Fractal Define Torrent

[CA_Steve]

Two 180 x 36 mm front fans and three 140mm bottom fans. Top mounted PSU.

Techpowerup
Gamer's Nexus video
hardwareluxx.de
Overclock3D

Great CPU/GPU temps overall and at normalized noise level @ Gamer's Nexus. It'll be interesting to see what the noise and temp levels are like at minimal rpms (you know you want to buy one, Abula).

Potential issues:
- top mounted PSU hybrid fan may come on earlier as it's using case ambient instead of room ambient for intake...on the other hand, lots of airflow may keep case ambient fairly low.
- fans don't have rubberized corners or other special anti-vibration mounting that I can see. 3-pin voltage controlled.
- SATA drives only mount to rear of motherboard. So, no cooling there and no anti-vibration mounts for HDDs that I can tell.
- Early production lots' fan controller hub has been recalled. "May short-circuit".

update: HardwareLuxx has noise measurements for case fans at min speed (300rpm for the 180mm, 500rpm for the 140mm). Temp comparisons as well.

[Japanese Capacitor]

I'm still torn between seeing this case as something great in unique way and something trying hard to be different and not making a difference. It's definitely the pinnacle of being here for few years airflow focus, which imo grown to absurd levels. Looking at case man can expect something bringing cooling/noise to another level, but looking at tests results it just doesn't - more airflow for more noise or quite the same as standard layout three-fan airflow cases. Looking forward to bigger GPU and CPU coolers - they will do waaay better for airflow and silence enthusiasts :]

One thing which may be a strenght of this case is cooling potential on low, quiet speeds of these case fans richness. It reminds me SilverStone Fortress cases, where inverted, "convection based" layout was a gimmick and whole effect were making 180 cm fans. One of our polish youtubers already compared Torrent with fans running with fan curve (unknown speed) and 600 rpm. Then it was way quieter and shaved 2-3 degrees compared to other ones of the best airflow cases. The thing is, the same effect would make equipping case in type of Meshify 2 series with one or two top exhaust fans and then slowing all to not increase the noise.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzEyKNe ... ackwhiteTV

[CA_Steve]

Thanks for that. The good stuff (tables I can read ) starts at 4min in.

The old FT02's biggest benefit was the insane amount of airflow available from the bottom mounted fans, even at minimal rpms, providing great temps and low noise at load. The downside was idle noise of a few dB louder than the closed front to back airflow cases.

Given the slight rise in temps @ 600rpm as shown in your link, it'll be very interesting to see what happens at even lower rpms...and how quiet it can be at idle/low loads...and

[CA_Steve]

hardwareluxx added.

[Abula]

Its seems a good concept, i do think Fractal did a great job on the case... now on the pricing i think they went a little higher than they should have, there are so many airflow oriented cases today, that cost half of what the Torrent cost, given that it already comes with the fans... still don't like 3pin, i would probably end up changing the 140s for Bequiet BL067 PWM and the 180s for Silverstone SST-AP183 PWM. I would buy one if they release a version without fans for $125.

Silverstone needs to step in, once their FT/RV series rule the airflow market, i feel a FT06 should be made, no compromises on airflow, no support for rads, just a pure air case, i would love to see something similar to the FT02/FT05 but moving the PSU to the back of the case (specially to have decent cable management space), maybe 6x180mm fans (two per side), now that they have a PWM version, its really easy to set it up.

PS. I'm sad to say, but for the first time, I'm abandoning air cooling, simply the 5950x is too aggressive to be cooled by air quietly without losing performance. While I do like air oriented cases, I think we are entering an era where boosting is becoming really important and cooling plays a mayor role, and there are rumors about the 6950x being a 170W TDP chip, that I feel water will be the route to go.

[Japanese Capacitor]

@CA_Steve My bad with review I posted - one result is all fans running 600 rpm, but secound score is fan curve, not full speed and he doesn't state what speed it is. Other various speeds measurements you will find in OC3D's review. Sadly he doesn't measure cases noise and normalize rpm, so reality of five Torrent's fans compared to others is less impressive than it looks on his graphs.

Generally this case's scores are quite alike Fortress cases. It's airflow over silence product, but offers out of the box outstanding flexibility in balancing that. Out of the box is the key here, because looking at the price, it makes quite nice budget for good case and additional fans, which will give you the same effect.

@Abula Torrent's fans are 4-pin and so is case's fan hub. These fans (Prisma or Dynamic) also differ a little with specifications.

SilverStone like month or two ago launched new Fortress - Alta F1 - but short time before launch changed their mind and make it China-only product with limited availability in USA and Germany. If I'm not wrong, USA buys by SilverStone's site, Germany in Case King store. With Alta F1 they resigned from being here main attraction 180 mm fans (but still compatibile) to equipp it with three 140 mm and priced the case $300. Quite high price for something being nothing different than any other having three 140 mm fans case made stand on the front panel From what I see in Case King now, this case's availability is limited enough for this case being in stock, you could even choose desired color and pay more down to earth price of 240 Euros.

I'm personally air cooling orthodox, but from what I've seen these 360 and 420 AiOs are damn well in strong cooling on really quiet speeds, but thing worth checking are opinions about pump noise (e.g. Silent Loop 2 is great performer with damn loud pump, apparently always noticeable). BTW my predictions for future is not water, but serious grown of sizes of GPUs and air coolers.

[Abula]

SilverStone like month or two ago launched new Fortress - Alta F1 - but short time before launch changed their mind and make it China-only product with limited availability in USA and Germany. If I'm not wrong, USA buys by SilverStone's site, Germany in Case King store. With Alta F1 they resigned from being here main attraction 180 mm fans (but still compatibile) to equip it with three 140 mm and priced the case $300. Quite high price for something being nothing different than any other having three 140 mm fans case made stand on the front panel From what I see in Case King now, this case's availability is limited enough for this case being in stock, you could even choose desired color and pay more down to earth price of 240 Euros.

I just saw it, and i don't like it, its has the same shortcoming of the FT05, they need to go back to the FT02 design with the reversed motherboard and moving the PSU to to the CPU side, this will free up the actual PSU side to place more 180mm fans, another mistake is they try to please everybody with 120/140mm fan support and rad support, all Fortress cases have been weak on watercooling, there are much better offerings in the market, even cases like Fractal Design Define R7 XL or Meshify2 XL are really good for a decent watercooling setup, while maintaining a easy to work style case.

Silverstone knows how to make cases, even watercooling, the created one of best cases in its time, TJ07, still today, while old, still is very capable. With this said, Silverstone needs to make Fortress series a pure air cooled case, with no support for rads at all, pure maxing out how an air cooled case should be done, that tops all charts on air cooling, and then they can charge $200+ because they own the best. And they should do another line that do watercooling great, like TJ09 revamping a TJ07 with new ideas, specially now that there are no caselabs anymore, the high end watercooling market is left with few options, its a good time to release something that places silverstone back in the map as a leader of air cooled and water-cooled cases, just make two different lines, don't mess the Fortress, give us a proper FT06.

.

Alta F1 mistakes.jpg

Silverstone even has a case that its very close to what imo the FT06 should be, just with 180mm fans instead of 140, ATX support instead of micro atx, and maybe the PSU shroud as the Torrent would be amazing, redirecting air to the cpu cooler.

[CA_Steve]

@Abula Torrent's fans are 4-pin and so is case's fan hub. These fans (Prisma or Dynamic) also differ a little with specifications.

It appears the 180mm fans are PWM but the 140mm are not.

[CA_Steve]

Nope, I'm wrong. Downloaded the user manual:

3 x Dynamic X2 GP-14 PWM Fans

[Japanese Capacitor]

@Abula It's looks like it's extremely hard to satisfy you with the case You have everything thought out, even upcoming D16 :] Looking at your picture, I don't think that adding side fan blowing into GPU would change much, if anything. I tried installing bottom fan directly under GPU mixed with messing with height of front ones in my Define 7 with damn toasty card - this additional bottom fan running 1000 rpm just didn't shave me anything compared to 2x140 front and 1x140 back I use. Yeah, there was shroud somehow restricting bottom one, but combining it with moving one of front fans to fully blow under GPU didn't change anything too. My toasty GPU is just limited by it's own cooler, however good airflow won't change it and that's an example of why I'm not the fan of approaching silence with focus on case's airflow.

@CA_Steve Fine, probably it's the first case Fractal used PWM fans with ever

[CA_Steve]

Fractal announced a recall of the early production lots' fan controller hub. "May short circuit".

[whispercat]

Fractal has fixed the fan hub problem. They've sent out a replacement kits to all customers.

I've been slowly accumulating parts for another build. I bought a Phanteks P600s case last year. It has a front door. But looking at this Fractal Torrent case is making me reconsider a solid front. Thermals seem really good on it. Gamer's Nexus called it the best case of 2021, as it topped all their charts for air cooling. The Torrent is a little pricey though. And not sure how much those bottom fans actually benefit the GPU.

[Japanese Capacitor]

And not sure how much those bottom fans actually benefit the GPU.

This is how they benefit:

1.jpg

And that's the price of that

2.jpg

The best case for air-cooled CPU temperature fucus, though, but that's a strange focus.

[whispercat]

It's not clear what fan speed that GPU torture test is done at.

[Japanese Capacitor]

Heh, I dig hard for it some time ago - during his procedures he blocks GPU fans at around 1400 rpm and CPU's one at 1100 rpm. Nicely quiet, but on the other hand it doesn't really add noise to the system, so mesh cases have here much easier with their sound-escaping nature not being exposed and silence-focused's ones not really tested. Temps and noise are always limited by cooling solutions of individual components - they are on the first line of removing the heat. Shitty cooler won't benefit much from amazing case airlfow, amazing cooler won't hurt much from shitty case airflow. You have an example with Torrent not making a difference compared to conventional 3-fan airflow cases.