Fractal Design Torrent: When other cases just don’t cut it

CPU and GPU cooling tests

Recently, Fractal Design introduced the Torrent case, which primarily focuses on the best cooling possible. In addition to a significantly open shell, the case has up to five fans, two of which are oversized and thick. The Torrent thus operates with an extremely high air flow, even in a relatively large space. Therefore, it will be interesting to see in the tests how these layouts affect the temperatures and noise performance.

Basic specifications

Gappy exterior

As befits a high-end case from a renowned manufacturer, everything came tightly packed and filled with polystyrene. Although foam would have been better, it doesn’t make as much of a mess, but so be it. The larger oblong box includes an additional mount for standard sized fans on the front of the case, instead of the original ones. The smaller one, in turn, comes with mounting accessories like screws or even additional support for graphics cards.

In the Gray TG light tint version, you get both side panels made from 4 mm thick tempered glass. But if you have something against grey colour or glass in the case, Fractal Design has another 5 versions in black and white with different glass/metal combinations and fans with ARGB LEDs on the black variant. The big advantage of both side panels is the tool-less latching mechanism, which makes them quick and easy to slide out or in if you need to reach inside the case. You don’t even have to worry about breaking the glass during this manoeuvre as the whole panel is inserted in a groove. I’ve already praised this system on the cheaper Meshify 2 Compact.

The first thing that will certainly catch your eye is the front panel. This is almost completely open with a grid design. It boasts the Fractal logo on the bottom. The panel can be easily removed when you pull the top away from the case where it is snapped in. Cleaning is very easy as there are no cables holding it to the case, so you don’t have to worry about cleaning it properly.

A fine-grain nylon dust filter is suspended behind the main panel to protect the fans from being hit by a larger object. It’s the only barrier in front of the intake. It can easily be slid out of the panel and cleaned with compressed air or water.

Behind it all are two massive 180mm thick Dynamic X2 GP-18 38mm fans, based on LLS (fluid-based?) bearings with a claimed life of 90,000 hours. Power and control is provided by a 4-pin connector, so the rpm range is from 300 to 1200. Hand in hand with the speed is the air flow which varies from 76 to 261m³/h, which will also have a significant effect on the noise level at high air flow rates. However, if you decide to replace the original 180mm fans, you will need to use the reductions in the package. These will add the ability to mount up to three 120 or 140 mm fans. You’ll also need a reduction for mounting a water cooling radiator to the front panel. These will fit in 360 (3×120 and 2×180) and 420 mm sizes. The bottom includes a hole with a nylon dust filter handle for suction from the bottom of the case.

The function panel on top does not lag behind in terms of compatibility. You’ll find two USB 3.2 gen.1 (i.e. with 5 Gbps) Type-A ports, the more and more frequently used USB-C connector with 10 Gbps, and two 3.5mm jacks for a microphone and headphones. A power and reset button tops it all off. When switching it on, you can feel from the press alone that this is an exclusive case. The power-on status is indicated by a subtly illuminated character on the power button. The restart is significantly less easy to press, as a very small area has to be pressed more deeply. This can also be taken as a prevention against unwanted pressing.

“Beehive” perforations form a large part of the back. Although the rear fan position is not fitted, it is possible to notice a pre-fit for a 120 or a 140mm fan. Along the perforation stretches a slot for the motherboard I/O panel, and directly underneath are 7 PCI Express slot covers. Velcro ties are provided for all cables that are fed from the back of the case. These ensure a sleek look from the back of the case as well. Since the power supply is unconventionally placed in the top of the case, this organization of cables is also welcome from the back.

Although it may seem unusual to install the power supply from the top, I must say that I have never managed to install it so easily in any case. Through two screws you remove the top plastic cover, and you can simply insert an ATX format power supply with a maximum length of up to 230 mm. Handling the cables is all the easier because you can access them from the top. I appreciate how FD thought about these cables and placed a Velcro tie in this compartment as well. You may appreciate this as much as I did when building.

Since it’s quite easy to slide both side panels out, Fractal Design has secured them with a locking option via a screw on the top under the top plastic cover. It’s a great prevention against breaking the glass if, for example, you’re moving your computer somewhere. To the left of that you can notice the round opening for filling the expansion tank of the water cooling. There are three of these, two 21 mm and one 25.4 mm.

And finally the bottom of the case exterior, where there are 4 feet with non-slip pads. These hold the entire bottom part at a height of 35 mm above the pad. This allows a large amount of air to be sucked in from underneath to cool the hardware. Therefore, the entire underside is also protected by a fine-grain dust filter. If you miss some decent backlighting from underneath the case, there are spaces on the sides of the case into which LED strips can be placed.

Recently, Fractal Design introduced the Torrent case, which primarily focuses on the best cooling possible. In addition to a significantly open shell, the case has up to five fans, two of which are oversized and thick. The Torrent thus operates with an extremely high air flow, even in a relatively large space. Therefore, it will be interesting to see in the tests how these layouts affect the temperatures and noise performance.

Spacious interior

The Torrent case with its dimensions of 544 × 242 × 530 mm is designed so that really large components can be installed in it. For mounting motherboards, risers for Mini-ITX, mATX and ATX motherboard formats are pre-installed. For less commonly used E-ATX motherboards, the risers must be additionally screwed in.

I like that the grommets for wiring are large and are fitted with rubber caps. Thanks to their larger size, you don’t have to worry about whether you’ll even get through the thicker 24-pin cables (typically with capacitors) to power the board. This was a pretty big problem with most previous cases. The large grommets make plugging in the EPS cable to power the processor really convenient. Even with graphics cards you won’t get wrinkles with this case. They can be accommodated up to a theoretical length of 461 mm (without the use of front fans), or up to the still unattainable 423 mm (with the use of front fans). The limit for the height of a tower-type CPU cooler is up to 188 mm, so no limitations either.

The accessory also includes a holder for larger and heavier graphics cards. Too bad some cards may be too short for the holder to support. The Asus RTX 2060 Super Dual we tested, at 267mm, was still at least a centimeter short of taking advantage of the support. You won’t even benefit from the support if you have the card mounted in one of the lower slots. But the design itself is partially height and length adjustable.

Three fans are pre-installed underneath, also from the Dynamic series, X2 GP-14. These suck in cool air at speeds from 500 to 1700 rpm. Airflow varies from 81 to 180 m³/h depending on the speed control. Their positioning is designed to better cool the graphics card, which we will show you in practical tests.

The upper part of the interior belongs to the power supply slot. This is angled into a more aerodynamic shape for better airflow through the storage. The bottom part is another perforation in the form of beehives, through which the power supply draws air for its own cooling. It might be interesting to compare the temperature in the PSU at different placements in the case, as the warm air rises to the top. I hope the designers have considered this fact and the cooling of the PSU will not be affected in any significant way. The decent strip of backlighting on the side of the power supply’s housing is powered and controlled via the motherboard’s (ARGB) connector.

On the other side of the interior, you’ll find a huge amount of space for both cable management and storage. Four 2.5″ drive bays are located vertically on the left side. On the other side of the tray there are two slots for 3.5″ mechanical drives with the sides protected against vibration. The entire hardware is held together by 0.9 mm thick metal sheets. Thanks to this, the sheets do not bend. So far, this is the thickest construction that has passed through my hands. For cable management, you have 5 pieces of Velcro ties at the ready and twelve more free positions for additional cable attachment.

A new hub for up to 9 fans, called Nexus 9P Slim PWM, is factory fitted. You may have noticed that there was a “recall” action on it for the first batches produced due to high failure rate. Fracta Design took a fair approach and replaced all the defective pieces. We received one from a later batch and the hub is fully functional. It serves as a reduction for all the fans in the case, even the CPU one. It is powered directly from the power supply via a SATA cable, and according to the instructions, it is recommended to plug it into the CPU fan connector on the motherboard.

Positioning the cables to my satisfaction was not difficult although I struggled with the long fan cables for a while. The 180 mm diameter ones have a power cable up to one meter long.

Recently, Fractal Design introduced the Torrent case, which primarily focuses on the best cooling possible. In addition to a significantly open shell, the case has up to five fans, two of which are oversized and thick. The Torrent thus operates with an extremely high air flow, even in a relatively large space. Therefore, it will be interesting to see in the tests how these layouts affect the temperatures and noise performance.

Test methodology

A large volume of cool air is blown into the case by five fans on two sides. Subsequently, the waste heat can only get out in two ways. Through the perforated rear side and through the intake of the power supply, which is located above the hardware. The distance between the tower cooler used and the ceiling where the power supply is located is 70 mm. This should be enough space to cool the air even with the fans directly under the power supply. But what will be the exact temperature of the air it draws in, the thermocouple placed directly underneath it will show us.

Testing is done in a home environment where I strive for the most accurate results possible. In the room during testing, the air temperature in front of the cabinet is 23 degrees Celsius and the minimum noise level I can measure with the Voltcraft SL-100 noise meter is 32.4 dBA. The sensor of the noise meter is aligned to the center of the top of the case at a distance of 10 cm, for the best measurement of the speed difference of the fans, which I change using the motherboard. For easy comparison to other cases, they are always regulated to fixed noise levels.

Individual components are heated for 10 minutes in FurMark synthetic stress tests and with Prime95 (custom settings) at the same time. This time is long enough to allow all components to warm up sufficiently. There are then 15-minute cooling breaks between tests, during which the component temperatures (and the case air temperature as well) are brought back to default.

Modes noisiness:

• 36 dBA
• 38 dBA
• 39 dBA
• 52,3 dBA – max rpm

Recently, Fractal Design introduced the Torrent case, which primarily focuses on the best cooling possible. In addition to a significantly open shell, the case has up to five fans, two of which are oversized and thick. The Torrent thus operates with an extremely high air flow, even in a relatively large space. Therefore, it will be interesting to see in the tests how these layouts affect the temperatures and noise performance.

CPU and GPU cooling tests

Recently, Fractal Design introduced the Torrent case, which primarily focuses on the best cooling possible. In addition to a significantly open shell, the case has up to five fans, two of which are oversized and thick. The Torrent thus operates with an extremely high air flow, even in a relatively large space. Therefore, it will be interesting to see in the tests how these layouts affect the temperatures and noise performance.

Motherboard cooling tests

Recently, Fractal Design introduced the Torrent case, which primarily focuses on the best cooling possible. In addition to a significantly open shell, the case has up to five fans, two of which are oversized and thick. The Torrent thus operates with an extremely high air flow, even in a relatively large space. Therefore, it will be interesting to see in the tests how these layouts affect the temperatures and noise performance.

SSD cooling test and heating underneath the ceiling

Air heating underneath the case ceiling

Recently, Fractal Design introduced the Torrent case, which primarily focuses on the best cooling possible. In addition to a significantly open shell, the case has up to five fans, two of which are oversized and thick. The Torrent thus operates with an extremely high air flow, even in a relatively large space. Therefore, it will be interesting to see in the tests how these layouts affect the temperatures and noise performance.

Conclusion

The test results speak quite clearly in favour of the Torrent case. It significantly dominates in cooling for the most important components such as the CPU, GPU and motherboard. You don’t have to worry about the power supply having a problem with warm air from the case. The temperature underneath reaches only 28.5 degrees at 39 dBA, which can be compared to a “pleasant” summer day in an apartment without air conditioning. The fans are only running at 53% of their capacity at 39 dBA. At maximum speed, the noise level is unbearable, especially when you are not alone in the room, but it can knock the temperatures significantly lower. Except for the graphics card, which it still cools better than other cases.

You’ll love the large space inside, which gives you complete freedom in your choice of hardware and easy and quick access. In addition, the enormous amount of air blown into the interior of the case by the five fans, where you don’t have to think about where to put them, earned the case our highest Top-notch award for excellent cooling.

The Torrent from Fractal Design is a cabinet that will suit most. Whether you want to indulge your components with high-end air cooling or you want to focus on a custom water loop. Dust protection is taken care of by two fine nylon filters that are quick to access. This makes the case more suitable for dustier environments. If you’re a gamer or a content creator and don’t mind paying extra for a quality build with excellent cooling, definitely consider the FD Torrent when choosing a case.

English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš

• Contents
• Gappy exterior
• Spacious interior
• Test methodology
• CPU and GPU cooling tests
• Motherboard cooling tests
• SSD cooling test and heating underneath the ceiling
• Conclusion