Fractal Design Core 1500 Case Review

Outside the FRACTAL DESIGN CORE 1500
As I have been stating all along in this review, that Fractal Design uses the same core design concepts and development engineering over the entire spectrum of their cases and this case is no different. The CORE Series of cases all use the same theme, designs but change sizes and windows on the higher and larger and more expensive lines. The core follows the basic engineering of the Fractal Designs also by allowing the same air intake on all models and with most of the same blanks and hardware that all Core Series have. This is all done for Simplicity and Efficiency of design, saving money and cutting costs without having to dumb down the lower end products.

Featured Image

The Core series all use the same front control panels and this is a savings of production costs, giving a higher quality unit at a lesser cost. The power and reset are really close together for easy discovery in low lighted areas. The Hard drive activation LED is a bright white color for lighting and indication of drive performance and working. The centrally located headset and microphone jacks are simply located and safer placed from accidental damage from side impacts from an over excited player and the USB 3.0 hubs are set in and to the side of the right hand side for good placement and far enough away from each other to not take away needed space for a fat flash drive and another device next to each other. All in all, this design is very good and very smartly placed and easy to repair if you need to because the entire control panel is a single and separate part of the case so it can be easily changed out in the event of any damage that may come to it.

Control Panel

Both front and the back of the Fractal Design Core 1500 are efficiently designed for a great simple look in the front and a smart low profile yet great clearance space for oversized cards, forward positioned fan and radiator placement and higher than average air-cooling solutions. The fans are the 120 mm size and the back only allows one size and one placement but the case is long enough to keep the fan out of the way of radiator tubing. The front comes with the brushed aluminum/plastic look that we have come to find with the Core products and Fractals Design cues and two 5.25″ bay slots are included in this model. The lower back of the case can accept the typical ATX style power supply and if you don’t mind sacrificing a bottom fan I can’t see why this case would not allow any sized Power supply to fit into this area unless you plan on a lower side water or air cooling solution to be mounted to the floor. Also colored in green for your ease of discovery is the three position LOW/MED/HIGH speed fan controller that is made for 3 separate fans inside the Fractal Design Core 1500.

Front and Back Case

Of course the teal color that is on this picture is added only for the benefit of the reader to understand the size of the fan that fits this side panel and the panel is in fact, all black. The side panel is the door type design that allows the front to fit into the a slot and then close with ease (like a common door) and secured to the frame by the black included thumbscrews. The side cooling fan size for this panel is 140 mm only and can give plenty of needed intake air directly to a very powerful video card if needed.

Side Fan Panel
The back side panel is fitted in exactly the same way as front but reverse and is bold and clean in its design. The handles in the back are more finger friendly and most cases of this price range and the door type design makes it much easier to close after wiring your build. Saving much need curse words for some other time but closing the back panel of the case is a curse word free zone as long as you can keep your wire clearance down below 13.5 at its tightest point. That is more than the average case in this price range as well.

Back Motherboard Panel

The top view of the case has been shaded in color to show the fan configuration options available with the Fractal Design Core 1500 while the bottom has been colored in much the same way. The descriptions on the picture itself shows the size and position of each fan configuration better than words only could tell. But remember the Fractal Design Core 1500 is Black only and not colored in this way and the colors are purely to aid your imagination so to better understand how the fans fit into the case top and bottom mounts.

Top view Case fan placement

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