The Fractal Design CORE 1000 ventures into a territory where cases like the Elite series from Cooler Master or the Asgard chassis from Xigmatek reign supremely. When comparing the case to the Asgard line, the CORE 1000 has a few obvious shortcomings, which may turn away some system integrators. The biggest drawback is clearly the number of drive bays, as this is an area where both the Elite and Asgard cases manage to offer much more. On the other hand, the CORE 1000 utilizes thumb screws, while the Elite cases only offer traditional ones and the Asgard falls back to fairly useless plastic mechanisms. On top of that, there is no hole in the mainboard tray to allow for easy CPU cooler exchange.
That said, the Fractal Design CORE 1000 offers better overall quality of both cases, but at a cost of less functional bang for your buck. I can see some using this chassis for their next LAN party rig, stuffing it to the rim with SLI/Crossfire and three 2.5 inch drives. Why would you do that? Because it is no Elite or Asgard. This is probably one of the biggest advantages of the case. People will not look at the CORE 1000 and think "budget" or "cheap". This is the advantage a small brand has over the large players of the market. Still, since this part of the market is the most crowded and other cases offer more functional features than the CORE 1000, if money is the only reason you are looking at a case of this price range, make sure this one satisfies your needs.