Fractal Design Era 2: Holes in wood for more efficient cooling

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.

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.

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.

… and interior details of the Fractal Design Era 2

The quickest way to see inside the case is through the top. This view also reveals the support structure for a liquid cooler. Its radiator has to be up to 280 mm (inclusive). That is, as long as it fits within the maximum dimensions. Fractal Design spells this out in the specifications in fairly great detail. Also, if the radiator is thinner than 52 mm, its length can go up to 315 mm, while it’s only 300 mm for those thicker than 52 mm.

The maximum officially supported thickness of the radiator with fans is 58 mm, although we measured the distance between the radiator bracket and the motherboard tray structure to be up to 70 mm.

To be able to proceed with the mounting of anything, it is necessary to remove the aluminum casing. This slides out in a very simple way by pulling upwards. Before that, however, you have to unlock the lock/latch that the casing shares with the dust filter.

The graphics card can only be mounted vertically with a length of up to 326 mm. It must not exceed 137 mm in height to avoid collision with the 230-volt power connector. When it comes to the thickness of the graphics card, you then have to stay within 63 mm, with which you can also fit a GeForce RTX 4090. Beware of the specific design, however. Nvidia’s Founders Edition is admittedly only 61 mm, but many non-reference designs are significantly thicker.

The graphics card is installed parallel to the motherboard, which means a PCIe ×16 riser is required. This is already pre-installed, namely the Flex 2, which we also tested separately a while ago. The supported PCI Express standard is 4.0.

The fans (Aspect 12 PWM) are pre-installed in number of two on the bottom of the case with intake orientation. This position apparently assumes that a liquid cooler will come in on the other side (top) to be connected to the system cooling configuration. In our tests, this will not happen and that is why, in addition to the factory configuration, we also test the cooling performance in a configuration with the fans moved to the ceiling, on the outtake.

The interior of the FD Era 2 is vertically divided into two sections, where one receives the motherboard and the PSU in SFX or SFX-L format. There are virtually no options for managing the cabling of the PSU in this case, there are no removable Velcro straps or the typical eyelets in the top where they would come in handy. So the important thing will be to bundle and tidy the cabling so that it doesn’t interfere with any fans. We recommend using only modular PSUs, to which only the cables that the build absolutely needs for its operation will be connected.

The PSU, by the way, is mounted in a dedicated bracket.
The latter is slid out before the installation, screwed onto the PSU and then slid back on. And then, of course, it’s secured with a screw. The power supply of the PSU is “internal”, which means that the case has its own power cord that plugs inside the case.
Its connector is between the rear bottom fan and the PSU itself. The power cord that runs from the PSU also connects to the case from the back, but already at the top of the case.

Support for coolers other than liquid coolers is actually only for top-flow models (i.e. with a fan) that are up to 70 mm in height.
You can’t fit more powerful coolers of this type or tower coolers into the Era 2 case.

The second chamber is reserved for the graphics card (up to 326 mm long, up to 63 mm thick and up to 137 mm tall, as mentioned above) and one inch-type storage drive.

Internal storage (except for those on the motherboard – M.2 SSD) can only be installed in 2.5″ format. This may bother some people. Especially when the original FD Era ITX case also allowed you to mount a 3.5″ HDD. But now we have to be modest. The lone position for a 2.5″ SSD/HDD is located at the bottom, above the front fan. the other two inch storage drives can be installed on a tray next to the motherboard, behind the PSU. For SSDs/HDDs with varying thicknesses, a 15 mm adjustment of this tray is also possible from the rear. However, this potentially worsens compatibility with graphics cards, where in the extreme position with the largest slot (see illustration in the manual on page 35) you can no longer fit the RTX 4090 and will have to reach for slimmer variants (under 48 mm).

The installation of components into the Era 2 is relatively simple and we did not encounter any serious complications during the process. However, it is naturally necessary to have the components ready in the appropriate dimensions.

Please note: The article continues in the following chapters.

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.

Testing methodology

What effect does system cooling have on the overall temperature of the PC build? That’s the first thing we look at in our case tests. This at various noise levels ranging from one that is at the limit of audibility (“31 dBA” mode), through very low (“33 dBA”), still low (“36 dBA”), relatively lower (“39 dBA”) to modes for medium (“42 dBA”), higher (“45 dBA”) and maximum performance. At these settings, the noise level will already be higher, but may make sense to some with respect to achieving the highest possible cooling performance.

However, some cases may not come with low-speed fans, just as they may not come with high-speed fans, which will prevent them from getting into the high-performance modes.
In such cases, the measurements of the respective modes are naturally missing, as they cannot be adjusted for.

The noise is measured diagonally from the left side of the case, where the sensor of the noise meter (Reed R8080), or microphone (miniDSP UMIK-1) is 30 cm away from the left corner of the case and is at a 45-degree angle to the front and side panels, and at a 30-degree angle to the top of the case. To increase the resolution, we use a parabolic collar. Once the case is tuned to a given mode, the acoustic profile is also examined in the TrueRTA application at 1/24 octave resolution. Based on this, it is possible to specify “weak” spots that are making the case sound unpleasant with unwanted tonal peaks.

The noise level reading always includes only the sound of the system fans. The noise of the CPU and graphics card coolers are filtered out, or rather these components are inactive during the measurements and practically do not interfere with the measurements. The CPU coolers we use are the Noctua NH-L9i-17xx chromax.black and the NH-D12L chromax.black. We choose between the models based on which one physically fits in the tested case and which can also be considered as a more suitable option.

So, the smaller model (Noctua NH-L9i-17xx chromax.black) usually comes into play with many SFF cases, but most of the time there will be an effort to use the NH-D12L chromax.black cooler. This is also with a view to building as large a database as possible within which the results can be described as comparable. There are always more options as far as specific coolers are concerned, and a large number of cases are rather optimized for AIO type liquid coolers. This is often reflected in the default configuration of system fans, of which there are more at the inlet than at the outlet. The design of the case here, in short, assumes that a liquid cooler is used and its fans are engaged at the outlet of the system cooling. But we don’t do this because of the very high variability of aerodynamic liquid coolers and use the traditional coolers mentioned above. The thermal paste used is always the Thermal Hero Quantum, which we replace after some time under the coolers of both the CPU and the graphics card to avoid the natural change of its properties from potentially distorting the results. For the same reason, so that incomparable situations do not arise over time, all the coolers are kept as clean as possible – dust-free.

If the case has a predominance of intake fans, in addition to the default configuration, the case is also tested using a modified scheme that simulates the equilibrium flow or positive air pressure in the case, depending on the specific situation. This is always specified in the description of the charts, numerically in brackets following the designation. The first number expresses the number of intake fans and the second the number of outtake fans. For example, “1+2” means that the case has one intake fan to two outtake fans.

The main heating components are a Intel Core i9-13900K processor (with E-cores disabled) and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Super FE graphics card with the fans fixed at 12V. CPU coolers also have fixed speeds, with fans at 12 V. The PWM-enabled fans are controlled by a Noctua NA-FC1 controller, and the 3-pin models (regulated by DC/linear voltage only) are then controlled by a Gophert CPS-3205 laboratory PSU.

CPU performance is set to be constant at all times, with a good chance of being sustainable in any situation, even in cases with weaker cooling. For configurations with the NH-L9i-17xx chromax.black, this is approximately 75 W, and with the NH-D12L chromax.black, it is approximately 150 W. If, due to insufficient cooling performance, the power consumption drops below the specified level, the test in that mode is evaluated as a failure and its results are not recorded in the charts (the corresponding bar of the chart remains without a numerical value).

The stability of the power during the tests is monitored at the EPS of the PSU. The one we use, by the way, is a Seasonic Focus SGX-750 (with a direct 12VHPWR cable), SFX format. This is for consistency of measurements in all cases, even those in which you would be able to fit a PSU in the ATX format. For the same reasons, a Mini-ITX motherboard is also used – an Asus ROG Strix B760-I Gaming WiFi (BIOS v1663) will also fit into small cases.
The memory is DDR5, Patriot Viper Venom (2×16 GB, 6000 MHz/CL36) and the SSD is a Gigabyte Aorus Gen5 10000 (2 TB) with a finned heatsink. Also thanks to it, the SSD cooling will scale well with the intensity of the system cooling.

The SSD is loaded with CrystalDiskMark (in a maximum sequential read and write performance loop), – the CPU is loaded in Cinebench R23 and the graphics card in the Shadow of the Tomb Raider game menu. If the case allows vertical mounting of a PCI Express expansion card and at the same time its accessories include a PCIe ×16 riser, we also proceed to test the graphics card in the vertical position. All tests are run independently, going in sequence, with a duration of 900 seconds. There are 10-minute cooldown pauses between each mode, during which the component temperatures are brought back to default values.

From the temperatures of the internal sensors monitored by the HWiNFO application (v8.10-5520), we record the following in the charts: the average of the maximum values of the P-cores of the CPU, the VRM (Vcore and Thermistor), the chipset, the SSD, the GPU of the graphics card and its memory.

The air temperature at the inlet to the cases is monitored during the measurements and varies within a narrow range of 21.0–21.1 °C. This by a sensor of a properly calibrated UNI-T UT325 thermometer. Its second sensor is then at the outlet, from which we also read (and already record in the charts) the outlet air temperature.

Of the standard measurements that are no longer related to cooling or acoustics, what’s measured is the maximum sequential read and write speed via USB ports (connected to the motherboard Asus ROG Strix B760-I Gaming WiFi) on the front panel of cases. Again in CrystalDiskMark, the test device is a WD Black P50 external SSD. The resulting speed in MB/s is the arithmetic average of three passes. Faster than 10-gigabit ports are limited by the capabilities of the test motherboard with support up to USB 3.2 gen. 2.

Extra tests of vibrations…

During the tuning of the fans to the specified noise levels, a three-axis vibrometer is used to examine the intensity of vibrations at various locations in the cases. It should be noted that it is only on the outer parts where the vibrometer sensor can easily reach even when the case is covered. The locations monitored are usually the individual panels (including the front and rear, which often hold the fans) and also the areas around the pull-out dust filter. This is also an area where secondary rattling noise can occur under certain circumstances.

The output shows the velocity values (in mm/s) in each axis, but for simplicity we will always work with only one number, a computed 3D vector. However, we will not pick up the most subtle vibrations, as we can with fans, with cases. This is because the sensitivity of the technique we use to sense the vibrations is too low. This is also why the vibration information is interpreted only verbally, at the end of each chapter with graphs. This is a rough orientation which is useful mainly to detect possibly excessive vibrations.

… and HDD soundproofing

As an additional measurement, we monitor the degree of suppression of the noise of the WD Gold HDD (WD4004FRYZ) in cases supporting 3.5″ internal storage bays, both at idle (spinning platter noise) and during random access with 512B block writing (when HDDs tend to be noisier due to more aggressive movement of the reading/writing headers). The HDD is the only sound source in these measurements.

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.

Results: Maximum performance

Note on vibrations: In our analysis, we encountered only very negligible vibration of the top panel (0.008 mm/s) in the configuration with the fans under the ceiling. With the factory placement on the bottom, the vibration is below the resolution level in all locations. Overall, the Fractal Design Era 2 case can be evaluated positively in this regard. Even at the maximum speeds of the included fans, there is no secondary noise resulting from vibration.

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.

Results: Higher performance (45 dBA)

Note on vibrations: In our analysis, we did not encounter measurable vibration in any of the tested fan configurations of the Fractal Design Era 2.

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.

Results: Medium performance (42 dBA)

Note on vibrations: In our analysis, we did not encounter measurable vibration in any of the tested fan configurations of the Fractal Design Era 2.

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.

Results: Lower noise level (39 dBA)

Note on vibrations: In our analysis, we did not encounter measurable vibration in any of the tested fan configurations of the Fractal Design Era 2.

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.

Results: Low noise level (36 dBA)

Note on vibrations: In our analysis, we did not encounter measurable vibration in any of the tested fan configurations of the Fractal Design Era 2.

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.

Results: Very low noise level (33 dBA)

Note on vibrations: In our analysis, we did not encounter measurable vibration in any of the tested fan configurations of the Fractal Design Era 2.

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.

Results: Limit of audibility (31 dBA)

Note on vibrations: In our analysis, we did not encounter measurable vibration in any of the tested fan configurations of the Fractal Design Era 2.

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.

Results: USB port speeds

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

• 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