Watch the Fractal Meshify 2 non-XL case review here (and get more info on build quality): ruclips.net/video/qTW2KHGzbM0/видео.html Article: www.gamersnexus.net/hwreviews/3635-fractal-meshify-2-xl-large-case-review
@@JustTechGuyThings I still watch them even though I used their suggestion to get the p400a just last month! Never know when you'll put together a new computer, so best to stay informed!
I Bought The Fractal XLR 2 a fuw years ago for a dual xeon server build with a supermicro X8DTH-6F Bord & i still had to add 2 standoffs But it has Dual 6 core cpus (X5675's) & 10Gb Nic and a Quadro & It Has Ran.Still Running Quit as a Church Mouse 24/7 For Years now & I Really Love The XLR 2 Case ! I Also Have 2 Newer SM Dual Xeon's With Other Cases But The Fractal Workes Really Well For Server Duty A Lot Less Than My SuperMicro 24bay case thats for sure
Neat! I can chime in on this one for a change. I've built 2 systems this year (EATX Godlike in a the Enthoo) (ATX Unify in the Meshify 2). Simply put, Phanteks I preferred. More options, better build & lastly, it looked better. Both towers used Noctua &/or Scythe for better air low. That improved both builds. Both cases are decent. The Enthoo felt better, easier with class.
I think Nyc has the smallest rooms that people paid rent for. I live in SF, pretty rough what 1200 bucks gets you. One room out of 5 in a house. That's a good deal. 🙄😂
@@asdf51501 That 2,000 USD is pretty basic, non-harbour (brick wall) view. For something livable with a Harbour view, you're looking at 4,000 to 5,000 USD per month for 1000 square feet with 3 bedrooms. Fittings and finish wouldn't be that great, certainly not "well appointed".
(pre video)That case looks large enough to stash multiple storage arrays without anyone noticing!(after watching video) storage plus radiators plus everything but the kitchen sink fits🤣
I want 6 HDDs in my case and the ability to custom water cool a CPU and GPU, but also have air flow, and that's a hard combo to find these days. I wish they made these without temper glass, because I don't need to see inside my work station and if it was a steel side panel I could drill my own side fan ventilation, even if everyone is too scared to do it stock!
@@XDSDDLord design your own case it's what I decided to do. Sheet metal and rivets or composite construction is completely practical. With composites you only need a uv stabilizer in the resin, and metal can easily be coated with a automotive product or duracoat. The near future is going to be anything but bright might as well build a custom PC.
@@camouflagecamaro99 he doesn’t use it because it’s the best out there, he uses it because he’s been using it forever and doesn’t want to change it and affect all new testing
"Come join the future" where everything is cloud, you own nothing, and it can disappear any moment the big company or anyone in between changes their mind. Uhm, no thanks.
With the trays removed the HDD cages can be removed through the front opening where the plastic covers are, no need to go out the back if the PSU is installed
Thanks, GN. I appreciate the consistent case reviews as always. I just wish someone would start doing these populating all the fan positions, too. Good fans can be had easily nowadays, like the 5 packs of Arctic P12/14
Yeah I bought mine a couple weeks ago. I can't fit my gpu rad to the front so I had to use the rear fan. Also I could t fit that in a push pull config either. I have a clc 360 for cpu cooler that gets in the way but I'm gonna try to slide it all the way to the front on the top, and try to put the 120 rad up there too but I don't think it'll fit. But I'm hopeful. If not, I really don't know what I can do while it can fit all these I guess you also should check the tube length because unless it's a custom loop I'm not sure if you can use the front for rad mounts. If anyone is interested if a 360 and 120 rad will fit on top lemme know and I'll try to update when I do it.
Its amazing I have it too. Even rendering nonstop with my gpu the temp of my gpu stays at 60°C while the fans of the case only run at 50% speed it is pretty neat. But it is not a silent case so you have to be ok with the noise especially if you have x570 board with a fan on it.
@@robertandrews6915 Pease could you guide about the motherboard/RAM clearance with top mounted 280/360/420 radiator. I am planning for a 420mm arctic cooler and meshify 2 and the manual says that the clearance is only 36mm. Even if I get the low height corsiar RAM, now I am not sure if the motherboard itself will fit due to large heatsink+shroud in top part of the board. I will change to meshify XL so that 420 rad can mount in front and motherboard+RAM will have not issues in clearances. (wish they had made some arrangements to make the wider rads fit instead of limiting the RAM height) planned PC is 5950X+Gigabyte B550 Aorus prov2/master, teamgroup 3600 Za RAM, meshify 2 case, arctic freezer 420 AIO...
Love large tower cases. It doubles as a foot rest and extra tabletop. Plenty of room to easily install and remove components. The XL and mid-tower version are pretty much your best choice for a media server with proper cooling.
don't put drinks on it like i did and then knock that drink over, spilling all inside the case over the motherboard & RTX 3090..luckily after opening it and cleaning it with isopropyl alcohol, it still works
Does it fit the Arctic 420mm on the top without removing the top front 140mm and adjusting the rear one? I've heard that they need to be replaced with 120mm ones. Is it true?
@@samtheman7366 I"ve ended up ordering the Meshify XL, because it fits the Arctic 420mm on top, without bothering to remove or adjust the front 140mm fans. Overall it gives that extra space, worth checking the Meshify 2 XL manual for details: www.fractal-design.com/app/uploads/2020/10/Meshify_2_XL_Manual-v.1-2020-05-13.pdf
Bought this case at Christmas love it was doing an open loop setup 2 radiators one 360 60 mm in the front one 360 45 mm in the top to cool a 3090 strix with EK block & 9900k worked great with room to spare 6 fans on the front radiator Push Pull setup and 3 on the top radiator
After looking through some of your reviews for cases with better airflow/cooling options, I got a white Meshify S2 for Christmas as an upgrade to my current rig. I'd highly recommend it! The sheer number of fan spots (including bottom intake) and built-in vertical GPU mounting is killer, and the build quality is the best I've worked in so far coming from past Cooler Master cases. I found the case for a crazy deal at Micro Center too. Thanks for the great vids as always, Steve!
Wow Fractal knocked out of the park with this one, I am eventually going to need this case. this is getting bookmarked. The only thing that I would have preferred is the option for a metal side panel rather than a tempered glass one. I am not the most cautious of users, and the increased EM resistance would have been appreciated.
on the recommendation by you folks (and honestly lots of other testers and builders), I built a high end workstation in a standard meshify 2 last year (5950x, 3090, dual 120 rad custom liquid cooling) and couldn't have been happier. it was my first fractal design case and the layout and accessory package showed an incredible level of thoughtfulness went into the overall design, not a sharp corner on it, it looks fantastic, and it's just a dream to build in with TONS of configuration and cooling options. - yesterday, after watching this and a number of other reviews, I bought the meshify 2 xl for my upcoming storage and virtualization server for my home lab (will run truenas scale, 5950x, x470 taichi ultimate (only board i could find that has 8 onboard sata ports and onboard 10g networking), corsair hx 1200 psu, 8x shucked 14tb wd easystore drives in raidz2 for a total of ~69TB (nice) of usable storage while providing for future expansion of another 8 drives (by adding an additional 8 port SAS/SATA HBA). I don't even need to buy additional drive sleds for my initial configuration as I'm not using the sleds from my original regular meshify 2 build and they are the same sleds. my initial configuration will use a pleb tier gpu I pulled out of an old build, but I intend to fit a 3080/3090 series gpu if I can ever find them anywhere near the MSRP again to serve as a network blender render node / nvenc for plex / some tensorflow ai tasks (video upscailing), etc (stuff that I currently do on my workstation that I'd love to offload to do twice as fast). it's expensive for a home server, but it should be silent (less some drive noise), extremely cool (the fans fractal includes are ACTUALLY good and I have a spare that i'm not using from my current build that i'll be adding to the front of this build, along with a couple of leftover arctic p12's I have kicking around (which i'll mount on the top). I'm super excited about this build and I should have all the parts next week!
2021 and I'm still running my Corsair 750D (with the high airflow front panel) Stopped custom water cooling years ago but never saw the need to change - although I admit I definitely don't need all the space. The only thing I'd change would be a shroud / cover for the PSU at the bottom of the case
I ordered the regular meshify in early december and a week later got a message it, it would arrive in mid-january. I canceled and got the white version from another shop. Put 5 140mm noctuas in it, never been so happy with a case. Thank you, Steve and GN-team!
@@james2042 Well, the obvious answer is for an optical drive, but past that there are tons of accessories you can put into an empty drive bay. The most common are probably SD/CF card readers, various types of system monitors, or extra front-panel USB ports. But as a storage junkie, my personal favorite is a backplane that installs in a 5.25" drive bay and has 6 hot-swap bays for 2.5" drives. In my old system I built in 2010 I actually had an older version of that, that installed into two 5.25" bays and had three 3.5" hot-swap bays. Really, the answer to "What do you need with a 5.25" bay?" is the same as if the question was "What do you need with a USB port?" or "What do you need with a motherboard header?" It's an opportunity to expand and customize your computer to fit your particular use case. And isn't that why we have PCs in the first place, instead of consoles or laptops or something? Because we want to be able to expand and customize our systems to fit our needs?
@@scottbutler5 I have a card reader that's conveniently on my desk, all my monitors are digital and 21st century relevant, unless you're like ln2 overclocking in which case your physical monitors are 5.25 Bay sized anyways. May I ask what you could possibly use those hot swap bays for that actually require hot swapping and aren't just extra storage racks? And if you really still use DVD/blu-ray in the Era of copying everything over to internal storage then I'm sorry for you but get with the times
3 года назад+1
Watercooling a 3950x with rtx 3090 in this case. 300mm water pump combo reservoir, 2x360 rads (in push+pull), flow meter. All fits perfectly! I can even see the QR-code and don't have to unscrew anything to reach the motherboard. There's also a shroud for holding the cables in place on the backside that's helping with closing the back lid (yes, some psu cables are thicc and hard to bend, even if nicely strapped.)
Sounds like a good setup. I have the 7 XL and am running custom loop cooled 5950x/3080 Strix OC. EK XE (60mm) front rad with eight fans in push pull. XE 360 top. Could have ran push pull on that as well but have the Crosshair VIII Formula and am utilizing the VRM waterblock. These Fractal cases are epic
The main problem I have with my meshify 2 is that I can't seem to afford enough 14tb hdds to fill it up that and the screws are so tight I have stripped a few
@@mirvan23 I took an impact to mine only two I can't get out but nothing that Mr drill press can't fix just dumb that it's a problem in the first place
A consideration regarding the case size is also the ease of installation, just by the sheer space you have to build in. I myself used to have midi towers until i got my Cooler Master HAF-X and i will definitelly never go back to smaller cases. My secondary pc wich i want to build with my old mobo ram cpu and gpu next year will be in either the Fractal Meshify 2 XL or the Cooler Master Cosmos C700M specifically for the reason of those two cases being verry large, thus giving me space to build in (i already had the pleasure to build a pc for my family in a C700P) plus they have great built quality and airflow overall.
Built my new system into one of these between xmas & new year... & this case is awesome. My only issue with my build was some of my cables weren't long enough to go where I wanted, but that's an issue with said fan, not the case. For example, cpu aio cable being just a couple of inches too short for connection to the fan hub. Other than that, fantastic case & so much versatility to do whatever you want with it.
@@nisx2012 I did and it's awesome but the case is really big and heavy so keep that in mind. I personally don't care about that at all though and temps are amazing
@@zaptheporcupine1578 Thanks for the answer. Im kind of used to big cases already so that should be ok. (Got Phanteks P500A with 360mm top mounted but thinking of getting a 13900k or 14900k and wanted a better cooling).got two more questions. Saw that the case have dust filters, how are they performing? Hows the AIO fitting on top, is there enough space for x3 140mm fans infront and x1 140mm in the back?
@@nisx2012 it fits very very easily on top absolutely no problem whatsoever I have 8 140mm fans in total so yes it fits fine The dust filters are working fine, not 100% perfect but yea I don't think I have ever had one that work 100% but definitely good enough
Ah lovely my case! Been using for a couple of months now and I really like it. Currently with an ATX motherboard and a distro/pump installed. I'm very happy with it.
I'm glad case manufacturers are starting to roll out more E-ATX cases now, there's only been a select handful that actually fit that didn't have glaring issues.
I currently own the og Meshify C that I purchased off of newegg back in April of last year and I have no complaints. Fractal makes great PC cases in general imo, especially the Meshify series and this beast of a case is no exception. Great review and thermal testing as usual @GN.
Thank you for the coverage of this case. I ended up ordering a Meshify 2 XL yesterday based on seeing this review. I'm excited to move over my storage server into it and have more drive expansion and better (quiet) cooling. Ordering the extra drive trays sucked. Wasn't thrilled to need to spend almost $60 on the 5x 2-packs of white Type-B HDD trays. Like another commenter my new problem is affording the drives I want to put in it. :)
I have my 5800x and 3080 build in this case. So nice to build in and the top rad support is mint. I 100% recommend this case, all I had to do was add 1 of the stock fans for 3 140's in the front and that was it. Also to note how much support the top mesh ribs give. My 10+ lbs cat likes to sleep ontop of it when I game, it doesnt buckle
It's a bit funny to me that you omit one very valid reason for buying a big tower case: It doesn't have to be on the desk to be comfortable to use. I bought the XL version for that exact reason. It sits at the side of my desk and I can comfortably reach the front I/O. So far I'm pretty happy with the case.
Excellent. I've been meaning to replace my ThermalTake P7 slab with a proper case but been having a hard time finding a case that supports larger-then-ATX boards while supporting a 360 rad and 3x3.5"+3x2.5" drives. My gratitude, Gamers Nexus!
I got the XL as the non XL variant was out of stock, 420mm AIO and a founder edition 3090. Will eventually buy the non XL and create a home server in the XL. Bought an identical fan to fill the front slot, but the cable was the standard length so plugged into the closest fan header as it wouldn’t reach the fan controller hub. Overall very happy, will try and take to top fan filter away as per Steve’s suggestion as I am using the AIO as a top mount exhaust. Will share pics on Twitter once the GN mousemat that’s on back order arrives :)
@@datag00n no i dont mean dimensionally but like what its for, arent there like diminishing returns for a AIO that big? i guess you could run it for longer with the fans at a quieter setting? idk much about pc cooling or anything so im just asking. i was thinking of getting the artic liquid freezer II but i wasnt sure which size version to get. its nice how cheap they are and i dont care about RGB, i was even thinking of picking up a 5 pack of just their fans too since its a lot cheaper than other brands too
I was waiting for this thing to drop basically since I upgraded to a Define S a while back. I bought the Meshify 2 XL almost right when it came out. I've been happy with it except for two issues. When in "normal" setup, the back wall supports drives along the backside of the case, just like previous Fractal cases. But unlike my Define S, the drive sleds cannot be removed from the back - you have to unscrew them from the front when you pull the panel off. I can't do that without removing most of my cooling loop as the pump, res, and radiator all block it. I opted to put my spinning rust drive on the bottom, but this too made things cramped and might restrict think rads and/or push/pulls that would compel you to place the drive along the back and hope it doesn't fail (or be prepared to disassemble the loop if it does). Second, my Hardware Labs GTS 420 only fits along the top in a pull configuration. Namely I have to mount the fans to the bracket rather than the radiator directly because the GTS rad is just a bit wider. It ALMOST fits. To combat this, I think I'm gonna switch to maybe a 480 up top or a 360 and move my GTS 420 to the front (which appears to fit with ease). My other rad is an EK 360 XE so I could swap them, though the XE, while a good rad, is kinda of ugly. Both issues are kinda minor I think, if annoying (but not frequently so). Otherwise I've been very happy with the 2 XL!
You mentioned not liking built-in vertical GPU slots, but I love them. ... But not always for attaching a GPU to. They are a great place to put port brackets for extra USB ports or any other port that might be coming off the motherboard or expansion card, or brackets for hose fittings to connect to external radiators. I've got a SATA hardware RAID port multiplier that uses a PCI slot bracket but doesn't actually use a card edge connector. Between that, a water port bracket and a USB breakout, I've got stuff for all three side slots. In the increasingly rare (but still occasionally used, especially with VMs) multi GPU setups it can be a good way to reclaim an extra slot or two on a card that doesn't get used for its maximum performance very much. It won't all necessarily look great but sometimes function matters over looks, especially in a monster case that's aimed at big heavy setups with lots of parts.
Great review. I purchased the Phanteks Enthoo Pro II a few months ago and even though it doesn't included any fans, its a great designed case with lots of options.
Thanks for another great review and the awesome merch! I am glad you mentioned the silverstone case for a DIY NAS. I use a raspberry pi hooked up to 4 hard drives in an enclosure. I will use a silverstone case as a successor to my Pi later.
For the thermal testing, I think the configuration iterations can be confusing. I'd like to see just a stock test and then a $0 GN-spec config test, i.e. moving fans, removing HDD cages and PSU shrouds, etc to optimise airflow.
Mine came with overtightened screws and it seems many other cases have this issue. And by overtightened I actually mean that. Some screws simply won't unscrew without destroying the screw hole by either prying or drilling the screw off. Fractal did eventually respond to me and it seems they're investigating the issues but you might still run into these defective cases regardless unless you're planning to wait a very long time for the old supply to dry out or unless Fractal does a recall.
I have this case. Easily fits a Noctua D15 with front fan raised for memory clearance. Upgrading front panel fans to nf-a14 required multiple cable extensions (The case is very long!) but yielded slight thermal/noise/pwm improvements. Coming from a HAF-X, nothing is particularly stand out in performance. It's a really nice modern case with options for air/water and lots of storage.
I have the haf x now but hate the cheap acrylic window. It also does not fit my new rtx 3000 series card. This xl seems like the best contender as a replacement.
@@TheDealer6373 the XL has been a good case, much easier to open up/clean and certainly looks the part (and HUGE) on a desk. I'd still prefer a modern premium case with 200mm fans and GPU cooling like the HAF-X if there were good options for that. One day it'll happen! PS My HAF-X fit a 3000 MSI Gaming X-trio fine. It also ran cooler in that case with the side fan active vs the Fractal. Compromises, but worth the switch overall.
Great case, plenty of room for upgrades, and it fits both my 360mm AIO and my 240mm GPU Hybrid AIO. No complaints. The only complaint or nitpick I have is the side panel. When you have all the cables in the back, it's a bit of a hassle to put back in, but it's manageable.
@@markemery1353 front? Don't know. Depending on what aio it might fit. My 3080 240mm hybrid fits front, that I can say. I think its best to fit the 360mm aio on top anyway.
My concern are the vibration mitigation of newer hard drive mounting. I have an old Actec Sonata III case that was built like a tank with no air flow but with sturdy HDD rails, very spongy rubber grommets, and a screw in the middle to hold the drive suspended in the grommet. Most new cases very have thin metal or plastic brackets that raddled, small stiff rubber grommets and a pin loosely holding the drive. As my new HAF cases have gotten quieter it seems my hard drives have gotten louder. I can't imagine 18 drives in a case with out good vibration mitigation.
I wish they would test mechanical hard drives in case reviews. Mesh plus a dampened PSU shroud (no open bottom) with space for 4-6 harddrives. It sounds simple/ obvious enough, but no one does it.🤷♂️
@@garethevans9789 if you re-configure your airflow pattern, focusing on something like maybe top intake/rear exhaust (let's pretend there's no need for dust maintenance) + front rad, you likely won't see a dramatic difference in temps in this case, pun intended. There are probably other, better ways to have it set up, perhaps even stock config with top rad is a better way. In general, even if filled with HDDs, a big case like this one will likely be fine under most circumstances.
@@neoqueto I'm not worried about cooling the harddrives. They only need minimal airflow and the PSU isn't too sensitive to heat. The idea is to isolate the noise from the drives, as a mesh case does zero to block the noise. Same goes for the bottom being open, as the noise will simply bounce off the floor/ desk. Open top section is fine as decent fans can be near silent, plus the sound of air moving is far more pleasant than the intermittent clicks from harddrives. Especially in RAID as that synchronises/ amplifies the clicks.
This would be great for a storage/virtualization server. I built in an r5 awhile back (before the r7) Unfortunately, couldn't find anything with lots of drive bays and support for ssi-eeb. Ended up finding a standard atx dual socket board although I sacrificed half the Ram slots (still enough for 4 dimms per socket but not 8) May move to this and a new Mobo when I upgrade. The epyc 7002 or 7003 series will be cheap soon enough. Great review as always. Attention to detail is appreciated
I would like to see you guys review the Phanteks P360A, at time of writing available for $70 on Amazon. I only recently came across this case and would be interested if this case is a better buy than the P300A with extra fans.
I'd like to recommend the Silverstone Mammoth MM01, the Thermaltake Core W100 and W200 for review for extra large cases that fit "E-ATX"/SSI-EEB motherboards.
I'm still happy I went with the Define 7 XL. It makes a beautiful blank canvas for modding. That solid front panel looks great with a design cut out from it which also improves it's ventilation. Now if only I could buy a FREAKING GPU TO PUT IN THE GOD-DAMN THING!
As usual great review. I recent began replacing my olde “quiet cases” ( Antec P100 and Deep Silence 6) with Meshify 2 and Meshify 2 XL. I use Noctua fans through out and air cool my 3900X in each case. Great case as the XL I have 11 HDD and 6 SSD with more room to expand. I can run the Noctua fans at half speed and get plenty of air flow with little noise. My main workstation in the standard Meshify 2 case has 7 x 140mm fans all running at 800rpm and then 3 of the newer NF-12A25 fans on DH15S and at 1500rpm they are dead silent. My XL case has 8 fans and 1 140 with 2 fans on a U14S and with all the HDD I can run these fans around 1000rpm and get great airflow, great temps. Noctua Redux fans and a more pleasing fit since they are gray fans and not the ugly brown and beige.
The XL cases are good for a hard drive + giant GPU setup as many of the new custom designs dont fit in the non-XL if you change it to storage setup (315 mm GPU length). The extra cm of the XL make a big difference.
I would like to see a mockup or drawing of what Steve would consider an optimal layout for a case. Something that rated 'Excellent" on airflow, cable management and mounting for drives an radiators. My only caveat is that it can't be an open case - far too much dust too have to deal with.
Just built a custom loop in one of these, it’s a bummer to me the O11 cases don’t support 420mm rads, so I ended up with this and am very happy with the space allowed, very easy to work in with all the space
I know this isn't your usual case testing stuff, but with these large cases you should try throwing like 8 drives in the front and then dual gpus with the biggest threadripper chip you got. Just see if its able to maintain temps when doing major compute/render task
I got a Fractal Define XL R2 which is a little smaller than this case. I bought it just because it's big and easier to build in than smaller cases. It is also amazing with keeping components quiet because of it's sound-dampening. The only downside of my case is that it's heavy. No joke, it's close to 25 kilograms with all the components inside.
Well, well, well. Isn't _this_ case interesting! As it happens, I just ordered the Define 7 XL yesterday. 🤔 I actually like the 5.25" bays on the D7XL because they present some neat possibilities (e.g. U.2) and I'll be keeping the case for a long time. The better airflow on this case is really tempting, but I think I'll stay with the D7XL and just spend a bit more on fans. Thanks for a very helpful review.
On my XL I had buy an extention cable to wire in the fan controller as the original cable couldn't reach if you have to use the fan ports on the bottom of your motherboard. No mention of that on this review!
I'd like to suggest reducing the depth of field and background separation for shots of things such as cases. Cases are complex and large objects and they have details throughout their axes (height, length, depth) and having a shallow depth of field with the lenses causes a really jarring effect because us viewers want to see the details in whole. I can only think of it being useful for when focussing on a single component within a mess of things, but overall I'd prefer a more "everything in focus" approach. In a lot of the shots I am struggling to focus with my own eyes because the lens keeps jumping back and forth between different focal points and to make it worse, the spinning shots mean that there is even more dramatic shift of focus. Overall, definitely keep the shallow DOF for stylised/artistic/casual shots but if you're talking about (say, a case) and the whole case is being shown, it would be better to have it all in focus. Much like motion blur, the eyes naturally produce the effects we mimic with technology.
I like Fractal Design. They only ever made one bad case, the Era itx. I used their cases since the Define R3 and the Era was the only case in my life that i ever send back. Got myself a TU150 instead. Is a review for the TU150 planned? I really enjoyed the build and portability of this case.
I still use my coolermaster stacker 830 with three 4x3 drive cases and 14 drives (12 regular and 2 ssd drives) as NAS. Still happy with this case! Although this case looks verry nice!
I bought the Meshify 2 XL as I wanted maximum radiator length support with top shelf airflow. I might mod the top and front however with some sort of super mesh or ventilated metal panel as regular mesh can be fragile.
I have a Phanteks P600S and I love it. I'd love to see how that case does in your charts. Granted, I picked it because I could put 140mm fans everywhere and you use 120mm fans -.-
I wonder if you could make a Russian Nesting Doll, but with different form factor cases... Like, an XL case with an ITX case inside, with an SFX case inside that, with a PC built inside the SFX case.
Watch the Fractal Meshify 2 non-XL case review here (and get more info on build quality): ruclips.net/video/qTW2KHGzbM0/видео.html
Article: www.gamersnexus.net/hwreviews/3635-fractal-meshify-2-xl-large-case-review
I'm always watching these even though I don't buy them just so your engagement doesn't tank. Great work, Steve, as always.
@@JustTechGuyThings I still watch them even though I used their suggestion to get the p400a just last month! Never know when you'll put together a new computer, so best to stay informed!
I Bought The Fractal XLR 2 a fuw years ago for a dual xeon server build with a supermicro X8DTH-6F Bord & i still had to add 2 standoffs But it has Dual 6 core cpus (X5675's) & 10Gb Nic and a Quadro & It Has Ran.Still Running Quit as a Church Mouse 24/7 For Years now & I Really Love The XLR 2 Case ! I Also Have 2 Newer SM Dual Xeon's With Other Cases But The Fractal Workes Really Well For Server Duty A Lot Less Than My SuperMicro 24bay case thats for sure
Neat! I can chime in on this one for a change. I've built 2 systems this year (EATX Godlike in a the Enthoo) (ATX Unify in the Meshify 2). Simply put, Phanteks I preferred. More options, better build & lastly, it looked better. Both towers used Noctua &/or Scythe for better air low. That improved both builds. Both cases are decent. The Enthoo felt better, easier with class.
Im hyped for GN/Steve case :).
There are apartments for rent in San Francisco that are smaller than this case.
Oooooooooooof
I think Nyc has the smallest rooms that people paid rent for. I live in SF, pretty rough what 1200 bucks gets you. One room out of 5 in a house. That's a good deal. 🙄😂
@Tom Storm HK says, "2,000 USD for 250 square feet."
@@richardcrossley5581 Some luxury apartments in San Jose rent for almost $4K/mo USD for something small (but well appointed).
@@asdf51501 That 2,000 USD is pretty basic, non-harbour (brick wall) view. For something livable with a Harbour view, you're looking at 4,000 to 5,000 USD per month for 1000 square feet with 3 bedrooms. Fittings and finish wouldn't be that great, certainly not "well appointed".
I've got the regular Meshify 2 and oh my god what a brilliant case it is. Truly a joy to build in & a joy to look at.
(pre video)That case looks large enough to stash multiple storage arrays without anyone noticing!(after watching video) storage plus radiators plus everything but the kitchen sink fits🤣
You can fit up to 20 3,5 inch HDD´s in this case if you dont mind having the last 4 drives in the top and back instead of having fans
I want 6 HDDs in my case and the ability to custom water cool a CPU and GPU, but also have air flow, and that's a hard combo to find these days. I wish they made these without temper glass, because I don't need to see inside my work station and if it was a steel side panel I could drill my own side fan ventilation, even if everyone is too scared to do it stock!
@@XDSDDLord design your own case it's what I decided to do. Sheet metal and rivets or composite construction is completely practical. With composites you only need a uv stabilizer in the resin, and metal can easily be coated with a automotive product or duracoat. The near future is going to be anything but bright might as well build a custom PC.
@@alt5494 far too rich and complicated for my blood, for the time being I'm just building a computer on paper anyways. But props for making your own.
@@XDSDDLord they sell one without tempered glass. At least here they do. Both XL and non-XL.
What an absolute unit
I have the non-XL and even that looks huge. You could live the rest of your life comfortably inside the XL as if it were a Fallout shelter.
Steve or the case?
@@tkinthecut Yes
Oh yeah, brother! Send it!
That's what she said...
Things are always changing... except Steve’s MSI cooler😂
By chance, do you know what cooler that is?
Goes to show how air coolers are ideal for long term reliability.
@@camouflagecamaro99 msi core frozr l
@@ryukendo12 thank you!
@@camouflagecamaro99 he doesn’t use it because it’s the best out there, he uses it because he’s been using it forever and doesn’t want to change it and affect all new testing
Same, mine came in a month or two ago. Shortly after I heard about it. Fits my 3970x, aio cooler, and the gigabyte x570 Aorus xtreme. Love it!
I got the Define 7 XL because of the two 5 1/4" bays.
Come join the future...
Hello 1999
"Come join the future" where everything is cloud, you own nothing, and it can disappear any moment the big company or anyone in between changes their mind. Uhm, no thanks.
With the trays removed the HDD cages can be removed through the front opening where the plastic covers are, no need to go out the back if the PSU is installed
Thanks, GN. I appreciate the consistent case reviews as always. I just wish someone would start doing these populating all the fan positions, too. Good fans can be had easily nowadays, like the 5 packs of Arctic P12/14
I'm still using a Define XL (R1) that I've now had for exactly 10 Years this week! 😍
(I still think it's better)
Big whoop
finally here. Already used for one month, good case.
How is the air flow????
@@fireninja27 Pretty good. I have nice fans in this case, 3*140(top), 3*120(front), 1*140(rear), and 2*140(bottom), with two radiators.
Yeah I bought mine a couple weeks ago. I can't fit my gpu rad to the front so I had to use the rear fan. Also I could t fit that in a push pull config either. I have a clc 360 for cpu cooler that gets in the way but I'm gonna try to slide it all the way to the front on the top, and try to put the 120 rad up there too but I don't think it'll fit. But I'm hopeful. If not, I really don't know what I can do while it can fit all these I guess you also should check the tube length because unless it's a custom loop I'm not sure if you can use the front for rad mounts. If anyone is interested if a 360 and 120 rad will fit on top lemme know and I'll try to update when I do it.
Its amazing I have it too. Even rendering nonstop with my gpu the temp of my gpu stays at 60°C while the fans of the case only run at 50% speed it is pretty neat. But it is not a silent case so you have to be ok with the noise especially if you have x570 board with a fan on it.
@@robertandrews6915 Pease could you guide about the motherboard/RAM clearance with top mounted 280/360/420 radiator. I am planning for a 420mm arctic cooler and meshify 2 and the manual says that the clearance is only 36mm. Even if I get the low height corsiar RAM, now I am not sure if the motherboard itself will fit due to large heatsink+shroud in top part of the board.
I will change to meshify XL so that 420 rad can mount in front and motherboard+RAM will have not issues in clearances. (wish they had made some arrangements to make the wider rads fit instead of limiting the RAM height)
planned PC is 5950X+Gigabyte B550 Aorus prov2/master, teamgroup 3600 Za RAM, meshify 2 case, arctic freezer 420 AIO...
I think fractal mesh looks so cool when companies use it. It gives of a very simplistic yet futuristic vibe 🤓
Love large tower cases. It doubles as a foot rest and extra tabletop. Plenty of room to easily install and remove components. The XL and mid-tower version are pretty much your best choice for a media server with proper cooling.
don't put drinks on it like i did and then knock that drink over, spilling all inside the case over the motherboard & RTX 3090..luckily after opening it and cleaning it with isopropyl alcohol, it still works
Lancool 216 and lancool 2 Mesh kick its ass.
both of which can't fit a 420mm aio@@taomahNEGEV
Got mine pretty much on release. It's one of the few cases that can fit 420mm rads at the top (Arctic's 420 AiO is brutal).
Does it fit the Arctic 420mm on the top without removing the top front 140mm and adjusting the rear one? I've heard that they need to be replaced with 120mm ones. Is it true?
Considering buying this myself. Would like to know if the Arctic 420 AIO fits without rtemoving the front 140mm fans?
@@samtheman7366 I"ve ended up ordering the Meshify XL, because it fits the Arctic 420mm on top, without bothering to remove or adjust the front 140mm fans. Overall it gives that extra space, worth checking the Meshify 2 XL manual for details: www.fractal-design.com/app/uploads/2020/10/Meshify_2_XL_Manual-v.1-2020-05-13.pdf
@@n3fraggr No, it's not true. Here's my layout:
Top 420mm rad
Front 3 x 140mm fans
Back 1x 140mm fan
Bottom 2x 140mm fans
@@samtheman7366 You can run 3 140mm fans at the front with the 420 at the top.
Bought this case at Christmas love it was doing an open loop setup 2 radiators one 360 60 mm in the front one 360 45 mm in the top to cool a 3090 strix with EK block & 9900k worked great with room to spare 6 fans on the front radiator Push Pull setup and 3 on the top radiator
After looking through some of your reviews for cases with better airflow/cooling options, I got a white Meshify S2 for Christmas as an upgrade to my current rig. I'd highly recommend it! The sheer number of fan spots (including bottom intake) and built-in vertical GPU mounting is killer, and the build quality is the best I've worked in so far coming from past Cooler Master cases. I found the case for a crazy deal at Micro Center too. Thanks for the great vids as always, Steve!
Wow Fractal knocked out of the park with this one, I am eventually going to need this case. this is getting bookmarked. The only thing that I would have preferred is the option for a metal side panel rather than a tempered glass one. I am not the most cautious of users, and the increased EM resistance would have been appreciated.
wasn't there an option for it to choose from?
@@Dane3412 no
Snowflake: "o0o my new cat tower came in!"
on the recommendation by you folks (and honestly lots of other testers and builders), I built a high end workstation in a standard meshify 2 last year (5950x, 3090, dual 120 rad custom liquid cooling) and couldn't have been happier. it was my first fractal design case and the layout and accessory package showed an incredible level of thoughtfulness went into the overall design, not a sharp corner on it, it looks fantastic, and it's just a dream to build in with TONS of configuration and cooling options. - yesterday, after watching this and a number of other reviews, I bought the meshify 2 xl for my upcoming storage and virtualization server for my home lab (will run truenas scale, 5950x, x470 taichi ultimate (only board i could find that has 8 onboard sata ports and onboard 10g networking), corsair hx 1200 psu, 8x shucked 14tb wd easystore drives in raidz2 for a total of ~69TB (nice) of usable storage while providing for future expansion of another 8 drives (by adding an additional 8 port SAS/SATA HBA). I don't even need to buy additional drive sleds for my initial configuration as I'm not using the sleds from my original regular meshify 2 build and they are the same sleds. my initial configuration will use a pleb tier gpu I pulled out of an old build, but I intend to fit a 3080/3090 series gpu if I can ever find them anywhere near the MSRP again to serve as a network blender render node / nvenc for plex / some tensorflow ai tasks (video upscailing), etc (stuff that I currently do on my workstation that I'd love to offload to do twice as fast). it's expensive for a home server, but it should be silent (less some drive noise), extremely cool (the fans fractal includes are ACTUALLY good and I have a spare that i'm not using from my current build that i'll be adding to the front of this build, along with a couple of leftover arctic p12's I have kicking around (which i'll mount on the top). I'm super excited about this build and I should have all the parts next week!
2021 and I'm still running my Corsair 750D (with the high airflow front panel) Stopped custom water cooling years ago but never saw the need to change - although I admit I definitely don't need all the space.
The only thing I'd change would be a shroud / cover for the PSU at the bottom of the case
Meshify 2 XL: Mesh Harder
2 Meshify 2 XL
is that a die hard reference
I ordered the regular meshify in early december and a week later got a message it, it would arrive in mid-january. I canceled and got the white version from another shop. Put 5 140mm noctuas in it, never been so happy with a case. Thank you, Steve and GN-team!
The reason to buy a Define 7 instead of the Meshify is the 5.25" drive bays.
Absolutely. 7 XL is an easy pick if you want two 5.25" bays in a modern case (and have space for full tower, obviously).
Also, if noise is a concern and you intend to put a lot of HDDs in, then 7 XL will do a better job of muffling HDD platter whine.
And you need 5.25 bays why??
@@james2042 Well, the obvious answer is for an optical drive, but past that there are tons of accessories you can put into an empty drive bay. The most common are probably SD/CF card readers, various types of system monitors, or extra front-panel USB ports. But as a storage junkie, my personal favorite is a backplane that installs in a 5.25" drive bay and has 6 hot-swap bays for 2.5" drives. In my old system I built in 2010 I actually had an older version of that, that installed into two 5.25" bays and had three 3.5" hot-swap bays.
Really, the answer to "What do you need with a 5.25" bay?" is the same as if the question was "What do you need with a USB port?" or "What do you need with a motherboard header?" It's an opportunity to expand and customize your computer to fit your particular use case. And isn't that why we have PCs in the first place, instead of consoles or laptops or something? Because we want to be able to expand and customize our systems to fit our needs?
@@scottbutler5 I have a card reader that's conveniently on my desk, all my monitors are digital and 21st century relevant, unless you're like ln2 overclocking in which case your physical monitors are 5.25 Bay sized anyways. May I ask what you could possibly use those hot swap bays for that actually require hot swapping and aren't just extra storage racks? And if you really still use DVD/blu-ray in the Era of copying everything over to internal storage then I'm sorry for you but get with the times
Watercooling a 3950x with rtx 3090 in this case. 300mm water pump combo reservoir, 2x360 rads (in push+pull), flow meter. All fits perfectly! I can even see the QR-code and don't have to unscrew anything to reach the motherboard. There's also a shroud for holding the cables in place on the backside that's helping with closing the back lid (yes, some psu cables are thicc and hard to bend, even if nicely strapped.)
Sounds like a good setup. I have the 7 XL and am running custom loop cooled 5950x/3080 Strix OC. EK XE (60mm) front rad with eight fans in push pull. XE 360 top. Could have ran push pull on that as well but have the Crosshair VIII Formula and am utilizing the VRM waterblock. These Fractal cases are epic
The main problem I have with my meshify 2 is that I can't seem to afford enough 14tb hdds to fill it up that and the screws are so tight I have stripped a few
I have noticed that the screws where all on super tight, thought it was just me lol
Same with be quiet! cases. My solution was Multitool Leatherman Free P2. Multitool was better than screwdrivers.
@@mirvan23 I took an impact to mine only two I can't get out but nothing that Mr drill press can't fix just dumb that it's a problem in the first place
A consideration regarding the case size is also the ease of installation, just by the sheer space you have to build in. I myself used to have midi towers until i got my Cooler Master HAF-X and i will definitelly never go back to smaller cases. My secondary pc wich i want to build with my old mobo ram cpu and gpu next year will be in either the Fractal Meshify 2 XL or the Cooler Master Cosmos C700M specifically for the reason of those two cases being verry large, thus giving me space to build in (i already had the pleasure to build a pc for my family in a C700P) plus they have great built quality and airflow overall.
Built my new system into one of these between xmas & new year... & this case is awesome.
My only issue with my build was some of my cables weren't long enough to go where I wanted, but that's an issue with said fan, not the case.
For example, cpu aio cable being just a couple of inches too short for connection to the fan hub.
Other than that, fantastic case & so much versatility to do whatever you want with it.
I got this because it supports the arctic freezer 2 420 at the top, which is my preferred position for it.
Am very excited for my new pc build
Did you went with this combo? Im thinking of getting this case with the LF420 as well.
@@nisx2012 I did and it's awesome but the case is really big and heavy so keep that in mind. I personally don't care about that at all though and temps are amazing
@@zaptheporcupine1578 Thanks for the answer. Im kind of used to big cases already so that should be ok. (Got Phanteks P500A with 360mm top mounted but thinking of getting a 13900k or 14900k and wanted a better cooling).got two more questions. Saw that the case have dust filters, how are they performing?
Hows the AIO fitting on top, is there enough space for x3 140mm fans infront and x1 140mm in the back?
@@nisx2012 it fits very very easily on top absolutely no problem whatsoever
I have 8 140mm fans in total so yes it fits fine
The dust filters are working fine, not 100% perfect but yea I don't think I have ever had one that work 100%
but definitely good enough
@@zaptheporcupine1578 Great thanks for the answers!
I can actually live in this big case.
Ah lovely my case! Been using for a couple of months now and I really like it. Currently with an ATX motherboard and a distro/pump installed. I'm very happy with it.
Thanks for doing reviews on these cases, really helps when building HEDT computers for workstations or servers
That case looks like when I mess up one of my 3D models 😂
When you forgot to change units of measurements you get an XL. 😂
Smells like exporting blender models to unreal engine 4 in here. (if that's true, you should check out the "sendtounreal" addon)
I'm glad case manufacturers are starting to roll out more E-ATX cases now, there's only been a select handful that actually fit that didn't have glaring issues.
I currently own the og Meshify C that I purchased off of newegg back in April of last year and I have no complaints. Fractal makes great PC cases in general imo, especially the Meshify series and this beast of a case is no exception. Great review and thermal testing as usual @GN.
Thank you for the coverage of this case. I ended up ordering a Meshify 2 XL yesterday based on seeing this review. I'm excited to move over my storage server into it and have more drive expansion and better (quiet) cooling. Ordering the extra drive trays sucked. Wasn't thrilled to need to spend almost $60 on the 5x 2-packs of white Type-B HDD trays. Like another commenter my new problem is affording the drives I want to put in it. :)
"Don't ever talk to me or my son again"
Or grandson, the meshify mini.
I have my 5800x and 3080 build in this case. So nice to build in and the top rad support is mint. I 100% recommend this case, all I had to do was add 1 of the stock fans for 3 140's in the front and that was it. Also to note how much support the top mesh ribs give. My 10+ lbs cat likes to sleep ontop of it when I game, it doesnt buckle
In complete awe at this size of this lad. What an absolute UNIT
Be Quiet! Silent Base 802 vs Phanteks P600S vs Fractal Meshify 2 XL vs Phanteks P500A RGB
It's a bit funny to me that you omit one very valid reason for buying a big tower case: It doesn't have to be on the desk to be comfortable to use. I bought the XL version for that exact reason. It sits at the side of my desk and I can comfortably reach the front I/O. So far I'm pretty happy with the case.
Thanks. Been looking for something similar to my Thermaltake V71 for a new build, so i appreciate reviews of these bigger cases.
Excellent.
I've been meaning to replace my ThermalTake P7 slab with a proper case but been having a hard time finding a case that supports larger-then-ATX boards while supporting a 360 rad and 3x3.5"+3x2.5" drives.
My gratitude, Gamers Nexus!
I got the XL as the non XL variant was out of stock, 420mm AIO and a founder edition 3090. Will eventually buy the non XL and create a home server in the XL. Bought an identical fan to fill the front slot, but the cable was the standard length so plugged into the closest fan header as it wouldn’t reach the fan controller hub. Overall very happy, will try and take to top fan filter away as per Steve’s suggestion as I am using the AIO as a top mount exhaust. Will share pics on Twitter once the GN mousemat that’s on back order arrives :)
Picked this up solely to get enough clearance to fit the Arctic Liquid Freezer II 420 at the top; so far, so good!
The artic freezer looks cool but isn’t the 420 like too big?
@@Aleph-Noll there's 2-3cm of clearance between the motherboard and the 420's stock fans.
@@datag00n no i dont mean dimensionally but like what its for, arent there like diminishing returns for a AIO that big? i guess you could run it for longer with the fans at a quieter setting? idk much about pc cooling or anything so im just asking. i was thinking of getting the artic liquid freezer II but i wasnt sure which size version to get.
its nice how cheap they are and i dont care about RGB, i was even thinking of picking up a 5 pack of just their fans too since its a lot cheaper than other brands too
Just bought this for an ASUS EEB motherboard / threadripper workstation. It’s freaking huge!!!
I was waiting for this thing to drop basically since I upgraded to a Define S a while back. I bought the Meshify 2 XL almost right when it came out. I've been happy with it except for two issues.
When in "normal" setup, the back wall supports drives along the backside of the case, just like previous Fractal cases. But unlike my Define S, the drive sleds cannot be removed from the back - you have to unscrew them from the front when you pull the panel off. I can't do that without removing most of my cooling loop as the pump, res, and radiator all block it. I opted to put my spinning rust drive on the bottom, but this too made things cramped and might restrict think rads and/or push/pulls that would compel you to place the drive along the back and hope it doesn't fail (or be prepared to disassemble the loop if it does).
Second, my Hardware Labs GTS 420 only fits along the top in a pull configuration. Namely I have to mount the fans to the bracket rather than the radiator directly because the GTS rad is just a bit wider. It ALMOST fits. To combat this, I think I'm gonna switch to maybe a 480 up top or a 360 and move my GTS 420 to the front (which appears to fit with ease). My other rad is an EK 360 XE so I could swap them, though the XE, while a good rad, is kinda of ugly.
Both issues are kinda minor I think, if annoying (but not frequently so). Otherwise I've been very happy with the 2 XL!
You mentioned not liking built-in vertical GPU slots, but I love them. ... But not always for attaching a GPU to.
They are a great place to put port brackets for extra USB ports or any other port that might be coming off the motherboard or expansion card, or brackets for hose fittings to connect to external radiators. I've got a SATA hardware RAID port multiplier that uses a PCI slot bracket but doesn't actually use a card edge connector. Between that, a water port bracket and a USB breakout, I've got stuff for all three side slots.
In the increasingly rare (but still occasionally used, especially with VMs) multi GPU setups it can be a good way to reclaim an extra slot or two on a card that doesn't get used for its maximum performance very much.
It won't all necessarily look great but sometimes function matters over looks, especially in a monster case that's aimed at big heavy setups with lots of parts.
Great review. I purchased the Phanteks Enthoo Pro II a few months ago and even though it doesn't included any fans, its a great designed case with lots of options.
I HAVE to use a case this size, because there's barely anything smaller than fits a damn 420mm top radiator...
Thanks for another great review and the awesome merch! I am glad you mentioned the silverstone case for a DIY NAS. I use a raspberry pi hooked up to 4 hard drives in an enclosure. I will use a silverstone case as a successor to my Pi later.
Bought mine when it was released since I had 420mm aio. Got in on my desk and I love it.
For the thermal testing, I think the configuration iterations can be confusing. I'd like to see just a stock test and then a $0 GN-spec config test, i.e. moving fans, removing HDD cages and PSU shrouds, etc to optimise airflow.
Mine came with overtightened screws and it seems many other cases have this issue. And by overtightened I actually mean that. Some screws simply won't unscrew without destroying the screw hole by either prying or drilling the screw off.
Fractal did eventually respond to me and it seems they're investigating the issues but you might still run into these defective cases regardless unless you're planning to wait a very long time for the old supply to dry out or unless Fractal does a recall.
"yes, mom, i need this for my gaming pc with a single graphics card and an m.2 ssd. come on, just give me the credit card, you don't understand"
“But mom, the thermals!”
Eh, honestly, Lian Li's O11 Dynamic XL just makes much more sense
My brain before sleep:
**New case comes to the market**
GN: i dont need sleep i need answers
I have this case. Easily fits a Noctua D15 with front fan raised for memory clearance. Upgrading front panel fans to nf-a14 required multiple cable extensions (The case is very long!) but yielded slight thermal/noise/pwm improvements. Coming from a HAF-X, nothing is particularly stand out in performance. It's a really nice modern case with options for air/water and lots of storage.
I have the haf x now but hate the cheap acrylic window. It also does not fit my new rtx 3000 series card. This xl seems like the best contender as a replacement.
@@TheDealer6373 the XL has been a good case, much easier to open up/clean and certainly looks the part (and HUGE) on a desk. I'd still prefer a modern premium case with 200mm fans and GPU cooling like the HAF-X if there were good options for that. One day it'll happen!
PS My HAF-X fit a 3000 MSI Gaming X-trio fine. It also ran cooler in that case with the side fan active vs the Fractal. Compromises, but worth the switch overall.
Great case, plenty of room for upgrades, and it fits both my 360mm AIO and my 240mm GPU Hybrid AIO. No complaints. The only complaint or nitpick I have is the side panel. When you have all the cables in the back, it's a bit of a hassle to put back in, but it's manageable.
Does it fit 360mm aio up front? I just bought this case and at first glance looks like the tubes are not long enough for the reach to the front
@@markemery1353 front? Don't know. Depending on what aio it might fit. My 3080 240mm hybrid fits front, that I can say. I think its best to fit the 360mm aio on top anyway.
My concern are the vibration mitigation of newer hard drive mounting. I have an old Actec Sonata III case that was built like a tank with no air flow but with sturdy HDD rails, very spongy rubber grommets, and a screw in the middle to hold the drive suspended in the grommet. Most new cases very have thin metal or plastic brackets that raddled, small stiff rubber grommets and a pin loosely holding the drive. As my new HAF cases have gotten quieter it seems my hard drives have gotten louder. I can't imagine 18 drives in a case with out good vibration mitigation.
Damn, this thing can be a competent server and personal rig all in one :o
I wish they would test mechanical hard drives in case reviews.
Mesh plus a dampened PSU shroud (no open bottom) with space for 4-6 harddrives. It sounds simple/ obvious enough, but no one does it.🤷♂️
@@garethevans9789 if you re-configure your airflow pattern, focusing on something like maybe top intake/rear exhaust (let's pretend there's no need for dust maintenance) + front rad, you likely won't see a dramatic difference in temps in this case, pun intended. There are probably other, better ways to have it set up, perhaps even stock config with top rad is a better way. In general, even if filled with HDDs, a big case like this one will likely be fine under most circumstances.
@@neoqueto I'm not worried about cooling the harddrives. They only need minimal airflow and the PSU isn't too sensitive to heat. The idea is to isolate the noise from the drives, as a mesh case does zero to block the noise.
Same goes for the bottom being open, as the noise will simply bounce off the floor/ desk.
Open top section is fine as decent fans can be near silent, plus the sound of air moving is far more pleasant than the intermittent clicks from harddrives. Especially in RAID as that synchronises/ amplifies the clicks.
@@garethevans9789 ah I thought you were worried about the hard drives blocking front intake in general
You might be able to fit two PCs into this case if one was mini-ITX
It’s the only case I can find that will fit the 420mm arctic in a push pull
Intake on front or exhaust on top?
@@hakansuren329 I have mine exhausting up top
This would be great for a storage/virtualization server.
I built in an r5 awhile back (before the r7)
Unfortunately, couldn't find anything with lots of drive bays and support for ssi-eeb.
Ended up finding a standard atx dual socket board although I sacrificed half the Ram slots (still enough for 4 dimms per socket but not 8)
May move to this and a new Mobo when I upgrade. The epyc 7002 or 7003 series will be cheap soon enough.
Great review as always. Attention to detail is appreciated
I’ve been waiting for this video for so long I’m so happy it’s finally here
Great video! 👌🏼
Can you please test the be quiet Silent Base 802 next ?
I would like to see you guys review the Phanteks P360A, at time of writing available for $70 on Amazon. I only recently came across this case and would be interested if this case is a better buy than the P300A with extra fans.
I'd like to recommend the Silverstone Mammoth MM01, the Thermaltake Core W100 and W200 for review for extra large cases that fit "E-ATX"/SSI-EEB motherboards.
Finally go here first. Absolutely love your videos keep it up. You are the most informative an real reviewer I know an you are appreciated!
I'm still happy I went with the Define 7 XL. It makes a beautiful blank canvas for modding. That solid front panel looks great with a design cut out from it which also improves it's ventilation. Now if only I could buy a FREAKING GPU TO PUT IN THE GOD-DAMN THING!
As usual great review. I recent began replacing my olde “quiet cases” ( Antec P100 and Deep Silence 6) with Meshify 2 and Meshify 2 XL. I use Noctua fans through out and air cool my 3900X in each case. Great case as the XL I have 11 HDD and 6 SSD with more room to expand. I can run the Noctua fans at half speed and get plenty of air flow with little noise. My main workstation in the standard Meshify 2 case has 7 x 140mm fans all running at 800rpm and then 3 of the newer NF-12A25 fans on DH15S and at 1500rpm they are dead silent. My XL case has 8 fans and 1 140 with 2 fans on a U14S and with all the HDD I can run these fans around 1000rpm and get great airflow, great temps. Noctua Redux fans and a more pleasing fit since they are gray fans and not the ugly brown and beige.
can you link me to this u14s and your fan config I am looking into buying the XL case as I am getting ready to do a z690 build
The XL cases are good for a hard drive + giant GPU setup as many of the new custom designs dont fit in the non-XL if you change it to storage setup (315 mm GPU length). The extra cm of the XL make a big difference.
I would like to see a mockup or drawing of what Steve would consider an optimal layout for a case.
Something that rated 'Excellent" on airflow, cable management and mounting for drives an radiators.
My only caveat is that it can't be an open case - far too much dust too have to deal with.
I’ve waited so long for this!!!! 🙏🏾🙏🏾
SOOOO happy to see a regular review again and not more 2077 stuff
I would want to see the Be Quiet! Silent Base 802 as another new big mesh front comparison
Just built a custom loop in one of these, it’s a bummer to me the O11 cases don’t support 420mm rads, so I ended up with this and am very happy with the space allowed, very easy to work in with all the space
the phrase "go large or go home" immediately springs to mind.
I still use the original Cooler Master Stacker, from 2004. It has held 7 complete upgrades.
I know this isn't your usual case testing stuff, but with these large cases you should try throwing like 8 drives in the front and then dual gpus with the biggest threadripper chip you got. Just see if its able to maintain temps when doing major compute/render task
I got a Fractal Define XL R2 which is a little smaller than this case. I bought it just because it's big and easier to build in than smaller cases. It is also amazing with keeping components quiet because of it's sound-dampening. The only downside of my case is that it's heavy. No joke, it's close to 25 kilograms with all the components inside.
At awe at the size of this lad. Absolute unit.
Got me a Rosewill Prism and it's excellent value. Just have to rig a diverter to ensure gpu heat doesn't roast top mount psu
Well, well, well. Isn't _this_ case interesting! As it happens, I just ordered the Define 7 XL yesterday. 🤔 I actually like the 5.25" bays on the D7XL because they present some neat possibilities (e.g. U.2) and I'll be keeping the case for a long time. The better airflow on this case is really tempting, but I think I'll stay with the D7XL and just spend a bit more on fans. Thanks for a very helpful review.
I have been waiting for this review! Awesome
Best case I‘ve ever built in. Running 2x 360 rads and a large reservoir in it.
With the size of video cards released after this video was made, the XL is needed for enthusiast graphics cards unless you remove storage cages.
On my XL I had buy an extention cable to wire in the fan controller as the original cable couldn't reach if you have to use the fan ports on the bottom of your motherboard. No mention of that on this review!
Thank you for referencing metric units as well! 👌🙏
I'd like to suggest reducing the depth of field and background separation for shots of things such as cases. Cases are complex and large objects and they have details throughout their axes (height, length, depth) and having a shallow depth of field with the lenses causes a really jarring effect because us viewers want to see the details in whole. I can only think of it being useful for when focussing on a single component within a mess of things, but overall I'd prefer a more "everything in focus" approach. In a lot of the shots I am struggling to focus with my own eyes because the lens keeps jumping back and forth between different focal points and to make it worse, the spinning shots mean that there is even more dramatic shift of focus. Overall, definitely keep the shallow DOF for stylised/artistic/casual shots but if you're talking about (say, a case) and the whole case is being shown, it would be better to have it all in focus. Much like motion blur, the eyes naturally produce the effects we mimic with technology.
oh man i really wanna see GN do a insaine water loop build
I like Fractal Design. They only ever made one bad case, the Era itx. I used their cases since the Define R3 and the Era was the only case in my life that i ever send back. Got myself a TU150 instead. Is a review for the TU150 planned? I really enjoyed the build and portability of this case.
I still use my coolermaster stacker 830 with three 4x3 drive cases and 14 drives (12 regular and 2 ssd drives) as NAS.
Still happy with this case! Although this case looks verry nice!
Super Tower or Full Tower... My ALL Time Fave. 💙👍
I bought the Meshify 2 XL as I wanted maximum radiator length support with top shelf airflow. I might mod the top and front however with some sort of super mesh or ventilated metal panel as regular mesh can be fragile.
Pretty awesome that they leave a lot of space above the CPU socket.
I love this case, I dont think I will get a new case, like ever. There is just no need, unless formfactors were to change.
Dear Steve, How about checking the Be Quiet! Silent Base 802??
I have this case and I absolutely love it.
I have a Phanteks P600S and I love it. I'd love to see how that case does in your charts. Granted, I picked it because I could put 140mm fans everywhere and you use 120mm fans -.-
I wonder if you could make a Russian Nesting Doll, but with different form factor cases...
Like, an XL case with an ITX case inside, with an SFX case inside that, with a PC built inside the SFX case.
XL, MATX, ITX, then SFX. 4 layers.
i want a case that can fit one (1) entire gamers nexus steve in it.