Fractal have brought us a case with the Define S looks in an ITX form factor for £55. Perfect ITX case at last?
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Fractal Nano S ITX Watercooling Case Review
- Thread starter tinytomlogan
- Start date
Fractal have brought us a case with the Define S looks in an ITX form factor for £55. Perfect ITX case at last?
Dicehunter
Resident Newb
Wraith
Bettyswollocks
It's so cute! I want one just to put my tools in :lol: and the Phanteks during the conclusion, I didn't see that coming!
So Fractal all that was in it for a White Gold was 3mm, 3mm!! but I guess that can't be helped really as not everyone is going to go Asus for their motherboards and you can't cater for every manufacturer.. although with that said you'd have thought that when looking at ITX Fractal would have taken the top selling boards and done test fits....
So Fractal all that was in it for a White Gold was 3mm, 3mm!! but I guess that can't be helped really as not everyone is going to go Asus for their motherboards and you can't cater for every manufacturer.. although with that said you'd have thought that when looking at ITX Fractal would have taken the top selling boards and done test fits....
Thelosouvlakia
Classy-Fried-Chicken
Hmmm I see how this case can work a bit better for the guys building from scratch.
going for gigabyte or MSI is going to be an obvious step should they want watercooling then they could be able to utilise the mount on the bottom if they go for the Ex-res 100 from EKWB and the D5 combo and if I'm not mistaken with an r9 nano they would ran into no issues in terms of size, also the fractal design shorter PSUs...
But that's really limiting, and that makes people sad :/
PS Phanteks cases can be taken apart, I'm pretty sure that tom has some red spray paint cans laying around in the office
going for gigabyte or MSI is going to be an obvious step should they want watercooling then they could be able to utilise the mount on the bottom if they go for the Ex-res 100 from EKWB and the D5 combo and if I'm not mistaken with an r9 nano they would ran into no issues in terms of size, also the fractal design shorter PSUs...
But that's really limiting, and that makes people sad :/
PS Phanteks cases can be taken apart, I'm pretty sure that tom has some red spray paint cans laying around in the office
jimma47
New member
Pretty sure there have been 'rusty gold' awards before. I don't know that there is any official scoring system or cross-reference chart but they're TTL awards so I'm thinking they can be whatever he want's them to be.
Still awesome but not as amazing as it could have been. So size does matter - even if it's 3mm..
Still awesome but not as amazing as it could have been. So size does matter - even if it's 3mm..
Yeah, but "rusty gold" is still a cop out because he doesn't want to anger companies he has a good working relationship with, and I get that. It's still a cop out. Any supposed "water cooling" friendly case that has limitations like this one shouldn't get a gold IMO, tarnished gold or otherwise. I love Tom (otherwise I wouldn't be here), but this is just too PC, and makes all his previous gold awards look bad.
Just my opinion.
Just my opinion.
jimma47
New member
Politically Correct award structure.
1st
1st
1st
Participation medals for everyone.
In seriousness I get what you're saying though.
The alternative may well be a points based system but even they can be subjective. I look at car reviews and clearly better cars are marked down half a point because the reviewer doesn't like the font on the badge or something just as intangible. How else would a Hyundai win car of the year...
All awards are subjective and need to be taken as such.
The good news is that we're told the good the bad and the ugly with every review on here. Hence we watch the videos and read the review.
Whether we agree 100% or not... well that's up to us and what the forums are for.
I like it.
1st
1st
1st
Participation medals for everyone.
In seriousness I get what you're saying though.
The alternative may well be a points based system but even they can be subjective. I look at car reviews and clearly better cars are marked down half a point because the reviewer doesn't like the font on the badge or something just as intangible. How else would a Hyundai win car of the year...
All awards are subjective and need to be taken as such.
The good news is that we're told the good the bad and the ugly with every review on here. Hence we watch the videos and read the review.
Whether we agree 100% or not... well that's up to us and what the forums are for.
I like it.
Agreed! Plus I drive a Hyundai, and it sucks. 
A points based system would be ok by me. As soon as you limit your results to either gold, silver, or nothing (ie 'performance' awards), it makes life difficult. It's impossible to be TRULY objective in ANY review, because there are so many factors (company relationships, personal preference, etc).
We agree 100% Jimma47. When Tom started talking about "rusty gold", I read between the lines. I just wish he could just stick this as a silver and leave it at that. But I get why he didn't want to. It's a precarious position to be in for him, but I still respect TTL and that's why I'm here.
A points based system would be ok by me. As soon as you limit your results to either gold, silver, or nothing (ie 'performance' awards), it makes life difficult. It's impossible to be TRULY objective in ANY review, because there are so many factors (company relationships, personal preference, etc).We agree 100% Jimma47. When Tom started talking about "rusty gold", I read between the lines. I just wish he could just stick this as a silver and leave it at that. But I get why he didn't want to. It's a precarious position to be in for him, but I still respect TTL and that's why I'm here.
Agreed! Plus I drive a Hyundai, and it sucks.
We agree 100% Jimma47. When Tom started talking about "rusty gold", I read between the lines. I just wish he could just stick this as a silver and leave it at that. But I get why he didn't want to. It's a precarious position to be in for him, but I still respect TTL and that's why I'm here.
Its a good case and the only thing I really have to say bad about it is their ignorance about the Impact range. I personally think it wasnt thought about and the designers are just covering it up.
I doubt any other reviewers have / will notice and say anything. Its what others say now that will be interesting because Fractal will spin it and push people to say its not a problem. The marketing starts now.
Air 240 got gold and that can barely fit none reference graphics cards. I've not watched this yet but I'd be surprised if its worse.
JR
ITX is a tough act, you have to mix massive components with people that think its going to be as big as a Raspberry Pi
It's not really that hard. Either make something actually small and carefully dimensioned to fit just enough hardware and sell barely any. Or make it excessively big, bigger than an mATX case and shift loads. What seems genuinely good and what sells aren't the same thing, it's hard to review for sure but when something is still big and compromises compatibility severely that's a poor middle ground.
Having said that I don't think the Impact is the hype it used to be now it has no M.2 or internal USB 2.0 or insanely intricate blocks available so compromising that aspect isn't a big deal, not a silver punishable offence.
JR
My biggest issue with the case was the lack of rad support up top. That would have "silvered" it for me.
I stuffed an entire loop with a pair of 240 rads in my old Air240, along with 3 SSDs, 1 mechanical HDD, and a 3x30W fan controller in the 3.5" rear bay.
That to me is pretty impressive, although I had to use incredibly space-efficient Darkside LP240 rads (every other 240 was too long). No issues fitting my Heatkiller-blocked Radeon 7950 in there, even with a 240 + fans in the front. The versatility of that case justifies the gold IMO.
Thought I better give this a serious watch after making comments already and I don't completely see why as an enthusiast or watercooling product this wouldn't get a true gold award.
While fitting two 240mm radiators (and an Impact) isn't possible, it doesn't have to be. A 120mm and 240mm radiator would be sufficient and actually make for a relatively neat loop with a pump/res combo mounted above the GPU at the front. You could set it up very queitly and run literally any CPU and GPU combination you could physically fit in the case very happily. I know you don't personally like 120mm radiators but this is ITX and it could be a good tidy solution for a user with some skills. For the less talented with AIO's the configuration you used in the video seemed fine. It's without doubt 'big enough' for ITX, even for the impact, i'd personally say it's too big. At least it didn't have an mATX identity crisis like the Air 240 back in the day. Build quality looks good for the price, have had my hands on other fractals i'm sure it's more than agreeable and it's an aesthetically refined thing. Bringing the Phanteks out seemed like an odd and surprising move, I prefer Fractals ethos of open interiors and would consider it a superior product.
The Impact seems to have lost a lot of features compared with the previous generation. The lack of an M.2 slot seems completely unforgivable for such a high tier performance product. The less sophisticated array of fan headers is annoying too especially when internal USB2.0 has been dropped making it very complicated to connect quite a wide variety of internal devices like an Aquaero, NZXT stuff, Corsair Link etc. It's by no means impossible to work with and i'm sure probably still the best ITX overclocking board however it doesn't go very far to justify it's position. I wouldn't consider it the be all and end all ITX board that must fit in every case anymore.
JR
While fitting two 240mm radiators (and an Impact) isn't possible, it doesn't have to be. A 120mm and 240mm radiator would be sufficient and actually make for a relatively neat loop with a pump/res combo mounted above the GPU at the front. You could set it up very queitly and run literally any CPU and GPU combination you could physically fit in the case very happily. I know you don't personally like 120mm radiators but this is ITX and it could be a good tidy solution for a user with some skills. For the less talented with AIO's the configuration you used in the video seemed fine. It's without doubt 'big enough' for ITX, even for the impact, i'd personally say it's too big. At least it didn't have an mATX identity crisis like the Air 240 back in the day. Build quality looks good for the price, have had my hands on other fractals i'm sure it's more than agreeable and it's an aesthetically refined thing. Bringing the Phanteks out seemed like an odd and surprising move, I prefer Fractals ethos of open interiors and would consider it a superior product.
The Impact seems to have lost a lot of features compared with the previous generation. The lack of an M.2 slot seems completely unforgivable for such a high tier performance product. The less sophisticated array of fan headers is annoying too especially when internal USB2.0 has been dropped making it very complicated to connect quite a wide variety of internal devices like an Aquaero, NZXT stuff, Corsair Link etc. It's by no means impossible to work with and i'm sure probably still the best ITX overclocking board however it doesn't go very far to justify it's position. I wouldn't consider it the be all and end all ITX board that must fit in every case anymore.
JR
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Dicehunter
Resident Newb
Nice lip syncing on the 1 minute mark ^_^
