The year is 2019 and our hardware is dying. What was once a battlefield littered with the carcasses of the too small and the too restrictive has dissolved with the sands of time. Years of development and trend following has changed us. Morphed our cases into tempered glass prisons hell bent on suffocating our gear. Perhaps it is our vanity that drives our desire to show off our shiny bits and bobbles. Whatever it is, the result is release after release more glass than logic, more heat with nowhere to go. Is there no end to the mutation that has taken the case industry prisoner? Is there no hero to show us the way? Perhaps there is. Perhaps that champion is the Meshify S2 from Fractal Design! The S2 is the largest Meshify case yet and has both “large” and “high airflow” in the case description. There is hope yet. Read along as we find out how the Meshify S2 strikes a fantastic balance between aesthetic and performance!
Special thanks to Fractal Design for providing the Meshify S2 for review!
Features & Specifications
* Modular high-airflow open layout design
* Stealth inspired angular mesh ventilation
* Seamless, bolt-free tempered glass (TG versions only)
* Push-to-lock latching on both side panels for easy access
* USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C with fast charge support and speeds up to 10Gbps
* Built for advanced liquid cooling with adjustable reservoir brackets, pre-drilled pump mounts, and an innovative removable top bracket with dedicated fill port
* Nine fan positions with clear airflow paths for massive cooling capacity
* Support for radiators up to 420 mm in the top, 360 mm in front, and 280 mm in the base
* Full-length ventilated PSU shroud with removable front cover and alternate SSD mounts
* Vertical 2.5 slot GPU support using the Flex VRC-25 vertical PCIE riser (sold separately)
* Concealed drive mounts for two SSDs and three HDDs with vibration dampened enclosures
* Three Dynamic X2 fans pre-installed as dual intakes and rear exhaust for balanced airflow
* Nexus+ Smart Hub allows motherboard control of up to three PWM devices and six case fans
* Easy to clean front, top, and base filters with full PSU coverage and convenient front access
The Meshify S2 should arrive in a brown box with black lettering. The front of the box has a drawing of the case and a color indicator. Flip the box around and you’ll find an exploded view of the case. From what we can tell this diagram is simply the parts that can be removed without tools. Above is a list of what each of parts is. Basically this is a features diagram.
One of the ends has another simple drawing while the other has specifications and cooling capacity. Neither the top nor the bottom have anything of note.
Of course inside you’ll find the case. It’s wrapped entirely in plastic and capped on both end with foam pieces. You probably noticed that our sample box was damaged in transit. Fortunately the punch in the side of the box caused no damage to the product. In fact everything seems to be in perfect shape.
With the plastic off we find that the entire tempered glass window (on both sides) as well as several surfaces on the front panel are covered in cling plastic adding scratch protection.
