I bought the case after Steve review.I saw yours after and i still buyed a 420mm AIO H170I, despite you said will be hard to mount one. Was a nightmare....I moved the 2 180 mm fans on the bottom and tryed to mount the AIO on front,pipes down. I could not do-it, At the end of the day i mounted-it with pipes up(not recommended...by Steve again) I was lucky with the AIO , i used Corsair fan controler for all the fans and for some reason i took out the Fractal controller out,before i knew that is kaboom. Before the build i just belived that you moaning to much.Now i realise that all you said is true,especially regarding the space in the back for cable managnent,hard drives positioning,all that wasted space near motherboard. Respect,subscribed.
Leo here: When I had a discussion with Fractal about installing a 420mm radiator the initial response was 'no-one is doing that' so welcome to a VERY small club.
And he’s right. Air will find its way to the top of any AIO. If pipes are up and the rad is higher than the pump it’s all good. The pump will have liquid to feed it. I believe even Steve said that if you watch his video fully. What is wrong is where you have pipes up and the pump is level with or above the top of the rad. You will the. Have the pump trying to move air. This will kill your AIO.
@@benny_1985 Steve from Gamers Nexus confirmed this too. He made a follow-up video about how people took his advice out of context and made it a lot more black-and-white than intended. Confirmed that what Jayz2Cents was doing was correct
I like that there are reviewers who don't always agree with each other on different products. It doesn't make any of them wrong, it's just a difference of opinion. The fact that Leo did a custom loop and the others didn't gives people a chance to compare how the case would look with different setups.
I moderate the Hardware Unboxed discord and frequently Steve &Tim suggest to watch as many reviews as possible. It's all about being informed and making your OWN decisions. Never decide from watching 1 video.
*_"It doesn't make any of them wrong, it's just a difference of opinion"_* What a nonsense. Take for example the cable management area where you're supposed to store any hard drive or SSD: they WILL run hot, period! That's not an opinion, but a fact.
Loved the revision for air cooling, please don't assume all enthusiasts prefer liquid cooling, I much rather go with air always. Steve's input is always great but it's also great to have different opinions and different builds (liquid/custom loops as well!). Agree that there seems to be so much empty space in a build like this, while the cables seem cramped on the back with little room for HDDs. I wish makers would focus on either liquid or air cooling and make the best case possible for that use case instead of compromising and ending up with something not great at either.
I love how this revisit is basically a big "Piss off!" to all the critics of the original video. Love the content and the passive aggressiveness Leo. Never change! lol
It was simply that the first video was titled as a review, making no mention of watercooling. If it had been called Watercooling in the Fractal Torrent I would never had made my comments.
@@GBR9794 I'm simply talking about the title of the previous video, and I have said what he could have simply done to not be wrong at all. He is not wrong in this video at all.
Leo here: This second look is intended as an 'I hear what you're saying' rather than 'Go take a running jump'. We value our audience, especially the ones who can spell and have an understanding of PC technology.
I thoroughly appreciate the amount of focus on trying to stick custom loops into cases that say they support it, it has helped me make my past couple case choices. It is something most other actual reviewers ignore but your inclusion of that testing has undoubtedly helped me make better choices with my money!
I'm glad I ignored the advice of this review. I ended up getting this case. I also have the 3090 and it's huge...so having that extra space allows it to fit, with a bit of room. In an air based build, having room around the components allows for air to not be blocked from making its way around to each piece. Also have not had any issues with cable management...that bit keeps confusing me...I'm not sure why he's having such an issue. Anyway, anyone considering this case, id say go for it. I've had a very positive experience.
I agree that is exactly the missing point of this review. WIth the ever-increasing GPU card size, who said 4090 RTX, the value of having a larger case like this is missing. Also, I think using a rear fan is important for overall performance, as you want to create a little of active air egress close to the CPU to quickly take the heat out of the case.
I've built in Fractal Meshify, and I strongly agree with your comment, there isn't enough space for the wiring compartment. Speaking from experiance here, two separate Meshify builds, panel was fitting too tight, even with neat cabling. Another 5-10 mm as you put it would have done the job perfectly.
On several sites that sell this case it is mentioned that it will fit a E-ATX board. That is why, when using ATX mobo, there's so much space. Using a E-ATX mobo would fill the space and as a bonus, in theory, should also give more space between items placed on board that get hot (gpu,. cpu, m2 nvme drives, and memory to some extent) allowing more airflow through/over said items. If I purchased the case it would be the model with solid sides because I hate RGB lighting. Right now I have that solid sides setup on corsair 780 and it works wonders for my hatred of RGB (and it's quiet as a church mouse) but being a full tower it's a monster and I'm looking for something smaller to put my "junk" in.
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One thing to note about GN is that they ALWAYS use the same STANDARDISED parts when reviewing a case, which they absolutely need to do in order to build a useful dataset to compare to. And like Leo pointed out, good airflow it's equally important for watercooling as it is for aircooling so they only need to test with aircooling as it introduces the least amount of variance during testing.
This is true however it leads to a number of big decisions: 1) Every few years you have to make a big change to a new platform and start from scratch. 2) You're treating every case the same where it is clear some cases are better suited to a 200W CPU and 250W GPU while others should be limited to a 125W CPU and tiddly GPU. 3) Switching out the stock fans for standardised fans does not represent the buyer experience. $) Using a variety of hardware is more interesting.
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@@KitGuruTech I agree with you, and that's why we need to watch several reviews, not just one! I'm just pointing out GN's method to explain why you'll never see a case review from them using water cooling.
8 was a fair score and all the points you raised were definitely justified. A few other reviewers got a bit too excited about the case IMO. I like it, but there’s clear drawbacks to it. But then it’s unique, and different. So I applaud them for that. I just don’t understand the size - it’s massive. Far too big. You could build a system of this spec in an ITX chassis!
These new ITX cases are making everything look oversized, it's incredible you can have a 280mm AIO, 3 slot GPU and an 850W power supply in a shoe box these days
I happen to rather like all the space to the right of the mobo, and since my desk is deep it's not really a problem. Getting that extra bottom fan for air intake is part of the good airflow while maintaining low noise... I just happen to not like the visuals of the front and the "school bus" roof, but that is purely subjective.
Your orignal review was probably the least enthusiastic one I've seen, but one closest to my own opinion and it's usually like that :] You are generally this reasonable guy with really well balanced look at cases - not airflow fanatic to te point of being ridiculous as Gamers Nexus, not always happy and focused on secondary things as looks or RGBs and - what's most important - far from stinking with liking too much with companies. You are the one I would recommend to non-experienced user to help with choosing the case :] I really appreciate your work Leo!
Fractal advertise Watercooling support so testing it with a watercooling loop was a good move, and you identified some shortcomings, exactly what a review should do.
The definition of why reviewers keep as many parts as they can. We've now seen the case in best and worse case scenarios bringing everything full circle. There's no way we don't have all the information required to use this case after these 2 videos. I know it was a little annoying but thanks Leo!
@@limmel3588 Just got my Lian Li EVO built, I love this unit. Should I load Windows 11 since I have a 12900K? I think to try to backup (with Acronis) and restore onto the new EVO from my old windows 10 (backing up with Acronis and then restoring to windows 11 using acronis), might be really rough to do. All the drives are different sizes too ugh. My old computer has 2.5 SSD, 3.5 HDD and lots of M.2 SSD, but my new one has larger SSD drives. so yea, I'm really stuck on what to do. I would really like to get some of those huge drives working on my new unit, but there's really no place to put them on the EVO because i used the 3.5 inch HDD bays for wire management. LIke i have wires stuck in the bay (i have removed the two hard drive plug-n-ply trays) so the compartment for the 3.5 inch drives is being used to stick cables into for wire management. So yea, it's hard to figure out what I'm going to do since i have SO many programs in windows 10 on my old gaming computer. But I really need to sell my old 2080TI before they become worthless
@@dabneyoffermein595 Personally, I've had better system stability on Windows 11, compared with 10. But everyone seems to say the opposite of that. Just my experience there, make of it what you will. Also, I haven't had too many compatibility problems thus far on Windows 11. When I do, they're very slight. Then again, I don't know what software you're using, experience can vary there considerably. What did you end up doing?
@@stevens1041 he ended up using W10 because W11 would crash in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020. It just wouldn't run on 11. Loaded back to 10 and it worked like a charm. He is very happy now. He said so in another channel. I always follow what he says.
I love the second look as you also went over some key features that was not in the first, love your energy too. An 8/10 is good enough for me to still warrant a buy from me. I can't wait to see how my custom built comes out, thanks again for the fan info too.
I actually appreciated your first review because when I saw this case pop up in my feed, the first thing in my mind was this case would be interesting for a custom loop system.
@@harpoon_bakery162 Depends on the parts. There are some custom loop kits that would be cheaper than the most expensive AIOs, but you can run away with the cost of a custom loop pretty easily. Just the total cost of the fittings alone has the potential to match the cost of a decent AIO.
I've just rewatched this. I bought my Fractal Torrent in part following this review. Ironically it was Leo's complaint about all the extra space that helped sell it to me as I was using a RTX 3090 FE at the time (since replaced by a RTX 4090), which are absolutely huge. At the time I also had a Dark Rock Pro 4 and later upgraded to a Noctua DH15 and put some white covers on it which really help the aesthetics.
Placing the D15 fan on the front of the tower can drop another 1-2 degrees off the temperature. It can be seen (7:50) that the RAM does not interfere with their classic mounting. Is there a specific reason that one of the two fans was moved to draw air from the back of the tower?
I must admit on the first review I thought it was weird that you went custom loop, but then after seeing the results I was like ... ooo, I get it now :D.
Well, CPU temperatures are better with the air-cooled approach and I'm not sure the graphics card results are comparable (two different models from two different manufacturers).
Crammed case will not have good airflow, you need open space to eliminate turbulences. When the front fan blows directly onto the side of the GPU, it creates a lot of problems.
Both of your reviews of this case were pretty good, I thought. Being honest and talking about issues that you had made them more believable. And yeah, the case is designed with water cooling in mind as well, not just with the images showing radiator sizes that can work, but with those round fill port cutouts. I do like the case a lot but like you said there's a lot of extra space when using a standard build. Thumbs up!
Do you recommend installing the Noctura CPU fans in this configuration for the Torrent case? With one of the fans in the back as an exhaust rather than having it in front over the ram like most do?
I didn't have any questions regarding your choice, and liked that different reviewers all did different things. It gives a much clearer picture of the case for different builds. My current case no reviewer used 140mm fans in the front - just noted the case could accept them. Now, if one uses 120MM fans, they clear the 2.5" drive mounts with out issue. But if one does use 140mm fans (I do), there's no clearance for drives to mount there. Is it a big deal - not really. But it would have been nice to know in advanced as I had to change my build plans slightly. :-)
It's clearly a very competent case in most respects... But I'm not overly excited about it either. It's too big and the power supply bump at the top annoys my OCD. As someone who picked big cases for my first few builds, I cringe at inefficient use of space due to my own dumb hardware selections in the past. Anyone else own a CM stacker? Haha. Now the meshify 2 compact is just perfect for me
I think your first review was fine, customer loop is valid choice. That said I don’t like the inconsistency of the hardware used over all the different cases. Makes it difficult to compare one case to another.
I actually love that you guys go the custom loop/AIO route. ------------------ This is also why i chose the Thermaltake CoreX71 [TGE] for my build. with you guys your review as 1 of the main sticking points because of clearly showing that both 5.25" bays can still be used even with a 360mm loop. most people just remove those 2 bay's and call it a day. My system with a Ryzen 9 5900x and a bequiet pure loop runs nice and cool [ at most 45C under IDLE/low load] And this is with a ASUS strix LC RX6800xt occupying the front for its AIO. [which runs at 35C max under IDLE] it never gets hotter than 60C even when gaming on 2 4K display's [60hz]
Don't get the whole "look at all the space" and "it looks ridiculous". If you are a SFF enthusiast, yeah, I get it. You like to cram as much hardware in the smallest space possible and from that perspective, I see why you wouldn't like it. I personally prefer a balance where you fill the case reasonably, but have a more open "floor plan" as it were. I think that obviously also helps the airflow. Having said that, I think there are cheaper airflow cases out there that are equally well designed, quality built and optimized for airflow. This is an expensive case for what you get, IMO.
My fractal case has glass panels on both sides, maybe cause it’s the black version 🤷🏻♂️… glad to see you mounted your Noctua fan the same way I did cause I was a wee bit nervous about it lol. Didn’t wanna cover my ram but also didn’t know if it would be as effective, I also installed an exhaust fan on the back. I’ve been super happy with it thus far, excellent review btw!
I still using Old Cooler Master Haf 922 + Noctua D14 currently with Ryzen 5 3600 my both served me well in last 10 years with multiple platforms and I hope for next 10 ;) * I enjoyed free upgrade kit to mount on AM4 from Noctua I love this kind of customer support quality.
i still have my 922... even though i dont use it, i cant quite let it go... ive removed the drive bays and installed a 360mm radiator in the front, put a hidden 3.5" drive under the top panel, and even with a full water cooling loop, the inside looks barren.
Totally agree about all the space at the front. For my setup I'd want to see it shortened it by 3-4" (giving up 1 of the 140mm bottom fans) but keeping the rest the same. I just bought the Meshify 2 Compact after humming and hawing about the Torrent.
Leo, I like that you do "real world" builds. They might not be as pristine as what you see in marketing photos and videos, but they are closer to what many of us do. I appreciate the effort that your team puts in to create these videos.
I read in a lot of forums/comments/specs that Noctua NH-D15 and Trident Z Neo are incompatible because the Neos are too tall, and yet they fit perfectly in this build. What am I missing here?
Many popular Fractal cases are a few frustrating mm short of fully using their advertised features. Define 7 and cases using the same chassis needs another 20mm on top to use the 420mm radiator mount without strict component selection and modding. A slim radiator and 25mm fans would require removing the IO shroud and limiting memory selection to maybe 2 models low enough to fit. Another 2cm on top would've avoided all of this. All of their mid tower cases need another 2-3mm to route their cables without resorting to zipties and force if you want to use the back mounts for 3.5mm HDDs.
Well, if it it's too large for you why not jut try out the Compact or the Nano version? Much better than with water cooling. Although I'm unsure how happy the PSU is sucking in hot air from the CPU cooler.
Very good reviews of the Torrent overall, but disappointing that you couldn't use an air-cooled 3080 graphics card for better comparability. The AMD card you used gets surprisingly hot, despite being aspirated by 2-3 fans from the bottom. What is going on? I noticed that the Lian Li Lancool Mesh achieves better GPU temperatures than the Torrent despite having the PSU at the bottom. Is that because Lian Li chose to forgo any dust filtration with their mesh (- dust filter) approach?
did you test the airflow if you put on a 140mm on the back additionally ? I can imagine that a cooler on top back to suck out the rest of the cpu hot air could improve more in maybe 1 or 2 celsius?
I bought the torrent compact. I usually do simple builds with just a lot of fans and i couldnt be happier. I can see the issue for more complex builds having a hard time managing cables.
Thanks for the build, if it wasn't for having an original O11 and a O11 PCMR version this would be a great addition. Antec's new Dark Cube is pretty good as well, just happy to see good quality case's that aren't re-hashes of old ideas.
My first time building a computer and i must say.. the guy who put the parts together, based on my description of what i needed it for, could not have made it any harder on me.. he set me up with the fractal torrent case and a 420 mm AIO .. this thing looks roomy but the design makes it so you cant put the aio on top & since i had to take the two 180 fans to the bottom and the 140s out lf their everything was sooo snug still figuring how to place the AIO the brackets that you have to swap in on the front were not designed very well to fit what they claim it fits.. you could blame me for it being my first build but all the videos i see online with the torrent fractal case + 420mm AIO .. with the amount of fans this thing has idk why it would even require 420.. i would think that the 340mm would actually fit perfectly .. I would recommend that anyone who gets the build to not go any bigger its not necessary.
Thanx Leo. How do you think, is it possible to install an Asus Crosshair VIII Extreme motherboard in it? I'm afraid that an EATX motherboard can block holes on the right side. Do u have an opportunity to measure the distance between the left wall and rubber cable access points? Could you please measure it in cm? Thank you in advance.
I appreciate these detailed reviews, but I disagree logically that just because someone has spent on an above average case with above average features, they should "seriously consider" spending over $700(some of these categories I didn't add in at all: Pump/Reservoir, 2 Water blocks, 2 Radiators, fans, coolant, tubing, fittings, bending tool, deburr tool, heat gun, saw) on "proper liquid cooling hardware".
Bought this case after watching the guys video showing the middle finger's, yours and other few. The case comes with the replacement kit for the fan hub and also has glass on the right side also, a thing i don't like...but can live with.... One thing for sure, this is the best airflow case! Only have 120 aio for my cpu, and everything else air. My rtx 3080 is cool now!
Absolutely hate it when there's no room behind the motherboard tray for cables. 7000x was ridiculous because there was lots of space, but they'd filled it with Io cables and plastic channeling, so there was next to no room for PSU cables, especially if they weren't of the flat variety. I like your choice of going full custom for the review, it's largely what big cases are for now storage is shrinking and getting on the motherboard or behind it. Also shows up a cases weaknesses quicker when you're doing more with the case.
I just built my fist PC with this case, I went into Micro center with no intention of buying the parts but ended up leaving with everything to build one lol. It’s air cooled and I got the Noctua D15 or whatever, so far it’s been great. I really like the case but I don’t have anything to compare it to either lol.
Very tempted to get one of these, just to muck around and see if I can get two 360x180mm radiators in it, with 25mm thick phobya 180mm fans, and maybe an MATX motherboard, it'd be easy, but I think there's even a way to do it with a full sized ATX board too (might require soldering front IO cables to the back of the mobo, which I am crazy enough to do). 2x 360x180 rads and a 140 rad in the rear would be a fair amount of cooling (people might think that's extreme, but I'm already running a triple 180, a 120 and a 420 external rad with my Silverstone FT02, and I have two other projects with over 2000mm of radiator surface area in them, in the works, there is no kill like overkill, and this way I can run fans at extremely low rpm and get close to silence).
I found you review insightful and talked about something nobody else was covering. I'm going air in mine... at least until E.K. releases a 360mm (2x180mm) rad, and mounting it up front. I feel like, with an air cooler, there's a lot of dead space at the front that needs something to fill it up. I guess you could put some 2.5" SSD's there, but I'd rather put a pump/res there instead.
Hi Leo, nice review :) I am thinking of buying this case, but before I do, what are your opinions on the Corsair H150i ELITE AIO 360mm cooler fitting in the front of the case.....Do you think this will work with the pipes down or not? Thanks, and keep up the good work :)
liked the video and review. I just bought this case. I was more worried that a radiator set up would be too tight and maybe have issues getting it in there. Glad your videos showed otherwise, I feel better about my purchase .
If you remove just the front bottom fan and push the front panel back that far (~140mm) it would probably still fit a 280 rad on the bottom and it would be a lot more "compact" for sure. How come technology keeps shrinking but we still have these massive cases? This build is proof that the mid tower needs to die in a world with no optical drives and m.2 storage.
i agree that this case is nice one for building a custom watercooling, but looking at gamer nexus, is clear that there is still improvement on the gpu temperature, 5ºC vs the sl600m, having both intake fans to the gpu, is too much difference. for me doesnt have stock optimal airflow configuration, 5 fans as intake creates a bottleneck, and that is why those 5ºC more on the gpu vs sl600m
For me the Meshify C is the perfect size for a solid air cooled system unless it involves some monstrous overly large graphics card. Despite some of its flaws it is a great size for air cooling without all of the wasted dead space. If they would put that front, the solid removable top, and the screwless side panel system on a Meshify C chassis, I don't think I could pull my wallet out fast enough. lol
You just proved that the DH15 air cooling solution is far superior than your liquid cooling loop. Also you can't liquid cool any of the high end GPU's at least it's not recommended by the manufacturer (6900XT, 7900XTX, RTX 3090, 4090).
I think the roof mounted power supply is a bit of a mistake, in addition to the 5-10mm we'd like to see on the side; I'd also prefer if they'd just widen the case enough to have a side chamber for the PSU; That way the case would have better support for roof mounted radiators and sturdy drive caddies in the side for 3.5" drives. The fan controller is a nice touch; I wish they had shipped it with adhesive tape so the user could move it around for better cable management options.
Don't know why people complain about cable management on these build videos, knowing the computer is only being assembled for the video and will be disassembled pretty quickly. Why bother with cable in a build and disassemble video, it doesn't make any sense to. If this and the other video were about cable management specifically, then you would expect it, but in a build video talking about how cables can be managed is more than enough because everyone will manage their cables differently. I think many whining about something that isn't that important in a build video are just trying to find something, ANYTHING to complain about because you have parts they themselves can't get (i.e. GPU's) and whining about something insignificant makes them feel better, so I wouldn't take those comments too personal.
I never use fan headers anyway. Unless you buy a super cheap board there enough already there and with a splitter usually with 3 max.. And I have all RGB turned off so this time I will buy non RGB version! What I want to know is where I can squeeze in a third 3.5" hard drive? Maybe up by the PSU!
I just built my PC using this case last week. I think there is plenty of cable management space. I went from a small factor case to this one and definitely appreciate the extra space.
Why would you go water cooling in a case, that has the best spot for it - top, used by power supply already? Nah, it's strictly air. And too big at that.
The best place for an AIO is front mounted as an *intake*… but that’s neither here nor there… Also how is it being too big bad for air cooling? Lmao. It’s not.
@@henry3397 Top AiO has optimal pump position and easy routing. Least air bubble risk. It doesn't preheat air used for GPU. And if you flip rear fan for intake in a regular case, it's pretty much just as good for cooling CPU as the front AiO having access to that cooler air. But it's too hard to imagine rear fan can be flipped, I know. It's too big. Check dimensions. It has wasted space everywhere. For the last 15+ years I have exclusively built mATX/ITX for myself. 90's are over with all the extra expansion cards required back then. If you need it huge to count, you are using it wrong. Waste.
@@vensroofcat6415 maybe if you are using a 240 AIO, in which case I wouldn’t front mount it, but 360 AIO front mounted, tubes at the bottom, is as good as it gets. And multiple tests have shown that top vs front mount radiator hardly effects GPU temps, but sees a significant CPU temp improvement. Bit wit has a good video on optimal radiator placement if you’re interested, but you’ll find the same results in any other test on the subject
@@henry3397 and you can browse Optimum tech (lately renamed in just Optimum) for air cooling solution using separated 3D printed air ducts. Cooling is rather simple. Fresh air access, high temperature differences, clean exhaust not compromising the source. I do understand front AiO. What I don't understand is why keep rear exhaust fan competing for air when AiO is mounted on top by all those experts. It's just people repeating what they did 10 times already over and over. Optimum tech video was so much better in that regard, even though it reviews slightly different things and air ducts in PCs have been known for 20+ years in some brand cases.
Just got a torrent build everything inside and two of the bottom fans were making noise so my pcbuilding friend tried nearly everything we could at 3am and one of the fan covers got broken in the process as we cant find anything at all interacting with either of the fans but ill try looking again today if not i guess i already have to buy 2 new fans :(
i wonder if they ever expanded the back panel clearance another 5 to 10 mm per your suggestion? I bet they have by now, as you are highly regarded on the internet. thanks a ton for the review and I'll buy the fRACTAL if they fix the 5 to 10 mm that's needed behind the back panel for cable management purposes
It is a fantastic case, besides it's use of space. At first I was incredibly excited with all those fans, until I saw all the plastic build quality of the case. The tiny space allocated for ssd drives and psu cables further made me think it'd be impossible to work with. I pretty much need to have flat psu cables to be able to get the case. And it doesn't support aio coolers unless you remove the fans. Just too little space to actually work with in a massive case.
Torrent is very good air cooler case… maybe not so good water cooled case. So it depends on what you want to have! You both did have valid opinions. Many case has that problem that that there are not enough space is you put a lot of harware on it. I hav Besilent black 900 r2 and yeah… the right side is just too small to all the cables i have there after four hard drives, two ssd, blue ray etc… not sure why Big cases are designed to have only little hardware installed… that does not make sense. Then you could as Well go to mini xt case. I did buy Big case so that there is room all the possible hardware and yeah there is space, but not for the cables… 0,5 to 1.0 cm more in the right side and it would be perfect!
Very frustrating that nearly all the case manufacturers do that, Never enough cable management space on the back of most cases, 10-20mm more makes it a godsend to build in without having to try and press against side panels that are bulging out from cables in order to get thumb screw in.
Appreciate your insights and just absolutely amused at how you are seemingly (to me) lightly irritated explaining your thoughts on the case when compared to the first review of it. Never seem to smile in this and that just had me chuckling. Very entertaining lol. 🤣
Fun review. I'm a function-over-form type of guy, so I find this kind of thing comical. I have two workhorse builds: The FD Nano S and a Define R5. Neither one has glass panels. I use my machines for work - what a novel idea.
I’ll just say one thing even though I have so much more to elaborate on, having extra space slows for more cool air to circulate before exiting the case allowing for more components to be passively cooled and therefore longer lasting hardware.
Totally agreed, Leo. Unless the huge amount of empty space can be taken up by storage, it makes zero sense to use air cooling or even AIO liquid cooling. Should have made it more modular, like the Meshify 2 or Define 7, to allow a user to go crazy with storage. Opportunity missed, hopefully Torrent 2 will address that!
I bought the case after Steve review.I saw yours after and i still buyed a 420mm AIO H170I, despite you said will be hard to mount one. Was a nightmare....I moved the 2 180 mm fans on the bottom and tryed to mount the AIO on front,pipes down. I could not do-it, At the end of the day i mounted-it with pipes up(not recommended...by Steve again)
I was lucky with the AIO , i used Corsair fan controler for all the fans and for some reason i took out the Fractal controller out,before i knew that is kaboom.
Before the build i just belived that you moaning to much.Now i realise that all you said is true,especially regarding the space in the back for cable managnent,hard drives positioning,all that wasted space near motherboard.
Respect,subscribed.
Leo here: When I had a discussion with Fractal about installing a 420mm radiator the initial response was 'no-one is doing that' so welcome to a VERY small club.
Jayz2c believes pipes up is fine as long as top of radiator is a little higher than pump block
And he’s right. Air will find its way to the top of any AIO. If pipes are up and the rad is higher than the pump it’s all good. The pump will have liquid to feed it. I believe even Steve said that if you watch his video fully. What is wrong is where you have pipes up and the pump is level with or above the top of the rad. You will the. Have the pump trying to move air. This will kill your AIO.
@@benny_1985 Steve from Gamers Nexus confirmed this too. He made a follow-up video about how people took his advice out of context and made it a lot more black-and-white than intended. Confirmed that what Jayz2Cents was doing was correct
@@KitGuruTech friend is this louder than meshify 2 xl?? Or same.
I like that there are reviewers who don't always agree with each other on different products. It doesn't make any of them wrong, it's just a difference of opinion. The fact that Leo did a custom loop and the others didn't gives people a chance to compare how the case would look with different setups.
I respect Leo and Steve, they just have different opinions, that's what makes it worth watching both. I make up my own mind about products after.
I moderate the Hardware Unboxed discord and frequently Steve &Tim suggest to watch as many reviews as possible. It's all about being informed and making your OWN decisions. Never decide from watching 1 video.
I see their opinions more like advices, the divide of their sum is what I usually go for.
*_"It doesn't make any of them wrong, it's just a difference of opinion"_*
What a nonsense. Take for example the cable management area where you're supposed to store any hard drive or SSD: they WILL run hot, period! That's not an opinion, but a fact.
@@ibslicedmitting you're a discord mod lol
Loved the revision for air cooling, please don't assume all enthusiasts prefer liquid cooling, I much rather go with air always. Steve's input is always great but it's also great to have different opinions and different builds (liquid/custom loops as well!). Agree that there seems to be so much empty space in a build like this, while the cables seem cramped on the back with little room for HDDs. I wish makers would focus on either liquid or air cooling and make the best case possible for that use case instead of compromising and ending up with something not great at either.
I think it's great that you revisisted the case and cleared up the questions. Shows that you are listening to your audience! Keep up the good work!
thanks !
"Fairplay to Fractal. There's a problem, and they're addressing it"
Gigabyte: 👀
Why you let Newegg off the hook? :(
That fan installation was like magic, Leo!
When you've got the knack ...
Watching this review now and i agree it was pure magic :D
Thanks Steve, back to you Steve!
I love how this revisit is basically a big "Piss off!" to all the critics of the original video. Love the content and the passive aggressiveness Leo. Never change! lol
It was simply that the first video was titled as a review, making no mention of watercooling. If it had been called Watercooling in the Fractal Torrent I would never had made my comments.
@@GBR9794 I'm simply talking about the title of the previous video, and I have said what he could have simply done to not be wrong at all. He is not wrong in this video at all.
Leo here: This second look is intended as an 'I hear what you're saying' rather than 'Go take a running jump'. We value our audience, especially the ones who can spell and have an understanding of PC technology.
@@Safetytrousers This second look was worthwhile and came out well so good news all round.
I thoroughly appreciate the amount of focus on trying to stick custom loops into cases that say they support it, it has helped me make my past couple case choices. It is something most other actual reviewers ignore but your inclusion of that testing has undoubtedly helped me make better choices with my money!
I'm glad I ignored the advice of this review. I ended up getting this case. I also have the 3090 and it's huge...so having that extra space allows it to fit, with a bit of room. In an air based build, having room around the components allows for air to not be blocked from making its way around to each piece. Also have not had any issues with cable management...that bit keeps confusing me...I'm not sure why he's having such an issue. Anyway, anyone considering this case, id say go for it. I've had a very positive experience.
I agree that is exactly the missing point of this review. WIth the ever-increasing GPU card size, who said 4090 RTX, the value of having a larger case like this is missing. Also, I think using a rear fan is important for overall performance, as you want to create a little of active air egress close to the CPU to quickly take the heat out of the case.
I've built in Fractal Meshify, and I strongly agree with your comment, there isn't enough space for the wiring compartment. Speaking from experiance here, two separate Meshify builds, panel was fitting too tight, even with neat cabling. Another 5-10 mm as you put it would have done the job perfectly.
On several sites that sell this case it is mentioned that it will fit a E-ATX board. That is why, when using ATX mobo, there's so much space. Using a E-ATX mobo would fill the space and as a bonus, in theory, should also give more space between items placed on board that get hot (gpu,. cpu, m2 nvme drives, and memory to some extent) allowing more airflow through/over said items. If I purchased the case it would be the model with solid sides because I hate RGB lighting. Right now I have that solid sides setup on corsair 780 and it works wonders for my hatred of RGB (and it's quiet as a church mouse) but being a full tower it's a monster and I'm looking for something smaller to put my "junk" in.
One thing to note about GN is that they ALWAYS use the same STANDARDISED parts when reviewing a case, which they absolutely need to do in order to build a useful dataset to compare to. And like Leo pointed out, good airflow it's equally important for watercooling as it is for aircooling so they only need to test with aircooling as it introduces the least amount of variance during testing.
This is true however it leads to a number of big decisions:
1) Every few years you have to make a big change to a new platform and start from scratch.
2) You're treating every case the same where it is clear some cases are better suited to a 200W CPU and 250W GPU while others should be limited to a 125W CPU and tiddly GPU.
3) Switching out the stock fans for standardised fans does not represent the buyer experience.
$) Using a variety of hardware is more interesting.
@@KitGuruTech I agree with you, and that's why we need to watch several reviews, not just one! I'm just pointing out GN's method to explain why you'll never see a case review from them using water cooling.
8 was a fair score and all the points you raised were definitely justified. A few other reviewers got a bit too excited about the case IMO. I like it, but there’s clear drawbacks to it. But then it’s unique, and different. So I applaud them for that. I just don’t understand the size - it’s massive. Far too big. You could build a system of this spec in an ITX chassis!
These new ITX cases are making everything look oversized, it's incredible you can have a 280mm AIO, 3 slot GPU and an 850W power supply in a shoe box these days
Why is it too big? You want large volume in an airflow case, that will generally net the best temps for GPU.
I happen to rather like all the space to the right of the mobo, and since my desk is deep it's not really a problem. Getting that extra bottom fan for air intake is part of the good airflow while maintaining low noise... I just happen to not like the visuals of the front and the "school bus" roof, but that is purely subjective.
Uploaded 25 seconds ago. Talk about good timing. And it’s a Leo video as a bonus.
Your orignal review was probably the least enthusiastic one I've seen, but one closest to my own opinion and it's usually like that :] You are generally this reasonable guy with really well balanced look at cases - not airflow fanatic to te point of being ridiculous as Gamers Nexus, not always happy and focused on secondary things as looks or RGBs and - what's most important - far from stinking with liking too much with companies. You are the one I would recommend to non-experienced user to help with choosing the case :] I really appreciate your work Leo!
The first video was very helpful for anyone considering getting this case to do a custom loop in. Which Leo says is a very niche use of this case.
Fractal advertise Watercooling support so testing it with a watercooling loop was a good move, and you identified some shortcomings, exactly what a review should do.
The definition of why reviewers keep as many parts as they can. We've now seen the case in best and worse case scenarios bringing everything full circle. There's no way we don't have all the information required to use this case after these 2 videos. I know it was a little annoying but thanks Leo!
I love this case. Cable management is weak but going all air, this case is so quiet and it’s worth it for that reason IMO.
what about the LIan Li EVO for cable management, is it also a nightmare like the Fractal Design Torrent?
@@harpoon_bakery162 Much better IMO. I've built in it for a friend and it was completely different.
@@limmel3588 Just got my Lian Li EVO built, I love this unit. Should I load Windows 11 since I have a 12900K? I think to try to backup (with Acronis) and restore onto the new EVO from my old windows 10 (backing up with Acronis and then restoring to windows 11 using acronis), might be really rough to do. All the drives are different sizes too ugh. My old computer has 2.5 SSD, 3.5 HDD and lots of M.2 SSD, but my new one has larger SSD drives. so yea, I'm really stuck on what to do. I would really like to get some of those huge drives working on my new unit, but there's really no place to put them on the EVO because i used the 3.5 inch HDD bays for wire management. LIke i have wires stuck in the bay (i have removed the two hard drive plug-n-ply trays) so the compartment for the 3.5 inch drives is being used to stick cables into for wire management. So yea, it's hard to figure out what I'm going to do since i have SO many programs in windows 10 on my old gaming computer. But I really need to sell my old 2080TI before they become worthless
@@dabneyoffermein595 Personally, I've had better system stability on Windows 11, compared with 10. But everyone seems to say the opposite of that. Just my experience there, make of it what you will. Also, I haven't had too many compatibility problems thus far on Windows 11. When I do, they're very slight. Then again, I don't know what software you're using, experience can vary there considerably. What did you end up doing?
@@stevens1041 he ended up using W10 because W11 would crash in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020. It just wouldn't run on 11. Loaded back to 10 and it worked like a charm. He is very happy now. He said so in another channel. I always follow what he says.
I love the second look as you also went over some key features that was not in the first, love your energy too. An 8/10 is good enough for me to still warrant a buy from me. I can't wait to see how my custom built comes out, thanks again for the fan info too.
I actually appreciated your first review because when I saw this case pop up in my feed, the first thing in my mind was this case would be interesting for a custom loop system.
how much extra does a custom loop cost vs. just going with an CPU AIO ? (approx.)?
@@harpoon_bakery162 Depends on the parts. There are some custom loop kits that would be cheaper than the most expensive AIOs, but you can run away with the cost of a custom loop pretty easily. Just the total cost of the fittings alone has the potential to match the cost of a decent AIO.
When Leo is pulling stuff out of boxes I'm actually fearful for their safety. Love it. I'm too careful.
Cheers Leo, nothing wrong with the original review - though grateful for another video regardless. Also, "Torrent" I think of water first, not air.
I think of thepiratebay
I think of a good boy.
I've just rewatched this. I bought my Fractal Torrent in part following this review. Ironically it was Leo's complaint about all the extra space that helped sell it to me as I was using a RTX 3090 FE at the time (since replaced by a RTX 4090), which are absolutely huge. At the time I also had a Dark Rock Pro 4 and later upgraded to a Noctua DH15 and put some white covers on it which really help the aesthetics.
What a nice breath of fresh air. Honesty and candor form a good salty reviewer.
Placing the D15 fan on the front of the tower can drop another 1-2 degrees off the temperature. It can be seen (7:50) that the RAM does not interfere with their classic mounting. Is there a specific reason that one of the two fans was moved to draw air from the back of the tower?
How would you put them near the front? Researching for my first build.
I must admit on the first review I thought it was weird that you went custom loop, but then after seeing the results I was like ... ooo, I get it now :D.
Well, CPU temperatures are better with the air-cooled approach and I'm not sure the graphics card results are comparable (two different models from two different manufacturers).
Crammed case will not have good airflow, you need open space to eliminate turbulences. When the front fan blows directly onto the side of the GPU, it creates a lot of problems.
Both of your reviews of this case were pretty good, I thought. Being honest and talking about issues that you had made them more believable. And yeah, the case is designed with water cooling in mind as well, not just with the images showing radiator sizes that can work, but with those round fill port cutouts. I do like the case a lot but like you said there's a lot of extra space when using a standard build. Thumbs up!
Do you recommend installing the Noctura CPU fans in this configuration for the Torrent case? With one of the fans in the back as an exhaust rather than having it in front over the ram like most do?
I didn't have any questions regarding your choice, and liked that different reviewers all did different things. It gives a much clearer picture of the case for different builds.
My current case no reviewer used 140mm fans in the front - just noted the case could accept them. Now, if one uses 120MM fans, they clear the 2.5" drive mounts with out issue. But if one does use 140mm fans (I do), there's no clearance for drives to mount there. Is it a big deal - not really. But it would have been nice to know in advanced as I had to change my build plans slightly. :-)
It's clearly a very competent case in most respects... But I'm not overly excited about it either.
It's too big and the power supply bump at the top annoys my OCD.
As someone who picked big cases for my first few builds, I cringe at inefficient use of space due to my own dumb hardware selections in the past. Anyone else own a CM stacker? Haha.
Now the meshify 2 compact is just perfect for me
I think your first review was fine, customer loop is valid choice. That said I don’t like the inconsistency of the hardware used over all the different cases. Makes it difficult to compare one case to another.
I actually love that you guys go the custom loop/AIO route.
------------------
This is also why i chose the Thermaltake CoreX71 [TGE] for my build. with you guys your review as 1 of the main sticking points because of clearly showing that both 5.25" bays can still be used even with a 360mm loop.
most people just remove those 2 bay's and call it a day.
My system with a Ryzen 9 5900x and a bequiet pure loop runs nice and cool [ at most 45C under IDLE/low load]
And this is with a ASUS strix LC RX6800xt occupying the front for its AIO. [which runs at 35C max under IDLE]
it never gets hotter than 60C even when gaming on 2 4K display's [60hz]
@1:20 Anyone else looking at that case teetering on the precipice, gritting their teeth?
Be brave. No Torrents were harmed making this video.
Don't get the whole "look at all the space" and "it looks ridiculous". If you are a SFF enthusiast, yeah, I get it. You like to cram as much hardware in the smallest space possible and from that perspective, I see why you wouldn't like it. I personally prefer a balance where you fill the case reasonably, but have a more open "floor plan" as it were. I think that obviously also helps the airflow. Having said that, I think there are cheaper airflow cases out there that are equally well designed, quality built and optimized for airflow. This is an expensive case for what you get, IMO.
My fractal case has glass panels on both sides, maybe cause it’s the black version 🤷🏻♂️… glad to see you mounted your Noctua fan the same way I did cause I was a wee bit nervous about it lol. Didn’t wanna cover my ram but also didn’t know if it would be as effective, I also installed an exhaust fan on the back. I’ve been super happy with it thus far, excellent review btw!
Putting water cooling in a case specifically designed for airflow is a bizarre choice.
Exactly, this is sold as best airflow case, they go with water.. doh
I still using Old Cooler Master Haf 922 + Noctua D14 currently with Ryzen 5 3600 my both served me well in last 10 years with multiple platforms and I hope for next 10 ;) * I enjoyed free upgrade kit to mount on AM4 from Noctua I love this kind of customer support quality.
i still have my 922... even though i dont use it, i cant quite let it go... ive removed the drive bays and installed a 360mm radiator in the front, put a hidden 3.5" drive under the top panel, and even with a full water cooling loop, the inside looks barren.
Totally agree about all the space at the front. For my setup I'd want to see it shortened it by 3-4" (giving up 1 of the 140mm bottom fans) but keeping the rest the same. I just bought the Meshify 2 Compact after humming and hawing about the Torrent.
Leo, I like that you do "real world" builds. They might not be as pristine as what you see in marketing photos and videos, but they are closer to what many of us do. I appreciate the effort that your team puts in to create these videos.
Nice that you decided to review this case properly this time. Good review.
I read in a lot of forums/comments/specs that Noctua NH-D15 and Trident Z Neo are incompatible because the Neos are too tall, and yet they fit perfectly in this build. What am I missing here?
Many popular Fractal cases are a few frustrating mm short of fully using their advertised features. Define 7 and cases using the same chassis needs another 20mm on top to use the 420mm radiator mount without strict component selection and modding. A slim radiator and 25mm fans would require removing the IO shroud and limiting memory selection to maybe 2 models low enough to fit. Another 2cm on top would've avoided all of this. All of their mid tower cases need another 2-3mm to route their cables without resorting to zipties and force if you want to use the back mounts for 3.5mm HDDs.
Well, if it it's too large for you why not jut try out the Compact or the Nano version? Much better than with water cooling. Although I'm unsure how happy the PSU is sucking in hot air from the CPU cooler.
Very good reviews of the Torrent overall, but disappointing that you couldn't use an air-cooled 3080 graphics card for better comparability. The AMD card you used gets surprisingly hot, despite being aspirated by 2-3 fans from the bottom. What is going on? I noticed that the Lian Li Lancool Mesh achieves better GPU temperatures than the Torrent despite having the PSU at the bottom. Is that because Lian Li chose to forgo any dust filtration with their mesh (- dust filter) approach?
did you test the airflow if you put on a 140mm on the back additionally ? I can imagine that a cooler on top back to suck out the rest of the cpu hot air could improve more in maybe 1 or 2 celsius?
yeah, liquid leaking and making 💥💥💥
that will definetly not be boring
I bought the torrent compact. I usually do simple builds with just a lot of fans and i couldnt be happier. I can see the issue for more complex builds having a hard time managing cables.
Thanks for the build, if it wasn't for having an original O11 and a O11 PCMR version this would be a great addition. Antec's new Dark Cube is pretty good as well, just happy to see good quality case's that aren't re-hashes of old ideas.
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Id listen to the queen before listening to "sponsored" linus.
My first time building a computer and i must say.. the guy who put the parts together, based on my description of what i needed it for, could not have made it any harder on me.. he set me up with the fractal torrent case and a 420 mm AIO .. this thing looks roomy but the design makes it so you cant put the aio on top & since i had to take the two 180 fans to the bottom and the 140s out lf their everything was sooo snug still figuring how to place the AIO the brackets that you have to swap in on the front were not designed very well to fit what they claim it fits..
you could blame me for it being my first build but all the videos i see online with the torrent fractal case + 420mm AIO .. with the amount of fans this thing has idk why it would even require 420.. i would think that the 340mm would actually fit perfectly .. I would recommend that anyone who gets the build to not go any bigger its not necessary.
Does this affect the Fractal Design Define 7 hub? How is it possible to install multiple SSD's into the Torrent case?
my main issue with it, is the PSU housing being on top really screws over anyone looking to install an AIO radiator in the optimal top position
Thanx Leo. How do you think, is it possible to install an Asus Crosshair VIII Extreme motherboard in it? I'm afraid that an EATX motherboard can block holes on the right side. Do u have an opportunity to measure the distance between the left wall and rubber cable access points? Could you please measure it in cm? Thank you in advance.
I appreciate these detailed reviews, but I disagree logically that just because someone has spent on an above average case with above average features, they should "seriously consider" spending over $700(some of these categories I didn't add in at all: Pump/Reservoir, 2 Water blocks, 2 Radiators, fans, coolant, tubing, fittings, bending tool, deburr tool, heat gun, saw) on "proper liquid cooling hardware".
Bought this case after watching the guys video showing the middle finger's, yours and other few. The case comes with the replacement kit for the fan hub and also has glass on the right side also, a thing i don't like...but can live with.... One thing for sure, this is the best airflow case! Only have 120 aio for my cpu, and everything else air. My rtx 3080 is cool now!
Absolutely hate it when there's no room behind the motherboard tray for cables. 7000x was ridiculous because there was lots of space, but they'd filled it with Io cables and plastic channeling, so there was next to no room for PSU cables, especially if they weren't of the flat variety.
I like your choice of going full custom for the review, it's largely what big cases are for now storage is shrinking and getting on the motherboard or behind it. Also shows up a cases weaknesses quicker when you're doing more with the case.
I just built my fist PC with this case, I went into Micro center with no intention of buying the parts but ended up leaving with everything to build one lol. It’s air cooled and I got the Noctua D15 or whatever, so far it’s been great. I really like the case but I don’t have anything to compare it to either lol.
Very tempted to get one of these, just to muck around and see if I can get two 360x180mm radiators in it, with 25mm thick phobya 180mm fans, and maybe an MATX motherboard, it'd be easy, but I think there's even a way to do it with a full sized ATX board too (might require soldering front IO cables to the back of the mobo, which I am crazy enough to do).
2x 360x180 rads and a 140 rad in the rear would be a fair amount of cooling (people might think that's extreme, but I'm already running a triple 180, a 120 and a 420 external rad with my Silverstone FT02, and I have two other projects with over 2000mm of radiator surface area in them, in the works, there is no kill like overkill, and this way I can run fans at extremely low rpm and get close to silence).
I found you review insightful and talked about something nobody else was covering. I'm going air in mine... at least until E.K. releases a 360mm (2x180mm) rad, and mounting it up front. I feel like, with an air cooler, there's a lot of dead space at the front that needs something to fill it up. I guess you could put some 2.5" SSD's there, but I'd rather put a pump/res there instead.
I've got the Corsair HX1200W Platinum PSU which is quite a bit longer. 1. Would it fit? 2. How much cable management space would I have left?
Hi Leo, nice review :) I am thinking of buying this case, but before I do, what are your opinions on the Corsair H150i ELITE AIO 360mm cooler fitting in the front of the case.....Do you think this will work with the pipes down or not? Thanks, and keep up the good work :)
liked the video and review. I just bought this case. I was more worried that a radiator set up would be too tight and maybe have issues getting it in there. Glad your videos showed otherwise, I feel better about my purchase .
with all that empty space, feels like torrent compact should be a thing
If you remove just the front bottom fan and push the front panel back that far (~140mm) it would probably still fit a 280 rad on the bottom and it would be a lot more "compact" for sure. How come technology keeps shrinking but we still have these massive cases? This build is proof that the mid tower needs to die in a world with no optical drives and m.2 storage.
i agree that this case is nice one for building a custom watercooling, but looking at gamer nexus, is clear that there is still improvement on the gpu temperature, 5ºC vs the sl600m, having both intake fans to the gpu, is too much difference.
for me doesnt have stock optimal airflow configuration, 5 fans as intake creates a bottleneck, and that is why those 5ºC more on the gpu vs sl600m
For me the Meshify C is the perfect size for a solid air cooled system unless it involves some monstrous overly large graphics card. Despite some of its flaws it is a great size for air cooling without all of the wasted dead space. If they would put that front, the solid removable top, and the screwless side panel system on a Meshify C chassis, I don't think I could pull my wallet out fast enough. lol
You just proved that the DH15 air cooling solution is far superior than your liquid cooling loop.
Also you can't liquid cool any of the high end GPU's at least it's not recommended by the manufacturer
(6900XT, 7900XTX, RTX 3090, 4090).
I was curious if you had to use an expensive VGA cable extension.
Thought about just drilling you own hole for the screw to work the same as the locking for the other glass panel
I think the roof mounted power supply is a bit of a mistake, in addition to the 5-10mm we'd like to see on the side; I'd also prefer if they'd just widen the case enough to have a side chamber for the PSU; That way the case would have better support for roof mounted radiators and sturdy drive caddies in the side for 3.5" drives. The fan controller is a nice touch; I wish they had shipped it with adhesive tape so the user could move it around for better cable management options.
did you change the order of the noctua fans? most setups have the front fan closer to the front and over the RAM, and the second between the towers.
Don't know why people complain about cable management on these build videos, knowing the computer is only being assembled for the video and will be disassembled pretty quickly. Why bother with cable in a build and disassemble video, it doesn't make any sense to. If this and the other video were about cable management specifically, then you would expect it, but in a build video talking about how cables can be managed is more than enough because everyone will manage their cables differently. I think many whining about something that isn't that important in a build video are just trying to find something, ANYTHING to complain about because you have parts they themselves can't get (i.e. GPU's) and whining about something insignificant makes them feel better, so I wouldn't take those comments too personal.
I never use fan headers anyway. Unless you buy a super cheap board there enough already there and with a splitter usually with 3 max.. And I have all RGB turned off so this time I will buy non RGB version! What I want to know is where I can squeeze in a third 3.5" hard drive? Maybe up by the PSU!
Thanks for the "nische" Review! :-D BTW: The Intro was great.
Really enjoyed this re-visit! Nicely done!
I just built my PC using this case last week. I think there is plenty of cable management space. I went from a small factor case to this one and definitely appreciate the extra space.
Why would you go water cooling in a case, that has the best spot for it - top, used by power supply already? Nah, it's strictly air. And too big at that.
The best place for an AIO is front mounted as an *intake*… but that’s neither here nor there…
Also how is it being too big bad for air cooling? Lmao. It’s not.
@@henry3397 Top AiO has optimal pump position and easy routing. Least air bubble risk. It doesn't preheat air used for GPU. And if you flip rear fan for intake in a regular case, it's pretty much just as good for cooling CPU as the front AiO having access to that cooler air. But it's too hard to imagine rear fan can be flipped, I know.
It's too big. Check dimensions. It has wasted space everywhere. For the last 15+ years I have exclusively built mATX/ITX for myself. 90's are over with all the extra expansion cards required back then. If you need it huge to count, you are using it wrong. Waste.
@@vensroofcat6415 maybe if you are using a 240 AIO, in which case I wouldn’t front mount it, but 360 AIO front mounted, tubes at the bottom, is as good as it gets. And multiple tests have shown that top vs front mount radiator hardly effects GPU temps, but sees a significant CPU temp improvement. Bit wit has a good video on optimal radiator placement if you’re interested, but you’ll find the same results in any other test on the subject
@@henry3397 and you can browse Optimum tech (lately renamed in just Optimum) for air cooling solution using separated 3D printed air ducts.
Cooling is rather simple. Fresh air access, high temperature differences, clean exhaust not compromising the source.
I do understand front AiO. What I don't understand is why keep rear exhaust fan competing for air when AiO is mounted on top by all those experts. It's just people repeating what they did 10 times already over and over. Optimum tech video was so much better in that regard, even though it reviews slightly different things and air ducts in PCs have been known for 20+ years in some brand cases.
Just got a torrent build everything inside and two of the bottom fans were making noise so my pcbuilding friend tried nearly everything we could at 3am and one of the fan covers got broken in the process as we cant find anything at all interacting with either of the fans but ill try looking again today if not i guess i already have to buy 2 new fans :(
Steve from Gamers Nexus is obsessed with airflow. It's really all he cares about.
i wonder if they ever expanded the back panel clearance another 5 to 10 mm per your suggestion? I bet they have by now, as you are highly regarded on the internet. thanks a ton for the review and I'll buy the fRACTAL if they fix the 5 to 10 mm that's needed behind the back panel for cable management purposes
Hands down the most under rated tech Channel.
It is a fantastic case, besides it's use of space. At first I was incredibly excited with all those fans, until I saw all the plastic build quality of the case. The tiny space allocated for ssd drives and psu cables further made me think it'd be impossible to work with. I pretty much need to have flat psu cables to be able to get the case. And it doesn't support aio coolers unless you remove the fans.
Just too little space to actually work with in a massive case.
Will 33mm ram work with this case and cooler?
Torrent is very good air cooler case… maybe not so good water cooled case. So it depends on what you want to have! You both did have valid opinions.
Many case has that problem that that there are not enough space is you put a lot of harware on it. I hav Besilent black 900 r2 and yeah… the right side is just too small to all the cables i have there after four hard drives, two ssd, blue ray etc… not sure why Big cases are designed to have only little hardware installed… that does not make sense. Then you could as Well go to mini xt case. I did buy Big case so that there is room all the possible hardware and yeah there is space, but not for the cables… 0,5 to 1.0 cm more in the right side and it would be perfect!
Will the D15 fit in the compact case? If it doesnt I wont even open the D15 when it comes. I am waiting on it.
I got the solid compact. So no glass. I am really wondering if the D15 air cooler will fit it.
Very frustrating that nearly all the case manufacturers do that, Never enough cable management space on the back of most cases, 10-20mm more makes it a godsend to build in without having to try and press against side panels that are bulging out from cables in order to get thumb screw in.
Absolutely correct. I'm gonna patiently wait til they inevitably make a compact version.
Appreciate your insights and just absolutely amused at how you are seemingly (to me) lightly irritated explaining your thoughts on the case when compared to the first review of it. Never seem to smile in this and that just had me chuckling. Very entertaining lol. 🤣
I'm running a multi-GPU setup, would there enough space for the bottom fans If I have a 3-slot GPU on the bottom PCI slot?
Yes, but there will be like few 2mm between card and fans
Fun review. I'm a function-over-form type of guy, so I find this kind of thing comical. I have two workhorse builds: The FD Nano S and a Define R5. Neither one has glass panels. I use my machines for work - what a novel idea.
I’ll just say one thing even though I have so much more to elaborate on, having extra space slows for more cool air to circulate before exiting the case allowing for more components to be passively cooled and therefore longer lasting hardware.
It's a wind tunnel design. illogical
Yes they should have given more space on the side, I've no idea why they don't all do that makes no sense to me
I like the air cooling.
Totally agreed, Leo. Unless the huge amount of empty space can be taken up by storage, it makes zero sense to use air cooling or even AIO liquid cooling. Should have made it more modular, like the Meshify 2 or Define 7, to allow a user to go crazy with storage. Opportunity missed, hopefully Torrent 2 will address that!
A mini version of this case would be perfect.
Envious of the hair, aren't you Leo? :D
Hence the inclusion of the Dalai Lama
Consider the torrent compact would be my view on this, henst ive ordered one based on the gamers nexus video
I just bought this case.. I was looking for something that had great performance and didnt have a glass side. I frikin hate glass sides on pcs.