Fractal Design Core 3000 Gaming Computer Case Unboxing & First Look Linus Tech Tips
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2012-05-07
·
1,345 words · ~6 min read
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today we'll be unboxing the fractal design core 3000 case the first time I
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had the pleasure of setting eyes on this case was actually at CES
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2011 and uh it was there that fractal
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actually launched a ton of new case designs including their Core Series The
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Arc series and well mostly the core
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series and the arc series The Define XL and the Define R3 were both already on
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the market at the time I believe yeah I think so so H here we go
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fractal design basically they hit the market
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with Smart Designs good value cases
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aimed at a silent PC
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user with the Core Series as well as the arc series actually they're getting away
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from the pure silence image and moving
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towards a little bit more of the uh gaming oriented user so you want more
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airf flow you want a more uh aggressive
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looking case as opposed to just clean Sleek lines well then the Core Series or
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the arc series might be for you comes with a user's manual which comes in a
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bag and then it comes with a case so that's pretty much all there is to it
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once again we are very used to seeing on fractal cases just a clean overall
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aesthetic and we are definitely our
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expectations are met with the core 3000 so the very front is just a plain
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perforated Grill the whole front of the case is made up of airflow vents you can
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ah sorry I'm undoing these thumb screws on the side panels here so I'm a little
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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
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front in a minute cameraman so the side panel
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comes off like that no noise dampening material on the inside this is more of a
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value oriented case and it is not does not have some of the premium features of
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the Define R3 and the Define XL uh let's have a look at the front so you can see
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that there are mounting options for two
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140 mm fans here in the front Okay you can see those there and you can actually
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see one of the fans through the front of the case this I'm not sure how it comes
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out but it couldn't be that complicated to figure out probably it comes off like
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this I think well well you have to give me a moment to figure that out the front
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of the case has a headphone Port microphone Port hard drive
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LED power LED reset button power button
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and four USB 2.0 ports we've got two 5
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and 1/4 in bays and then the rest of this is just made up of filtered airflow
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space and other than that is very clean very Sleek looking on the other side we
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have mounting holes for a 120 mm or 140 mm fan positioned over the video card
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portion of the inside of your chassis I can go ahead and take that off see the
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inside uses a very standard mounting system for the side
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panel and then on the inside we will find a couple of things so first we'll
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find some accessories actually now I'm now I'm
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being driven Crazy by this let's go ahead and oh there it goes okay so there
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that's how to install another fan actually it looks like the bottom one is
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only 120 mil so this is 140 mil and then the bottom spot holds a 120 mil fan so
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you can go ahead that comes with a sleeve cable fractal fans are all quite
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quiet so even though this is a gamer oriented case it does come with the same
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quiet fans as their defined Series so
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you can see all of the hard drive mounting cages through here we are using
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um let's see three here and then three
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on the bottom these are all compatible with 3 and 1/2 in and 2 and 1/2 in
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drives also on the inside we find our accessory box which includes motherboard
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screws cable ties as well as their PCI
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mounted fan controller we've got one 5 and 1/4 to 3 and 1/2 in Bay adapter so
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if you still use a floppy drive or if you have a card reader or something like
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that you can go ahead and install that in the front these are the drive sleds I
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was talking about before so you can see here the mounting holes 1 2 3 4 for 2
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and 1/2 in drives or 1 2 3 4 with the
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rubber grommets for 3 and 1/2 in drives
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on the inside of the case you can see we have room for a standard ATX motherboard
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so not a whole lot of extra width so I wouldn't expect to be installing like a
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rampage 3 Extreme or anything like that in this case but any standard size ATX
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motherboard will fit in just fine speaking of standard size it does have
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seven PCI slots at the back so once
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again you won't be installing any xlx that is extended length boards but any
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normal board will be installed just fine all of your front panel connectors are
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here they are all sheathed in black so we've got one two USB we've got our HD
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audio for the front panel as well as our power LED reset switch power switch and
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all that good stuff the power supply is bottom mounted we've got little rubber
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feet here as well as a filtered air intake below the power supply so you'll
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be able to install your power supply with the fan facing down which allows it
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to take in fresh air from under the case rather than taking in hot air from your
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video card or other components they've included all of the whoops we're still
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looking here they've included all of the screw mounting holes so you can install
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your power supply right side up or upside down whichever fan orientation
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you prefer we've got a cutout in the back of the motherboard tray which
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allows us to install or uninstall the CPU Cooler even if it has a back plate
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without taking the motherboard out as well as up here okay y we've got 120 or
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140 mm fan mounts on the top so you can see it comes with a 140 here comes with
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the 120 in the back and then here you can put either either another 140 or a
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120 mm fan because of the clearance
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around this 120 mil fan I wouldn't expect to have any difficulty installing
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one of those pre-done up water cooling kits so uh that is definitely a plus
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because those can offer an unprecedented balance of silence and performance here
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on the back you can see they've actually left a fairly decent amount of space
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between the side panel and the motherboard tray as well as providing
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these little Loops to attach zip ties to
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and then clip down your wires to make sure that your cable management stays
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tidy at the back of the case they've included a couple of holes for cable
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routing although as I said before this is not as premium a case as the defined
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Series so you don't have the rubber grommets to help them make a littleit
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look make them look a little bit more stealthy but I think it is a pretty
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reasonable compromise to make considering the price of the arc 3000 or
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core 3000 thank you for checking out my unboxing of the core 3000 from fractal
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design don't forget to subscribe to Linus techtips for more unboxings
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