Fractal Design Ridge Mini-ITX Case Review

How Much Does it Cost?

The Fractal Design Ridge mini-ITX slim PC case is launching today, and has an MSRP of just $129.99. Sure, that’s a lot for a small case, but it’s not unjustified when you consider the overall materials used and additional components. Those two 140mm fans are premium fans, and would easily cost around £25 for the pair. A PCIe Gen 4.0 riser cable isn’t a cheap addition either, and that’ll set you back at least another £65.

Overview

The price may seem high, but I really do think this case is superb value for money. Looking back at something similar, the Silverstone Raven RVZ01 for example, that’s a very old case now and still costs £70, it has less room for a big GPU, smaller fans, and a lot of plastic on show. It’s a bugger to build in too, albeit I do like that case, By comparison, the Ridge makes it seems pretty old-fashioned, which it kind of is.

The Fractal Design Ridge has thick steel for the bulk of the case, but it’s been beautifully finished and machined to give it loads of ventilation throughout. Everything fits tight and feels robust. However, you can remove each side panel with a single thumbscrew. With a screwdriver, you can have the whole case in bits in just a few minutes, allowing greater access to some (what would have been) difficult-to-reach places, making the installation process a lot easier than most cases of this form factor.

The front panel looks stunning, which is a machined piece of 6mm anodized aluminium with a cloth and mesh cover that acts as a dust filter but also just gives it a nice aesthetic twist. It’s a very stylish and professional-looking case. However, for all its grown-up and sensible aesthetics, you can fit a monster-sized GPU in this case, and have it as a bit of a sleeper gaming rig.

Cable routing isn’t the easiest on the interior, and adding a few SSDs in there would only make it harder. But again, Fractal Design has implemented lots of little quality-of-life features to make it manageable and to allow for a surprising amount of hardware to fit into this form factor, without compromising on the overall clean aesthetics.

Should I Buy One?

This is one of the coolest cases I’ve seen in a while, it’s superbly stylish, and can be mounted horizontally making it great for an under TV HTPC build, or vertically to free up some desktop space. The front panel looks gorgeous, and I like that they’ve integrated those two massive 140mm fans while still allowing for a dual-slot GPU, or a triple-slot GPU without them. If you want a great gaming PC build that doesn’t take up a huge amount of space or flashy RGB, then is such a great option for you. Highly recommended.