Fractal Torrent Review – The Ultimate Air-Cooled Case

Fractal Torrent Review - The Ultimate Air-Cooled Case

Introduction – An Old School design for the modern PC market

The PC market is changing, and Fractal believes that they have a new case design that’s perfect for today’s high-TDP graphics cards and the needs of the PC gaming market. 

Meet Fractal’s Torrent, an all-new enclosure design that revives the classic PSU-on-top chassis designs of old to create an airflow-optimised case that’s designed to keep your PC’s graphics card cool under load. 

With three bottom-mounted 120mm fans and two front-mounted 180mm fans, Fractal’s new Torrent enclosure is designed to offer gamers peak airflow to ensure that their systems are as cool as possible. Better yet is the fact that this chassis is designed to run quietly, delivering ample airflow to users without resorting to jet engine-like fan speeds. 

While moving their PSU mounts to the top of the enclosure will be seen as a controversial decision, you will see for yourself that this choice has a huge impact on the Torrent’s airflow and cooling performance. 
  

Fractal Torrent Review - The Ultimate Air-Cooled Case  
Chassis Overview

Fractal’s Torrent offers PC builders a new external aesthetics, a new airflow pattern and top-mounted PSU positioning. The chassis supports motherboards up to EATX in size and ships with a GPU support bracket and enough cable tie mounting points to tidy every conceivable hardware setup. 

When it comes to storage, the Fractal Torrent supports up to two 3.5-inch drives and three 2.5-inch drives, allowing this chassis to support up to six storage drives. Add on any M.2 storage that you can place on your motherboard, and you will have more than enough storage for any standard use case. If you need more storage than that, you should look at Fractal’s Define series. 

For cooling, the Fractal Torrent ships with two front-mounted 180mm intake fans and three bottom-mounted 140mm intake fans. That’s five large fans for airflow, which is a big deal for anyone that’s investing in air cooling. 

Fractal Torrent Review - The Ultimate Air-Cooled Case  

Pricing

In the UK, Fractal’s baseline Black Torrent enclosure will cost £155,99. The White, Grey and Black versions with a tempered glass side panel will cost £164.99, and the version with RGB-enabled fans will cost £199.99. Considering the fact that this case ships with five premium fans at stock, this price tag is more than justifiable, especially for an EATX compatible chassis of this size. Shipping is incredibly expensive these days, and shipping large items like this worldwide must cost Fractal a lot of money. 

Fractal Torrent Review - The Ultimate Air-Cooled Case

Fractal new Ion 2 Platinum Power Supply

Alongside their new Torrent case, Fractal has released an update for their existing Ion Platinum series of power supplies. These new PSU models comply with the new ATX 2.52 standard and all ship with two 8-pin ATX12/EPS connectors and enhanced over-current protection. 

Like the company’s original Ion Platinum series (which we reviewed here), Fractal’s new Ion 2 Platinum lineup ships with 560W, 660W, 760W and 860W models and features ultra-bendable UltraFlex cables. These extra bendable cables are designed to simplify cable management, making Fractal’s latest PSUs incredibly easy to use across a broad range of cases/enclosures. 

Like its predecessors, the Fractal ion 2 Platinum utilises a fully modular design, features a custom-tailored Dynamic GP-14 140mm fan, a compact 150mm depth, and operates semi-passively. Fractal also ships their Ion 2 Platinum units with a 10-year warranty, assuring customers that their PSUs will stand the test of time. 

Below is what Fractal had to say about their Ion 2 Platinum series power supplies in a recent press release. 
   

   Also worth mentioning on the topic of new releases: the much appreciated PSU Ion Platinum receives a welcome update in with its new incarnation Ion 2 Platinum. The update adds ATX 2.52 support to an already long list of benefits like whisper-quiet operation, enhanced cable flexibility and superior output quality. Among other noteworthy improvements: the inclusion of two 8-Pin ATX12/EPS across the whole family, and internal upgrades like more strict over-current protection.  

 Fractal launches their updated Ion 2 Platinum Power Supply