Gadgetory

hey guys this is Dimitri with Jara Canucks and welcome back to another view fractal design cases have always stood out for their elegance and functionality with every new case though it doesn't feel new because they keep the same external design and pretty much the same internals as well with a few minor upgrades so you're looking at the arc XL a chassis with a core focus on cooling and priced extremely competitively for a full tower at $130 and starting with the front we have a removable dust filter with dual front fan intake and one thing I keep seeing on pretty much all cases is heavily restricted air flow due to drive cages and it's something I would certainly like to see changed the plastic front panel resembles brushed aluminum without carrying that heavy price tag and there are four optical slots all the connections are located at the top with three speed three fan controller audio jacks PR buttons and four USB ports the top also features a convenient removable panel when they built-in dust filter with many fan mounting options with support for a 360 mm rad and I like how the 120mm fans are offset to allow better clearance with a 240 mm on the radiator so it doesn't interfere with the motherboard this is an excellent feature and I would love to see this integrated more often there's a bit more venting in the back for the top portion of the arc XL an exhaust fan for a total of three fans included and nine PCI slots the chassis is also elevated on large rubberized case feet with a massive dual fan dust filter to cover the bottom intake now I love dwindled cases I'm sure you guys do too especially the ones from fractal design without any fan girls and the darker tint that will make you build look beautiful so getting inside we get that modular drive cage system with two thumb screws meaning you can rotate the cage for more direct airflow or remove it completely for just better cooling the drive caddies here are metal which I prefer as they are a lot sturdier than flexible and weak plastic caddies they're also SSD ready and feature rubber grommets for the 3.5 inch drives now you can further reposition the bottom drive cage away from the front panel to allow thicker 240 millimeter ad to be installed in the second position there's 45 millimeters of clearance and in the third over 150 millimeters of clearance for your front radiator and surprisingly without compromise now yes you lose out on the top drive gauge but still longer power supplies will fit up to 200 millimeters we have plus the rubber grommets will help with clean wiring of those drives this gauge does block the lower to PCI brackets which is a problem for larger motherboards like the XL ATX but other than that it shouldn't interfere now turn in case around we have SSD brackets and sort of just holes which makes mounting and replacing them a lot easier there are large rubber grommets and cable tie mounts all over so cable management shouldn't be a problem now one thing I dislike though is how the side panel is mounted as that gets rid of your ability to tuck the cables at the bottom and this space is unofficially located on the inside which cannot be utilized for anything but luckily we have a full inch of room to work with at the back the power supply is elevated with Robert standoffs but only in the front which I don't particularly like but it does the job and mounting our motherboard inside this four tower feels large and roomy on the internals with clean cable work and with the GPU mounted the arc XL looks great and there's absolutely nothing negative to say about the assembly even with our 11 inch GPU the rotated cage fits in just fine and everything cleaned up very well in the back my only hiccup during a very user friendly assembly was the audio cable which wasn't long enough to reach our motherboard but overall this fractal design case is absolutely one of the best choices for a functional full Tower and if you're looking for a more silent solution the defined XLR two features identical internal layout but with more sounding damping options the arc XL is designed for air flow and water cooling and delivers to that perfectly with front and top water cooling options without compromise module drive cage for user flexibility the rear SSD brackets and all with an excellent price of 129 dollars that I want to see a more open design for the drive cage to allow less restrictive air flow which are he goes to all case manufacturers and not just fractal design the short audio cable is something to keep in mind and perhaps a new frame design to allow wasted space in the bottom of the case to be utilized in the rear for cable routing but despite these small flaws I still think this is one of the best full towers in its category and deserves the damn good and the damn good value award so thanks guys for watching and we'll see you in next