14 DAY TRIAL // With all the new hardware coming out, it makes sense that case makers would also present new products, and this is exactly what Fractal Design did with its newest press release.
The past month has seen the arrival or preview of quite a few new hardware devices, even despite the way tablets have been grabbing most of the attention of the consumer base.
To give just one example, a certain, mighty 8-core AMD FX Bulldozer CPU got benchmarked quite recently, exhibiting a high level of performance in a price similar to that of an Intel chip it completely dominates.
In other words, the flux of new IT products is alive and well, meaning that makers of PC cases have to make sure they keep up with the times.
Fractal Design figured it was time to unleash one such item, bearing the name of ARC Midi and merging the elements of “understated elegance” and “minimalistic looks.”
It has 8 3.5-inch drive trays (for HDDs and SSDs), a pair of 5.25-inch bays, three USB 2.0 ports on the front panel (accompanied by an USB 3.0 port and audio I/O) and 7+1 expansion slots.
The company decided to offer a 5.25-inch to 3.5-inch converter as part of the package deal, along with a removable filter below where the PSU is meant to sit.
As for how big the case actually is, the inside is spacious enough to house mini ITX, micro ATX and ATX motherboards.
On that note, the maximum size of add-in video boards can be 290 mm, or 470 mm when taking out the removable HDD bay.
In order to ensure that the inside is properly cooled, the outfit implemented 8 fan slots (3 fans are included), cable routing, removable front panel, white paint on the HDD trays, the possibility of adding two 120 mm radiators at the top and, should one so wish, use radiators with a thickness of up to 60 mm.
The product has already been put up on its maker's website, but there is, at the moment, no word on pricing.