Conclusion
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.
Conclusion
A combination of sleek looks with elegant cooling within small cases that fit into 20 liters? We’ll leave the first (appearance) to everyone’s discretion, let’s move on to cooling.
First of all, a word of caution for those of you who prefer a top-flow cooler (over a liquid cooler): move the bottom fans to the ceiling, or at least create a “1+1” combination (i.e. one intake, one outtake). The factory setup is more suitable with liquid coolers, whose fans will be on the ceiling of the case to extract the air heated by the components. Without fans, the warm air does escape through the joints, but too slowly and the result is a very significant difference in cooling of the graphics card.
With both of the supplied fans on the outlet, the temperature of the graphics card is lower by 20°C (GPU) to 25°C (memory). And we’re testing “only” with a barely 200-watt RTX 4070 Super. With more powerful graphics cards like the GeForce RTX 4090 or Radeony RX 7900 XT(X) , the difference will be even greater. If a really powerful graphics card maintains its performance, it will at least make the cooler run noisier. The latter will probably always be noisier, but with optimal system cooling you will naturally get more attractive results.
How the cooling of the Era 2 compares to other cases we don’t know yet, we don’t have a comparison. A picture of this will only be formed over time. However, we can note that the system cooling can be adjusted both with a view to high cooling performance and silent operation. The speed range of the Aspect 12 PWM fans is wide. You already know this from the tests of their “ARGB” variants. While we did measure some vibrations at higher speeds, they don’t transfer to the Era 2’s skeleton and casing, not even at maximum speed.
The acoustic profile of the case is quite pleasant. Especially at lower speeds, where there are no tonal spikes even at higher speeds with the fans on the bottom.At higher airflow there are some, due to the influence of the grille, in the 100–200 Hz band.
One of the things you may miss with the Era 2 is a 3.5″ storage position. It’s unsupported and you can only install a smaller, 2.5″ drve in the case. Graphics card support is decent considering the form factor, and you can even cool a more powerful processor with a liquid cooler.
Overall, we evaluate the Fractal Design Era 2 positively. The build is robust and the engineering is precise. If you like the case visually (for example for the wooden ceiling) and have the right components selected for it, you can’t go wrong with it.
English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš
| Fractal Design Era 2 |
| + Space-saving design... |
| + ... and at the same time support powerful components |
| + Liquid cooler radiators up to 280 mm... |
| + ... and graphics cards up to 326 mm in length |
| + Premium materials - wood, solid aluminum shell... |
| + ... and overall precise workmanship |
| + Wide speed range of fans... |
| + ... optimisation for very quiet operation possible, but also with priority for high performance |
| + Exceptionally convenient installation given the smaller dimensions |
| - Worse cable management options |
| - No support for 3.5" storage |
| - Top-flow coolers only up to 70 mm, tower coolers are practically unsupported |
| Approximate retail price: 200 EUR |
- 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.)