Test System

Assembly

Installing the mATX board inside the Focus G Mini is done with the use of spacers and screws. As you can see, things are pretty tight all around, but while a 92 mm cooler is used here, you should be able to fit a compact 120 mm variant as well.


You may easily install a 3.5" drive without the use of any tools because of the plastic drive tray. For those who want to add a 2.5" drive, Fractal includes screws to hold 2.5" drives in place as well. Once filled, simply slide the drive trays back into the cage until they snap into place.


As mentioned before, you may add another 2.5" drive behind the motherboard tray, which brings the total number of storage possibilities to three within the Focus G Mini. This may be enough for most entry level users, but others may find this shortcoming hard to overcome.


Installing an optical drive only requires thumbscrews. Simply slide the drive into the bay of your choice and secure it with the larger thumbscrews Fractal Design provides. I am always a fan of such a mounting option instead of a weak and dysfunctional plastic lock. However, the drive will nearly touch your motherboard's components. We use an MSI board in our reviews, and it happens to lack any tall components in the area, but others may not. As such, this could be a real issue to some because it may limit the length of the optical drive.


Installing the power supply is a simple and pretty straightforward affair. There is also plenty of room for a long unit. Such a power supply will cover the bottom air intake for that optional fan on the floor, though.


Due to the lack of materials for the motherboard tray and the exclusion of grommets, you will end up with a visible bit of cable mess here and there. While the interior of the Focus G Mini still looks clean, modern cases manage to keep the visible clutter to an absolute minimum, which means that we have to hold all the cases to quite the high standard when it comes to this aspect.

Finished Looks

Once the side panels are in place, the Focus G Mini makes a good impression. It won't turn any heads, but the target audience of the chassis should be quite happy with the way it looks and that you can show off your interior. A white power LED lights up underneath the corresponding button to let you know that the system is up and running.


Looking at the front, you can see the white LED lights of the fans glowing through, which is another nice touch. An added bonus of the lighting is the fact that it helps light up the interior as well. Looking through the window, you will see all the hardware components clearly, which means you have to make sure things are wired nicely. While some may not like the gray ODD drive, the interior does not look half bad when filled—better than expected, actually. Thanks to the dust filters in the top, any glow bleeding through because of lit internal components is minimized, while the rear looks completely run of the mill.