Fractal Design XL Case.

Sturdy and spacious, the case comes with two 120mm fans and a larger (140?) one, lateral mounted 3" bays and cable cavity which all add up to excellent airflow. The case is rock solid and has no sharp edges. Removable dust filters on the air intakes will be easy to wash and help keep the inside clean.

The PSU is mounted at the bottom with its own intake/exhaust and in a thermal chamber that isolates it and its airflow from the rest of the case. The Three large case fans have a variable speed control for them, there are USB, eSATA and 3.5mm jacks on the top of the case next to the power button. Mainly black, with a few white bits on the inside and a sleek door in titanium grey, the box looks great for what is ostensibly a functional item that you don't look at. Its got all the normal luxuries and a few extras thrown in I've not been able to find a fault with it.

It's larger than many cases however you measure it and heavier too - weighing in at 17Kg empty - the weight is likely to be a problem for me personally because I like LAN events and social gaming, but its not a negative about the design or engineering of the case. Its something you may want to consider before buying if you plan to travel with your PC or have a fragile table made of balsa wood and glass.

While 14 drive bays sounds like a lot, the ratio of 10:4 in favour of 3.5" bays doesn't make too much sense. In the Terrabyte age, ten drive bays is a lot for a domestic computer (~20TB) and I'd prefer to see three more 5" bays replacing the top four 3" Bays - it'd still be plenty of drive space (six of each) but provide a lot more flexibility as bay adapters are easy to come by, and I think the case came with one anyway. Its not a bad design decision, but its not a good one either.

Secondly, custom drive trays and screws - while they look great on paper - will ALWAYS cost a star in a review I write. One by one they ARE going to bend/buckle/break, and now i've got to keep track of specific screws for this case too (the SSD bays need screws 1 or 2 mm shorter than normal HDD screws). This knocks the case down from its perfect ten to a maximum score of nine and represents the only thing I might really regret about the case.

Lastly for consideration, I'm not going to subtract any for size and weight and I'm letting my first-impressions score stand at 9/10 but its a great score on thin ice. If the weight or drive bays are a dealbreaker then you might want to choose again, but otherwise the Fractal Design XL comes up aces - even 9/10 feel low for this superb case that comes up trumps in every category.