A Closer Look - Inside

To access the interior, simply remove the thumbscrews holding each side panel in place. Do so and it becomes apparent that the Core 3300's interior is similar to that of the first Core generation, as the hard drives are mounted to a panel instead of traditional trays or bays. You will also find three large openings in the motherboard tray for cable routing, but these do not come equipped with any grommets.


I actually missed the two 2.5" drive bays on the backside of the motherboard tray in the Arc Mini R2 review. Fractal simply drilled eight holes into the right spots, so you may mount an SSD there, for example. You will not get to these once the motherboard has been installed, so you had better make sure not to install anything you might want to swap out onto either set of four. You will have an inch, 25 mm, worth of space to work with behind the motherboard tray, which should be enough to keep things tidy.


You may remove the entire front panel to reveal the included 140 mm intake fan and another empty location for a cooling unit below it. You should also be able to install a liquid-cooling unit into the front without sacrificing any hard-drive trays, which, given the price, is pretty cool.


If storage expandability is a concern, I can put your mind to ease. The panel may hold up to six drives, three 3.5" and three 2.5" variants. There are also two external 5.25" drive bays which do not come with a plastic-locking system. Instead, Fractal Design still includes large thumbscrews for their tool-less assembly This means that the chassis can hold up to eight drives in total.


Turning our focus to the rear, there is the PSU bay in the bottom. The 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 the bay are the eight white motherboard expansion slots, each held in place by a black thumbscrew. In the very same top is another white-bladed 140 mm fan - it pushes air out the back of the chassis.


All the cables within are sleeved to match the interior. They are of the default variety, so you should run into no issues while connecting these to a modern motherboard. While an included USB 2.0 adapter would have been nice, I think you will agree with me if I let the lack of one slide since most boards, regardless of price, come equipped with such a plug.