Just one tip because many people are wondering: 4090 FE fits easily with slim fans (I took P14 Arctic, really good for that). Temps are very low. As stated in the review, CPU is more challenging. Noctua LS12 and Eco mode is a perfect combination though (even for 7000 Ryzen). With some fan tuning, the case is able to operate quiet with no real world performance loss (at least for gaming). Loki SFX 750 or 850 with 12+4 is a good match as well.
Isn't the problem with 4090 FE that it's too tall to fit in this case though? Is it lower height than the example card that wouldn't fit used in the review?
Why would you even need any additional fans? I've built quite a few SFFPCs and as long as the GPU fans take in fresh air directly there's no need for those fans. I can recommend building some shroud though to make sure it doesn't recirculate air. The 4090 runs so cool that it won't pose a problem though.
The node 202 was an absolutely amazing small form factor unit. I'm glad to see they've gone with a similar case but with modern amenities and more air flow to compensate for the heat modern equipment throws out.
Honestly a water cooled APU build would be really cool. It's nice that it mounts a 240 and has actual mounting points for 80mm. You could do something similar in a Node 202 or ML-08b, but you'd have to maybe punch a few holes and use a few zipties. I love the "briefcase" form factor and I feel it is neglected for, imo, inferior itx form factors.
Super happy that we have people still making desktop cases. Not everyone wants a tower, plus cases like these are *perfect* for living room PCs (especially since a lot of PC gamers still prefer using a controller). I'm definitely considering picking this case up. What I would *really* want is a case like this that only supports half-height GPUs and flex-ATX / 1U PSUs, as that would make this a lot smaller and fit my needs perfectly :D
Your taste in hardware sizes is horrible. Flex ATX PSUs are noisy because of their purpose. And half height are awful. Just get an APU and forgo the extraneous gpu.
@@catharticcathexis4527 Flex ATX PSUs are not all noisy. There aren't as many options as SFX? however there still are enthusiast options that are designed to run quietly and operate efficiently and reliably. Silverstone makes a couple that I've heard great things about, but they are not the only one. Half-height is perfectly fine because there's quite a few half-height GPUs, and with 2 slots that allows it to fit the "beefier" small GPUs like the 1650 and, most importantly, the RTX A2000. The A2000 especially would blow any APU out of the water that's on the market right now. No, I don't want to "just get an APU". Thanks for your comment though :D
@@xPLAYnOfficial Yeah, not exactly making a case for good taste in hardware. An A2000 half height is $500USD. That’s about the cost of the entirety of a 6900HX system. And the performance difference is ~50fps on ultra for the a2000 vs ~35fps on low for the 680m both at 1080. You could buy a used gaming laptop with a 2080 and a cooler for about the price of the GPU alone and get similar to better performance. Flex ATX also has design problems inherent with its form factors that not even overbuilt enthusiast grade parts could solve. Number one it’s tiny, it’s very difficult getting the power needed for modern hardware. There’s a reason people would rather have a power brick and external power supply.
@@catharticcathexis4527 And yet the HDPlex 250W GaN has been gaining traction and use in the SFF community. There's more to PC hardware than just power, and laptops / APUs are not the end-all-be-all solution to every problem. This isn't about "taste" , this is about use case and situational circumstance. Budget, performance, upgradeability, reliability, repairability, availability, electrical power / stability, noise, aesthetics, flexibility -- these are just a sampling of the myriad of aspects one must consider when building a PC. Now, does this mean everyone should go out and buy an RTX A2000? No. Does this mean the RTX A2000 is worthless with no need or use case where it makes sense? Also no. It's decidedly niche, but that doesn't make it bad. Just because *you* see no point in it's existence doesn't mean it's bad. Your opinion is not the definitive answer on the subject, and neither is mine. In the same way you can see no reason you'd ever want a Flex ATX power supply, I can personally see merit within my circumstances and situation. Perhaps then, having an open mind towards the possibility of your own knowledge, skills and experiences not being the complete picture is the best approach to take.
You enjoy your 2,000 dollar desktop objet d’arte that can’t keep up with a brand new laptop. There’s absolutely purposes and uses for those parts. And not one of them is playing video games. Enjoy your expensive pointless niche of toys. I’ll stick to practical applications of small computing components.
I agree that its odd they didnt make the gpu space just slightly larger to allow fitment of any card with ease. It does seem to fit some top level cards but not all simply based on whatever design each company went with.
Where should they have stopped though? With 400mm long quad slot cards this year, we could have quintuple slot cards before long. Looks to me that they settled on aesthetic and accepted the consequential limitations.
@@matbailie3816 I dont think they needed to worry about the new cards coming out. These things werent really designed with maximum performance in mind. Its just odd to make the case ALMOST big enough for different variations in cards. Just a bit of an oversight on their part. Such a minor change could have vastly improved compatability and cooling options.
A mod I'm interested in doing (if I ever get my hands on this case) is to attach a fan to the GPU bracket, such that it would succ out hot air from the CPU chamber and dump it in the GPU chamber, which is overkill and has more exhaust anyway. I wonder if that would improve CPU Temps.
They always have, really. Everybody have ups and downs, but Fractal's design approach has always been very intelligent and consistent. There's rarely any bloat, bad features or poor execution. Each case clearly has a job in mind, and does it very well. I just think in this case people try to push it too far. I've seen attempts to shove a 4090 into it, top shelf processors, etc. It's just not made for components that hot. I think it would make a great living room PC. Some people use these as their media center brains. With these looks this will seamlessly blend into the environment sitting somewhere under your TV, or on the shelf.
As a Fractal Node 202 owner for a traveling PC, I'm highly considering paying for what I see as a upgrade. The 3.5 holder in the 202 is the most gawd awful thing because of it's placement which was where the middle support bar, between where the psu cables connected & the other chamber where the gpu placement & front io cables were. So all those cables were flowing through basically a cable bottleneck, especially for the pci-express connector. Also for me, the riser connector became looser & looser being vertical, especially with a standardish size gpu.
Agreed. This case looks like a decent upgrade to the Node 202 as it seems it's a straight upgrade to that... I have to admit: It's tempting. Alone for the SSD mounting option... I had also little trouble with the standard riser in the Node 202. I got rid of it and got a flexible gen. 4 riser instead.
For anyone concerned about temperatures when the case is horizontal, I’ve found a bit of a trick. The way the case is designed, when placed horizontally, the side with more ventilation holes ends up facing down, which restricts airflow. You can remove the stand entirely and add small feet to the opposite side, allowing the side with more ventilation to face up. with two fans in the graphics card chamber, one 60mm fan pulling air in from the back (right next to the CPU), and another 60mm fan exhausting air through the front panel. This configuration allows the GPU to intake plenty of fresh air from the top (via its stock shroud) and exhaust it out the bottom. Meanwhile, the CPU is cooled by its dedicated 60mm fan (with the CPU cooler set to exhaust), and any ambient air is exhausted out the front. This setup essentially gives each component its own dedicated airflow, making a huge difference in temperature's
I'm SO glad you made this video. I was planning to run this on it's side under the TV in the living room. Depending on the 4090 im finally able to get my hands on, I'm probably going to stick with the meshroom S to trasnfer it into whenever the following upgrade happens. Thank you!!
These setup" hopes" always make me laugh. 4090 in a console style case? Lol this case is designed for 3070ish to be cooled confortably. Anything higher your starting the undervolt dance to make this case run high end cards well
I got this case with a 5800x3d and a 6800xt reference card, it works perfectly for me. The power cables interfere with one of the 80mm fan slots but I can still occupy the other 2 slots. The GPU chamber is hard to keep quiet as it is so open and close to the side of the case. But there's also enough airflow going to the GPU to keep fan speeds down.
Just got some testing done for all those asking temps. I'm using a Scythe Big Shuriken rev A at 50% fan speed and I'm seeing temps between 70-82c depending on the game. CP2077 ran hot around 82c while Tiny Tina's Wonderlands ran around 70c. I never paid much attention to what my temps were like with my LF2 240mm in an ATX case, but I recall them not being that far off.
this case plus a 15.6'' portable 4k mnitor(use the magnetic cover to stick it to the half mesh side), it's perfect for traveling around. my build is: 5600x + palit gaming pro 3090, bought three unbrand 80mm x 15mm fans on top as exhaust and changed original 140mm fans to 120mm ones.
@@Corei14 Not now but who knows what we'll get in the future. I mean both AMDs and Intels high end CPUs feature integrated graphics so maybe there's a use case here. Maybe as a small personal server or something.
@@Corei14 There are APUs on the laptop side with fairly high end specs on the CPU side and adequate specs on the GPU side. Sadly, AMD seems to have given up on desktop APUs. The Ryzen 6000G was cancelled and removed from the roadmap, and there were never any leaks about a possible 7000G either.
I don't get the hate on the 1800 rpm fans. I rather have the option to increase airflow if needed and to slow them to dead silence speed with PWM control. If they gave us a slow fan, we are stuck to THAT maximun speed.
More so the case isn’t designed properly to accommodate such high RPM fans. That side panel mesh is way too dense and close to the fans so at full blast the case is waaaay too loud for ITX (56+dBA). Reducing the RPM to 1000 brings the noise under control without hurting cooling perf. -D.
that fans i would throw away instantly once i bought this case , and put on P14 or silent wings 4 140mm , a nice fans won't loud like that , also if only for cooling off gpu those fans doesn't even need to spin more than 900 rpm
Im in a market for a slim tower for my spare 5600x and 6700xt. This is it. Almost pulled the trigger on the old slim Silverstone raven case. Fractal has always been my go to in the past though lian li has taken over with the 011 mini.
It's worth mentioning that the case currently has an issue with the riser IMO. Setting the pci-e slot to gen 4 causes standard riser instability issues, however you won't see an issue when setting to gen 3 or if your motherboard defaults to gen 3. Fractal have said that it only effects AMD systems but there are reports of it effecting Intel ones too. New replacement risers from Fractal don't seem to fix this yet either, so people are still waiting for a fix.
Maybe clarify that the CPU cooler is facing down when the case is oriented horizontally. I bet it would be much cooler if it were oriented the other way so that the CPU cooler faces up (power button on the right side). The large panels appear to be interchangeable to allow this.
Yeah, i was confused there and at the same time he displayed it with the monitor on top. So was like, well, yeah with monitor on top, it for sure would suck, I'd think, haha. PS I'm a born again PC noob, making a comeback 20 or years later, ha
im tired of my thermaltake cube of a case, and what better place to search for a new one than hardware canucks. glad to see you're still going hard my man. i remember watching all your vids back in 2014. you've just helped me pick my next case!
Another possible design oversight: If they were going to put the Mobo upside down when laying flat, why not at least have the option of putting 80mm fan mounts on the CPU side? You would increase airflow drastically, especially if you use Noctua's L12S.
I have been using this case for 2 months now. Here are my problems and thoughts. Note: I use the ridge in a horizontal setup in a 28x44cm cupboard. PC Parts: Moded zotac 3080ti trin oc Vram copper mod fan mod, thermalright 3x TL-B9x25mm top side installed 3 80x15mm exhaust fans Pcie 4.0 riser cable because the card isn’t working and has to be used in 3.0. I had to remove the bracket and side panel to fit the riser cable. Cpu amd r7 5700x with Asus strix x570i I had to edit the bios of the board to enable low power mode so the chipset wouldn’t overheat… Cooler - Blackridge with phanteks T30 and Noctua A9x14, since i took off the panel anyway might as well use the beefiest fan set up 🤷🏻♂️ had to remove the main m.2 cover to fit the cooler. Gpu temps easily hits 83c despite under-volt and cpu at around 80c when gaming after 3hours. I’m suspecting the gpu is sucking back in the hot air vented because of the space restriction of the cupboard. I will test if using a wood plaque to isolate the intake and exhaust will make a noticeable difference.
in terms of design, one of the most beautiful cases I've seen so far. It looks a lot like something designed by Dieter Rams. I would not be surprised if it was indeed inspired by Dieter Rams.
I picked up one several days ago, just waiting until after finals at college to build it when I have time. :D kinda hyped to try a Fractal product for the first time after planning to do a WC build in the Meshify Mini but dropped it for SFF lifestyle.
I can see this being a nice case for a small home server build. Perhaps a proxmox build with pf sense or something. I Might have to do some research on IO options. Nice video as always.
1 year too late, However I just completed a build with a 7700X and a 7900GRE using a Noctua NH-L12S for the CPU. The dimensions of the 7900GRE are 335mm x 130mm x 52mm . Despite the limitations on the GPU dimensions you can in fact run 3 80mm SLIM fans on the top if you want and it will not interfere with a card that is ~130mm even though the manual says 125mm (probably because they using regular 25mm thick fans).
My build. Asrock A620i lightning, 7800X3D, RTX 4080 Super FE, corsair SF1000L. idcool is67xt. Works great. Temps are way better than expected . Very happy.
I just put together a pc with this case and I love it. I might swap out a few fans with some especially quiet ones, or play around with the fan speed settings a bit, they sound very loud when I start gaming
It's like a bigger version of my Skyreach 4 Mini. Pretty awesome for more mainstream consumers that don't want to compromise on GPU length and power supply
If you tell me they have done somthing wrong like ship the case with the worng sort of fans, do you mind telling us why they have done that when it comes with Fractals PWM Aspect fans 500-1700RPM so you can set the speed yourself to 1000RPM.
The case is basically your GPU Cooler. I'm wondering if you could remove GPU fans and some of the plastic housing without big temperature increase. This would make it possible to fit even bigger cards.
So for me, I took a 6700XT apart and used the 140mm included fans as the cooling instead of the normal heatsink. Voids warranty, but now I have a really powerful cooling setup. I think I could go much bigger if I keep on making this 'custom' cooling tweak. However, I do find it sad that its got those fans and they just barely made contact with my GPU and so I had to do this. Otherwise a year later this case is doing excellent. I wanted to make it my portable desktop, but it doesn't fly particularly well. I may be making a custom wood travel box for it.
Wanted a node 202, went with a P-ATX V3 from SFFtime, saw this new ridge and looked amazing but considering the layout, size, and performance I decided that the P-ATX V3 was waaay better and looks like im right, this case is toasty, bigger than my P-ATX, waaay noisier and almost the same price.
@@riba2233 yooooo the legend himself lol, I got it recently (the Bstock one) and gotta say, I love it. Took me a bit of time to install everything but love how it looks in my desk and saved up a TON of space on my side of the desk, best layout confirmed
I've been debating between this and the Silverstone Milo 12. The Silverstone case is much more business/gamery like, has a slightly higher CPU cooler height, AND has a slim optical drive mount location (important for me) I'd love to see a review from you guys on the Milo 12 in comparison. There's only a few small press releases out with not many examples of seeing hardware in it.
What you probably missed in this review and should actually consider is if using a one fan gpu and a 120mm aio for the cpu fits. It honestly seems like this is the design they where going for.
Frankly, Fractal would have knocked this out of the park if the case was just 5-10mm larger in all three dimensions. It would have had MUCH better hardware support, improved noise, and probably better cooling performance for the CPU.
@@HardwareCanucks while I understand and agree to that viewpoint to an extent, even just 5mm in length and depth still keeps this case the same form factor and improves hardware compatibility drastically. Seems like an oversight to me.
This is a 13 litter case which won't allow big GPUs to fit. Might as well get the Meshlicious which is only 14 liters and allows the strix, tuf 30 series (and rx 6000 cards) cards to fit and even the reference 4090/4080 to fit. That also allows a radiator while having a GPU in use.
Having the case raised -- I think -- does a disservice to the sound levels as it allows most of the chassis to resonate from the vibrations that the fans produce. If Fractal were to remove the stand and let the case directly sit on the desk / floor, I would imagine much of the vibrations would be dispersed through that medium instead. Maybe this is a model they should iterate on?
Eh, think I'll stick with my Torrent Nano. Case is a bit fatter, but something I've learned in PC building is, when you try to make things to tight in a case, you almost always run into problems down the road. I'm still shocked how cool this case runs my CPU/GPU. Best temps so far!
It seems cpu temps is the main concern here, probably with Noctua NH-L12S it should be much better, as it throws hot air outside, not sure however, how it compares to 120 aio, which is probably would be even better for cpu, but limits gpu cooling on the other hand. Also lacking of air filters highly disappoint for fractal case.
you had to choose the biggest 3080 in existence... i have a TUF3080 which is smaller than the ROG Strix and there are plenty other 3080 models smaller than the ROG Strix
beautiful case. Im looking into a SFF build for my next build though im not sure if I wanna go ITX, M-ATX, or just SFF ATX. however, no dust filters is an absolute no go for me. idc about air flow. I want dust filters.
They should have put those 80s at the opposite end of the case to keep the CPU chamber air out of the GPU chamber. It would have really helped not only the CPU but especially the GPU. It had good cooling already but if you could pull even more heat out away from the GPU....
That's actually a good observation. Or have them on both sides to handle any situation. Having those on the CPU side would solve the CPU chamber from hotboxing.
Love the case but I had issues with the included fans hitting the frame and the power cord interfering with my axp120-67 CPU cooler. Other than that, I would've kept the case as I had good thermals and has very good foot print layout for small desks.
By far the best review of the Fractal Ridge case! What is your take on using this case as HTPC in desktop (flat) orientation with the MB and everything else upside down? On their website, you can see that the front panel USB ports are located on the left side: that means the MB and PSU are upside down (including the VRMs and all the other sensitive components that may not like this orientation).
This case can fit like a 4090. You might want to look at something like the Skyreach 4 Mini (though you'd have to drop a couple hundred MHz on the CPU most likely)
![เปิดบ้าน พี่ตูน Bodyslam หลังใหม่คนแรก ที่ภูเก็ต l [Nickynachat]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/flFwcmyDQSk/mqdefault.jpg)
Just one tip because many people are wondering: 4090 FE fits easily with slim fans (I took P14 Arctic, really good for that). Temps are very low. As stated in the review, CPU is more challenging. Noctua LS12 and Eco mode is a perfect combination though (even for 7000 Ryzen). With some fan tuning, the case is able to operate quiet with no real world performance loss (at least for gaming).
Loki SFX 750 or 850 with 12+4 is a good match as well.
Love Arctics. P14s in particular are quite literally the best performing 140mms as well
with that many fans close to the card you can probably deshroud it and hook the case fans to the card with some adapters.
I hope the corsair SF750 will be enough for my future 7900X3D with 7900 XTX build.
Isn't the problem with 4090 FE that it's too tall to fit in this case though? Is it lower height than the example card that wouldn't fit used in the review?
Why would you even need any additional fans? I've built quite a few SFFPCs and as long as the GPU fans take in fresh air directly there's no need for those fans. I can recommend building some shroud though to make sure it doesn't recirculate air. The 4090 runs so cool that it won't pose a problem though.
I just want to remind everyone that BungeeGum has both the properties of rubber and gum
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The node 202 was an absolutely amazing small form factor unit. I'm glad to see they've gone with a similar case but with modern amenities and more air flow to compensate for the heat modern equipment throws out.
Honestly a water cooled APU build would be really cool. It's nice that it mounts a 240 and has actual mounting points for 80mm. You could do something similar in a Node 202 or ML-08b, but you'd have to maybe punch a few holes and use a few zipties. I love the "briefcase" form factor and I feel it is neglected for, imo, inferior itx form factors.
Super happy that we have people still making desktop cases. Not everyone wants a tower, plus cases like these are *perfect* for living room PCs (especially since a lot of PC gamers still prefer using a controller). I'm definitely considering picking this case up.
What I would *really* want is a case like this that only supports half-height GPUs and flex-ATX / 1U PSUs, as that would make this a lot smaller and fit my needs perfectly :D
Your taste in hardware sizes is horrible. Flex ATX PSUs are noisy because of their purpose. And half height are awful. Just get an APU and forgo the extraneous gpu.
@@catharticcathexis4527 Flex ATX PSUs are not all noisy. There aren't as many options as SFX? however there still are enthusiast options that are designed to run quietly and operate efficiently and reliably. Silverstone makes a couple that I've heard great things about, but they are not the only one. Half-height is perfectly fine because there's quite a few half-height GPUs, and with 2 slots that allows it to fit the "beefier" small GPUs like the 1650 and, most importantly, the RTX A2000. The A2000 especially would blow any APU out of the water that's on the market right now. No, I don't want to "just get an APU". Thanks for your comment though :D
@@xPLAYnOfficial Yeah, not exactly making a case for good taste in hardware. An A2000 half height is $500USD. That’s about the cost of the entirety of a 6900HX system. And the performance difference is ~50fps on ultra for the a2000 vs ~35fps on low for the 680m both at 1080. You could buy a used gaming laptop with a 2080 and a cooler for about the price of the GPU alone and get similar to better performance.
Flex ATX also has design problems inherent with its form factors that not even overbuilt enthusiast grade parts could solve. Number one it’s tiny, it’s very difficult getting the power needed for modern hardware. There’s a reason people would rather have a power brick and external power supply.
@@catharticcathexis4527 And yet the HDPlex 250W GaN has been gaining traction and use in the SFF community. There's more to PC hardware than just power, and laptops / APUs are not the end-all-be-all solution to every problem. This isn't about "taste" , this is about use case and situational circumstance. Budget, performance, upgradeability, reliability, repairability, availability, electrical power / stability, noise, aesthetics, flexibility -- these are just a sampling of the myriad of aspects one must consider when building a PC.
Now, does this mean everyone should go out and buy an RTX A2000? No. Does this mean the RTX A2000 is worthless with no need or use case where it makes sense? Also no. It's decidedly niche, but that doesn't make it bad. Just because *you* see no point in it's existence doesn't mean it's bad. Your opinion is not the definitive answer on the subject, and neither is mine. In the same way you can see no reason you'd ever want a Flex ATX power supply, I can personally see merit within my circumstances and situation. Perhaps then, having an open mind towards the possibility of your own knowledge, skills and experiences not being the complete picture is the best approach to take.
You enjoy your 2,000 dollar desktop objet d’arte that can’t keep up with a brand new laptop. There’s absolutely purposes and uses for those parts. And not one of them is playing video games. Enjoy your expensive pointless niche of toys. I’ll stick to practical applications of small computing components.
Looks like an Ikea Symfonisk bookshelf speaker. Would be interesting speakers to pair it with if you're into that kind of look.
thank you so much for this review! I really wanted to see whether this could be the case for my next build.
Just want to say the fan ad in the middle of this was gorgeous/super cool. I want them.
They are super cool! Glad you liked the ad 🙏
-D.
This seems ideal to pair with one of those big external radiators.
I agree that its odd they didnt make the gpu space just slightly larger to allow fitment of any card with ease. It does seem to fit some top level cards but not all simply based on whatever design each company went with.
Where should they have stopped though? With 400mm long quad slot cards this year, we could have quintuple slot cards before long. Looks to me that they settled on aesthetic and accepted the consequential limitations.
I think they just didn't anticipate the 40 series cards to be such thicc bois.
@@matbailie3816 I dont think they needed to worry about the new cards coming out. These things werent really designed with maximum performance in mind. Its just odd to make the case ALMOST big enough for different variations in cards. Just a bit of an oversight on their part. Such a minor change could have vastly improved compatability and cooling options.
@@PROTLxONgame Dmitri tested an RTX 3080 ROG Strix, and it did not fit. They didn't even validate all past gen cards...
@@EvanA. oh right, good point
A mod I'm interested in doing (if I ever get my hands on this case) is to attach a fan to the GPU bracket, such that it would succ out hot air from the CPU chamber and dump it in the GPU chamber, which is overkill and has more exhaust anyway.
I wonder if that would improve CPU Temps.
Fractal design has been killing it with case design this year
They always have, really. Everybody have ups and downs, but Fractal's design approach has always been very intelligent and consistent. There's rarely any bloat, bad features or poor execution. Each case clearly has a job in mind, and does it very well. I just think in this case people try to push it too far. I've seen attempts to shove a 4090 into it, top shelf processors, etc. It's just not made for components that hot. I think it would make a great living room PC. Some people use these as their media center brains. With these looks this will seamlessly blend into the environment sitting somewhere under your TV, or on the shelf.
As a Fractal Node 202 owner for a traveling PC, I'm highly considering paying for what I see as a upgrade. The 3.5 holder in the 202 is the most gawd awful thing because of it's placement which was where the middle support bar, between where the psu cables connected & the other chamber where the gpu placement & front io cables were. So all those cables were flowing through basically a cable bottleneck, especially for the pci-express connector. Also for me, the riser connector became looser & looser being vertical, especially with a standardish size gpu.
Agreed. This case looks like a decent upgrade to the Node 202 as it seems it's a straight upgrade to that... I have to admit: It's tempting. Alone for the SSD mounting option...
I had also little trouble with the standard riser in the Node 202. I got rid of it and got a flexible gen. 4 riser instead.
For anyone concerned about temperatures when the case is horizontal, I’ve found a bit of a trick. The way the case is designed, when placed horizontally, the side with more ventilation holes ends up facing down, which restricts airflow. You can remove the stand entirely and add small feet to the opposite side, allowing the side with more ventilation to face up.
with two fans in the graphics card chamber, one 60mm fan pulling air in from the back (right next to the CPU), and another 60mm fan exhausting air through the front panel. This configuration allows the GPU to intake plenty of fresh air from the top (via its stock shroud) and exhaust it out the bottom. Meanwhile, the CPU is cooled by its dedicated 60mm fan (with the CPU cooler set to exhaust), and any ambient air is exhausted out the front.
This setup essentially gives each component its own dedicated airflow, making a huge difference in temperature's
I'm SO glad you made this video. I was planning to run this on it's side under the TV in the living room. Depending on the 4090 im finally able to get my hands on, I'm probably going to stick with the meshroom S to trasnfer it into whenever the following upgrade happens. Thank you!!
These setup" hopes" always make me laugh.
4090 in a console style case? Lol this case is designed for 3070ish to be cooled confortably. Anything higher your starting the undervolt dance to make this case run high end cards well
@@mikeymaiku 4090 actually runs with 300W only 10% slower than with 450W.
@@hustleacc8075 you really dont understand at all lol
@@mikeymaiku Everyone should do the undervolt dance. Its a fun tango.
@@davidbrumby761 you should see how many actually do.
Not enough
I got this case with a 5800x3d and a 6800xt reference card, it works perfectly for me. The power cables interfere with one of the 80mm fan slots but I can still occupy the other 2 slots. The GPU chamber is hard to keep quiet as it is so open and close to the side of the case. But there's also enough airflow going to the GPU to keep fan speeds down.
What do your temps look like?
What's your temps? Also what cpu cooler you have?
What cooler are you using with that 5800x3d and how are the temps during gaming? (if possible cite some example of games you play)
Just got some testing done for all those asking temps. I'm using a Scythe Big Shuriken rev A at 50% fan speed and I'm seeing temps between 70-82c depending on the game. CP2077 ran hot around 82c while Tiny Tina's Wonderlands ran around 70c. I never paid much attention to what my temps were like with my LF2 240mm in an ATX case, but I recall them not being that far off.
@@Braffy not bad
this case plus a 15.6'' portable 4k mnitor(use the magnetic cover to stick it to the half mesh side), it's perfect for traveling around. my build is: 5600x + palit gaming pro 3090, bought three unbrand 80mm x 15mm fans on top as exhaust and changed original 140mm fans to 120mm ones.
It also weights 4 kg bare for some reason. Which would be a hassle if you want to fit it into a carry on on a plane.
Why would you travel around with a desktop.
@@Quicksilver_Cookie just dont like laptop and ps5
@@keliangchanwhich monitor are you using ? And how are you carrying this around ? Cabin baggage or backpack ?
Love the aesthetics of this. Give APUs a couple years to get stronger, and I'll build a rig with this case. 👍
Exactly what I was thinking
why do an apu build in this when it has such a good gpu slot. There are better only itx motherboard cases out there.
Hopefully they get better faster
I mean, you could get an Nvidia A2000...
This case could be very interesting for a GPU deshroud. And maybe a higher end APU build.
Apus are not high end. No need to water cool them. The only thing high end would be the ssds you add to it.
Super agree. Replace with Noctua fans or add low power adapters to the fans to slow them down. Are the included fans 3 pin or 4 pin fans?
@@Corei14 Not now but who knows what we'll get in the future. I mean both AMDs and Intels high end CPUs feature integrated graphics so maybe there's a use case here. Maybe as a small personal server or something.
@@Corei14 There are APUs on the laptop side with fairly high end specs on the CPU side and adequate specs on the GPU side. Sadly, AMD seems to have given up on desktop APUs. The Ryzen 6000G was cancelled and removed from the roadmap, and there were never any leaks about a possible 7000G either.
GPU Deshroud, now that makes sense
Been an owner since the Design Define XL rev 1 and I have to say, this is the coolest little thing I’ve ever seen!
I don't get the hate on the 1800 rpm fans. I rather have the option to increase airflow if needed and to slow them to dead silence speed with PWM control. If they gave us a slow fan, we are stuck to THAT maximun speed.
But BFU don't want options because he don't care about setting the fan speed regulation and therefore 1800rpm fan is "noisy".
More so the case isn’t designed properly to accommodate such high RPM fans. That side panel mesh is way too dense and close to the fans so at full blast the case is waaaay too loud for ITX (56+dBA). Reducing the RPM to 1000 brings the noise under control without hurting cooling perf.
-D.
Yeah i rather have the option to slow them down and tune the fan curve than having a hard limit at 1000rpm.
that fans i would throw away instantly once i bought this case , and put on P14 or silent wings 4 140mm , a nice fans won't loud like that , also if only for cooling off gpu those fans doesn't even need to spin more than 900 rpm
@@蛇王-y9b I ended up doing just this. I'm running 2 arctic P14 argb fans. The rgb ends up looking nice through the grating on the side panel.
This its going to be my new case. Life dad style 😅 I just dont have the space for a desk setup so, PS5 and PC on the living room. 💪
Hardware Canucks case reviews are unmatched.
better than anyone, even GN
Try Optimum Tech :)
@@donordonez1356 nah, hc (dimitri) is good on any case reviews while OT only does SFF which as itself is a niche market.
@@ItsReaxxion Quality of Review talking about here not about sff only haha
@@donordonez1356 bro please
Im in a market for a slim tower for my spare 5600x and 6700xt. This is it. Almost pulled the trigger on the old slim Silverstone raven case. Fractal has always been my go to in the past though lian li has taken over with the 011 mini.
This is the exact setup I've got with my Node 202. The ridge looks interesting and much easier to work on at least.
Such an aesthetically pleasing case, especially the white one
Agreed 👍
-D.
It's worth mentioning that the case currently has an issue with the riser IMO. Setting the pci-e slot to gen 4 causes standard riser instability issues, however you won't see an issue when setting to gen 3 or if your motherboard defaults to gen 3. Fractal have said that it only effects AMD systems but there are reports of it effecting Intel ones too. New replacement risers from Fractal don't seem to fix this yet either, so people are still waiting for a fix.
any developments? are you still dealing with the problem?
@@Gigaguenther no more issues, they sent out a new new riser around march which fixed it.
@@Cermagine ah cool, that puts the Case back on my favorites list. thanks for the heads up
Maybe clarify that the CPU cooler is facing down when the case is oriented horizontally. I bet it would be much cooler if it were oriented the other way so that the CPU cooler faces up (power button on the right side). The large panels appear to be interchangeable to allow this.
Yeah, i was confused there and at the same time he displayed it with the monitor on top. So was like, well, yeah with monitor on top, it for sure would suck, I'd think, haha. PS I'm a born again PC noob, making a comeback 20 or years later, ha
This case reminds of Intel's latest NUC, the Intel NUC 13 Extreme. Even the dimensions are similar. Pretty nice alternative.
5:17 This shot and the way Dimi delivers the line here is so Rodney Reynolds lol
im tired of my thermaltake cube of a case, and what better place to search for a new one than hardware canucks. glad to see you're still going hard my man. i remember watching all your vids back in 2014. you've just helped me pick my next case!
kind of reminds me of the Sun Ultra 45 from the early 2000's with the grey grill on white. love it
Another possible design oversight: If they were going to put the Mobo upside down when laying flat, why not at least have the option of putting 80mm fan mounts on the CPU side? You would increase airflow drastically, especially if you use Noctua's L12S.
I have been using this case for 2 months now. Here are my problems and thoughts.
Note: I use the ridge in a horizontal setup in a 28x44cm cupboard.
PC Parts:
Moded zotac 3080ti trin oc
Vram copper mod
fan mod, thermalright 3x TL-B9x25mm
top side installed 3 80x15mm exhaust fans
Pcie 4.0 riser cable because the card isn’t working and has to be used in 3.0. I had to remove the bracket and side panel to fit the riser cable.
Cpu amd r7 5700x with Asus strix x570i
I had to edit the bios of the board to enable low power mode so the chipset wouldn’t overheat…
Cooler - Blackridge with phanteks T30 and Noctua A9x14, since i took off the panel anyway might as well use the beefiest fan set up 🤷🏻♂️ had to remove the main m.2 cover to fit the cooler.
Gpu temps easily hits 83c despite under-volt and cpu at around 80c when gaming after 3hours.
I’m suspecting the gpu is sucking back in the hot air vented because of the space restriction of the cupboard. I will test if using a wood plaque to isolate the intake and exhaust will make a noticeable difference.
in terms of design, one of the most beautiful cases I've seen so far. It looks a lot like something designed by Dieter Rams. I would not be surprised if it was indeed inspired by Dieter Rams.
I picked up one several days ago, just waiting until after finals at college to build it when I have time. :D kinda hyped to try a Fractal product for the first time after planning to do a WC build in the Meshify Mini but dropped it for SFF lifestyle.
Good luck with it 👍
-D.
I can see this being a nice case for a small home server build. Perhaps a proxmox build with pf sense or something. I Might have to do some research on IO options. Nice video as always.
1 year too late, However I just completed a build with a 7700X and a 7900GRE using a Noctua NH-L12S for the CPU. The dimensions of the 7900GRE are 335mm x 130mm x 52mm . Despite the limitations on the GPU dimensions you can in fact run 3 80mm SLIM fans on the top if you want and it will not interfere with a card that is ~130mm even though the manual says 125mm (probably because they using regular 25mm thick fans).
My build.
Asrock A620i lightning, 7800X3D, RTX 4080 Super FE, corsair SF1000L. idcool is67xt.
Works great. Temps are way better than expected . Very happy.
I'd love to somehow make that front face a speaker itself attaching it directly to the fan slots.
Turn CC on.
"good people I'm Dmitry welcome to my Ridge review from *practical* design"
This is my dream case i loved the node 202 this looks even more slick !!!!
Me: Oh man i wish my pc looked like a speaker from the 00's
Ridge: We got you
Horizontal is probably pretty good if used as a gaming console in the living room. Should fit nicely where the ol dvd player used to be.
I just put together a pc with this case and I love it. I might swap out a few fans with some especially quiet ones, or play around with the fan speed settings a bit, they sound very loud when I start gaming
Love my last Fractal slim tower and really happy to see a new update on the itx
It's like a bigger version of my Skyreach 4 Mini. Pretty awesome for more mainstream consumers that don't want to compromise on GPU length and power supply
This should be a lovely case for a Bazzite-based Console PC.
This would actually be a great APU/IGPU case, with a 280mm cooler, you’d have way more than adequate cooling in such a small package
That sponsor spot made me giggle lol. Nice video as well. Lovely case.
So happy to see more Dmitry on the channel again.
If you tell me they have done somthing wrong like ship the case with the worng sort of fans, do you mind telling us why they have done that when it comes with Fractals PWM Aspect fans 500-1700RPM so you can set the speed yourself to 1000RPM.
The case is basically your GPU Cooler. I'm wondering if you could remove GPU fans and some of the plastic housing without big temperature increase. This would make it possible to fit even bigger cards.
Fractal is on a roll. I just want a new meshify 1.5 Large.
So for me, I took a 6700XT apart and used the 140mm included fans as the cooling instead of the normal heatsink. Voids warranty, but now I have a really powerful cooling setup. I think I could go much bigger if I keep on making this 'custom' cooling tweak. However, I do find it sad that its got those fans and they just barely made contact with my GPU and so I had to do this.
Otherwise a year later this case is doing excellent. I wanted to make it my portable desktop, but it doesn't fly particularly well. I may be making a custom wood travel box for it.
SSUPD Meshlicious still the king IMO. I just love this case!
Mod with the new 9 fan external radiator thing that's doing the rounds! ;-)
Cool that they remade the Fractal Node 202 I guess.
Slim towers are pleasing, I hope they can make glass side panels as well for it.
When did Blake Shelton start reviewing computers??
Wanted a node 202, went with a P-ATX V3 from SFFtime, saw this new ridge and looked amazing but considering the layout, size, and performance I decided that the P-ATX V3 was waaay better and looks like im right, this case is toasty, bigger than my P-ATX, waaay noisier and almost the same price.
Thanks, appreciate it!
@@riba2233 yooooo the legend himself lol, I got it recently (the Bstock one) and gotta say, I love it. Took me a bit of time to install everything but love how it looks in my desk and saved up a TON of space on my side of the desk, best layout confirmed
@@SupportNoob yo yo, thanks, very glad you like it!
@@riba2233 Ugh, those delivery times tho.
This case will be perfect for my travel PC I’m about to build.
I've been debating between this and the Silverstone Milo 12. The Silverstone case is much more business/gamery like, has a slightly higher CPU cooler height, AND has a slim optical drive mount location (important for me) I'd love to see a review from you guys on the Milo 12 in comparison. There's only a few small press releases out with not many examples of seeing hardware in it.
Milo 12 looks awesome, but I think 12L is already a lot for SFF, and Milo is 16L
I absolutely love this thing it’s so inoffensive
Boght it (its my second Fractal Design case) today am assembling computer in this case 😉😀👍. Thanx for this vid.
So this is basically for the look then? Performance/tech/noise wise it doesnt seem to mega perform... (I do love supra minimalistic designs though!)
Pretty much. If your hardware specs fit, this is a killer option for the slim design ✌️
-D.
@@HardwareCanucks I got a Fractal Design Define 7, so I'm pretty much at the other side if the spectrum with the Ridge. 😉
What you probably missed in this review and should actually consider is if using a one fan gpu and a 120mm aio for the cpu fits. It honestly seems like this is the design they where going for.
I'd love to see that with AIOs. Looks really nice.
Oh wow, this is the case I needed three years ago!
5600x,3060 and l9a noctua cooler and i think this would be the perfect home pc for about $1000 cad
for the larger cards you need one step up from this with space for at least 150mm power supply
In mini ITX world they often do compete with liters. This case is exploiting the math trick of 1*3
Frankly, Fractal would have knocked this out of the park if the case was just 5-10mm larger in all three dimensions. It would have had MUCH better hardware support, improved noise, and probably better cooling performance for the CPU.
Agreed. But I guess it becomes a question of how much do they go to satisfy all the specs … next thing you know they make it a mid tower.
-D.
@@HardwareCanucks while I understand and agree to that viewpoint to an extent, even just 5mm in length and depth still keeps this case the same form factor and improves hardware compatibility drastically. Seems like an oversight to me.
This is a 13 litter case which won't allow big GPUs to fit. Might as well get the Meshlicious which is only 14 liters and allows the strix, tuf 30 series (and rx 6000 cards) cards to fit and even the reference 4090/4080 to fit. That also allows a radiator while having a GPU in use.
0:22 This is the real highlight of the video.
Cat: fabric mesh front panel you say... 😼
Having the case raised -- I think -- does a disservice to the sound levels as it allows most of the chassis to resonate from the vibrations that the fans produce. If Fractal were to remove the stand and let the case directly sit on the desk / floor, I would imagine much of the vibrations would be dispersed through that medium instead. Maybe this is a model they should iterate on?
The stand makes no difference to the sound. It’s the really dense mesh side panel that should be opened up to quiet the case.
-D.
Eh, think I'll stick with my Torrent Nano. Case is a bit fatter, but something I've learned in PC building is, when you try to make things to tight in a case, you almost always run into problems down the road. I'm still shocked how cool this case runs my CPU/GPU. Best temps so far!
Superb, simply marvelous
Ghost S1 vs Formd T1 it should be an epic battle of SFF CASES.
I’m ordering this case and cutting the front mesh out and using the grate behind it
This is almost identical to Silverstone's brilliant Raven cases, which Silverstone themselves seem to have forgotten about.
It seems cpu temps is the main concern here, probably with Noctua NH-L12S it should be much better, as it throws hot air outside, not sure however, how it compares to 120 aio, which is probably would be even better for cpu, but limits gpu cooling on the other hand. Also lacking of air filters highly disappoint for fractal case.
Intake is the best option, even for the L12S. Exhausting for such tiny CPU heatsinks is terrible for temperatures.
-D.
Those new AMD 7900XTX cards would go nicely with this case.
you had to choose the biggest 3080 in existence... i have a TUF3080 which is smaller than the ROG Strix and there are plenty other 3080 models smaller than the ROG Strix
beautiful case. Im looking into a SFF build for my next build though im not sure if I wanna go ITX, M-ATX, or just SFF ATX. however, no dust filters is an absolute no go for me. idc about air flow. I want dust filters.
That lego mustang is perfect for representing the size since i got one right here lmao
Seems like a modern Node 202 / RVZ02. Pretty cool, but I'll probably get a Sliger Conswole or something
They should have put those 80s at the opposite end of the case to keep the CPU chamber air out of the GPU chamber. It would have really helped not only the CPU but especially the GPU. It had good cooling already but if you could pull even more heat out away from the GPU....
That's actually a good observation. Or have them on both sides to handle any situation. Having those on the CPU side would solve the CPU chamber from hotboxing.
Love the case but I had issues with the included fans hitting the frame and the power cord interfering with my axp120-67 CPU cooler. Other than that, I would've kept the case as I had good thermals and has very good foot print layout for small desks.
I bought a 10 foot power cord and removed the pigtail.
Goes straight from the wall to the PSU.
Also put on a 90 degree adapter at the PSU.
Thanks Big D, great video!
Haha Big D … glad you enjoyed! -D.
with that many fans close to the card you can probably deshroud it and hook the case fans to the card with some adapters.
I have this case and added a ryzen 7 apu which works for me with no need to have a graphic card
By far the best review of the Fractal Ridge case!
What is your take on using this case as HTPC in desktop (flat) orientation with the MB and everything else upside down? On their website, you can see that the front panel USB ports are located on the left side: that means the MB and PSU are upside down (including the VRMs and all the other sensitive components that may not like this orientation).
I can work with this. Maybe this is the year
Reminds me of Silverstone RVZ03.
Bought one a week ago.
Was looking for a simplistic layout in a small volume.
Very nice looking case
I got a lian li o6s mini itx case really rare hard to find case. Planning on building a new pc using that case
This case could be perfect for something like a small 3060 and 13th gen i5. Could totally see this being used as an on the go editing rig.
This case can fit like a 4090.
You might want to look at something like the Skyreach 4 Mini (though you'd have to drop a couple hundred MHz on the CPU most likely)
if you can see through it, you can breath through it. it may not flow easily but it will let air flow through....