Personally though, this scares me. I don’t like the idea of having a rear side panel being held on by screws because I feel like it’ll eventually shatter. With that said, tempered glass is pretty robust. Really though, the idea of having a tempered glass rear side panel as a whole doesn’t make sense. Who wants to see a bunch of cables? Removable top bezel and routing clips with cable ties make for easy installation and cable management Fan mounts: 3x 120mm, 2x 140mm or 2x 180mm front, 3x 120mm, 2x 140mm or 2x 180mm front, 1x 120mm rear. Fractal Design’s latest Compact rectifies a common criticism of last year’s Torrent; it was too darn big. Reducing overall volume by some 33 per cent, the mid-sized addition to the range is much better suited to desktop use while maintaining support for a good selection of high-end gear. Built to maximize cooling potential straight out of the box, the Torrent comes with a brand-new component layout and two custom-made 180 x 38 mm Dynamic PWM or Prisma RGB PWM fans. The Torrent is a perfect fit for anyone serious about high-end cooling – with or without a custom water loop.

Torrent Compact RGB Black Light - Scan Fractal Design Torrent Compact RGB Black Light - Scan

Two sturdy steel drive trays with vibration-damping rubber grommets for smooth, quiet and reliable operation mm or 2x 180 mm (3x Dynamic GP-14 PWM included in standard version, 3x Prisma AL-14 PWM included in RGB version) Open layout with expansive base intakes and extra-large bottom fan support offers exceptional GPU cooling You saw this one coming, didn't you? Given the success of last year's Torrent, Fractal Design was always likely to follow-up on its popular 'all-airflow' enclosure with smaller mainstream variants.Seamless tempered glass panels (on TG models) with bolt-free top-latching mechanisms for easy handling mm or 2x 180 mm (2x Dynamic GP-18 included in standard version, 2x Prisma AL-18 included in RGB version) When it comes to liquid cooling, said fan mounts can handle a 120/140/240/280/360 radiator in front. There’s technically room for up to a 240/280 on the bottom, though installation will be fiddly in front of an ATX motherboard. You can instead put a couple of 180s down here, albeit with the proviso that you’ll have to use a micro-ATX board.

Fractal Design Torrent Compact Review: Cool and Compact

The size is right, pricing is acceptable, and the most appealing aspects of Torrent go untouched. That stylish front fascia looks better than ever and dual 180mm intakes deliver on the promise of high airflow. Top mounted aerodynamic PSU shroud with integrated ARGB effects (ARGB strip only available on TG and RGB versions) The side panels on the Torrent Compact are held on via magnets that do a good job when your system is stationary. But I wouldn’t trust them staying in place if you’re moving this case around. You can screw the panels in on top of the case, which I had to do for the rear/right side panel, to hold the cable bulk in. The acoustic results of the Torrent Compact are awe-inspiring. As you can see in our chart, the 180 mm fans on the Torrent Compact do a great job at minimizing sound while providing more airflow than a 120 or 140 mm spinner would. When we cranked the fan speeds up, it's obvious that the larger surface area of the fans is going to make more noise than smaller 120 or 140 mm fans. The thing is, as you’ll see next in our thermal tests, there’s no need to turn the fans up that high.The Torrent Nano is built to maximize cooling potential straight out of the box. Main standouts include an unobstructed base intake, an open front grille and one of our 180 x 38 mm Dynamic PWM fans (Prisma for RGB version) custom-made to achieve maximum air cooling while maintaining controlled noise levels. The Torrent Compact does technically allow for E-ATX motherboards. However, be prepared to lose out on some cable routing options if you go that route, as larger boards end up covering a portion of the routing grommets. And as we’ll see later, cable routing space is already scarce. If you want to use a large motherboard, you should opt for the larger original Torrent, or another large case instead. Both Compact and Nano continue the Torrent tradition of a top-mounted PSU, but as expected, the amount of headroom now varies. PSU support has reduced from 230mm on the original to 210mm for the Compact, maximum GPU length shrinks from 423mm to 330mm, and the limit for CPU cooler height falls from 188mm to 174mm. This is a stylish and attractive case with one of the best front panels we have ever seen but the fact remains that you have to work at it to get decent results.

Torrent Compact PC Case Review - Modders Inc Fractal Torrent Compact PC Case Review - Modders Inc

A high-quality cooler ought to be the first port of call when taming an enthusiast chip, but a decent chassis has a part to play. A Core i9-12900K under full load is perfectly happy inside Torrent Compact, even with fans configured to a barely audible 400rpm. Increasing fan speed does improve temperature, though one might argue the shift from 78°C to 75°C is hardly worth the trade-off in noise. In fact, we’d argue Torrent has never looked better. Nano’s smaller profile looks a little too diddy for our liking, and though we enjoyed the original, its enormous 544mm (L) x 242mm (W) x 530mm (H) footprint proved ungainly atop most desks. Compact’s 450mm x 222mm x 467mm dimensions are less obtrusive, and the 33 per cent reduction in overall volume is more in keeping with our expectation of a mid-tower solution. Optional front and bottom nylon filters included, allowing the user to prioritize between dust filtering or even higher airflow On the other hand, if you love the look of the Torrent family you have to think that things are looking pretty darned great. The original Torrent is a large case, this Compact is medium sized and the Nano is fairly tiny so it seems that Fractal Design has covered all the bases. Streamlined open interior with extra headroom for components and support for E-ATX motherboards up to 274 mm in widthIn an effort to ensure there’s a Torrent for everyone, the Swedish manufacturer is today launching Torrent Compact for streamlined mid-tower builds, as well as Torrent Nano for those who prefer to take the mini-ITX route. Since you don’t have the option to mount a radiator to the top of the case (remember, that’s where the PSU lives), you’re limited to impractical mounting options for liquid cooling, either in the front of the case or at the bottom. We couldn’t fit our EK 240mm D-RGB AIO in the front since we’re using a Gigabyte RTX 3070 Ti Gaming OC, which is 12.5 inches (320 mm) long. I even tried mounting the AIO first, then installing the GPU, but that didn’t work either. You will have gathered from our video that we have mixed feelings about the Fractal Design Torrent Compact. The simple explanation is that we are perfectly happy with cases such as the Lian Li O11 Dynamic EVO that rely on 120mm and 140mm fans and do not feel an immediate need for 180mm fans.

Torrent Nano — Fractal Design Torrent Nano — Fractal Design

Our acoustic test consists of three scenarios: We run the CPU at full load, the CPU and GPU at full load and an optimized idle. The CPU full load test runs the CPU and case fans at their maximum speed. For the CPU and GPU full load acoustic test, we also stress the Gigabyte RTX 3070 Ti Gaming OC and set the fans at 75% speed, because in gaming the fans never run at 100% and are far too loud when they do. The Torrent Compact is built to air cool your compact build as efficiently as possible through an open front grille and two of our 180 x 38 mm Dynamic PWM fans (Prisma for RGB version), making it a perfect fit for air cooling aficionados looking for a compact case. I didn’t realize how tiny the Torrent Compact was until I started building in it. While I have experience with the Fractal Meshify C, that case looked small right when I first laid my eyes on it. However, the Torrent Compact does not. This isn’t a bad thing, but if you’re using a triple-fan graphics card, you’re cutting it close, as the case only supports graphics cards up to 13 inches (330 mm) with the front case fans installed. Speaking of space constraints, my least-favorite part of the Torrent Compact is the area behind the motherboard. There just isn’t enough room for cables in the rear. You get mounts for three 2.5-inch SSDs here, and there’s space in the PSU chamber for either one 2.5-inch drive or one 3.5-inch spinning hard drive. I know M.2 drives are increasingly popular, and motherboards now often include ports for three or more, but I still would’ve liked to see more storage support here.To put this case through its cooling paces we will be using a test system consisting of an AMD Ryzen 5 5600X, Sapphire RX 6800 XT 16GB and an SSD. This system allows us to produce a substantial amount of heat and effectively test the Fractal Design Torrent Compact ‘s cooling capabilities. I will never again buy a case with power supply on the top. It becomes top heavy and a royal pain in the bottom to do anything with cooling as well as some mobo plugs becoming cramped. Up to 360x120/280x140 mm (360 mm front radiators (push / push-pull) supported up to a max length of 403 mm) Corsair Dominator Titanium First Edition DDR5-6600 C32 2x32GB Review: Abundant Capacity And Performance Fractal Design Torrent cases allow you to install 180mm fans in the floor and front of the case and house the power supply in the roof so if – like us – you're not much fussed about that feature you may well be feeling a touch of meh.