Fractal Design Arc Midi Case Review

1. Introduction2. Packaging3. Arc Midi Exterior4. Removable panels5. Arc Midi Interior6. System build7. Testing Methodology and Performance8. Acoustic Performance9. Closing thoughts10. View All Pages

Today we are looking at the Arc MIDI chassis, which is one of newer offerings from Fractal Design. We have looked at other cases from Fractal Design in the past and they have proven to provide high build quality at an affordable price.

The new Fractal Design Arc Series of cases create a niche of their own; a combination of stellar performance and cooling options with stylish, minimalistic looks and an overall understated elegance.  The Arc MIDI comes with a fan controller for the 3 pre installed 140mm fans, and is capable of housing 5 additional fans between 120mm and 180mm, if required.

If water cooling is your thing, then the Arc Midi has you covered with support for a top mounted dual 120mm radiator up to 60mm thick.  It all sounds great so lets look at the key features and specifications that the Arc Midi tower brings to the table.

Key features

• Stylish, minimalistic front panel with alu-look
• Optimized for performance, massive cooling and water cooling support
• A total of 8(!) fan slots (2x 140mm in front, 3x 120/140 in top, 1x  120/140 in bottom, 1x 120/140 in rear, 1x 140/180mm in side panel)
• 3x 140mm fans included (1x in front, 1x in rear and 1x in top)
• Support for dual 120mm radiator in top, even thicker radiators up to 60mm in thickness
• 8x white painted HDD trays, with silicone mounting
• Upper HDD cage is removable and rotatable
• USB3 support in front panel
• Excellent cable routing and cable routing covers
• Easily removable front panel with clip on fan slots
• Extra, vertically mounted expansion slot, suitable for fan controllers or non-input expansion cards

Specifications

• 8x 3,5 inch HDD trays, compatible with SSD!
• 2x 5,25 inch bays, with 1x 5,25>3,5 inch converter included
• On top of front panel: 2x USB 2.0, 1x USB 3.0 and Audio I/O
• No PSU included (removable filter below PSU)
• M/B compatibility: Mini ITX, Micro ATX and ATX
• 7+1 expansion slots with sleek white painted brackets
• Supports graphic card lengths up to 290mm when removable HDD-Bay is in place
• Supports graphic card lengths up to 470mm without removable HDD-Bay
• Supports CPU coolers with height of 180mm
• Supports PSU's with a depth of maximum circa 170mm, when using bottom 120/140mm fan location. When not using the bottom 120/140mm fan location, the case supports also longer PSU's, typically 270mm.
• Case size (WxHxD): 230x460x515mm with front and top bezel in place
• Net weight: 10kg

Cooling system

• Fan controller for 3 fans included
• 1 front mounted Fractal Design 140mm fan @ 1000rpm included
• 1 rear mounted Fractal Design 140mm fan @ 1000rpm included
• 1 top mounted Fractal Design 140mm fan @ 1000rpm included
• Additional 5 fan slots available for optional fans; one 140mmin front, one 120/140mm in bottom, two 120/140mm in top and one 140/180mm in side panel
• Top panel can mount either 3x 120mm fans, 3x 140mm fans or 1x 180mm + 1x 120/140mm fans

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