One may wonder what the changes to the chassis are at first--when looking at both the Arc Midi and Arc Midi R2 side by side. There are ultimately numerous differences, but some are more obvious than others. The more obvious ones are the R2's side window and the small, stylish logo that replaced the large one. The latter is not only a move to please end users, but clearly also system integrators who may want to replace the smaller company logo with their own, for example. The R2 sports plenty of smaller changes aside from these visual ones: The fan controller is now built-in, leaving that eighth expansion slot free to use for other scenarios, and the R2 is much more flexible in how hard drive cages are placed within, allowing you to install up to two 240 mm radiators to, say, cool not just the CPU but a multi-GPU configuration, which is pretty cool for a chassis of such a small size. The only drawback between the original and the Arc Midi R2 is the lack of a 3.5" adapter for the 5.25" bays, but that is all.

A lot of small improvements warrant the revision. These changes and its similar price tag make the Arc Midi R2 a better buy than the original, which may even be reason enough for some owners of the first to upgrade to the second.