Review: Fractal Design Era
The Era is stylish, but airflow and build issues abound.
“Builders looking to assemble a modest system with a focus on aesthetics over performance (say, a home theatre / living room PC) will love this case.”
Fractal Design’s Era breaks rank with the company’s signature style, thanks in part to a collaboration with Intel. The Mini-ITX case comes in black, blue, and rose gold, fitted with a black tempered glass top panel. The chassis is also available in white and silver equipped with a wood top panel. All models feature an optional vented top for added airflow.
The chassis measures 325 x 166 x 310mm and tips the scales at 4kg. The glass top panel of the Era is darkly tinted, though the chassis comes with a second vented top panel for added airflow. Front panel I/O is fairly standard. You get two USB 3.0, a single USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C port, a headphone/ mic jack and the power and reset buttons. The stylish asymmetrical front panel looks fantastic, though it lacks any holes for ventilation. Filters cover every intake fan mounting location and are easily removed for cleaning. The large filter that covers the fans directly under the top panel is magnetic. The side filters snap into place, and the bottom-mounted filters slide up and out after removing the side panels.
The Fractal Design Era works with a variety of internal layouts. The company offers five examples; ATX PSU / 240 mm, ATX PSU 120 mm, double 120 mm rad build, air build, and high-airflow layout. The problem is that each layout comes with trade-offs and compromises.
Using an ATX power supply means you lose the 3.5-inch hard drive mounting location on the SFX PSU mounting bracket and limits AIO coolers to 120 mm. Using a graphics card with anything larger than a stockheight cooler eliminates the possibility of mounting fans in the bottom of the case. And depending on the length of your ATX PSU, an ATX power supply could be an issue in general. Also, the rear 80 mm exhaust fan and the SFX PSU mount must be removed to install your motherboard.
It should also be noted that some aftermarket CPU coolers could interfere with the exhaust fan. As such, we highly recommend completely removing all the internal hard drive brackets, PSU mounts and the rear-mounted 80 mm fan before attempting to install any components in the Fractal Design Era.
The area behind the motherboard tray is extremely shallow and, aside from a couple of fan cables, there is little room for cable routing in this area. Making matters worse, the included I/O cables are way too long. The result is a large ball of cable clutter that impedes airflow and looks terrible.
The Fractal Design Era’s extremely elegant design is definitely its biggest selling point. Builders looking to assemble a modest system with a focus on aesthetics over performance (say, a home theatre / living room PC) will love this case. Although the difficulties we encountered cannot be overlooked, careful planning and component selection can mitigate many of the issues we found with this chassis. STEVEN LYNCH
Fractal’s Mini-ITX Era is worth considering. Just choose your parts carefully.