I reviewed the Torrent Fractal Design case when it launched and gave it a solid 8 out of 10, with a 'Worth buying' award. Some members of our audience suggested that the Torrent deserved love mwoah and felt that I had been a bit mean and indifferent. So here we go again as we take a second look at Torrent, and this time we are completely air-cooled.
Watch the video through our VIMEO channel (below) or on YouTube at 2160p HERE
This second look will probably make more sense if you read our full review first, which is HERE.
Also, read KitGuru's news about the Fractal Design recall in the PWM hub as there is a potential security risk - that news is HERE.
Now that you're tied up and ready to rock, the bottom line is that Leo initially reviewed Torrent with a full custom loop. For this second look, we've ditched the water and switched to a Noctua NH-D15 CPU cooler and a Sapphire RX 6800 XT graphics card.
Test system:
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X (12 cores / 24 threads, 4.0GHz all cores)
- CPU cooler: Noctua NH-D15
- Thermal compound: Arctic MX-5
- Motherboard: Asus TUF Gaming X570-Plus
- Memory: 32 GB G.Skill TridentZ Neo DDR4-3600
- Graphic card: Sapphire RX 6800 XT 16GB
- Power supply: Ion + 2 Platinum 860W fractal design
- SSD: 500 GB Sabrent Rocket 4.0 M.2 NVMe
- YOU: Windows 10
Cooling performance
Cooling performance overview
Considering that our custom loop used a neat 280mm radiator to cool both the CPU and GPU in a combined loop, we were pleasantly surprised to see that our numbers held up well in this second round of testing. The Noctua NH-D15 did a good job of cooling our Ryzen 9 3900X, while the Sapphire RX 6800 XT clearly performed well in the Torrent case. In our original review, we were confident that Torrent has good airflow and we maintain that judgment,
Final thoughts
In our initial review from the Fractal Design Torrent, we were generally happy with the case, but we did raise a couple of questions, particularly about cable management. Since then we have noticed other reviewers complaining about the price which was generally considered high at ยฃ 165, however that was not a problem for us.
Both points can be explained by our use of custom loop cooling, as Torrent costs roughly the same as EKWB Quantum Vector Full Nickel Graphic Block that we used in that review. The EK backplate costs another $ 40.
In other words, we kept things in perspective and could see that Torrent pricing was a minor affair over the course of an expensive PC build. We can also see that anyone who is simply adding an air tower cooler to their CPU might have a different point of view.
And then there is the question of cable management. As you may have seen in the video of this air-cooled build, the results are crisp and neat and there is no cause for complaint. There's a lot of space and if we're feeling motivated, we might even try installing three or four data drives for the fun of it.
The point here is that we consider that a miserably air-cooled build misses the Torrent point and that this powerful case deserves proper liquid cooling. The downside to our reasoning is that once you fill Torrent with hardware, you inevitably end up with a bunch of cables and the result could be a disaster.
It is certainly true that 'if you don't waste the time it will be a crime' but frankly, if you are air cooled, it is very easy to make the PC look good. The custom loop requires a considerable amount of labor.
Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.
KitGuru says: We still like Torrent. We still want more space for cables. We continue to recommend custom loop cooling.
