Fractal Design Meshify 2 XL Chassis Review

A Closer Look at the Inside

Once you remove the massive pane of dark tempered glass, Fractal’s Meshify 2 XL’s cavernous interior is visible. Capable of holding not only up to standard EATX boards but also workstation/server-oriented SSI boards. If you have a massive amount of power under the hood, you also need a massive amount of cooling and Fractal has even the liquid cooling crowd covered here. Supporting up to 480 or 420mm rads in both the front and top, the Meshify 2 XL also handles up to 240/280 mm in the basement, and even a 120mm rad on the back of the case. If you aren’t into liquid cooling, you can also stuff a boatload of fans around the interior perimeter.

Another interesting twist is stretching the back I/O panel from the typical seven slots up to nine slots. There is also a vertical mounting area for cards up to three slots wide. However, this would put large cards very close to the glass, so Fractal recommends liquid cooling for cards wider than 2 slots.

There are cable grommets around most of the perimeter of an ATX board. The ceiling of the case is high enough to easily allow for radiators and lots of fans, so Fractal includes a second row of grommets to handle wiring associated with that in the Meshify 2 XL. The rear fan location comes pre-populated with a Dynamic X2 GP-14 fan and two more are preinstalled in the front.

Near the front edge of the motherboard, the Meshify 2 XL has two columns of grommets, one with blanks and one with rubber inserts. If you install a larger board, something in the EATX range, you can move these around so that you still have access to them for wiring while the blanks end up under the board.

Naturally, there are some along the lower edge of the board, and directly below the edge of the board for all of that little stuff like USB, audio, and front panel I/O.

The front part of the XL 2 case appears to be a smooth, blank canvas.

After you move the front fans out of your way, you can pop the front edge loose and remove this panel to reveal the mounting tabs for the 3.5” storage trays.

There are two blank covers over the bottom of the main chamber as well.

If you install a large cooler in the front or need a good place to mount a pump/res combo, these pop up can be removed quickly.

Moving around to the rear of the Meshify 2 XL, a lot is going on.

Even though the back door is no clear, there is still a cover over the lower PSU/Storage chamber that quickly pops out of your way with a gentle tug. Under this, we spy a box wedged in one of the 3.5” drive trays.

Inside is all of the case screws and such. Since Fractal prints the list on the box, we’ll save the time on our end of dumping this out on the table for pictures. We will note that there is also a small microfiber cleaning cloth inside as well to remove fingerprints at the end of your build session.

Semi-hidden in the upper rear corner is the Nexus+ 2 fan hub with three PWM and six 3-pin connections. This is a “dumb” hub that doesn’t connect to your system or require software. It connects to a 4-pin PWM fan header on your board and passes this along to three more 4-pin fans connected to it, as well as providing power to six 3-pin fans as well.

Running down the middle of the back area is several cable management locations that also have Fractal branded Velcro wraps installed in them. The front panel I/O is secured in these from the factory.

Front I/O on the Meshify 2 XL is pretty standard for a higher-end case. You get the usual power/reset buttons and indicators, front panel HD Audio, USB 3.0, and a USB Type-C port as well.

Just under the CPU cooler cut-out are a pair of removable 2.5” drive mounts.

In the basement of the case are two 3.5” drive cages. The only way we could get the entire cage assembly out was to remove the power supply mounting bracket and go out that hole. Each cage has two sleds.

Each sled can handle a 3.5” drive with rubber vibration damping mounts or a 2.5” drive.

Fractal pays attention to the little details. In this case, the 3.5” drive screws are knurled which lets you installed them 90% of the way like a thumbscrew. It’s a small detail, but the Meshify 2 XL is full of them.

Speaking of 3.5” drives… the Meshify 2 XL has an alternate configuration. The front most interior panel can be unscrewed and be moved to the left side.

This panel doubles as a mounting location for up to a dozen 3.5” drives. The sleds from the lower area can be mounted here, as well as the additional 2 sleds found in the accessories box. This gives you a total of six right out of the gate, but more can be purchased from Fractal if you need it. With this option and the lower cages, you can easily handle sixteen 3.5” drives. There is right at 80mm between the drive sleds and the front fan locations here, so you can still install a radiator in the front if needed.