Late last year, inspired by Fractal’s mid-century north pc case Won all kinds of awards (including) case of the year From us at Tom’s Hardware). So it’s no surprise that the company is back with another wood-accented chassis here on his Computex.
But unlike the Mindtower North, Fractal Design’s $179 Terra is surprisingly small, a 10.4-liter Mini-ITX case. It’s available in three colors, looks great, and takes up very little space, but with a frame of 8.58 x 6.02 x 13.5 inches, you have to choose your components carefully.
Specifically, it supports SFX and SFX-L power supplies and graphics cards up to 12.68 inches long and 2.83 inches wide. As always, check dimensions before purchasing. The Founders Edition RTX 4080 and 4090 cards should fit, but many of our partner cards are too big or can hit the absolute limit of the case. Also, CPU cooling options are much more limited, so don’t expect to install a 7950X3D or 13900K here unless you really want to pay for performance you don’t get. More on this later.
Terra technically supports a 120mm radiator, but it’s only supported by short (8 inch) graphics cards. Most people will want to use a compact air cooler. And I mean compact. CPU cooler clearance varies between 1.89″ and 3.03″ depending on how you adjust the “spine”, the central plate that holds the motherboard on one side and the GPU on the other.
And while the Terra has ample ventilation on all sides (though no dust filters), fan support is limited to a single 120mm spinner in the lower rear. According to my building experience, detailed below, even with a modular SFX power supply, its bottom area is heavily occupied by cable slack. Additionally, if you install a fan there, you lose one of the two mounting locations available for a 2.5″ drive.
Fractal Design Terra Specifications
| type | SFFMore |
| motherboard support | Mini-ITX |
| Dimensions (H x W x D) | 8.58 x 6.02 x 13.5 inches |
| Maximum GPU length | 12.68 inches |
| CPU cooler height | 3.03 inches |
| external bay | X |
| internal bay | 2x 2.5 inch |
| expansion slot | 1 |
| Front I/O | 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C |
| 1x USB 3.0 | |
| other | PCIe 4.0 riser cable |
| bottom fan | 1x 120mm (supported but not included) |
| weight | 6.82 pounds |
| guarantee | 2 years |
image 1 of 2
As for Terra’s adjustable spine, one metal strip is used to mount the Mini-ITX motherboard and graphics on one side to make the most of the case’s meager 6.02-inch width. Connect to the other card (the PCIe 4 riser cable is pre-installed). Loosening the two top and two bottom screws (on top of the orange plastic spacers makes them easy to find) moves the spines to one of seven different equally spaced positions, allowing the CPU and PSU to You can increase the space on the side. , or more space on the graphics card side.
This “sandwich style” setup allows for a greater variety of components that can be installed, but at the same time leaves a lot more room for tweaking. Even with the parts attached, you can still move the spine about 1.5 inches to either side. And the overall width of the case is just over 6 inches. Especially in today’s world of 3+ slot GPUs, Fractal made the case a few inches wider and 1-2 inches taller to accommodate more fan mounting options and better CPU cooling. I wonder if it wasn’t just to do it.
Gain experience with Fractal Design Terra
I didn’t have time to put together a full review before heading to Computex, but Fractal sent me a case ahead of the launch date. Space constraints aside, there are many things I like about Fractal. It’s surprisingly easy to integrate into such a small chassis.
image 1 of 2
As you’ll notice in the photo, the side panels flip up in a gullwing style, and the rear of the frame is spring-loaded, allowing you to push back on the hinges to completely remove the side doors. Similarly, the top panel can also be pulled up (via a stylish and convenient faux leather tab) to give full access to his three sides of the case for the building process.
Installing a Mini-ITX motherboard is very easy. First attach the cooler, RAM, and M.2 drive to the board, then flip the case on its side and plug in the motherboard, which he secures with four screws to the pre-installed standoffs. Again, CPU cooler space is very limited.installed the Thermal light AXP90-X47 Cooler for my Ryzen 5 5600 CPU, but a smaller AMD Wraith or Intel stock cooler should also fit here (again, it depends on how much GPU space you need on the other side, so be sure to number Please double check).
After installing the motherboard, plug the pre-installed Gen 4 GPU riser cable connector into the motherboard slot (here at the top). The motherboard is usually installed in the back of the PC case, so it is rotated 180 degrees from its normal orientation.
Then I rotated the case and installed the GPU. I used an older Gigabyte RTX 2060 Super for this build. I could have put something thicker and a few inches longer in here, but the gigabyte card wasn’t currently on another system. My his Zotac GTX 1080 Ti was borderline too thick (and too old) and the main system had a Colorful RTX 4090. Anything over 13 inches is too long. For the most part, expect most of his 4070-class cards to fit in this case – unless it’s an unusually thick overbuilt model. His high-end Nvida FE cards should also fit, but then you’ll need his larger SFX-L power supply. Also, putting all the heat-producing hardware in a cramped case is not a good idea. Single intake fan. Again, Fractal could have made this case a little bigger to accommodate more powerful cards. But as it stands, it’s probably a good thing that the most powerful and most overclocked cards can’t be fully installed in this case, regardless of how well vented all the panels are.
It’s also very common to actually install a graphics card here. Insert the other end of the riser cable vertically and screw it into the rear slot mount. Once that was done, I flipped the case over and attached the power supply.
The PSU is mounted on a vertical bracket, which is also adjustable. Easy extra space if you have room for a SFX PSU (I used the 550W EVGA SFX model) or longer SFX-L models and don’t need max space for a GPU on the other side of the spine Spacers can be added to Airflow behind PSU and graphics card.
This might be a good idea if you’re installing a 120mm fan in one empty spot below the power supply. But even with a modular SFX PSU, most of that space was needed to eliminate cable slack. If you have a 2.5 inch drive, you can install it on the bottom under the PSU (but not if you have a fan installed there) and in the narrow gap between the left side of the PSU and the front of the case. increase. My test build used just one he M.2 drive on the motherboard. The internal space was already tight enough without even thinking about adding SATA power and data cables.
Once that’s done and you’ve pushed in even more extensive cable slack, it’s time to put the side panel back on, clean up the cluttered work surface, and power up the system.
Seen in assembled form, the Fractal Design Terra is a truly beautiful case with wood trim on the front. In pursuit of a minimal Nordic design, however, he finds connectivity limited to one USB-A 3.1 (5Gbps) port and a USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 (10Gbps) port alongside the power button. I guess.
There is no audio jack here, which may bother some people. However, this is a small case that’s clearly designed to sit on a desk, so the motherboard’s audio he jack isn’t even a foot away on the back of the case. I wish there were more USB ports on the front, but they’re still easily accessible from the back.
Another thing to note about the Fractal Terra is that I don’t like the matte finish on the front and sides of the aluminum. Out of the box it looks nice, but it feels a little rough and a bit like an old chalkboard instead of the smooth metal you might expect. So, at least on the black model I tested, it tends to show dirt, small debris and fibers from the paper towel or cloth (or my own fingers) used to wipe it down. It’s a pretty minor detail, but for a case that’s clearly oriented towards aesthetic design, the fact that it’s a bit difficult to keep the front clean feels like an oversight.
Overall, the Fractal Terra is an impressive, well-thought-out Mini-ITX case. Components and airflow options are much more limited here, so I doubt it has as broad appeal as its larger northern cousins. But if you don’t need to include the absolute most powerful components (especially on the CPU side) and don’t need more than a few storage drives, Fractal once again offers one of the prettiest cases available. In particular, we want to take a break from the RGB and aggressive designs that dominate the gaming side of the PC realm.
more: best pc case
more: Best Mini-ITX case
