Final Thoughts on the Fractal Design Meshify 3 Ambience Pro RGB Case
This case has been a long time coming as the Meshify 2 came out all the way back in 2020. As a successor to the original I think that Fractal has come out with a very solid case. First just on looks this case is going to stand out. Fractal finally made mesh cool when they introduced the original Meshify case by making the front mesh have a angular design. On top of that on the Ambiance Pro version of this case you are going to get all of that lighting too, the way it all flows together is great!
I really like that Fractal has integrated the fans and the lighting into their Adjust Pro Hub. This allows you to control everything together and have a fluid effect going across the case. While we’ve seen bloated software from other companies Fractal is employing a web-based app to make changes to the cooling and lighting on the case, which I love. The case ships with the new Momentum 14 RGB PWM fans which make use of a proprietary Type-C connection for PWM and lighting. This makes them easy to daisy-chain together and of course plug into into the Adjust Pro Hub. For new builders it is nice that everything is essentially pre-wired all you have to do is plug power into the Adjust Hub and connect the PWM cable to your motherboard.
With the 3 fans pre-installed in the front of the case you do get support for two 120/140mm fans at the top of the case and a 120mm at the back. You can also fit up to a 360mm radiator in the front of the case and a 280mm up top. Since we have the mesh at the front you are going to get proper, and high airflow coming itno the case. Another thing I really liked about this case was the storage support, for being so small you can actually fit a total of 6 drives! And having real support for two 3.5-inch hard drives is something you don’t see as much these days.
Installation was incredibly easy and I did not run into any issues. Our system turned out great and cable management was quite easy with the new cable aligners and you can’t forget the cable ties on the back of the case to keep all of the cables coming out of your motherboard nice and organized.
While there is not much to not like about this case we can see that some may not like that the fans and hub are proprietary so you can’t plug other non-Fractal fans or RGB devices into the hub. Also the storage brackets are just a bit more tedious when it comes to installing a 2.5-inch drive, but this is of course necessary to support two drives per bracket.
Releasing today the Meshify 3 Ambience Pro RGB has an MSRP of $219.99, while the Meshify 3 RGB will be $159.99, and the plain jane Meshify 3 will be $139.99. Overall ThinkComputers gives the Fractal Design Meshify 3 Ambience Pro RGB Case a 9 out of 10 score and our Recommended Award!
Pros:
– Great lighting
– Compact design yet supports E-ATX and long graphics cards
– Can install up to 6 hard drives
– Adjust Pro Hub & Fractal App
– Easy installation
– Cable aligners work great
– High airflow design
Cons:
– Fans and fan hub use proprietary connectors
– 2.5-inch SSD installation is a bit tedious, but makes sense
The air holes/slots on the back panel seem quite large compared to most.
Great for airflow but not so good for dust resistance.