Product ReviewsFractal Design Core 1000 mATX Computer Case
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 Rating: Review Date: 05/02/13  |
Cons: -Mounting the hard drive takes some figuring out/Internet searching-Had some issues mounting an XFX Core 450W (top mounted PSU)-The manual sucks and doesn't show or tell you how to mount HDDs
Pros: -Interior is all-black-Decent quality-Tiny |
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Rating: Review Date: 04/17/13 |
Cons: None Really
Pros: SmallGood SpacingGood Build Quality Comment:
very good case in terms of design, size, price and looks. |
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Rating: Review Date: 03/09/13 |
Cons: No removable backplate
Pros: It's small, stock fan is quiet. All black Comment:
Pretty good case. The unique HDD cage allows for long video cards to be installed. I'm quite happy with it, probably the best case for its size and price. |
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Rating: Review Date: 01/29/13 |
Cons: -be careful with the front panel plastic clips when taking it off-no removable filter-front mesh is pretty much the whole front face. so some flex is expected.
Pros: -good build quality-painted nicely in and out-long internal cables-good for case mods and if you want to challenge yourself-nice and simple Comment:
i got an open box one because i am not patient. turned out to have 2 broken front panel clips from the previous guy handling it brutally. oh well. i have some strong glue and i fixed it up. gonna sand down the clip a little bit so it's not super tight to remove.other than that the case is very nicely made. with the old gift wireless mouse keyboard this makes a nice media computer bareframe.anyways for anybody getting open box computer parts check it in store first and make sure it's all good physically.i am using the refurbished ocz 450w modular from here. it's like it's designed for this case. no messy cables at all. |
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Rating: Review Date: 01/10/13 |
Cons: The power led is like the sun! seriously, it's bright!
Pros: Painted interior, antivibe drive mount, ssd mount, excellent build quality, attractive design, side buttons Comment:
This case was the most pleasant surprise of the year for me. I can't possibly stress enough how awesome this case is for the price, I believe it was in the 40$ range.. I had no experience with FD before, and I was expecting a really mediocre part. Boy was I wrong, this has the same fit and finish and quality feel of a high end cooler master! Every surface is painted, The metal is sufficiently thick, the whole thing is nice and sturdy. I'll be buying more FD for sure! |
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Rating: Review Date: 12/17/12 |
Cons: - Very open and therefore noisy- Poor cable management- Can't access backside of MB when installed
Pros: - Easy to build in- Nice, smaller size- Simple look- Black painted interior- Plenty of ventilation- Great for the low price Comment:
Bought this for a semi-budget build for my gf's co-worker. The size is great, and fitting everything I needed was easy. The only real downsides to this case are: noisy due to a very open construction, poor cable management, and no cutout behind the MB to access the backplate for an aftermarket heatsink. None of these really mattered for my build since they didn't care about the noise, cable managing was decent enough with twist-ties (plus there wasn't anything high powered to cause much heat), and I didn't use an aftermarket heatsink because the CPU I used was pretty low powered and runs cool.Overall, this is a great case for a budget build, and the smaller size is definitely a welcome bonus. |
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Rating: Review Date: 12/12/12 |
Cons: -Front fan big loud
Pros: -Dirt cheap -Blacked out everything-Front gill dust mesh -Rubber HDD mounts -Very nice case Comment:
First off this case is amazing at its $35 price point, it has almost every feature of a $100+ case. I picked this up for a HTPC build and I am very impressed. Both inside and out are black, rubber HDD mounts for reduced noise, dust filter and mounting for both HDD and SSD. Only downside i can think of is the front fan is a bit loud trying to pull air though the front dust mesh filter other than that a very fantastic case! |
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Rating: Review Date: 12/04/12 |
Cons: Larger mATX boards will have a real tight fit!
Pros: If you wanted a small case, this one is tiny!Nice and simple LookTop mounted Power Supply Comment:
I bought this case for a budget PC. I wanted small and it is exactly that. It is a little tight inside the case but hey, you should know that going in so it's not really a minus on the case. Smaller = Less space. Duh! Airflow design is good but you should probably get another case fan if you are gonna make your PC work. Design is simple and Hard Drive mounting system is genius! Power Supply is top mounted which I think is great to see. Bottom mounted Power Supplys tend to suck up a lot of dust or clog their filters. Top mounted Supply help pull air out of the case and for a small case like this, it's a great design. Recommended if you want something small! |
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Rating: Review Date: 11/21/12 |
Cons: no motherboard cutout for some cpu cooler back plate
Pros: small, perfect height for my media pc requirement, simple yet elegant, comes with features not available to some higher priced cases Comment:
- top mounted psu may not appeal to everyone but this is perfect for a small pc- removable 2.5" HDD/SSD or 3.5" HDD just behind the 2md 5.25" cover plate- comes with a 3.5" external mesh coverplate- innovative sidewards mounting for standard sized hard drives and peripherals. HDD's are supported by rubber grommets and special screws that aid in damping noise- lots of thumbscrews (everything removable uses thumbscrews)- comes with 1 white 120mm case fan- side mounted power, reset, front audio and usb ports may not appeal to everyone. Front usb ports are usb 2.0 only- steel material is thin enough to be lightweight, but strong enough to be not flimsy. Painting, fit and finish are a lot better than some higher priced casesOverall, this is a good case that I would use for budget builds. It is a fairly handome case and doesnt look cheap despite the price. |
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Rating: Review Date: 11/02/12 |
Cons: None
Pros: Great small case for a cheap price Great HHD mounting system Comment:
Couldn't ask anything more. This case is Great if your building a small PC of any kind that uses an mATX board, you can even put a GTX 690 into this case if you want to. You can also install a H80 in this case if you want to water cool your CPU. |
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Rating: Review Date: 11/01/12 |
Cons: No space behind motherboardDifficult cable management
Pros: Black InteriorGood form factorCheapGood airflow Comment:
Great budget mini case with many nice features. Would recommend for budget or low-tier consumers. |
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Rating: Review Date: 10/10/12 |
Cons: Side "front" panel switches restrict case placement in closed spaces. Rear fan is 92mm?????
Pros: Price, size Comment:
Quite a few cases in this simple / low price market, but I'm quite pleased with the core 1000.Build quality is on par/slightly better than other cases I've used at this price point, and while the extras are pretty sparse, thumbscrews, a HDD/SSD (both 3.5 and 2.5) mounting plate up front (as well as a "strange" side HDD mount that can be removed for longer vid cards), as well as an included piezo speaker (maybe case manufacturers heard us complaining about the lack of speakers... ) give (IMO) pretty good value for money.Considering the mATX size of the case there seemed ample space for building once the side "HDD panel" was removed. I even prefered the top mount PSU in this application as it put the cables of a non-modular PSU against the "rear" side panel which somewhat compensated for the minimal ability to manage cabling (it's a box with no real hidey holes).Only things I'd do differently would be to move the controls / ports to the front, and if a 92mm fan mount is all that will fit, then it might be a good idea to provide one as most folks don't have them kicking around any more. |
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Rating: Review Date: 10/04/12 |
Cons: super tight fit on motherboard
Pros: small, cheap, well built for its price range Comment:
All in all this is a great case - only 1 small issue. I was installing a mATX motherboard last night and the fit is so tight, I actually had to cut into the 5.25" drive bay cage in order to get the board in place. The board was an ASUS M5A88-M. Other than that, everything was perfect. Would buy again. |
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Rating: Review Date: 09/14/12 |
Cons: -the case has no cable management options-the motherboard was tough to put in-noisy fans are very noticeable in this case
Pros: -nice all black interior-has lots of space for video cards-can mount up to three solid state drives and a hard drive. Comment:
The best case I have ever purchased for under 40$. The entire case is painted black for modesty. Put my parents ten year old system in it and it works fine. Would purchase this again. |
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Rating: Review Date: 09/14/12 |
Cons: none
Pros: Light weight design, nice black color all around and all the front mesh design as a filter behind it. Comment:
Bought this for a project other than PC, needed a case to hold a lot of electronic component and with most part removable, got what i needed. Awesome pick for a small case. |
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Rating: Review Date: 09/05/12 |
Cons: Horrible manual. You need to watch youtube to learn the correct way to mount the drives.
Pros: Fairly nice looking, with lots of cooling vents. Wires are well labelled. Comment:
I have mounted my drives wrong. There is an adapter in one of the 5.25" bays that allows either a laptop drive of a regular size drive. Since this is the only place I could find to mount, I mounted both on it. 3.5" ontop, and the smaller upside down.Unfortunately, the side mounting won't allow my power supply cable to reach both drives and the DVDROM if mounted correctly, so I'll have to leave it this way for now.The case has good ventilation. I particularly like the filter screen in front, to help keep dust out of the computer. I can't speak for the reliability or quiteness of the 120mm fan, as I swapped it out for the one that came with my liquid cooling CPU kit. There is however room to mount a second 120mm fan on the side.Overall, I'm not disappointed, but I'm not excited either. This review was modfied by poster @ 09-05-12 03:37 PM |
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Rating: Review Date: 08/02/12 |
Cons: Some of the metal is thin. Has signs of a budget case.
Pros: Excellent low cost case. Looks sharp with the fractal design fans. Comment:
Perfect for smaller builds and easy to work with. PCI-e bracket covers like the non budget cases. |
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Rating: Review Date: 06/21/12 |
Cons: cable management is a little iffy if you need to use an optical drive
Pros: small and pretty silent.the build quality isn't the best but i was expecting this from a case like this.nice way to mount the hard drives Comment:
i used this case to make a cheap file server that i wanted to keep a low profile. i enjoyed building in it tho cable management would be hard if you don't have a modular power supply and/or need to use the 5.25" bays.if you need to use a 5.25" bay, use the top one since there's a fairly well sized hole that you can use for cable management under the 2nd bay. |
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Rating: Review Date: 04/29/12 |
Cons: HDD/SSD mounting method is different and had to check youtube how to even mount the HDD, not great for cable management if your concerned about cable management.
Pros: great little case Comment:
my aunt wanted a smaller case so the NCIX rep recommended this one. everything fit very nicely into it. The HDD bay is really weird. Had no idea how it worked and had to go to youtube to find out how it did. there are no cable management features with this case that im aware of. however, since i bought a modular PSU and since its not a high end computer build it didnt matter to me but maybe to others. otherwise, i dont have any complaints, just features that arent included in a great little $40 case |
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Rating: Review Date: 04/26/12 |
Cons: None really
Pros: - Small- Quiet- Can fit loooong cards! Comment:
I had to do one build for someone and I've used this thing before, it's small inside but decent to work with. What I like is the small size of the tower itself compared to other midtowers and you can fit it more places. I purchased this again. |
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Rating: Review Date: 04/18/12 |
Cons: Difficult filter cleaning, hard drive placement
Pros: Price, size Comment:
Overall a good case, no complains other than the 'vertical' HDD placement. Either I was missing parts or my HDD was too long (doubtful), but I was only able to use the 5.25" for my HDD. Not the end of the world. |
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Rating: Review Date: 03/31/12 |
Cons: Connecteurs frontales audio et USB et bouton mal localisés.Pas de connecteur USB 3.0 en facade.Toles mince.Roulements du ventilateur bruyant.Les thumb screws ne sont pas terrible.
Pros: Bon manufacturier.Très bien ventilé.Ventilateur frontale 120mm.Assez d'espace à l'intérieur pour un système mid-range. Comment:
J'ai monté un système moyenne gamme à partir de ce boitier (Phenom II X4). Il y a assez d'espace pour y mettre une très longue carte graphique et trois diques durs 3.5" à l'intérieur plus un graveur. La circulation de l'air dans ce boitier est très bonne et les composantes sont bien refroidies. Par contre la fabrication de ce boitier est bon marché et les toles minces. La peinture est d'assez bonne qualité. Le plus gros défaut est la locailsation sur le coté droit des boutons et connecteurs frontaux. Malgré tout un bon achat pour un boitier orienté pour le jeux. |
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Rating: Review Date: 03/12/12 |
Cons: Thumb screw threads very tight. Would prefer USB ports on LH side.
Pros: Elegant, minimalist design, well built Comment:
Unbeatable for a low budget case. Quiet, rubber mounts for HDD are a plus. |
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Rating: Review Date: 03/05/12 |
Cons: Only 1 stock fan
Pros: Good build qualityEasy and light Comment:
Good little case for basic budget builds. Helps keep dust out with front grill. Lacks fans, only 1 is mounted at front for the hard drive bay.Would have liked to see another fan at the back for added cooling. |
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Rating: Review Date: 02/14/12 |
Cons: Sparse manual, power/reset buttons on the right side, blue LED on the side is bright
Pros: Inexpensive, well built, simple design, rounded edges inside Comment:
This case is used for my wife’s computer. The reason I went with this form factor is because there isn’t too much space left in my room. I wanted a computer that had a smaller footprint than a mid ATX case, but at the same time I still wanted to be able to fit a full length video card in the case. Once I upgrade to a new video card, my old 5770 will most likely be going in this computer.I saw reviews saying that the SSD mount in the hard drive cage was hard to put back on. I’m pretty sure they were referring to the SSD mount at least. It wasn’t easy, I probably spent 4-5 minutes putting it back on, but it wasn’t troublesome enough to be a con.It was my first time working with a micro ATX case, so I planned ahead by getting a modular PSU and also plugging in the cables for the front panel LEDs & plugs before installing the motherboard. In the end it wasn’t a problem at all. I will definitely continue to plug in all the front panel cables before mounting the motherboard in the future. |
An Ok case, especially for the price/when it's on sale, but I had to google reviews to figure out how to put in the hard drive, and I had to sort of bend the metal a bit to get the PSU screw holes lined up properly.