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With that done, I turned the case back around and installed the power supply. And while all sides of the Terra are amply vented (albeit without any dust filters), fan support is limited to a single 120 mm spinner at the bottom rear. In my building experience with the case, detailed below, even with a modular SFX power supply, that bottom area is going to be very occupied by cable slack. Plus, if you do put a fan there, you lose one of the two mounting places available for 2.5-inch drives.
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It features a built-in PCIe 4.0 riser cable and a moveable central spine for customisation of hardware clearance, accommodating GPUs up to 322mm. While a 120mm radiator is technically supported in the Terra, that's only with a short (8-inch) graphics card. The clearance for CPU coolers wavers between 1.89 and 3.03 inches, depending on how you adjust the "spine," or the central plate that holds the Motherboard on one side and the GPU on the other. Inside, Terra hides smart features such as a stepless slidable central wall, allowing users to adapt the space ratio between compartments by up to 30 mm. This gives builders the freedom to design their small form factor gaming PC around their component choices, including the option to incorporate a in a space-saving 10.4 L case.
Fractal Design Terra Mini-ITX Chassis - Jade
Inspired by the homes of modern gamers, Terra is a small form factor case crafted to lift the desk environment. And it's making me feel very much okay about not loving the RGB-bathed monstrosities still dominating the PC gaming space. More PC cases should be designed with the Scandi aesthetic in mind, if you ask me. After a rough start with the Mattel Aquarius as a child, Matt built his first PC in the late 1990s and ventured into mild PC modding in the early 2000s. He’s spent the last 15 years covering emerging technology for Smithsonian, Popular Science, and Consumer Reports, while testing components and PCs for Computer Shopper, PCMag and Digital Trends. /r/buildapc is a community-driven subreddit dedicated to custom PC assembly.
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This "sandwich style" setup offers extra diversity in terms of what components you can install, but at the same time, the wiggle room is pretty limited. You can move the spine about 1.5 inches one way or the other, even with parts attached and, again, the case's total width is just over 6 inches. I have to wonder why, particularly in today's world of three-slot-plus GPUs, Fractal didn't just make the case a couple of inches wider – and maybe one or two taller – to accommodate more fan mounting options and better CPU cooling. The Fractal Design Terra is a small form factor Mini-ITX case with style and capability. Its anodized aluminum and solid walnut structure echo modern gamer living spaces.
But as this is a tiny case that's clearly designed to sit on your desk, the audio jacks on the motherboard aren't much more than a foot away at the back of the case. Part of me wants to see more USB ports up front, but again, those are within fairly easy reach around the back.One other thing of note about the Fractal Terra is that I don't love the matte finish on the aluminum front and sides. It looks nice out of the box, but feels a bit rough rather than the smooth metal you might be expecting – a bit like an old chalkboard. As such, at least with the black model I tested, it has a tendency to pick up and show smudges or small bits of material or fibers from paper towels or cloths you might use to wipe it down (or even just my own fingers). This is fairly minor, but in a case that's so obviously geared toward pretty design, the fact that the front is a bit hard to keep clean feels like an oversight.
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Anyone is welcome to seek the input of our helpful community as they piece together their desktop. Screw sports, Katie would rather watch Intel, AMD and Nvidia go at it. Having been obsessed with computers and graphics for three long decades, she took Game Art and Design up to Masters level at uni, and has been demystifying tech and science—rather sarcastically—for three years since.
I'm practically drowning in matcha green thanks to the pastel PC case trend at Computex - PC Gamer
I'm practically drowning in matcha green thanks to the pastel PC case trend at Computex.
Posted: Mon, 05 Jun 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Terra is a PC case designed and engineered to reshape the small form factor gaming experience. Inspired by the homes of modern gamers, Terra incorporates boutique design features such as thick panels cut from anodized aluminum, CNC-milled details and FSC-certified solid walnut. Inside, it includes a PCIe 4.0 riser cable and features a stepless slidable central wall for build flexibility, providing space for a powerful GPU up to 322 mm in length. This might be a good idea if you're mounting a 120mm fan in its one available spot below the power supply. But even with my modular SFX PSU, I needed the majority of that space to sore cable slack.
Hands-On: Fractal's Tiny Terra PC Case Has Wood Accents, Adjustable Spine
If you have 2.5-inch drives, you can mount one on the bottom below the PSU (but not if you install a fan there) and in the slim gap between the left side of the PSU and the front of the case. For my test build, I stuck with just a single M.2 drive on the motherboard. Looking at it in its built-out form, the Fractal Design Terra is indeed a pretty case with its wood trim up front. But in the quest for minimal Nordic design, you'll notice that connectivity is limited to a single USB-A 3.1 (5Gbps) port and a USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 (10Gbps) port, alongside the power button. Inspired by the homes of modern gamers, Terra has been crafted to lift the desk environment and harmonize powerful gaming technology into their living space. To achieve this, it incorporates boutique design features such as panels cut from anodized aluminum, including an 8 mm-thick aluminum front and a panel made from FSC-certified solid walnut.
She can be found admiring AI advancements, scrambling for scintillating Raspberry Pi projects, preaching cybersecurity awareness, sighing over semiconductors, and gawping at the latest GPU upgrades. She's been heading the PCG Steam Deck content hike, while waiting patiently for her chance to upload her consciousness into the cloud. "We have a different take on it," Fractal Design's, Susana Hernando tells me about the company's thoughts on the prevailing RGB LED aesthetic. "This is kind of Scandinavian, and builds on the Aurora Borealis, that's the idea behind this."
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Cable management was pretty easy really, but putting a standard fun under the PSU required some cable ties to (just about) hold the cables out of the fan blades. Used a AXP90-X47 Full Copper and replaced the fan with a taller Noctua 92x92x25mm (instead of the stock 15mm tall). The clearance with the 4090 means there is EXACTLY 57mm, a single millimetre more will prevent the side panel from closing. There is some turbulence when under load (after about 65% fan speed) so I will also be testing a 15mm Noctua fan next week with some fan ducts and see how that performs. As you've probably noticed in the photos, the side panels flip up gull-wing style, and the rear of the frame is spring-mounted, so if you push back on the hinges, you can remove the side doors completely.
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