Final Thoughts on the Fractal Design Pop 2 Vision Case
The compact mid-tower has slowly become one of the most popular case styles out there. The main reason is you can fit full-size hardware inside, while still being very compact. On top of that with two tempered glass panels you can really show off your system. Over the past few years it seems the compact mid-tower has really been refined, and as I look at the Pop 2 Vision that’s what I see, a refined compact mid tower.
First let’s talk about style. With the tempered glass panels and pillar-less design you have a great look into your system from pretty much any angle. Adding on to that are the two cover panels on the bottom and side-mount of the case. These allow the included fans to be recessed and make for such a clean look overall. They also help cover up any additional cable mess.
Out of the box this case is going to ship with four included Fractal Design Aspect 12X reverse RGB fans. This means that at least to start you are not going to have to buy any fans. You can of course get a rear exhaust fan and top fans down the line if you want. Talking about that top mount it is large enough for a 360mm radiator so you can install an all-in-one liquid CPU cooler and be set! The included fans are not PWM though, they are DC and will only run at 1650 RPM so keep that in mind.
The included fans are of course ARGB and I really like that Fractal Design has included a controller with two buttons on the top of the case. This allows you to change colors and modes and there are quite a lot to choose from. This eliminates bulky RGB software and just makes the process of setting your RGB quite easy. You can of course pass the ARGB signal through to your motherboard for software control. I did find it weird the fans were not connected to the ARGB controller by default as I had to plug them in during my installation.
As far as hardware support you do have support for full size ATX motherboards (including back-connect motherboards), ATX power supplies, long graphics cards (412mm), and even four hard drives. There really is not much compromise here, which I’ve sometimes had to deal with when building in other compact mid tower cases.
Fractal Design will be launching the Pop 2 Vision RGB models for $99.99 with the non-RGB Pop 2 Vision Black being $89.99. Those prices are excellent! ThinkComputers gives the Fractal Design Pop 2 Vision Case a 9 out of 10 score and our Recommended Award!
Pros:
– Sleek design with recessed fans
– Four included ARGB fans
– Support for back-connect motherboards
– Support for long graphics cards
– Support for 4 hard drives out of the box
– Easy to build in
– Price
Cons:
– Fans are not PWM
– Fans not connected to ARGB controller by default
– USB ports are only 5Gbps
