Fractal Design Arc XL Full Tower Chassis Review

Interior

The interior has been given the same black paint job that you’ll find on the exterior, giving a nice uniform look to the case, this is offset by white components on the fans, expansion slot covers and hard drive bays. The back plate features seven grommeted cable routing holes, more than enough to handle all the cables of a high-end system.

There is plenty of clearance in the top for thick radiators, but if you want to install 360mm radiators you’ll have to stick with a slim one.

The PSU is raised from the base by two thick rubber pegs, providing good clearance and vibration reduction.

In the back there is a 140mm exhaust fan pre-installed and below that you’ll see that each of the expansion slots is fitted with thumb screws for easy installation / removal of your components.

There are eight hard drive bays in total in a 4+4 format. Each bay comes with a white-painted metal tray that support both 3.5″ and 2.5″ drives.

The top bay is removed with two thumb screws, and if you want to strip out all hard drive bays you can remove the bottom four bays via four screws on the bottom of the chassis, freeing up room for front mounted water cooling.

Around the back you’ll find plenty of room for cable routing, as well as lots of loops for tying down excess cable.

Best of all are these two 2.5″ drive mounts, these will come in very handy if you wanted to remove all the hard drive bays in the front of the chassis.

There are three fans included and all come with a high quality black braiding, no cheap multicoloured cables to ruin the tidy interior design.

Under the top panel you’ll find a wide array of mounting solutions, there is a pre-installed 140mm fan, but you can easily install two more 140mm fans if you wish. Thick 240mm and 280mm radiators are support, or a 360mm slim radiator.

There is another foam filter on the top cover, perfect if you’re wanting to draw air in from the top of the system.

The front panel is easily removed, making drive and fan installation a lot easier.

Both side panels are very heavy, made from thick cut steel and they’re strength goes a long way to reinforcing the chassis, as well as helping reduce noise and vibration.