Review System

Assembly

installing a motherboard is done by traditional means. Fractal does help by having the center standoff as a guiding pin instead of a screw mount. With well over 400 mm clearance for GPUs, installing the pixel pusher of your choice in the Fractal Focus 2 should pose no issues.


To add a 3.5" drive, you will first need to secure three rubber ringed screws to the drive and then slide it into place in one of the two locations. A forth screw pins it down so you won't have to worry about it moving during transport.


The 2.5" drive mounting system is completely tool-less and entails you pressing the drive against the set of four plastic pins. This should be great in theory, but there is not enough grip for this to work properly. During the assembly process, the SSD we used simply came off these pins several times.


Adding a PSU is easily done, as the lack of the shroud really helps, but with the cutout for cable management limiting the total length of a unit, you will be best served with compact PSUs within the Focus 2. On top of that, a modular variant is strongly recommended, as you will have a very hard time hiding all the leads behind the motherboard tray.


The 240 mm AIO fit within the Fractal Design Focus 2 thanks to the offset brackets. These make all the difference for the radiator and fans to eek past the DDR5 memory and heatsink of the motherboard. That said, doing so will completely block access to any of the connectors on the top edge of the motherboard, so you should plan ahead and plug in your cables in that area before adding the AIO.


With everything installed the interior of the Focus 2 doesn't look very clean. This is simply because of the missing shroud and due to the fact that the elongated opening makes it a bit more difficult to group things. Thankfully, there are lots of hooks for zip ties and as you can see, we used a lot of them to keep all the cable mess at bay. The PSU leads which are usually stuffed underneath the shroud between power supply and hard drive cages, are squeezed into the bottom area behind the motherboard tray. However, those with two 3.5" drives will quickly find themselves out of room to properly store all those cables.

Finished Looks

Turning the Fractal Design Focus 2 on, you will clearly see the RGB elements in the front fans. On top of that, the power button LED also provides a multi-color theme to match the set hues, which is a nifty touch.


Thanks to the fine mesh, you can clearly see beyond the fans all the way through the chassis. The clear side panel also allows for unobstructed visibility within. The leads of the PSU are clearly visible, which adds a bit of cable mess to the otherwise tidy wiring possibilities. In the rear everything is where you would expect to see it for a mid-tower chassis.