Fractal Terra ITX

It's a neat-looking little case, but it seems unbalanced maybe. It can fit a reasonably-sized GPU, but has no decent means of supporting proper cooling for the CPU side of a system that would typically use such a card. AFAICT about the largest cooler that'll work is something like the NH-L12S. I'd like to see a slightly bigger version that could fit a 240mm CLC.
 
I've got one, y'all want some pics of the build?

Edit: Screw it, here's some pics.
  • 7800X3D Ryzen
  • RX 6900 XT Red Devil
  • G.Skill RipJaw S5 - 32GB DDR5 (6000)
  • 2TB Sabrent Rocket M.2
  • Gigabyte B650i Aorus Ultra
  • Corsair SF1000L
  • Noctua NH-L9a-AM5
    • This cooler doesn't appear to be approved for the 7800X3D, but it does stay cool(ish) when gaming at 55-65c. However, when encoding video, or some other high I/O tasks, it peaks out at 89.9c (rated ceiling) and throttles back a little....not much, but from 4.75GHz down to 4.25GHz. I knew that going into this build so not a big deal. It's got full send when gaming, which is all I care about.
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I've got the "spine" a little out of alignment, totally my fault, so it looks a little cattywhompus in some of the pics.
 
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pendragon1 said:
HC didnt mention it and and i havent seen anyone else yet, but that side panel fan noise is horrible....
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Yea, that was the first thing I noticed with my build too. It's only noticeable when under load, but it's def there. If you game with headphones it's not a big deal. If not, the the turbulent air noise is something that needs to be considered. Steve did a great job with that review, very inline with my experience.

Would I buy it again? Absolutely, I love the layout and aesthetics of this case.
 
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I believe the panels are aluminum so magnetic ones won’t work - time for masking tape! - but attaching a dust filter will help dramatically with turbulence.

Example of one of my cases. Still decent enough airflow and the noise profile is much more tolerable.

Edit: Steve GN did illiterate this a bit when he pressed different panels onto the Terra.

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I'm doing a build for my better half in one of these right now, and I'm hating every second of it.

....and reportedly this is among the better MiniITX cases as far as buildability and accessability goes.

My hands just don't fit anywhere, and everywhere I turn, unless you do something in a very precise order it won't work.

I was trying to add a case fan after installing a Noctua NH-L12S cooler, and there is just no way to access the fan screws with even a pretty tight bend screwdriver. There is no way I'm taking the cooler back off just to install a case fan...

I usually enjoy building PC's, but my experience just far with MiniITX is driving me up a wall.
 
pendragon1 said:
HC didnt mention it and and i havent seen anyone else yet, but that side panel fan noise is horrible....
Click to expand...

It CAN be horrible. But it doesn't have to be. The noise comes from the coolers fan blades spinning too close to those slats.

If you use something like the NH-L12S to cool it, with the fan under the heatsink, only the heatsink is up against the case wall, and there is no noise problem.

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I installed the cooler and then pushed the whole CPU divider sandwich thing all the way so that the cooler was flush against the case side, and I have not heard any of the hum Tech Jesus reported on in his review. An added benefit has been that it vents a fair amount of the heat outside the case.

And this only seems to happen on the CPU side. For whatever reason the GPU noise is nowhere near as bad.

Mind the cable management. Apparently Phanteks doesn't believe in providing short modular cables with SFX power supplies. These cables take up like half the case. I have had to order expensive custom ones from Cablemod so that I can clean it up a little.
 
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On a side note,

I was attempting to install a slim 120mm fan underneath the heatsink. In the front underneath the PSU you can obviously fit even a 25mm thick fan (provided you get shorter PSU cables and free up that space), but in the front, there just isn't enough space, even for a 15mm fan., You might just barely be able to slide one underneat the motherboard, (but that may not fit) and even if you are successful, you hit the PSU power cable coming in in the other side.

I was instead trying to put a 15mm fan on the outside under the case. There is technically enough room to fit the fan, but it doesn't wind up with a lot of breathing space unless you raise the case up somehow. You probably only get 2-3mm of clearance to the desk, even with a 15mm thick fan.

I was planning on testing if this gave me any airflow at all through those slats, but it turns out, that at least with any screwdriver I own (and I own the iFixit kit, with the bendy extender) it is impossible without removing the CPU cooler (and I don't want to remove the CPU cooler.)

I wound up stripping the fan screws trying to tighten it in for the test, and then breaking the poor brand new fan to get it off :p

I guess I'm going to omit the front fan and only put one in the back instead.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
I'm doing a build for my better half in one of these right now, and I'm hating every second of it.

....and reportedly this is among the better MiniITX cases as far as buildability and accessability goes.

My hands just don't fit anywhere, and everywhere I turn, unless you do something in a very precise order it won't work.

I was trying to add a case fan after installing a Noctua NH-L12S cooler, and there is just no way to access the fan screws with even a pretty tight bend screwdriver. There is no way I'm taking the cooler back off just to install a case fan...

I usually enjoy building PC's, but my experience just far with MiniITX is driving me up a wall.
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Just normal mITX stuff lol. SFF is cool right up until the building it part :D
 
Fritzz said:
Found some stuff on Etsy that will allow some different configurations for adding in a fan via 3D printed brackets.
Click to expand...

That is hilarious. I always think of Etsy as a place to buy - i don't know - someones knitting project or something.
 
NightReaver said:
Just normal mITX stuff lol. SFF is cool right up until the building it part :D
Click to expand...

I went on Amazon searching for a screwdriver with a universal joint bend or something like on my wrenches for my car but smaller, but I found this.

I can't tell how big it is, but It might be helpful...
 
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Alright, well my build in this case is pretty much done.

It's not my best work, but it is good enough, as there are no windows :p

Honestly, I love building PC's. I find it strangely therapeutic, but I wouldn't wish the mini-ITX SFF case build experience on anyone.

Maybe my hands are just too big?

If anyone is curious how it turned out, here it is:

CPU Side:

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I ordered custom Cablemod cables to make this work. (And tried to err on the long side as too long is better than too short, but I may have overdone the length) I don't even remember there being a color choice but I guess I got silver. Maybe I missed that. Not horrible, but it wouldn't have been my first color choice as it kind of reflects through the side of the case more than I would have chosen.


GPU Side:

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Yes, that's an old 2013 6GB Titan in there. It will serve it's purpose until I upgrade my stepsons 2060 Super, at which point the 2060S will go in here.

And the top view for good measure:

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Like everything Fractal makes, the case is very high build quality, and I suppose for an ITX case it is reasonably easy to work in, but my sasquatch hands still didn't like the experience. I hope I never have to build another ITX system :p

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Oh, and in all of my testing, I have never heard the fan hum that Tech Jesus complained about. I presume this is because the Noctua NH-L12S places the fan on the opposite side of the heatsink.
 
Well fuck me.

It was powering on just fine before, but now it is refusing.

Guess I am going to have to pull out and recheck all them power cables.

What a bloody pain in the ass with an ITX case.

Edit:

Pulled a stupid in my cable routing. Was distracted by the tight fit and cursing at my fingers not fitting and accidentally installed the 8pin PCIe power cable backwards. (PSU end ion GPU, GPU end on PSU, didn't know keying would even allow for that)

I have to take the entire PSU out in order to be able to reach the connectors and fix it.

Hopefully that didn't fry anything....

Edit:

Phew. Fixed the cable and all is well.
 
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