We would like to thank Fractal Design for providing us with a review sample of their ERA ITX chassis. Without their generosity, this case review would not be possible.
Way back at CES 2019, representatives at Fractal were quick to quell our disappointment in their case lineup by asking that we to stay tuned, and to rest assured that the ITX audience had not been forgotten. Immediately, I expected Fractal to simply take the easy route and refresh their wildly popular Node 202 chassis with some brushed aluminum variant but I am very glad that I was wrong.
Available in 5 colors, 3 with glass tops and two with wood, this all aluminum chassis is not what I expected to see from Fractal Designs and that is a very good thing.

Specifications



Liters
16L


Case Material
Aluminum panels, steel frame


Motherboard...

Continue reading...
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Rikardo

The-Alchemist-404

Caliper Novice
May 14, 2019
28
9
i looked at Harware Canucks review of the case, and the temps after removing the panels concerns me because that means they migth be lower with better legs like the new ones from NCase M1 and diferent side panels, i get the later is harder to pull off because of the design of the case (wich I love) but i just wished that they would have made it more ventilated, after all mainstream attention for sff is always helpfull and the less deturrents the better
 

Boil

SFF Guru
Nov 11, 2015
1,253
1,094
This chassis can be fixed by opening up the bottom panel (and integrating a dust filter into said opening, of course), mounting the 140x25mm fans to the outside of the bottom bracket (rather than the inside as Fractal shows), and giving the chassis some feet to stand on...

This will do nothing for increasing GPU thickness but will give the chassis actual air input and make it positive pressure...
 

Sam

Caliper Novice
Jul 19, 2019
25
7
Too bad it's so big and pricy. I love the filter and lian-li style snap on sides.
If they could make a Mini version at 9 liters it would be a hit! Just chop off that entire top after the motherboard, trim down the other two sides; no large radiator, no atx psu.
 

Rimso

Minimal Tinkerer
New User
Apr 1, 2020
3
3
Hi all! pretty new to the forum but I'm just going to share this review by optimum tech here....


It seems like his conclusions were very different from Drews notably that product finish was lacking and that thermals were much higher (seemingly 10C) than you reported unless I am incorrect? A 15 minute burn in seems quite short to achieve a steady state and there wasn't much mention of how noisy the case was? I was wondering if Drew would be able to elaborate further on the Era and his thoughts on this? Overall I really appreciated how thorough Drew's break down of the case was!
 
  • Like
Reactions: manoueltiger

Rimso

Minimal Tinkerer
New User
Apr 1, 2020
3
3
I would argue the noise test was more incomplete than BS. If the wooden top is the way that the company primarily markets the case (which it is) then there should be a test that uses the wooden top no? I agree it would have been good for him to do a noise test with the mesh top in addition to the wooden top.
 

rfarmer

Spatial Philosopher
Jul 7, 2017
2,588
2,702
Tek Everything just reviewed this case and did acoustical testing with both the wood and vented top panels, honestly to me it was as loud either way.

 
  • Like
Reactions: Soul_Est

Poblopuablo

King of Cable Management
Jan 14, 2018
816
465
Can you do a full custom loop? Are there GPU blocks that have small enough height? (The case is not very wide)
... Didn't realize they were links lol. Usually links have a different text color, but I'm on mobile and with this new RGB mode(which I actually kinda like lol!) I think everything else has turned to mono-chrome.
 

manoueltiger

Trash Compacter
Mar 10, 2020
38
24
Hi all! pretty new to the forum but I'm just going to share this review by optimum tech here....


It seems like his conclusions were very different from Drews notably that product finish was lacking and that thermals were much higher (seemingly 10C) than you reported unless I am incorrect? A 15 minute burn in seems quite short to achieve a steady state and there wasn't much mention of how noisy the case was? I was wondering if Drew would be able to elaborate further on the Era and his thoughts on this? Overall I really appreciated how thorough Drew's break down of the case was!

I'm very fan of the work of this guys and I think he's right...
When you see the mess inside the case after mounting your configuration, it's logical to have temperatures issues and noise with this case !

I like fractal design, but I think too that the era is a very bad case
 
  • Like
Reactions: Rimso