Interior for everything
The popular Meshify C case from Fractal Design finally has a successor on the market after five years. It was introduced on this day and brings a new soul in the old body. The fact that the case has undergone significant innovations is also evidenced by the weight gain of more than one and a half kilograms. The new Meshify is not heavier for no reason, also thanks to this it leaves the first generation far behind.
Interior for everything
From the inside, the case looks relatively ordinary, although it has a few “gimmicks”. The entire upper part of the tunnel, like the lower part, is perforated and it is possible to attach two 2.5″ internal storage drives to it, if you buy an additional holder for this position. The rubber covers of the cable passages are also on the upper part, where some manufacturers ignore it. For some cases, it seems almost impossible to connect the EPS cable to power the processor. Here it’s easier than screwing the motherboard to a tray. Simply disassemble the top of the case and you now have unlimited access to the top of the motherboard. The case can fit everything except the E-ATX format. You don’t have to worry about the new “Compact” even with tower coolers, which have no restrictions up to 169 mm. However, if you have a graphics card longer than 341 mm, you will need to remove one fan to fit it (maximum is 360 mm in length). For most cards, however, this should not be a problem even when the fan is present. The only problem inside, and also of the whole case, is the size of the openings for the cables. Namely, one specific cable and that is the 24-pin ATX that powers the motherboard. If you have a power supply with capacitors built into the cable in place next to the connectors, you will have to try hard to run them through.
Two removable tunnel covers are used to comfortably fit thicker water radiators or a water pump. After removing the first cover, you get 70 mm of space. With both, this is additional 145 mm of space.
A small cable magic takes place behind the motherboard. For those orderly ones, Fractal prepared six pieces of Velcro straps and other nine pre-prepared positions for additional fastening of the cabling. The pre-installed Velcro straps were enough for me. In some spots there is enough space, there’s less in others. Here the case loses 17–28 mm vs. 15–35 mm compared to the older C model. The important thing is that I had no problem closing the side panel and the cables did not put up any resistance even in such a smaller case.
You will fit a 165 mm long power supply into the tunnel of the lower part, then you will come across a hybrid drawer for 2.5/3.5″ drives. To absorb vibrations, the drives are attached via anti-vibration pads. But if you decide to remove the drawer, you will get another 185 mm space for cables and the power supply. Alternatively, you can use this space for a 120 mm fan, which you can mount there to suck in air from below, but I’d rather try to avoid this option if you have the case on the ground. Directly above the tunnel, from the back of the motherboard tray, there are positions for attaching another two 2.5″ drives. The case allows you to install up to six drives in total. This is one drive more than its predecessor.
- Contents
- Sophisticated exterior
- Interior for everything
- Test methodology
- CPU and GPU cooling tests
- Motherboard cooling tests
- SSD cooling tests and heating under the top panel
- Conclusion
