Thoughts on Fractal Design Arc Mid Tower Case?

[XLNC]

I was sold on their Define R3 case until I saw this. Bit-tech says it should be out mid-January, but I haven't seen any reviews anywhere. Been waiting patiently for a while. It looks sexy as hell, and has all the features to make it a good performer. I plan on removing the top HD cage since I only need 4 HDs. I'm waiting on this and the new SSDs to put together my build. Patience is not my strong suit.

Bit-tech Preview: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cases/2010/12/03/fractal-design-arc-preview/1



Cooling system

* Fan controller for 3 fans included
* 1 front mounted Fractal Design 140mm fan @ 1000rpm included
* 1 rear mounted Fractal Design 140mm fan @ 1000rpm included
* 1 top mounted Fractal Design 140mm fan @ 1000rpm included
* Additional 5 fan slots available for optional fans; one 140mmin front, one 120/140mm in bottom, two 120/140mm in top and one 140/180mm in side panel
* Top panel can mount either 3x 120mm fans, 3x 140mm fans or 1x 180mm + 1x 120/140mm fans

Specifications

* 8x 3,5 inch HDD trays, compatible with SSD!
* 2x 5,25 inch bays, with 1x 5,25>3,5 inch converter included
* On top of front panel: 2x USB 2.0, 1x USB 3.0 and Audio I/O
* No PSU included (removable filter below PSU)
* M/B compatibility: Mini ITX, Micro ATX and ATX
* 7+1 expansion slots with sleek white painted brackets
* Supports graphic card lengths up to 290mm when removable HDD-Bay is in place
* Supports graphic card lengths up to 470mm without removable HDD-Bay
* Supports CPU coolers with height of 180mm
* Supports PSU's with a depth of maximum circa 170mm, when using bottom 120/140mm fan location. When not using the bottom 120/140mm fan location, the case supports also longer PSU's, typically 200-220mm.
* Case size (WxHxD): 230x460x515mm with front and top bezel in place
* Net weight: 10kg

 

[aigomorla]

ohhhh its purdy.

A DD bay res would look better up at front, and just ditch optical to USB.

 

[XLNC]

Not sure I'll be ready to ditch optical for a while. Having to use external would annoy me. Though it'd be interesting to see a case without it.

I also liked the Corsair 600T a lot for its features, but its looks completely put me off. Can't get used to it.

 

[WoodButcher]

Not sure I'll be ready to ditch optical for a while. Having to use external would annoy me. Though it'd be interesting to see a case without it.

That has 2 optical drive bays from what I can see.

 

[XLNC]

That has 2 optical drive bays from what I can see.

Yeah, I was referring to aigomorla's "just ditch optical to USB" comment. On a side note, 2 optical bays has to be the perfect amount for most people. I plan on a Blu-ray writer (eventually) and a media card reader.

 

[WoodButcher]

Got it,
My first thought for that case is I'd be re-arranging the hard drives, use an ssd and notebook drives for storage. That would open the front for water and leave room for long vid cards. Looks like if you had SLI or CF both cages would interfere.
That case is a beauty I'd love to cut into,,,

 

[mv2devnull]

I plan on removing the top HD cage since I only need 4 HDs.

I do have the Define R3, with Gentle Typhoons in front @1000--1200rpm, and four HDD. The disks stay cooler when they are spaced out and not "four in a row". Naturally, Arc has larger fan and non-solid front, so it might do better.

Then again, more direct holes means more sound coming through.

Optical, media cards, fan controllers, and in worst case a floppy too. It is unfortunately easy to run out of 5.25 bays. Sure, all those one can get external too, but that is clutter.


There are new details in Arc that I'd wish to have in the Define line too.

 

[XLNC]

The disks stay cooler when they are spaced out and not "four in a row".

Good point. I was going to go with 5400 RPM drives, hoping it reduces heat output somewhat. Worst case, I might buy two 2TB drives instead.

There are new details in Arc that I'd wish to have in the Define line too.

It was nice to see Fractal actively listening and responding to user comments in the bit-tech preview. Seems they really do take input from its customers and incorporate them into future cases. Kudos to them.

 

[BoomerD]

Too "plain Jane" for my tastes, but at least it doesn't have 75 LED fans that are bright enough to signal the ISS with...

 

[slag]

I'd pay $39.00 for that case, give or take a few.

 

[nitromullet]

Best looking fractal design case yet. two things...

1) Do they have matching optical drive bezels to go with the brushed aluminum front?
2) This might finally be the case that pushes Lian Li to actually update their basic mid tower case design/features aside from just moving the PSU from top to bottom.

 

[C1]

CompUSA sold brushed aluminum Optical Bezels (I think that they were stick ons & came in several cut out formats) so they are available from somewhere.

 

[XLNC]

There's hardly any details out there other than what you see in the preview above. No mention of a brushed aluminum cover.

As for #2, I agree. I saw the PC-V1020 review, and I think it's a better looking case than Fractal, but the interior is still stuck in 2007. I'm sure their build quality is ridiculous though.
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cases/2011/01/06/lian-li-pc-v1020-review/1

 

[XLNC]

Man, this is terrific. I used the comment box in their website yesterday to ask them when this case will be out, and I got a response today.

"Hi #####,

We really appreciate your mail. I have good news for you. We are just starting our US office in Dallas/Texas.

Paul Heimbuch is our President for Fractal Design North America Inc.

We are with the highest priority busy to get Fractal Design into the major resellers like NewEgg and Tiger Direct.

As you can imagine it takes more then a couple of days to be listed into the biggest Etailers in the world but we are working hard on it.

Thanks a lot for your interest in our brand.

The ARC case will be in april available in the US and Canada. I think the ARC case is a high performance/airflow case, you will like the case a lot.

Paul will contact you and will keep you updated. Our goal is to be in Q1 available in the US with our Define R3 and Define XL case.

Best Regards,
Jens Harnisch
Sales Manager"

 

[nitromullet]

There's hardly any details out there other than what you see in the preview above. No mention of a brushed aluminum cover.

As for #2, I agree. I saw the PC-V1020 review, and I think it's a better looking case than Fractal, but the interior is still stuck in 2007. I'm sure their build quality is ridiculous though.
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cases/2011/01/06/lian-li-pc-v1020-review/1

Yeah, I'm even talking about Lian Li's basic mid tower like the PC-60FNWX. They didn't change anything from their older mid tower design except move the PSU to the bottom. All this served to do was prevent you from being able to remove the front drive cage to accommodate an extended length video card and take advantage of the cool air provided by the front intake fan.

The Fractal Design ARC and the Corsair 600T both have a much better design for someone who might use an extended length video card. Lian Li quality is top notch, but they need to update their cases to meet the needs of someone who actually buys a more expensive case.

 

[nitromullet]

Not to completely thread jack this with Lian Li stuff, but is looks like Lian's lower end LanCool division has adopted the concept of removing the middle HD cage to make room for an extended graphics card with their new http://www.lancoolpc.com/en/product/product06.php?pr_index=42&cl_index=1&sc_index=25&ss_index=96&g=f. Too bad they've also managed to make the case itself butt ugly.

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

There's hardly any details out there other than what you see in the preview above. No mention of a brushed aluminum cover.

As for #2, I agree. I saw the PC-V1020 review, and I think it's a better looking case than Fractal, but the interior is still stuck in 2007. I'm sure their build quality is ridiculous though.
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cases/2011/01/06/lian-li-pc-v1020-review/1

I actually had the V1020R (long story, found a guy selling one so I got it but unfortunately it was severely damaged during shipping and not repairable).

I liked the case. A lot. It has a ton going for it. The side panels are amazingly sexy (2 mm thick alum is definitely awesome). The removable mobo tray is nice (although 6 thumbscrews to remove is annoying), the HD cage is also entirely removable, along with the 5.25 bays. I have the Lian Li PC-v600 which is the smaller version of their old V series. It's an amazing case. Unfortunately, the v1020 was missing something. I couldn't pinpoint what, but something just wasn't quite "there."

A good example of one of the things that made me not entirely happy with the case is the PCI slot area. The Lian Li A71 is what got me really excited for their new cases, and one of those reasons was the tool free PCI retention mechanism that they developed which appeared to actually work well ( link). It looked like the v1020 would work with it based on their site about what a case needs for it and the case itself. It doesn't work in it. If they just made the case 1/2 inch wider, it would. That simple design change would have made the case a lot better inside. Also, if they had gone with even slightly thicker aluminum for the central part (1 mm thick) it would have helped a lot as well. It didn't feel sturdy, with the exception of the side panels (2 mm thick), and just slightly thicker aluminum for the internals/central part of the chassis (even 1.5 mm thick) would have helped a lot.

Since the v1020 wasn't quite what I was looking for and I now have the ability (got refunded from the seller for the case) to go for something different if I want, I think I'm going to look elsewhere for my next case which is very sad in a way. I thought the v1020 had the potential to be the perfect case. Unfortunately it's not.