A Closer Look - Outside

Taking a first look at the chassis, it doesn't reveal anything special. To go with the design of the CORE family the front of the chassis is mostly metal mesh. In terms of quality do not expect too much, as this chassis sells for a mere 35 Euros, so the metals used are thinner and the plastics used somewhat softer than more expensive cases. That said, for the price class, the CORE 1000 is perfectly adequate.


Taking a closer look at the front, there are two drive bays while there is a 120 mm fan in the bottom. Fractal has once more gone with straight, edgy lines. In the rear we have a top mounted power supply. This is rather unusual by today's standards, but can often be found in cases of this price segment.


The main side of the chassis has an opening over the mainboard expansion slots. You may install a 120 mm unit here if you wish. Turning the CORE 1000 around, there are no additional openings in this area of the chassis.


As mentioned before, there is a single 120 mm fan in the front of the chassis. As you can see, it features the signature white blades just like all other Fractal Design cases. Above that are the two 5.25 inch expansion slots. I would have liked to see a separate 3.5 inch bay, since you are currently forced to convert one of the 5.25 inch bays to one if needed. This would only leave you with a single 5.25 inch bay for an optical drive. Many applications require the use of two drives along with a card reader - something that will not be possible with the CORE 1000. This may turn away a lot of system integrators. These type of customers want to be able to buy a larger number of a single case and apply it to as many configurations of a system as possible. Keeping things simple saves money and time.


In the back, starting at the bottom, we can see the four white mainboard expansion bays. It is refreshing to see that Fractal Design has kept these even with a case of this price point. Above that is an additional spot for a 92 mm fan. As you can see there are no openings to route water cooling tubes through anywhere, but let us be honest - what percentage of users needs those? On top of that, the CORE 1000 is not aimed at those type of users anyways.


Fractal Design has placed the I/O of the chassis on the right edge of the front panel. This is due to the fact, that there is no space to put it in the top area, due to the compact dimensions of the chassis. The actual location is quite bad, as most office computers end up under the desk as table space is a rare commodity in most working environments.