Fractal Design Meshify S2 Review

 

Conclusion

As we said in the introduction, like many manufacturers, Fractal have a quite bewildering range of cases, so where then does the Meshify S2 fit into the line up?  Well let’s start with what it has to offer shall we.  Looking at the exterior, it’s a large ATX case with smooth mesh to the roof and a nicely angled mesh to the front.  This front mesh is made up from various sized, height and angled triangles, the effect of which is to give a tessellated 3D effect, and to lift the aesthetics beyond those of a normal smooth mesh front.  Not everyone’s going to like it, but we think it works.  The left hand side of the case completes the visual buffet being a full size, tinted, tempered glass panel, which is removed via two thumb screws at the rear of the case.

Inside the S2 has room for anything up to a full size ATX board, and even a E-ATX up to 285mm wide.  Storage wise, gone are the racks of old that used to occupy the frontal area of practically every case on the market.  Instead, the main storage area has moved round the back, with 3 vertically mounted cages fitted flush to the rear of the motherboard panel.  Each of these cages can hold either a single 3.5″ or 2.5″ drive.  Towards the rear and just above the PSU area there are also a set of two 2.5″ mounts.  If you’re the sort that wants to show off your very fast and very expensive SSD then fear not as a pair can also be mounted on top of the PSU shroud round the front of the case.

With all the storage racks around the back the bods at Fractal have freed up a considerable amount of room in the case for cooling.  The case comes with a pair of 140s in the front, and another in the rear, but is actually able to accept up to 3x120mm or 140mm fans in the front, 3x120mm or 140mm fans in the roof, and 2x120mm or 140mm fans in the bottom.  If you want to fit a CPU air cooler then anything up to 185mm will fit just fine.  Turning to water cooling, the S2 will accept up to a 360 or 280mm rad in the front, and/or 280 360 or 420 up in the roof.  What you actually choose to place will depend upon personal preferences and aesthetics, but we think opting for a thicker rad in the front and something slimmer and shorter in the roof would be a better option as although thick rads in the roof are technically possible, they will cause you to have to use normal height RAM and when fitted may impinge on the CPU area.

With all this space to hand you’ll also have guessed that the S2 can accommodate large GPUs.  in fact you’ve got anything up to 440mm before you hit the front fans.  Obviously this figure will drop if you’re putting thick rads in the front, but 440mm to play with you can still afford to loose quite a bit of space to water cooling and still fit a decent GPU.

So what do we have then?  Basically I’ve not seen anything that I don’t like.  It might not be the most visually stimulating case in the world, but neither is it going to offend many.  I’m not entirely sure where the Meshify S2 fits into the Fractal line up, but for now i’m going to classify it as “my God, I want one of those”  Do we have an award for that Tom???  For now though, it gets a well earned  OC3D Enthusiast Award.

  

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