Fractal Design Core 1100, Black, Micro ATX, Mini Tower, Computer Case

Pros: Price. Hands down the best cheap case there is. Clean lines, nice features and buttons, USB 3.0. Well constructed small form painted inside and out. A mod builders delight.

Cons: Its less than 7" wide so no behind the board cable management.

Overall Review: You have to be a good builder to love this case. Its not easy to put everything in it and have it look good. But do it right and you will be the envy of the lan party. Its so small it cute.

Pros: 1-Fan Controller: it comes with it and you can control the rotational speed of the fans. 2-3 Fan of good quality are included and noiseless yet powerful enough. 3-No windows nor annoying blue (or any other color) lights. 4-I/O on top, rather than on the side or front. Overall I'm very pleased with this case, I browsed through several other cases, compare them side by side and the features this case has to offer are excellent for the price. I didn't need or require a flashy case so this case is a perfect for those that don't need that, just a simple basic case with all the necessary features and accessories you'll ever need.

Cons: Fan controller, it died after 1 month of use. Paid $99 for this thing.

Overall Review: I took the 140mm front fan and put it on top of the case, in the interior right next to the other 140mm, I don't see a point in having one in the front, as I think that a front case is only good for putting more dust in your case, heat rises so I rather use the fans as exhaust and nowadays no major component (except for video cards) create so much heat.

Pros: Delivered quick! These are nice little cases for basic home office PC's. They are easy to work with, good air flow, have a good 120 mm fan in front, and are light weight, almost too light.

Cons: none

Overall Review: Good solid case for a basic home ofiice PC I build for a customer.

Pros: Perfect size for a micro-ATX build. Anything larger is unnecessarily big. Anything smaller does not fit ATX power supply, limits CPU cooler choice to low profiles, and has really small rear fan (60 mm or so). The case is very basic in what it offers, but has all that is really needed. Considering its price, the value is unbeatable. All dimensions are perfect: - Length - just long enough to avoid tight space between ODD and PSU - Height - just high enough to fit mATX board and PSU - Width - just wide enough to fit ATX PSU, and leave enough clearance to not be too restrictive in CPU cooler choice. Includes 2.5" mounting bracket in the lower 5.25" bay, and rubber 3.5" HDD mounts.

Cons: This is a simple inexpensive case, so don't expect something typically found in more expensive ones. Metal is quite thin, finish is simple paint. Thick aluminum panels are great... if you are willing to pay $100 and up. Pay attention to PSU mounting orientation. Fanless PSUs will mount upside-down - make sure yours has fan.

Overall Review: I am building a basic mATX-based system, and this case is just about the right size. Anything smaller than that does not fit an ATX power supply, and requires low-profile cooler. If you want a simple and basic PC, but do not need it to be *really* small, this is a perfect choice. ATX case and m/b would typically be more expensive. If you go down mini-ITX path, there's premium to pay for compactness, and/or space becomes really tight, and you are limited in the choice of cooling system. This is a very simple case. Assembly is as easy as it gets. Design is minimalistic but functional. Note: rear fan has universal 92/80 mm mounting holes. Product description omits the 80 mm part.

Pros: The right size for me, front usb2&3, plenty of fans, moderately quiet, plenty of room for a non-gaming home use computer build, the price was right.

Cons: delivered from Newegg in the original box with one of the two front USB2 ports not working

Overall Review: I used this case for just my second build so take that into account. When one of the front usb ports did not work I tried moving the connectors to another header on the motherboard. Didn't work. Sent an email to Fractal Design. Got an immediate response. Did exactly what the Tech said to no avail. Email back the Tech and he said they would have a replacement part in the mail asap. Got the part in a few days and installed. Everything works fine. That is what I call customer service.

Pros: SOLID CONSTRUCTION, no flimsy parts front panel looks so luxurious and elegant. Don't feel like a $40 case. super good air flow silent with some velcro tapes, you can mount SSD ANYWHERE YOU WANT. You can also mount the HDD into the 5.25 bay, this way you can have even more airflow. Just be creative !

Cons: no room to route cables in the back of the motherboard (see other thoughts)

Overall Review: Although there's no room the in back of the motherboard to route cables. You can actually zip-tied any unwanted cables and stuff it in the 5.25 bay. For cables like USB 3.0 or HD audio, you can stuff them between the back of motherboard tray and the side cover.

Pros: The finished product is nice. Clean lines with the brushed aluminum look of the front bezel make this case look like it would cost more than it does. The stock fan is quiet, and with the addition of a Silenex 92 mm exaust fan, the computer runs quiet and cool. The case feels light but sturdy when assembled.

Cons: The hard drive mount is the worst design I've ever come accross, and I've used a lot of cases in varing price ranges from a lot of different manufactures. I also had a hard time fitting an ASRock H170M Pro4 micro-atx motherboard in it because of the optical drive bay. Cable management is nonexistant in this case. Excess cables can be bundled and hidden behind the hard drive bracket however.

Overall Review: I will not use this case again, but I might give some of their higher priced offerings a chance in the future.

Pros: Smart design, modern, excellent for placing next to expensive furniture (I use it for streaming foreign movies in the living room). Motherboard stand-off holes are cleanly pre-threaded (not all cases have tapped holes). Intelligent well thought-out design is easy to work with; everything fit properly including the DVD drive. Tons of extra space for hiding/storing excess wiring from power supply, etc.. No sharp edges, not so much as an ouchie on my baby-soft typist fingers. Lots and lots of screws, and more screws, and some more.

Cons: Absolutely none, well, okay, one: I want Fractal to make a case with the same front styling that fits a full size ATX motherboard.

Overall Review: I installed 2 each 3.5" hard drives vertically while leaving the front fan as-is: there are four screw holes for each hard drive (8 holes total), and eight special screws are included for mounting two hard drives. On the back of hard drives there are four tapped screw holes. Four holes, four screws, four tapped hard drive holes: is that not obvious? Some reviews (on this case and other similar cases too) stated that they were not able to figure-out how to mount a hard drive vertically. Wow. Seriously, any hard drive mounting problems will be the user's, not the case's. If a person wants to turn the hard drive to have the SATA connections pointing towards the rear, then a new thinner style hard drive will fit on the top vertical mount, but older thicker hard drives will not fit because they hit the front fan, and the bottom hard drive will not align with the holes because of the front fan's thickness. If a person absolutely must have power and data connections pointing towards the rear, then simply use the bracket's two rear holes to run two screws into the hard drive's two forward holes: no brainer. (This isn't an off-road vehicle; two screws will hold a hard drive plenty well.) This is a sweet little case; I did not find any problems like what the bad reviews claimed. Yes the metal is not as thick as 90's XT 'car ramp' cases, but still more than sturdy enough to fulfill any sane PC need. I did not so much as care to look to see if cable management was good or bad. I stuff extra cables into a DVD slot, put a wire-tie on them, and close the case: done. This is a micro case with small dimensions, which ought to be obvious that it does not have a lot of additional space devoted to empty space. Unless a person has a special need for an old DOS program or live CD or such, the absence of a reset button is rather irrelevant with modern Linux/Windows operating systems. No Atari joystick/paddle connector either! Not even an RJ11 modem jack! Surely running two wires to a reset button would be no more difficult than mounting a hard drive vertically…