A Closer Look - Inside

To gain access to the interior, simply remove the two thumb screws holding the side panel in place. As mentioned before, the entire interior has the same black and white color theme we have come to love from Fractal Design. A large opening in the mainboard tray should give you access to the cooler backplate, while openings on three sides around the mainboard allow you to route any cables nicely. You have well over 2 cm (almost one inch) of space behind the mainboard tray, along with multiple hooks to use zip ties on. This all should make cable management very easy.


Fractal Design has chosen to sacrifice some external 5.25 inch bays and include eight hard drive bays instead. The top half can be turned by 90 degrees or taken out completely if you happen to need the space for long graphics cards. The single 140 mm intake fan has been placed in the upper slot at the factory, while the bottom one remains unused. The two 5.25 inch bays are nothing out of the ordinary. As you can see, Fractal Design includes thumb screws to hold any device in place.


Turning our focus to the rear, there is the PSU bay on the bottom. A power supply will rest on four foam mounted knobs, while the rear is also lined with the same material. This should kill vibrations on the spot. Above that are the eight, white mainboard expansion slots, each held in place by a black thumb screw. In the very top is another white bladed 140 mm fan, this time to push air out the back of the chassis.


You will find a large dust filter which extends over both openings present in the floor of the chassis. This one is easily removable for painless cleaning. Fractal Design also equips the Arc with a third 140 mm exhaust fan in the ceiling to create the same air flow you would have if the power supply were in this position. You may also install a combination of 140 mm or 120 mm fans across the entire ceiling, or even opt for a single 180 mm unit in the center. If you look closely some of the screw openings are wider, to allow for a bit of play. These will be used to secure any 240 mm radiator. While this may mean that only four of the eight screws line up with a 240 mm rad, the thing still holds perfectly.


Fractal Design has chosen to use an internal USB 3.0 header. This is great, but most boards do not feature this plug yet, so Fractal is a bit ahead of its time. I would have liked to see a normal USB 3.0 connector with two adapters instead. This would have given the user complete flexibility no matter what board was used. While this one lead is blue, all other cables feature black sleeving to go with the black interior of the chassis.