Fractal Design Core 3500W Review

Up Close:  Exterior Rear, Base and Window

Being quite a wide case the Core 3500W has plenty of room for a 140mm rear extract fan, although mounts are provided for a 120mm unit should you wish to change it out for something else less effective.  Fractal have also included a thin strip of perforated ventilation right along the top edge of the case to help eek out every last bit of cooling.  Moving down the rear panel we find seven vented PCI covers finished in Fractal’s trademark contrasting white gloss.  To the right of the PCI where there would usually be a meshed area we see a solid panel sporting a 3 position fan speed selector.  While this is appreciated it is we think a bit of an odd place to put it, especially as it appears to be very small and so could have gone in a variety of different places.  Right down at the bottom of course there’s the usual cut out for a standard ATX PSU.

    

 

The case stands on four rather plastic clip in feet which do nor exude the sense of quality exhibited by the rest of the case.  On a more positive note, there is a huge slide out dust filter that covers both the PSU and base fan locations.  Also seen on the bottom left image are the screw heads and additional screw holes that enable the HDD rack to be removed or moved.

     

 

The acrylic window is slightly smoked and feels as if it is solidly located.  As it is in fact only held in place by fold over tabs if you wanted to change it for a different style, colour or tint it would be very easy to remove