Fractal Design's Core 3000 Case Looks Promising

Posted 02/07/2011 at 6:52am | by Paul Lilly

6

Comments

Print

Fractal Design's new Core 3000 is an attempt to offer a "unique combination of design, features, cooling performance, and value," areas mostly represented by the bullet list of features. Chief among them is the ability to outfit the chassis with up to 7 fans of various sizes, and it even includes a fan controller for the three pre-installed fans. Here's how the cooling situation shakes out:

• Fan controller for 3 fans included
• 1 front mounted Fractal Design 140mm fan (1000RPM)
• 1 rear mounted Fractal Design 120 fan (1200RPM)
• 1 top mounted Fractal Design 140mm fan (1000RPM)
• Additional 4 fan slots available for optional fans; 1x120mm in front, 1x120mm in bottom, 1x120/140mm in top, and 1x120/140mm in side panel

There's lots more here that goes beyond cooling. Dust filters come pre-installed on the removable front panel, and the nearly all black interor is flanked by six white-painted HDD trays (compabitlble with SSDs) with anti-vibration silicone grommets and white expansion slots. You can rotate or remove the upper HDD cage to accommodate longer graphics cards, and one of the two 5.25-inch drive bays comes with a 5.25-inch to 3.5-inch converter.

Two things are curiously missing. There are no USB 3.0 ports (though it does include 4 USB 2.0 ports on the front panel), and there's no mention of price.