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Fractal Design Core 500 SFF Chassis Review

Cases & PSU/Cases by leeghoofd @ 2016-02-09

Fractal is expanding their lineup continuously: small form chassis are becoming more and more popular as even the latest high end hardware is also available in reduced size. Thus small form doesn't mean the end-user is limited to just entry or mainstream components. With the right hardware choices one has the ability to build a true gaming powerhouse. The Core 500 is one of them chassis models that looks very intriguing on paper, allowing high end cooling, normal sized ATX PSUs, a discrete GPU and last but not least plenty of storage options including Optical Disk Drive support. All this in a 60 euro bundle, now that sounds too good to be true! Time to find out if there is a catch or not; or does this Fractal Core 500 really deliver?

A Closer Look Contd.

The storage capacity is impressive to say the least: how about up to three 3.5" HDDs, with two on the side of the chassis and one on the bottom of the ODD bay. Also two SSDs or 2.5" HDDs can be positioned on the outside of the chassis, thus more than plenty of storage options that even some mid-towers don't offer.

The vibrations of the 3.5" HDDs are each dampened by four rubber grommets, the 2.5" drives are secured via two tiny screws and since they don't have rotational parts no damping is needed. The engineers provided cut-outs in the support bracket to guide the Philips screwdriver through, simple but clever.

The ODD bay (Optical Disk Drive) is supported by the top watercooling support bracket and secured to the front of the chassis via several screws. Besides the logical holes to mount an Optical Drive, there is still room beneath to install a third 3.5" Hard Disk Drive. While I would have been satisfied with just 2 x 3.5" HDDs, Fractal Design decided three was the way to go. This decision limits the space between the top of the PSU and the bottom of the ODD, thus cable management becomes limited with the ODD bay installed.

The removable top cover features two magnetic dust filters, while the bottom one located beneath the PSU is slide-able. The Core 500 rests on four thick rubber feet, to minimize vibrations.

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