Fractal Design Core 3300 Mid-Tower Chassis Review

Peter Donnell / 10 years ago

Final Thoughts

Pricing

The Fractal Design Core 3300 promises to offer great value for those on a tighter budget, or at least a more affordable solution when compared with the high-end products that Fractal Design are well-known for. Priced at just £54.99 (best price found via Google Shopping) the Core 3300 represents incredible value for money and given the features and the well trusted brand name, this is one of the most competitive chassis’ on the market right now.

Overview

I absolutely love this case, I’ve always been a big fan of the cases that Fractal Design make and while I admit that their usual premium quality chassis are still better than the Core 3300, you can expect to pay almost twice as much for the privilege of owning one. What we have here is most of the high quality features that you would expect from Fractal Design, but at a significantly lower price.

Your money still gets you a great feature set for water cooling and air cooling support, room for ultra long graphics cards, an innovative storage mounting solution and the sleek design you would expect from this brand. The only downside I can see with this chassis is their complete lack of proper air filters; there’s a large filter for the bottom of the chassis, which is great, and there are foam filters in the front panel which are sufficient, but nothing for the top or side panels. This does help keep cost down, but debris and dust are likely to gather in your system, your fans and any radiators; without proper filters you could find your system requiring more regular maintenance. The dust filter problem is easily solved with an aftermarket solution, which should cost you no more than a few pounds; of course I think a little extra on the price of this chassis wouldn’t have been a bad thing if it included more filters.

Build quality is very good overall, sure there’s a little more plastic than usual, but if that helps keep the cost right down without a drop in overall design quality, then I’m all in favour. The interior of the chassis is certainly the most notable feature, with a vast amount of room for ultra high-end components such as large graphics cards and large power supplies. It’s the hard drive bay that steals the show, as it frees up a lot of room for your components, such as front mounted radiators without compromising on how many hard drives you can use, with the addition of two stealth mounts for 2.5″ drives behind the motherboard.

Pros

Great build quality
Very competitive price tag
Trusted brand name
Huge interior space
Plenty of storage space
Radiator support
Two high-quality fans pre-installed

Cons

Dust filters on top and side panel would have been welcomed
Foam dust filters on front panel
Front panel fan cover can be removed, but I have no idea why
No optional side panel window

“Fractal wanted to show they can be competitive on a tighter budget and they’ve certainly achieved that. The Core 3300 is simply one of the biggest and best cases you can get at this price range and while it’s not perfect, it’s capable of holding bigger hardware than almost everything else in its price segment; a must-have product for those who blew all of their budget on massive graphics cards”