Fractal Design Terra Jade - Wood Walnut front panel - Small form factor - mITX gaming case – PCIe 4.0 riser cable – USB Type-C - Anodized aluminum panels

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When it comes to mini-ITX cases, careful and efficient use of space is very important – everything helps. Our 13600KF and RTX 4070 weren’t really held back, but ultra high-end choices like a 4090 or 13900K would force you into skimping on cooling somewhere and making an imbalanced build. And with both the GPU and CPU getting so hot, I feel like there's some kind of fundamental thermal air flow issue going on. In general it works well, and the only con is that when tightening a screw, it tends to move the spine a little bit – so the freedom costs some structure there. Cards with a flow-through area on the cooler are naturally going to benefit from having lowered airflow restriction, which both alternate PSU installations help with.

There are other options too, including from SilverStone, but you’re going to be extremely constrained on CPU choice if fully biasing to accommodate the GPU. riser cable and a moveable central spine for customisation of hardware clearance, accommodating GPUs up to 322mm. Fractal stole a page right out of the Mercedes-Benz playbook and stuck a pair of gull wing doors on the case.

The flexibility in the internal layout gives users a level of choice that puts most other cases on the market to shame.

You can select from three unique anodised aluminium variations of the Terra, enhancing and harmonising with your setup.As part of our RGB series of gaming PCs this unit comes with a fully controllable RGB lighting system which allows you to change the colour of your fans and LED strips with nearly infinite variations, all from the convenience of a remote control unit. That’s what really matters: The most important part of ITX reviews are the sections on the building process and ease-of-installation features. Also, fitting the pump of a CLC through the cutout under the PSU isn’t possible without removing the entire bottom of the case, which is not an operation detailed in the manual and probably shouldn’t be done unless necessary.

Corsair SF750 is probably the most popular SFX PSU available and not only is it very good but has much nicer braided cables. The total volume is also just higher with the sides closed in our testing with the spine biasing the CPU cooler towards the side panel, but it’s those specific ranges that make it annoying. We’d prefer to see an alternate solution that doesn’t turn the entire door panel into a lever against such a small plastic part.MAG CH120 X Black Gaming Chair from MSI ENJOY A MORE COMFORTABLE GAMING EXPERIENCEThe durable steel framework on the MSI MAG CH120 X Gaming Chair offers a sturdy construction with specially molded foam to contour to your body for great body support. The vents should continue lower down the panel, but we think Fractal did this so that the end of the vents visually line up with the top of the wood on the front panel. The movable spine means that GPU and CPU cooler clearances are variable based on spine position, enabling sacrificing space for one to give to the other. Hotjar sets this cookie to know whether a user is included in the data sampling defined by the site's pageview limit. I will point out that if you are building an ITX system, I highly recommend connecting the 8 pin EPS power connector and installing the CPU cooler prior to installing the motherboard.

Facebook sets this cookie to show relevant advertisements to users by tracking user behaviour across the web, on sites that have Facebook pixel or Facebook social plugin. I also got a Thermalright contact frame for the CPU and a Noctua NF-A12x25 fan (with a grill to protect PSU cables) to exhaust at the bottom of the case. Works great so far, although CPU thermals are a bit concerning - it was hitting 100°C just booting Overwatch 2 on the first boot. Maximum thickness has some caveats, and depends on both the spine position and the height of the GPU. It’s always interesting to see how a manufacturer is going to address the problems of fitting modern hardware into as small an enclosure as possible, and do this without compromising cooling.Radiator Support: A 120 x 120mm AIO water cooler can be fitted at the front of the chassis, restricting maximum GPU length to 200mm and width to 53mm. I’ve also personally enjoyed the challenges that are often present when attempting to put a system into one of these small enclosures. They even go so far as to including a genuine leather pull tab to remove the top panel, and a Kensington lock to lock the side and top panels in place. As we’re just restarting our ITX case testing, the Terra will be the one to start re-building our database -- but the experience from over a decade of case reviews all carries over here, just with renewed focus on trying to identify “pain-in-the-ass factor” aspects of the build process. While it’s certainly not the company’s first try at ITX – with cases like the Era ITX, Core 500, and Node 202 before it – the Terra has a higher level of polish consistent with Fractal’s more recent ATX releases like the Torrent and the North.