Fractal Design Ridge Mini-ITX Case Review

Complete System

Building into this case was surprisingly straightforward. I mean, the fact that it’s small does mean you have to get your fingers into some tricky spots to route cables, but that’s hardly a deal breaker. There’s no real cable routing space either, so if you don’t have a modular PSU, or even if you do, the excess cable is just going to have to move to somewhere you’re mostly happy with. Of course, it doesn’t matter a damn what it looks like in here, the case doesn’t even have a side panel window, so nobody will know.

That behind said, you obviously want cables out of the way of fan blades, and you don’t want to completely bung up your airflow. However, there’s plenty of room to move cables, even if it’s done in an unsightly manner. Furthermore, there’s ventilation on every panel, so the chances of you blocking enough to make even a small problem are extremely unlikely.

The CPU cooler height is likely the biggest limitation in this case. That being said, most moderately high-end CPUs will cope absolutely fine with a stock cooler, or an aftermarket low-profile cooler, of which there are plenty to pick from these days. I’m quite happy with my slimmer

The PSU mounting area is simple enough, and while I only have an SFX unit installed, the slightly large SFX-L PSUs will fit too, giving you plenty of options.

The GPU mount is great, but with this still being a small case, be sure you measure up properly before you purchase the case or a GPU to go with it. Keeping in mind the side fans may need to be removed for thicker cards, SSDs in the front remove 10mm of space, and 80mm fans in the bottom can cut into this space too. That being said, a case this size and a big fat GPU in there… I can cope with a little compromise and time with the tape measure to get this sort of result. I got an AORUS Xtreme RTX 2070 in there, and that’s not a small card, but it fits!

With all the panels back in place, the Fractal Design Ridge looks pretty much like it did when I took it out of the box. Perhaps with a few more fingerprints, but it’s still neat and tidy.

Now let me demo the sick RGB disco it has. Just kidding, it’s not got any RGB, and that’s a refreshing change. Instead, it just relies on its cool clean looks, the aluminium and cloth front panel are all it needs to look cool, and it does.

It doesn’t matter how you choose to orientate it either, as there are feet included for horizontal.

Plus, a cool plinth mount for vertical that keeps it nice and stable, both orientations look great though.