Fractal Design Torrent Chassis Review

Internals will be as follows:

• ASRock Z590 Taichi
• Intel Core i9-11900K
• 32GB of Lexar Hades 3600MHz
• ASRock Radeon RX 6600XT Phantom Gaming D 8GB
• Teamgroup Cardea A440 1TB
• Fractal Design Ion+ 2 860w
• Phanteks Glacier One 360 MP AIO Cooler

We always try to do as much as possible to the motherboard before installing it in the case, so we pre-populated our M.2 drive, CPU, and memory. Fractal’s Torrent came with the standoffs configured for a full-size board, so we didn’t have to adjust anything here. We did go ahead and install the cooler’s mounting hardware as well although the cutout on the rear of the motherboard tray would make this easy to do in situ.

Since we had the front already open, and Fractal was kind enough to send us over a two-pack of the new Dynamic X2 180mm RGB fans, we installed them in the front. Fractal claims you can install two on the bottom of the case, and it is very much true. We’ll be removing these however to install a standard 360mm cooler.

The torrent comes ready for ITX, ATX, and EATX boards with only mATX or server format boards needing the standoffs adjusted. The center standoff is a pin that helps align and hold the board in place while you fasten it down.

After putting it on the wrong way the first time, we got our cooler mounted to the removable bracket in a minute or two and slid it back into place.

With a little thermal paste and a few screws, the cooler is in place.

We kept bumping the power supply on our desk turning the case, so we’ll go ahead and throw it in the tray where it needs to go now.

I always like to get the front panel cables in place early on in a build so you don’t forget them later. You really can’t see anything but the mid-board mounted USB cables.

Next is to install the power supply cables which is super easy. We’ll leave the GPU cables lying about where they should go for the moment.

The GPU Cables run right up the side and to the power supply as easily as you could ever want. Thoughtfully placed cabled management makes securing everything a breeze.

Installing our GPU was straightforward, but did require a screwdriver to get the rear I/O slot fillers out of the way initially as the screws were far too tight to remove by hand.

That is pretty much the build. It really doesn’t get much easier than this. A more complex build would still be quite easy given the well-thought-out interior and all the little things that Fractal doesn’t overlook in design, like places for fill-ports.

Remember the little accent bar next to the power supply? It lights up very smoothly with no gradient between colors. It’s not overly bright and looks great. It’s the little things really.

Putting the doors back on is quite easy, though our short power cord did require us to power down the system to spin it around. It’s also worth noting that the build is pretty heavy by this point as well.

There we go. Just gorgeous!

Shooting through dark glass with a camera is difficult, but the interior looks great with a dark ambiance. By chance, we caught the motherboard lights near red with the case/fan lights still mostly blue giving a cool fire and ice theme for the split second the shutter was in motion.