwing from the front oh wait I already have a motherboard
installed I guess I'll use velcro motherboard SSD mounts these just plain
aren't very good the bottom one can't be accessed if you have a power supply
installed even though the case's manual tells you to put the power supply in
first and even if you did have the foresight to install your SSD first the
connectors are so flat to the back of the motherboard tray that you'd be
putting quite a bit of strain on them if you tried to plug them in and they
weren't completely flat many power connectors are like this this was a
disappointment especially when fractal design has cases with much better
implementations the good news I guess is that there's a two and a half mount in
the second optical drive bay that's unlikely to be used so folks with only
one SSD won't have to use up a 3 and 1 12 mm Mount and they won't have to use
the back of the motherboard tray so with all that said I guess it's conclusion
time I've spent a lot of this video on nitpicky stuff I don't like like the
motherboard standoffs not being pre installed rather than looking at the
bigger picture and I feel like I should take a step back for a moment it's not
like the core 3500 is a terrible case if
you like the aesthetic you could find much worse options out there at this
price but I guess these little issues were so hard for me to accept because
fractal isn't new to the case manufacturing game anymore they should
be experienced enough to realize that if your PCI thumb screws are installed with
power tools at the factory then putting a f controller in the way of getting a
screwdriver in there is going to mean that every Builder will need to remove
that fan controller to install their graphics card for the first time and
that's my problem here I expected fractal to blow me away with their
design and Innovation again and that just wasn't the case speaking of cases
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too so that's pretty much it guys thank you very much for watching like this
video if you liked it dislike it if you disliked it leave a comment let me know
was I too hard on the core 3500 did I beat it up too much does it look like a
great case to you I mean I hit myself on the fan I mean the build quality is good
I mean there's all you know the metals folded over like it's it's not a bad
case so let me know do you think I do you think I judged it too harshly and
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