Fractal Arc Midi R2 Computer Case Review

Cases & PSU/Cases by leeghoofd @ 2013-09-13

Swedish company Fractal Design was also present at the Computex 2013 trade show in Taipei Taiwan. We saw some nice watercooled enclosures and this triggered our desire to review another one of their cases. The Fractal Arc Midi R2 is designed from the ground up to maximize airflow, thus main objective is keeping the most demanding hardware at cool operating temperatures. Three 140mm fans should take care of that goal Hassle free watercooling installation is also warranted, supporting up to two 240mm RADs in a mid tower case is quite impressive.  On paper the ARC Midi R2 has got a lot to offer. Time to explore another mid tower creation from Fractal Design.

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Test Setup and Specifications

Compared to previous case reviews Madshrimps opted to install a single AMD 7970 graphics card instead of the regular two GTX480s we usually used when reviewing gaming enclosures. For the cooling tests the case is equipped with the Corsair H100i Hydro cooler.

The hardware comprises of the following parts:

 

For the IDLE tests we let the setup warm up during a 30 min period. The temperatures of the CPU cores are monitored by the Realtemp software. The temperatures of the motherboard components are read out by the ASUS Thermal Radar software. For the stress test we go flat out and test our the six cores of the overclocked i7-3960X CPU (4500MHz) with the Prime95 64bit software with a custom 12-12K setting. For the GPU test we run a 3 time loop of the Futuremark Vantage 3D bench software to heat up the graphics core.

Here are some screenshots of the ASUS Thermal RADAR software in action:

 

 

 

Specifications

  • ATX, Micro ATX, Mini ITX motherboard compatibility
  • 2 - 5.25" bays
  • 8 - 3.5" HDD trays - all compatible with SSDs
  • 2 - 2.5" additional SSD positions behind the mothboard plate
  • 7 + 1 expansion slots
  • 7 - Fan positions (3 Silent Series R2 fans included)
  • Filtered fan slots in front, top and bottom
  • CPU coolers up to 180 mm tall
  • PSU compatibility: ATX PSUs up to 170 mm deep when using the bottom fan location; when not using this fan location longer PSUs (up to 270 mm deep) can be used
  • Graphics card compatibility: Graphics cards up to 290mm in length with the top HDD cage installed - With the top cage removed, graphics cards up to 430mm in length may be installed
  • 26 mm of space for cable routing behind the motherboard plate
  • Thick rubber grommets on all holes on the motherboard plate
  • Colors available: Black
  • Case dimensions (WxHxD): 230 x 460 x 515mm
  • Net weight: 10.7kg
  • Package dimensions (WxHxD): 320 x 610 x 560mm
  • Package weight: 12kg

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Comment from Teemto @ 2013/09/13
Mooie starkke kast.

Jamaar jamaar, gamen op de lanparty. Niks van, benchen ja!
Besides wat gaan wij daar als oude zakken nog doen tussen al dat jong geweld

 

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