First thoughts:
The wood is nice. Different to usual, but personally not something i'd go for. Very "Office" but totally out of place as a HTPC or gaming system, unless you've also got old-style furniture or devices near it.
The open-rear design for pure intake on fans is smart in this form factor. Let the heat passively vent out, minimise dust and noise.
I can however see this going badly with a top mounted AIO as it's going to simply suck air in from the rear, and fill with dust in no time at all.
There is ZERO chance that's getting air from anywhere but that unfiltered rear, since the side panel fans will feed the GPU and exhaust straight out (if they even fit, with modern GPU sizes)
I Tried using my rear 140mm to feed fresh air into my custom loop and despite being 1.5 meters off the ground on it's own shelf with an air purifier in the room, it was clogged to the point the fan had no airflow in under a month - and the dust was then bypassing it to clog the 360mm EK radiator i had installed up there.
(I cant find photos but I had it installed Nov '21, and by Jan '22 all photos of my PC were lacking a rear case fan, by feb a new exhaust was installed)
Mesh side panel is a good option for heat, but it's going to let any and all noise out and make that air situation even worse -the front intakes wont even reach anywhere
It's like they finally had great ideas for what they want a case to be, but then had to modify it to fit the common trends of a 240mm AIO at the top and dual radiator support because 'marketing says we need it' and therefore it's trashed their vision for it
Fractal mentions a 35 mm clearance limit for components like heatsinks or memory.
Considering my (quite common) corsair ram is 51mm tall, that 35mm height limit for the AIO isn't going to work
Damnit i love fractal, but I don't love or even like the choices they're making for their modern cases. Fractals whole deal was cases that were great for low noise, control over the exhaust locations and great dust filtering setups
The open rear and mesh die panel will help keep temps down, but only until the AIO clogs with dust. they'll be out of the return period for the case by then, so who cares?
I'd be okay with this case for an office PC or a low wattage (by todays standards) gaming PC with just front fans or a front mounted AIO, but honestly it just seems like a total failure on design for airflow and dust filtration
What's that side fan accessory from? Can't say i've seen that before
