Assembly

Installing a motherboard is done by traditional means, with the use of included spacers. There is plenty of space above the CPU cooler, so you should be able to connect any cables to the top of the board without much issue. The graphics card also fits right into the Arc Mini R2. For your reference: This is a GeForce GTX 285. It is 10.5'' (267 mm) long.


Installing a hard drive to a tray of your choice takes special screws, which Fractal supplies. The drive rests on rubber rings. Make sure to screw the screws into the bottom of the drive, which will have the unit rest firmly on the tray's rubber spacers.


Once filled, simply slide the tray into the bay of your choice. It will snap down nicely and should not come loose during transport. Fractal Design also includes a bag of extra-long screws to sink into the side of the cage and the drive. This addition was most likely a request by system integrators at large since they need to ensure that even shipping companies do not shake a drive loose during transit.


Installing an SSD to the backside of the motherboard tray follows the same principle. Use the supplied screws once the tray has been detached to firmly attach a drive to the tray. Once filled, simply re-attach the full tray to the backside with two screws. While this is not a screw-less design, the entire contraption holds extremely well, so you can rest assured that nothing will happen to that precious SSD of yours.


Adding an optical drive to the Arc Mini R2 bears no surprises either. Simply slide the drive in until its front lines up nicely with that of the chassis after removing the cover of your choice and use the included black thumbscrews to pin the drive down. No tools are required and the drive is held in place nicely - pretty simple.


Installing the PSU is done by traditional means, with screws and a screw driver. Put the unit in its place and sink four screws into the back of the chassis and the PSU. You can still use the fan-mounting possibility on the floor of the chassis if you use a short power supply, but install a high-performance unit and the PSU will partially cover it up, rendering it useless.


With everything installed, the Arc Mini R2 makes a good impression. The interior looks nice and clean since all the cables are behind its motherboard tray. You only have a fairly tight 20 mm of space there, so make sure not to bunch too many leads up or you might not be able to put the chassis back together.

Finished Looks

I was able to put the solid side panel in place with a bit of tough love, and the Fractal Design Arc Mini R2 makes a good impression. I am always a fan of clean and understated looks, and Fractal Design managed just that. A blue LED lights up inside the power button once you turn your system on, but you could also take a peek through the metal mesh cover at the front to see if the fan behind it is moving. The fan controller works well because it gives you a noticeable spectrum between slow and fast speeds, which allows you to reduce overall noise nicely if you do not require every ounce of cooling power.


As mentioned before, the side window is not simply clear. It is, instead, slightly tinted black, which does work well because it leaves you with just enough to look at without drawing your attention to every bit of dust and each fingerprint or scratch.