Fractal North, case of the year contender

Hostile_18 said:
I wasn't impressed with the North XL. It's bigger yes, but it absolutely does nothing with the extra space. I think if you need a bigger case, there's better options.
Click to expand...
I was planing the move from the regular to the XL, and as I don’t want/need an AIO, the only advantage would be more room for the infamous 4000 series power cable. Even vertical mounting the GPU wouldn’t be much better, if better at all.
I’m curious about the new H7 flow. Is like a modern take to the Enthoo Primo. Almost a most to stick a Monsta or at least a 60mm thick rad on the bottom.
If I was buying now, would be buying the XL, but swapping, nope. Ag least until (if) we have 140mm T30s for the symmetrical look for the front.
My main criticism for the North is the fixed rail for the front fans. Also the loose top panel. Come on, isn’t a cheap case. Looks good, but should be a bit better.
 
Drumroll said:
I was planing the move from the regular to the XL, and as I don’t want/need an AIO, the only advantage would be more room for the infamous 4000 series power cable. Even vertical mounting the GPU wouldn’t be much better, if better at all.
I’m curious about the new H7 flow. Is like a modern take to the Enthoo Primo. Almost a most to stick a Monsta or at least a 60mm thick rad on the bottom.
If I was buying now, would be buying the XL, but swapping, nope. Ag least until (if) we have 140mm T30s for the symmetrical look for the front.
My main criticism for the North is the fixed rail for the front fans. Also the loose top panel. Come on, isn’t a cheap case. Looks good, but should be a bit better.
Click to expand...

So my North XL arrived today - yes it's big but not overly tower sized massive, so doesn't look out of place in the living room.

I went for the XL so I could fit the side mount fans rack (which would not fit in the normal North case due to my tower cooler / gfx card, and also for the 3 front 140mm fans, in addition to which the normal size North struggles to fit a 4090 AIB.

The top panel isn't loose, it slides snuggly into place.

I'm a bit disappointed with the wood because it looks light oak rather than dark walnut.

Not sure if I should buy some magnetic dust filters for the top.

Incidentally I saw this morning an unknown company (I guess Chinese) is selling knock off replicas for £50, as far as I can see they have cheaped out on the fans and i/o USB ports, (and god knows what else) non-removable top, otherwise they look identical
 
Drumroll said:
I’m curious about the new H7 flow. Is like a modern take to the Enthoo Primo. Almost a most to stick a Monsta or at least a 60mm thick rad on the bottom.
Click to expand...
Yep, had an enthoo primo since pretty much launch, have since bought a 480x60mm rad so that's pretty much a requirement.
That basically leave me with Corsair 7000 or NV9/Entho Pro 2/719/server...

I have a 240x60 and Monsta 280x85 (86?) as well, so I'm not even sure I could fit both of those plus the 480. I've considered routing the 480 externally as it would give me a lot more options!
Tbh the Monsta kinda needs p/p to be effective so that's over 130mmm with fans :o
 
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I did a lot of testing with my D15S on a 13900K in this case. Surprisingly, I couldn't get any exhaust fan setup to imrove CPU temps. Everything I tried actually increased temps a bit. I am still running only the two front stock fans. (This is with the glass side panel, not the mesh)
 
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