Fractal Design CORE 3000 Review 19

Fractal Design CORE 3000 Review

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Value and Conclusion

  • The Fractal Design CORE 3000 sells for a mere 55€ in Europe. Our friends from the US will have to spend around 75 USD + taxes on the case
  • Excellent price/performance
  • Three fans included
  • Similar build quality to the Fractal Design Arc
  • Most of the engineering of the more expensive Fractal cases still within the CORE 3000
  • Rubber mounted hard drives
  • Large CPU coolers will fit easily
  • Sleeving on fan and all case cables
  • Side can hold a 120 or 140 mm fan
  • Fan controller included
  • Removable hard drive cage to make space for large graphics cards
  • Dust filters on front and top mesh
  • Dust filter on the bottom of the chassis
  • Excellent tray system for hard drives
  • Thumb screws on all external drives
  • Thumb screws on motherboard expansion slots
  • No USB 3.0
  • Tight space between mainboard tray and side panel
  • Fans not the quietest
  • Plastic front, pictures may be misleading
  • US pricing more expensive than the EU one
At first I was worried about the fact that the much cheaper price tag also meant sacrificing a lot of the features we have come to love from Fractal Design cases. Let me assure you, they are still all there. You will still get three fans within the system, the signature white parts are present, as is the entire hard drive cage and tray system. So what did Fractal Design do to offer the case this price point? A simpler front, six instead of eight hard drive bays, basic fan openings instead of the elaborate design found on the Arc and the lack of an eighth mainboard expansion slot. Interestingly enough, none of these cuts would really be noticeable to the the majority of users. This means that for these the CORE 3000 still offers the exact same subjective value at a much more affordable price point. This translates into an excellent price/performance ratio for the chassis. Fractal has managed to find the golden middle with the CORE 3000 case. The only downside? People who may just have gone for the Arc if the CORE 3000 did not exist, may opt for this more affordable case instead - not that this is a bad thing for us consumers.
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Nov 24th, 2024 16:23 EST change timezone

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