Fractal Design North Case Review

How Much Does it Cost?

The Fractal Design North is available in Charcoal Black with the mesh panel, or with lightly tinted tempered glass. It’s also available in Chalk White which comes with a white mesh panel or with a clear tempered glass window. Fantastically all four variants come in at the same $129.99 MSRP, but I suspect we’ll see just a little variance at some retailers due to supply and demand. I also think the price is very favourable, it’s not cheap, but I was expecting it to be more.

You can find all variants and their up-to-date prices on Amazon UK here.

Overview

This case isn’t perfect, it does have a few little quirks that may have it not be suitable for everyone. Let’s get them out of the way because they’re little things really. First, the price, it’s not overpriced for what it is, far from it, but few people want to drop £130 on a case, and I can appreciate that.

The case has lovely dust filtering on the front and top, but where the drive trays fit to the bottom of the case, there are some openings that will more than likely pull dust in, so perhaps a full-length bottom filter would be better for future revisions.

There are two superbly high-quality fans on the front, but no exhaust fan as standard. I think there should be at least one exhaust fan included or a version of the case with no fans so you can really make it your own. Furthermore, there are only four fans supported on the fan hub, but the case supports 7 fans, so you’ll likely need to purchase some splitters. I also think the PSU shroud could do with a vertical cable pass-through, not a big deal, but I’m amazed all cases aren’t doing this yet.

So here’s the twist, I’m willing to live with all those above issues, literally, as this will be my next PC case. The design is unlikely anything else around and given I’ve got about 80-ish cases in storage here and this is the one I’m picking for myself, it says a lot. The build quality is absolutely excellent, the design is excellent, and I can’t wait to start my build.

The North has excellent airflow, and the idea of having mesh on the side is very appealing to me, especially with the monster coolers on modern GPUs, I think big fans and low RPM airflow are the way to go this generation. The front panel allows a lot of airflow too, and the floating wood strips design is just epic to look at too.

The additional little details, such as the brass detailing on the feel and I/O panel, the leather tab on the top panel, the side panel fan mount bracket, modular storage, cable routing grommets and more make this case a winner for me.

The Fractal Design North isn’t perfect, but it’s undoubtedly interesting and unique, and if you love it at first sight, I don’t think any of the little quirks are going to put too many people off buying one. I love it.