Fractal Design Arc Mini R2 Review
Category : Cases
Published by Hiwa Pouri on 26.03.14
With the Arc Mini R2, Fractal Design has a compact tower case in its portfolio which has been built with mATX motherboards in mind. Other than that this is definitely a good looking case and it offers a lot of flexibility when it comes to cooling. Factal Design even went to the point where they put a few extra features on the back of the motherboard tray. At this point we're rather curious to see if this case is capable of convincing us.
On the following pages we will show you the strengths and weaknesses of the
Fractal Design Arc Mini R2.
[pagebreak]
Preview
Specifications
| Model |
Fractal Design Arc Mini R2 |
| Case Type |
Mini tower |
| Dimensions |
210 x 405 x 484 mm |
| Material |
Steel, Plastic |
| Color |
Black |
| 5.25'' drive
bay |
2 x external |
| 3.5'' drive bay |
6 x 3.5'' |
| 2.5'' drive bay |
2 x 2.5'' |
| Expansion
slots |
4 + 1 |
| Form factors |
Micro ATX, Mini-ITX |
|
Weight |
9 kg |
| Cooling |
Top: 120/140 fan x 2 (1 x Silent Series R2 140mm
1000 rpm installed)
Front:120mm fan x 2 (1 x Silent Series R2 120mm 1200 rpm installed)
Rear: 120mm Silent Series R2 1200 rpm |
| I/O ports |
USB 3.0 x 2, Audio In & Out, Power and reset
button, HDD activity and Power LED (blue), Fan controller |
[pagebreak]
Front
Overview |
|
| |
| The front of the Fractal Design Arc Mini R2 is simple
and elegant, its made from plastic but at a first glance it looks lie
aluminum. Integrated into the face-plate, there is one fan with 120
millimeter diameter, which runs at up to 1'200 rpm. The fan itself is
hidden behind a removable dust filter, which is made from plastic and
can be cleaned easily. In the upper part of the front you see two 5.25
inch slot bezels. Overall this part of the case leaves a good impression
and we like the fact that it's decent and well built. |
| |
Back
Overview |
|
|
| |
| One of the first things we notice are the four
white slot bezels. Since Fractal Design is keen on the fact, that this
case can also house high-end configurations, we would have loved to find
five slot bezels. The reason for that goes as follows: in case of most
mATX motherboard the last slot is a PCIe x16. The means you can place
your graphics card there or you can build SLI/CrossFire rigs. The issue
now is, that if you place a dual-slot graphics card in the last
expansion slot of your motherboard, you'll be missing one slot bezel on
the case. Other than that there is a pre-installed 120 millimeter fan,
that runs at up to 1200 rpm and furthermore you can find two circular
holes, that got coated with rubber grommets to route watercooling tubes
or other cables into or out of the case. |
[pagebreak]
Right side
Overview |
|
| |
| As soon as you take the side panel off you will see that there is a plenty space
also on this side of the motherboard tray. Therefore accurate
cablemangement shouldn't be an issue at all. Another point that you will notice is the cut-out behind the CPU socket area,
so installation of backplate for top performing air coolers will
definitely not be a problem. The motherboard tray also includes a numerous
cutouts with grommets and cabletie loops that will help you maintain a clean and orderly configuration.
There is also space for two SSD at this place, which is really practical
in our opinion. |
[pagebreak]
Left side
Overview |
|
|
| |
| As with the right side of the
case, the left side of the case is pretty much the same. The design is
again quite unspectacular. Lets for have a closer look at hard drive
cages. There is a total of two and you can fit up to six 3.5 inch
drives. Both hard drive cages are removable. If you remove them both,
there is space for a 240 millimeter radiator in the front and there is
also more than enough space for huge and oversized graphics cards.
Unfortunately hard drives cannot be installed toolless. If we look at
the 5.25 inch expansion bays, there is a total of two of them. Also in
the top you can mount either two 120/140 millimeter fans or one 240/280
millimeter radiator, which means, you have lots of options when it comes
to cooling. We've chosen to equip this case with a huge twin-tower
aircooler and there weren't any compatibility issues at all. If we start
looking for additional cooling options, we find another spot for a 120
millimeter fan between power supply and hard drive cage in the bottom.
|
[pagebreak]
Top
Overview |
|
| |
| Also
the top of this case, looks clean and leave a good impression. Located
at the front there is the I/O panel with audio in/out and two USB 3.0
ports. Other than that there is a power and a reset button at this
location. Other than that there is a big mesh which works as a dust
filter.
|
| |
Bottom
Overview |
|
| |
| A closer look at the bottom of this case, shows four
solid rubber feet which offer a very safe stand. Additionally there is a
huge removable dust filter, that can be cleaned esily. |
[pagebreak]
Conclusion
| General |
|
+ |
- |
| The
Fractal Design Arc Mini R2 is a compact tower case
which is very well done and it also offers a lot of flexibility
regarding cooling. Not only when it comes to aircooling you can install
anything you want also in case of watercooling you get a lot of
flexibility. The quality of materials used is on very good level too,
including the plastic parts. The design is very elegant, the I/O connections are easily accessible on the front.
There is only one detail we would love to see different, which concerns
the four slot bezels instead of five.
|
|
-
Design
|
- Number of slot bezels |
| |
|
|
|
| Manufacturing quality / Ergonomics |
|
+ |
- |
| The overall quality is on a very good level.
Fractal Design did not use
thin and cheaper side panels and instead opted for steel ones. The number of grommets for cable management is
very impressive given the size of the case. The internal and external painting is well done.
Also for the cable mangement, things have been done really well, since
on the backside of the motherboard, there is plenty of space and you can
even hide two SSDs there.
|
|
- Build
quality
- Interior
Space |
|
| |
|
|
|
| Design |
|
+ |
- |
| Fractal
Design created a very decent and good looking design for the Arc Mini R2. The design is simple and perfectly reflects the old style of the previous line.
The case is very clean and elegant. At a first glance you could get the
impression that the front has been made from aluminum, but it's actually
made from plastic entirely. |
|
- Cooling |
- Not tool-less |
| |
|
|
|
|
Recommendation |
|
+ |
- |
| We can recommend the Arc Mini R2 to
anyone who wishes a lot of flexibility regarding cooling.
With this case it is really easy to build a high-performance gaming rig
and there are plenty of options if you want to watercool your components.
On Geizhals, the price of Arc Mini R2 is about 70 Euro without shipping costs,
which is perfectly accurate. |
|
- Gaming-PC
- Silent-PC
- Deskop-PC |
|
| |
| Rating |
|
The
Fractal Design Arc Mini R2 gets good 4.5 out of 5
stars. |
| |
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