Exterior details...
The Era 2 case is an evolution of the original model (Era ITX), where Fractal Design also changed the approach to the ventilation holes. Be it in terms of the top panel or the side, larger perforations. How the Era 2 will make its mark and stack up against competing SFF cases remains to be seen. Despite the detailed analysis, this is still the first case to pass our new testing methodology.
Neither tall nor deep and exceedingly narrow. But just enough to fit your powerful components inside. But let’s take it one step at a time.
| Basic parameters | Fractal Design |
| Era 2 | |
| Parametre | |
| Support | Mini-ITX |
| PSU position | SFX/SFX-L |
| CPU cooler | up to 70 mm |
| Graphics card | up to 326 mm |
| Fan positions | 4× 120 mm/2× 140 mm |
| Pre-installed fans | 2× 120 mm |
| Radiator mounting | 1× up to 280 mm |
| 2,5" positions | 4× |
| 3,5" positions | N/A |
| 5,25" positions | N/A |
| Dimensions [H/L/W] | 366 × 314 × 165 mm |
| Weight | 4.64 kg |
| Materials | steel, wood, plastic |
| Connectors | 1× USB 3.2 gen. 2×2 type C + 2× USB 3.2 gen. 1 type A + 1× 3,5mm jack (shared, three-pole) |
| MSRP | 200 EUR |
Exterior details…
The largest dimension of the Era 2 is depth. But even with 366 mm it is less deep than miditower cases and with 165 mm of width it is also slimmer. And it’s also significantly lower. On this axis, in height, the Era 2 is “only” 314 mm.
USB ports (2×3.2 gen. 1 type A, 1×3.2 gen. 2×2 type C), a shared – 3.5 mm headset jack and a power button are located on the bottom of the front panel of the case.
Fractal Design also emphasized elegant appearance, where the subtle, diagonal curve of the side panels and the front mask creates a striking effect. This results in a lighter or darker shade of the color used in different areas of the panels due to the influence of different incident light. The Era 2 exists in silver, gray and the tested blue version.
The case shell consists of thicker, two-millimeter aluminum sheets. The flexural strength here is really high.
Both side panels are heavily perforated. Firstly on a relatively large area (approx. 50 %), and secondly by larger holes with a diameter of 3–4 mm. Conditions for air intake by CPU or graphics card coolers will be good as these perforations are facing them, but a dust filter has not been fitted here by Fractal Design. Without it, it will be possible to achieve a higher airflow, but at the price that dust will get in with the air, which means more frequent maintenance in a dustier environment.
Era 2 stands on two large feet that are rubberised across the width of the case. Stability on a surface is excellent, no slipping. There is already a dust filter on the bottom of the case. That’s in front of the two 120-millimeter fans that are included as standard.
The structure of the dust filter is made of interwoven strings similar to those on tennis racquets. In this case, however, the mesh is considerably finer, but still rougher than most nylon filters.
When you put the case back on its feet, the distinctive feature is the walnut (solid wood) ceiling. At the same time, this panel is made up of ribs for better dissipation of air heated by the components. This is one of the very noticeable changes compared to the Era “1” with a closed top panel area.
The gaps between the ribs are approximately 128 × 3.9 mm and there are 28 gaps in total (i.e. 14 per fan). The wooden part of the top panel is about 4.5 mm thick. The rest, the inner part, is made up of steel sheet metal, which is important for the magnetic connection to the case’s skeleton. Reliable.
You don’t have to worry about the wooden panel flying off during transport. It is also partially secured from the sides by the protruding aluminum casing. The workmanship is ingenious and yet the disassembly can be done in the blink of an eye. By pushing on the symbol of the two parallel lines in the rear, the wooden panel lifts up at the front and you can easily remove it.
Please note: The article continues in the following chapters.
- Contents
- Exterior details...
- ... and interior details of the Fractal Design Era 2
- Testing methodology
- Results: Maximum performance
- Results: Higher performance (45 dBA)
- Results: Medium performance (42 dBA)
- Results: Lower noise level (39 dBA)
- Results: Low noise level (36 dBA)
- Results: Very low noise level (33 dBA)
- Results: Limit of audibility (31 dBA)
- Results: USB port speeds
- Conclusion
On testing methodology:
1. Going for L9 over L12x77 is certainly a better choice as the former is basically guaranteed to fit in any cases (if you must only use two coolers). Still, I think having more coolers in the arsenal would be more “fair” to the cases being tested. The inability to use larger air coolers like the L12S, or liquid coolers like what this case is designed for, heavily penalizes this case.
2. There’s a good reason that the stock fans should be used when provided, but I wonder what you would do if the case comes with no case fans but intend you to use some?
3. I think there should be additional noise and spectral analysis for when fans are pressed against the side panels and/or fan mounting hardware. Somewhat related, removing cooler from noise level may not be appropriate in some cases, where the intake panel is located close to the cooler.
4. Can you explain why E-cores are disabled?
Specific for this case:
1. “Both side panels are heavily perforated. Firstly on a relatively large area (approx. 50 %)”…
By 50%, are you referring to the area where the vents are present? If we’re talking about open area %, by my rough estimation it’s only around 25% at the most open areas.
2. The bottom dust filter looks interesting, seems similar to the metal filter you have tested. I’d imagine it being quite favourable to airflow.
3. Despite Fractal installing the bottom fans as intake at stock, it is in fact inferior to bottom exhaust, even when using liquid coolers on top. Machines and More on YouTube (https://youtu.be/vyNmPt6nBTI?si=3IF5SPVDaiIT2EmF&t=890) has extensively tested various fan layouts and load scenarios, and found that flipping the bottom fans to exhaust are always better (for both CPU and GPU). And this makes a lot of sense in sandwich layout cases – you’re aiming to pull air from the sides and exhaust hot air via other routes. When there’s airflow from the bottom, the case internal pressure increases, which means less air will be pulled in from the sides, leading to marginal gains or even negative effects.
Yes, the NH-L12Sx77 cooler does not fit in the Era 2 and we had to adjust the fan position in the case of the Mood case as well. The NH-L9i cooler has better compatibility due to its smaller dimensions, but at the price of lower cooling performance. Of course, I agree that in an ideal world, tests with liquid coolers would be great too. But these are already beyond the available capacity in terms of time.
In the future we will deal with spectral sound analyses with respect to different fan modifications in the framework of the evaluation of the level of psychoacoustic optimizations. Unfortunately, there is no time for this now due to too much pressure on tests of components from other categories.
The E-cores were disabled because of the higher heat flux achieved on the P-cores, which the coolers are also able to keep cool while maintaining a stable performance.
The 50% is not meant to be the “open area”, but the “total area covered by the perforation”. I accept that the wording could have been clearer. My head was already in other topics when writing the article, haha. And you probably know which ones… 🙂
On time requirements, a reasonable compromise would be to reduce the resolution of sound tests… that is, test fewer sound levels. I don’t think testing 6 sound levels so close together would lead to a different conclusion than, say, 3-4 sound levels spread wider apart (e.g. 31, 33, 39, 45 dBA). I’d say it’s the same for fans too, and the extra time gained could be better used for other things (for example by testing more fans, or by expanding the range of sound testing to something like 31/33/39/45/51 dBA etc.)
You are right, reducing the number of modes with normalized noise levels would save time that could be used for other tests. Anyway, the fewer these modes, the more likely it is that we won’t hit critical speeds that cause unpleasant tonal peaks. For example, if the 33 dBA mode was dropped from fan tests, it would not be known that many models can have unpleasant tonal spikes even at relatively low speeds. It’s always about point of view, who prefers what and all that. 🙂