Value & Conclusion
- The Fractal Design Core 3300 clocks in at under 60 euro including taxes.
- Comes with two 140 mm retail fans
- Loads of space for liquid cooling
- Can hold up to five 2.5 and three 3.5" drives
- All-black sleeving
- Lots of space behind motherboard
- Two dedicated SSD mounts behind motherboard tray
- Wide chassis for excellent CPU cooler compatibility
- Dust filter across entire underside
- Long GPUs should fit in combination with a full HDD panel if you show it some tough love
- Big thumbscrews to hold ODD drives
- Black and white look
- No rubber grommets on motherboard tray
- Simple 2.5" slots on board tray not accessible once system has been assembled
- Long GPUs may get in the way of HDDs
- Cable mess is difficult to contain
- Simple interior
- No USB 2.0 adapter
As its name implies, The Fractal Design Core 3300 is a simple, but functional chassis. While it makes assembling your system easy, with very good compatibility and the ability to hold lots of liquid-cooling gear, it does so at a price that is slightly to high once you look at other offers out there. Missing grommets also make for a bit of a mess once everything has been assembled. There are simply other option out there with more fans, a fan controller, sound dampening, and much more for a mere 65 euro, which makes it hard to recommend the Core 3300 so long as it doesn't clock in at below 50 euro. Yes, I do realize that it comes with two fans, which is rather unusual for its price range, but such cannot be considered extraordinary these days. While the Core 3300 is certainly a big step in the right direction for today's case market, especially compared to the aging Core 3000, those willing to spend as much may be more interested in the bang-for-the-buck, which may result in them looking elsewhere. Those ultimately looking to pick up a Fractal case will find a better price/performance ratio in the Core 3500, which, with a price-tag of less than 65 euro, clocks in at just a few bucks more.