Fractal Design North XL Charcoal Black

I don't know what else can be said about this case that hasn't been said already. It's just a grrat case. It's BIG, very roomy. Plenty of space for cable management. Has a very clever drive setup at the bottom near the PSU mount. Great build quality, great airflow, keeps my hardware cool, aesthetically pleasing, great price even when compared to other premium cases.

I. Love. This. Case.Seriously, this is a quality case. plenty of room for good cable management, everything lined up smoothly when installing my parts. It’s really not that heavy of a case either. I love the metal IO buttons and the legs the case sits on. Recommend this case to anyone looking for a classy, aesthetic PC look.

This case is hands down one of the best cases I've worked with. Its nice to see case designers come up with designs that aren't so "gamer" and make something that is more along the lines of a piece of furniture.Working in the case itself is easy. Its very spacious and easy to disassemble and get to where you need to. Wire Management is easy to do and keep wires well organized. If you are going to do a front mounted radiator you do need to be mindful of your graphics card size. With a front radiator you can get a 380mm graphics card at most, and that's going to be a tight fit.The case is easy to keep clean, stays cool, and is stays surprisingly quite for the mesh front and top. I did go with a glass side, figuring that would keep noise down since I put the computer in my living room.

This case is absolutely gorgeous. The walnut front is beautiful, the brass detailing is amazing, and it’s a pleasure to build in given its size. I recommend the XL over the standard version given the ever increasing size of GPU’s. Cable management is also a breeze allowing for clean runs and an almost cable less front end.Couple knocks against it:The thumbs screws are not good, the threading is pretty horrid on most of them requiring a screwdriver to unscrew them. I went ahead and replaced them with higher quality screws.The pre installed fans are a tad loud when you put load on them. Airflow is great and they perform well stock but those sensitive to sound might find it annoying. Best to tweak bios settings to find the best fan curve for you or replace with Noctua fans.Otherwise this case is amazing and looks great in almost any setting. If you want a case that is sleek, modern, understated but high quality, then this is the case for you.

Tons of space and mounts for everything! The Hydroshift fit perfectly without touching the cpu power cables, (proof in picture). Plenty of airflow, fits a liable tl lcd140mm fan at the rear, and the aesthetic is unmatched. The psu mount on the back removes with 2 thumb screws so you can set it up, and insert the whole thing cables first, without having to reach in the case and hold it in place. Only thing I’d change about it is to make the panel next to the glass fit more smooth, and snug as it’s sticky to remove, but rattles a bit on the top right near the power button.

Let me say this right at the start – this case is slightly overrated. Yes, I know you have seen glowing reviews on YouTube but this is the problem when companies send products to reviewers and they review them without spending their own money. At $149 + tax, this case isn’t cheap, so it should be perfect (it isn’t).What is good about the case is the use of wood (pretty much the highlight of the case) – it looks nice. It would have been even better if you could choose both the oak and the walnut wood colors on either the black or white case (oak comes on the black case and walnut on the white case – no substitutions).Another plus for the case is that it has pretty good airflow – at least the mesh version. It has a place for 3 X120 mm intake fans upfront (it comes with 2X140 fans fitted in the front) 2X140 exhaust fans and 1X120 mm exhaust in the rear.Now for the stuff that I did not like.1. Space to work with – there is minimal clearance on the top and bottom of the case – so once you put the motherboard in there is a tiny place to say take out your graphics card, reseat fan headers, etc. Although it has pretty good cable channels, the one on top where most times you will need to route your MOBO power cables is just tiny. Fitting a large graphics card like a 4080 or 4090 requires you to remove the side panel and even then, it is a very tight fit. Even routing SATA cables to the drive bays at the bottom of the case is a pain.2. Screws – at this price point the screws should come properly labeled in a plastic box with compartments. Cheaper cases from other manufacturers have this. One glaring mistake was that I was just not able to locate the screws for anchoring the motherboard. Luckily, I had some ones left from an old Dell PC I had dismantled or this build would have gone south very quickly.3. Fan Hub – The Fan Hub included works – well, kind of. You can put 4 fan headers and it comes out in one single fan header which can be put into the motherboard. The problem was that although it had power (fans would run) – there was no sensor readout for the RPM. So, I connected the fans directly to the MOBO.4. Cable Management Space – the cable management space on the right of the case is very tight. An extra 0.5 inch would have helped given the numerous wires we have nowadays that we need to cable manage including the thick power supply cables to the MOBO and GPUs. Right now, I have a 1 mm bulge on the right side of the case due to the clearance issues.All in all, it is not a terrible case, however nowhere as great as the YouTube reviewers suggest. It is nice with some caveats and honestly would be better priced at $100 to $125.