Fractal Design Core 2300 Mid-Tower Chassis Review

Introduction

Fractal Design is well-known for their high-end chassis products. They’ve won many awards for their clean designs, exceptional build quality, water cooling support and much more, which has made them a popular choice with the enthusiast system building crowd. However, that’s not all Fractal Design do and as many of you are no doubt well aware, not everyone has the kind of money required for an enthusiast-grade build, sometimes we just want an affordable product that ticks the right boxes for our build.

Key features

• A compact full-ATX case with bottom-mounted PSU, designed for exceptional airflow and cooling
• Brushed aluminum-look front panel with a sleek, three-dimensional textured finish
• Superior water cooling support for its size, supporting one 240/280mm radiator in the front and a 240mm radiator in the top
• Featuring a 120mm rear exhaust fan for great cooling
• Total 7 fan slots with two 120mm fans included
• Extruded motherboard plate allowing space for additional cable routing; 18.5mm around the motherboard and 13.5mm directly behind it
• Supports tall CPU cooler towers, up to 162mm in height
• Multiple easy-to-clean dust filters designed into the case to help maintain a dust free interior
• Innovative vertical HDD bracket, which simultaneously holds three 3.5″ drives and three 2.5″ drives
• One additional SSD position behind the PSU area with easy installation and access

The Core 2300 chassis that I’m looking at today is from Fractal Designs more budget focused range, but keep in mind, cheap prices don’t always translate to a cheap product, not forgetting that Fractal Design has a reputation to uphold, so let’s get stuck in and take a close look at what it has to offer.

The chassis is certainly nothing fancy at first look, but it’s not exactly ugly either, it’s just a fairly straight forward looking black chassis. The left side panel is flat and is held in place by two thumb screws at the back, plus there’s a 120mm fan mount on the panel for extra airflow should you need it.

Again, another flat panel on the right side, which is also held in place by two thumb screws.

The front panel is fairly straight forward too, with a neat and tidy design. There’s two pop-out 5.25″ drive bay covers, should you need them, as well as two strips of ventilation, one down each side.

Around the back, you’ll find a 120mm fan pre-installed at the top, seven expansion slots and the PSU mount. Again, nothing fancy, but ticking all the right boxes for the kind of things you’ll need.

In the top of the 2300, there’s two more fan mounts, which support 120/140mm fans or up to 240/280mm radiators.

The front panel has all the basics covered, with a single USB 3.0 and a USB 2.0 port, HD audio jacks, power, reset and a HDD LED.

On the underside, there’s a clip in mesh filter that covers both the PSU air intake, as well as an optional bottom fan mount. There’s four hard rubber feet to provide good ground clearance and they’ll also help hold the chassis in place on harder surfaces.