Introducing the Fractal Design Ridge, a better, more refined, Node 202.

We would like to thank Fractal Design for providing us with a review sample of their Ridge 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 LFF 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 instead they released the wildly stylish Fractal ERA chassis that was released to a mixed reception (we reviewed it here -and liked it!).
Not content to update an old chassis by simply adding brushed aluminum to the mix, Fractal Design decided to take all the feedback from the passionate Node 202 community and...

Continue reading...

 

[confusis]

Fantastic review @3lfk1ng ! Glad to see this chassis in the market, seems like we may have some folks from larger companies watching the trends on our forum!

 

[3lfk1ng]

Thanks. It's a pretty solid little case and I hope to see other big players continue to join in on the fun.

 

[robbee]

Nice review of a pretty case. And props to SFFn for being on the review radar of such an established company!

 

[NR200Hater]

12.6l?
Terrible, better just buy Aklla A4 Pro 11.4l.

 

[MrPickles]

Thanks for the review @3lfk1ng. I only recently bought this case and I can't figure out why my CPU temps are on average 15C higher with a 5600X (loaded optimised defaults in bios - Strix B550-i Gaming). I'm using Big Shuriken 3 as Noctua and BR collide with PCIe port on the board. Replaced stock fan with Noctua A12x15, used custom fan curve with min. fan rpm at 1200, tested with grizzly and noctua thermal paste. Removing side panel makes pretty much no difference. Any suggestions?

 

[MrPickles]

Thanks for the review @3lfk1ng. I only recently bought this case and I can't figure out why my CPU temps are on average 15C higher with a 5600X (loaded optimised defaults in bios - Strix B550-i Gaming). I'm using Big Shuriken 3 as Noctua and BR collide with PCIe port on the board. Replaced stock fan with Noctua A12x15, used custom fan curve with min. fan rpm at 1200, tested with grizzly and noctua thermal paste. Removing side panel makes pretty much no difference. Any suggestions?

Just to add a bit more data. Room ambient is 22-23C. CPU is idling at 43-47C, and while gaming e.g. Cyberpunk hits 80C. Yes, I definitely removed the plastic film from the heatsink . The rest of the config is pretty standard, RX6800 reference, Corsair LPX 3200 (32GB), PSU SF600, 2 NVMe +1 SATA drives.

 

[MrPickles]

Just to add a bit more data. Room ambient is 22-23C. CPU is idling at 43-47C, and while gaming e.g. Cyberpunk hits 80C. Yes, I definitely removed the plastic film from the heatsink . The rest of the config is pretty standard, RX6800 reference, Corsair LPX 3200 (32GB), PSU SF600, 2 NVMe +1 SATA drives.

Fixed had a tad old thermal paste. Repasted, reseated HS, returned to stock fan too with custom curve (min. fam rpm set to 64%), now temps in idle hover around 32C-ish. Though still a bit unlucky with the riser, despite a new batch of cases, had to set PCIE to gen3 otherwise sound/vid glitches would appear, games crashed randomly.

 

[MrPickles]

Fixed had a tad old thermal paste. Repasted, reseated HS, returned to stock fan too with custom curve (min. fan RPM set to 64%), now temps in idle hover around 32C-ish. Though still a bit unlucky with the riser, despite a new batch of cases, had to set PCIE to gen3 otherwise sound/vid glitches would appear, games crashed randomly.

In case anyone is interested in FD Ridge, be warned. The original riser is causing system instability, artifacts, blank screen, up to reboots. Setting PCIE to Gen3 compatibility fixes the issue (zero problems in Cyberpunk, Hogwarts, Elden Ring - system pushed to the limits, 3DMark stress test passes with 99.7%).

FD sent a replacement riser (here thanks to FD for super fast response and delivery), however the issues plaguing the system got even worse. At this point setting PCIE to Gen3 does nothing. At one point WHEA-logger errors started poping up "A fatal HW error has occured", Event ID 18, meaning that the CPU detected a hardware problem. Just to be on the safe side I've loaded UEFI defaults. No difference. System has been rock stable for the past 2 years and out of a sudden it can barely withstand 15 minutes without a hitch. Obviously all components work flawlessly.
I dusted my venerable GTX1080 and gave it a try in the setup with the replacement riser (used DDU before installing nvidia drivers) and no-go, same story.

 

[svedel77]

Thanks for the review @3lfk1ng. I only recently bought this case and I can't figure out why my CPU temps are on average 15C higher with a 5600X (loaded optimised defaults in bios - Strix B550-i Gaming). I'm using Big Shuriken 3 as Noctua and BR collide with PCIe port on the board. Replaced stock fan with Noctua A12x15, used custom fan curve with min. fan rpm at 1200, tested with grizzly and noctua thermal paste. Removing side panel makes pretty much no difference. Any suggestions?

Perhaps your CPU draws to much power, hence getting too hot. You could try the Ryzen 7 5700G, wich only draw max. 65 watts. I got the smaller 5600G, and it works wonder. Both for office, everyday work. But also for light gaming. Eats everythng I trow at it.

 

[aneker]

I bought one to move my desktop. It has a bigger impact than expected for its size. It is not a very technologically advanced box, it is made of bent sheets and little else. There is a conflict between the internal USB cables and the Power cable of the Corsair power supply, but that is not a problem at all.

Interestingly, it lacks an HDD LED and a beeper for mini ITX boards, simple things that are also important for a desktop.

However, the box is visually pleasing and very well thought out. I built a setup in a black one and I am thinking of building the second setup in a white one.

Congratulations to the Design team.