Fractal Meshify 2 Compact Case Review: Shrunken ATX Case
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Date: 2021-02-24
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Comments and reviews: 10
matthieu
a little note on the IO attached to the case, and not the front panel
on the original Meshify C, that was an issue, sure, but that was not as big of a deal as it could be on other cases.
On many cases that have IO attached to the front panel, if you want to work in the front of the case, you have to remove said panel if you want to install fans, etc in the front. Not with the Meshify C, since the front panel has several parts that are independent from each other. the front panel is technically just a frame that houses the front filter. If you remove the front filter (which is very easy to do, there is a couple pins and a tab at the bottom), you can work in the front of the case without having to deal with the front panel at all.
By the way, the easiest way to remove that front filter is to first remove the bottom filter (which is very easy to remove), then put your fingers under the case and press on the plastic tab, effectively popping off the panel. Yank on the logo will not do anything more than damaging the thing imho
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a little note on the IO attached to the case, and not the front panel
on the original Meshify C, that was an issue, sure, but that was not as big of a deal as it could be on other cases.
On many cases that have IO attached to the front panel, if you want to work in the front of the case, you have to remove said panel if you want to install fans, etc in the front. Not with the Meshify C, since the front panel has several parts that are independent from each other. the front panel is technically just a frame that houses the front filter. If you remove the front filter (which is very easy to do, there is a couple pins and a tab at the bottom), you can work in the front of the case without having to deal with the front panel at all.
By the way, the easiest way to remove that front filter is to first remove the bottom filter (which is very easy to remove), then put your fingers under the case and press on the plastic tab, effectively popping off the panel. Yank on the logo will not do anything more than damaging the thing imho
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Just
I'm glad to see them iteratively improving design ... sort of. But ... WHY THIS CASE?!?!?! LOL This form factor case makes no sense to me, at all. If you have radiators or hard drives and want a case with proper room for things, you're going to go noticeably larger. If you want a case that's small, you get an ITX mobo and go WAAAAAAY smaller. This form factor makes no sense unless you're both a masochist AND a sadist who just absolutely loves torturing yourself as you build it, and your hardware as it tries to cope with limitations. WHY?!
As a side note, it's also disappointing to see a case with a hinged front panel door but absolutely no option to replace the hard drive cage with a 5.25 bay for people who, you know, still actually use optical drives, or front panel fan controllers, or front panel multicard I/O, etc. It'd have been a near freebie. (I only say near in this case because that front panel is all kinds of janked up for this.)
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I'm glad to see them iteratively improving design ... sort of. But ... WHY THIS CASE?!?!?! LOL This form factor case makes no sense to me, at all. If you have radiators or hard drives and want a case with proper room for things, you're going to go noticeably larger. If you want a case that's small, you get an ITX mobo and go WAAAAAAY smaller. This form factor makes no sense unless you're both a masochist AND a sadist who just absolutely loves torturing yourself as you build it, and your hardware as it tries to cope with limitations. WHY?!
As a side note, it's also disappointing to see a case with a hinged front panel door but absolutely no option to replace the hard drive cage with a 5.25 bay for people who, you know, still actually use optical drives, or front panel fan controllers, or front panel multicard I/O, etc. It'd have been a near freebie. (I only say near in this case because that front panel is all kinds of janked up for this.)
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Julian
Replaced my optical drives with easy access SSD bays some years ago and absolutely love how easy it is to swap out reasonably fast storage or even just boot to a different OS without having to open the case. While I'm happy with the success of GN's campaign to force manufacturers to take airflow and cooling seriously I'm constantly struck by the irony that these 'improvements' are arrived at by selling cases with more holes in them, which is the same thing as selling less actual case, and less easily accessible I/O at the front by, once again, removing internal structures that might support forward facing I/O. This is all becoming horribly apple-esque in the sense of case manufacturers marketing the removal or absence of something as a positive to obscure the fact that it's just cheaper to make it that way, once the initial tooling up is paid for.
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Replaced my optical drives with easy access SSD bays some years ago and absolutely love how easy it is to swap out reasonably fast storage or even just boot to a different OS without having to open the case. While I'm happy with the success of GN's campaign to force manufacturers to take airflow and cooling seriously I'm constantly struck by the irony that these 'improvements' are arrived at by selling cases with more holes in them, which is the same thing as selling less actual case, and less easily accessible I/O at the front by, once again, removing internal structures that might support forward facing I/O. This is all becoming horribly apple-esque in the sense of case manufacturers marketing the removal or absence of something as a positive to obscure the fact that it's just cheaper to make it that way, once the initial tooling up is paid for.
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Henrik
with the meshify C and now the 2 compact size becomes the big selling point. i like tiny computer cases that are reasonable. these cases are that.
the suggestions you make are all bigger models so really not an option in price range and size fight.
the thing i would love to see is a 2 compact that is like 2-3 cm longer and is fitted for 2x200mm fans in the front. (that would mean changing the mounting in front and thus having zero support for 360mm rads but it should still have space for a 240 AIO in the top which is fine)
i want tons of intake air at low noise and 2x200mm without the dustfilter would be that.
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with the meshify C and now the 2 compact size becomes the big selling point. i like tiny computer cases that are reasonable. these cases are that.
the suggestions you make are all bigger models so really not an option in price range and size fight.
the thing i would love to see is a 2 compact that is like 2-3 cm longer and is fitted for 2x200mm fans in the front. (that would mean changing the mounting in front and thus having zero support for 360mm rads but it should still have space for a 240 AIO in the top which is fine)
i want tons of intake air at low noise and 2x200mm without the dustfilter would be that.
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Matthew
Honestly, I personally wouldn't have a problem with companies getting rid of Hard Drive bays altogether. I have two M.2 drives in my personal rig, but it's made for small storage and gaming only pretty much. But if we're honest, if you really need like 4TB or more of solid storage, it would probably be better just to buy and set up a home NAS wouldn't it? Yes, it's about a 160 investment at the low end, which two bays, but it's easy enough now a days, I don't see a problem adopting that idea and cutting down on case size and hopefully case cost, with no HDD bays.
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Honestly, I personally wouldn't have a problem with companies getting rid of Hard Drive bays altogether. I have two M.2 drives in my personal rig, but it's made for small storage and gaming only pretty much. But if we're honest, if you really need like 4TB or more of solid storage, it would probably be better just to buy and set up a home NAS wouldn't it? Yes, it's about a 160 investment at the low end, which two bays, but it's easy enough now a days, I don't see a problem adopting that idea and cutting down on case size and hopefully case cost, with no HDD bays.
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Vincent
maybe ill get hate but i really dont understand the inclusion of fans with a case. just buy your own fans. want to save money go cheap. want to also save money bring your fans i already have. i literally have fans just pilled up in a closet and i cant be alone here. I rather the case be 20 cheaper then have another piece of trash fan i throw in my closet. its kind of mind boggling to me. if your building a new pc just add fans, if your rebuilding one you already have them... why is that such a complicated thing?
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maybe ill get hate but i really dont understand the inclusion of fans with a case. just buy your own fans. want to save money go cheap. want to also save money bring your fans i already have. i literally have fans just pilled up in a closet and i cant be alone here. I rather the case be 20 cheaper then have another piece of trash fan i throw in my closet. its kind of mind boggling to me. if your building a new pc just add fans, if your rebuilding one you already have them... why is that such a complicated thing?
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Jimmy
Still using my original Meshify C, which when I bought it was pretty top of the line when it came to airflow cases, as long as you replaced the stock fans. Recently I took out the foam filter and temps definitely had a few degrees improvement, but I've gotta give it a quick dust every couple months (2 cats).
Still pretty happy with it, this new version isn't a huge improvement but has some nice changes. I do like that the original meshify C is slightly more compact though.
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Still using my original Meshify C, which when I bought it was pretty top of the line when it came to airflow cases, as long as you replaced the stock fans. Recently I took out the foam filter and temps definitely had a few degrees improvement, but I've gotta give it a quick dust every couple months (2 cats).
Still pretty happy with it, this new version isn't a huge improvement but has some nice changes. I do like that the original meshify C is slightly more compact though.
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Sarfaraz
If you want a _compact_ ATX case, then you have little choice but to go for cheaper cases, and they all come with cheap fans, often voltage control, which add to e-waste, rather than allowing you to carry over good fans you've invested in. Case manufactuers either need to offer the option of puchaising cheap cases, without fans, which cost a little less, or start making premium compact ATX cases, without fans, which cost more.
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If you want a _compact_ ATX case, then you have little choice but to go for cheaper cases, and they all come with cheap fans, often voltage control, which add to e-waste, rather than allowing you to carry over good fans you've invested in. Case manufactuers either need to offer the option of puchaising cheap cases, without fans, which cost a little less, or start making premium compact ATX cases, without fans, which cost more.
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Therkel
The HDD cage in the original definitely seemed like an afterthought they didn't spend much time on either. Quality is flimsy to say the least, and performance HDD's like a WD Black generates so much vibration that it needs to be placed on top of a foam pad or the like. Even so the bottom filter needs to be pulled out slightly or it will also vibrate. The new cage seems to be better quality from the looks of it.
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The HDD cage in the original definitely seemed like an afterthought they didn't spend much time on either. Quality is flimsy to say the least, and performance HDD's like a WD Black generates so much vibration that it needs to be placed on top of a foam pad or the like. Even so the bottom filter needs to be pulled out slightly or it will also vibrate. The new cage seems to be better quality from the looks of it.
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Jedi
hi GN team! thanks for all your guides/tests, you guys are reliable. little fun side note. It is good to have a sponsor, but a sponsor you can buy is even better. All Grilly is MIA, I struggled and found one supplier that had noctua's H2, alongside fighting to find a lianli lancool2mesh perf and corsair hx850i psu... I is incredible how buying all tech not only gpu is f... difficult.... even thermal paste guys!
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hi GN team! thanks for all your guides/tests, you guys are reliable. little fun side note. It is good to have a sponsor, but a sponsor you can buy is even better. All Grilly is MIA, I struggled and found one supplier that had noctua's H2, alongside fighting to find a lianli lancool2mesh perf and corsair hx850i psu... I is incredible how buying all tech not only gpu is f... difficult.... even thermal paste guys!
reply
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