Fractal Design North review: A unique PC case for a brighter Fractal future

Summary

• Fractal Design North offers a unique, stylish design with real wood and mesh panels, resembling Ikea furniture.
• The PC case provides good thermal performance and solid airflow for powerful systems.
• With a price just above $100, the Fractal Design North is a great value option for those looking for something different.

Although the PC case has evolved over the last couple of decades, it's becoming more difficult for manufacturers to differentiate their offerings from the competition without ruining a design or making it an absolute pain to build a PC. Enter Fractal Design, which is attempting a rebrand of sorts in part with the Fractal Design North, a unique mid-tower ATX PC case with some notable improvements over your usual chassis affair.

The case uses actual wood — although it's admittedly glued to plastic — and mesh panels, and it promises solid airflow for more powerful systems. It also has an interesting look that almost transforms the desktop system into a piece of Ikea furniture. If Ikea were to design a PC case and release it in-store, this is what I'd imagine it would look like.

After reviewing the excellent Fractal Design Meshify 2, I had high hopes for the North. Spoiler alert: this is a fantastic PC case. Coming in at just north (pun intended) of $100, I'd recommend picking one up if you want something different.

About this review: XDA purchased the Fractal Design North in black for this review, and Fractal Design had no input on its contents.

Pricing and availability

The Fractal Design North is available for $140 in Chalk White or Charcoal Black. There's then the option for a mesh side panel or tempered glass, depending on whether you prioritize airflow or looks. That said, the mesh side panel looks great and continues the pattern design from the top panel, creating a cohesive design. There's no price difference between the colors and side panels, allowing you to choose solely based on personal preference.

Design and features

Meet Fractal's Scandinavian PC case

The Fractal Design North is a mid-tower ATX PC case with standard dimensions, but the stars of the show are the vertical wooden strips on the front panel. They're solid wood and are either bamboo for the white or pine for the black variants. Interestingly, these wooden strips are relatively thin and are glued to plastic guides attached to the frame. It doesn't ruin the aesthetic, though I would have liked to see the wood meet or go through the mesh itself.

The stars of the show are the vertical wooden strips on the front panel.

I'm reviewing the Fractal Design North in black with the mesh side panel, which I imagine will be one of the more popular choices for those considering this PC case. The left-hand side panel has mesh, and so does the top panel. The side panels can be removed with thumb screws, and the top panel has a leather tab that can be pulled for easy access inside the case. It would've been nice to see a hinge for the left-side panel like in some other PC cases, though.

A notable difference between the glass and mesh side panel versions is the inclusion (or omission) of the side fan mount bracket. It's only available with the mesh side panel, and it allows you to install an additional two 140mm fans to aid internal airflow. Speaking of cooling, the front panel can hold a radiator up to 360mm in length. The top panel supports up to a 240mm radiator, and there's a single 120mm fan mount on the rear.

The front I/O consists of two USB-A 3.0 ports, a single USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 port, and two audio jacks (one for headphones and another for microphones).

Building a PC

It's easy to build a tidy PC inside the North

Fractal Design's North is capable of supporting an ATX, Micro ATX, or Mini-ITX motherboards. A GPU with a length of 355mm can be installed, though this will interfere with the included fan bracket if you use the all-mesh North. I'd recommend using a CPU air cooler or AIO liquid cooler, depending on the processor. To put the North to the test, I used an Intel Core i9-13900K and Core i5-13600K to see how it performed with a few different configurations, including air and AIO coolers.

Installing the motherboard with RAM and CPU already present is the usual affair with a mid-tower ATX chassis. It's compact enough whilst offering plenty of space to work with. There's an optional HDD/SSD cage located below the PSU shroud, which can be inverted to make it easier to work with cabling from the power supply. There are a few cable tie points and some Velcro behind the motherboard tray to keep everything neat. It's not as good as NZXT's cable management, but it's not terrible.

Performance

No trouble cooling powerful CPUs

Fractal Design includes two 140mm fans with the Fractal Design North. I'd opt to remove and replace these with aftermarket fans if you're planning to populate all available fan mounts. This would allow you to install three 120mm fans (and an optional 360mm radiator for an AIO or custom open loop solution) on the front for maximum air intake through the mesh. With two 120mm fans up top, on the side with the optional bracket, and a 120mm fan in the rear, the North can boast solid thermal performance.

Performance is excellent and makes the North a great pick for a gaming system build.

As I previously mentioned, I'm using some of the best CPUs available to test this case, including the 13900K and 13600K from Intel. The air cooler used was the be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 and the AIO was NZXT's Kraken Elite 360 to take advantage of the front-facing 360mm radiator support. I saw the Intel Core i9-13900K hit temperatures of around 70 degrees Celsius for gaming and general usage, which is great. When stress testing the system, I did manage to push the processor to its thermal limit, but that's by design and allows Intel to get as much performance out of the chip as possible.

The noise came in at 54 dB(A), which is considerably loud, and all fans were set to 50% throughout the testing period. The Core i5-13600K came in at lower temperatures, which would allow our configured cooling solution to run at reduced speeds and produce less noise. Performance is excellent, however, and makes the North a great pick for a gaming system build.

Should you buy the Fractal Design North?

You should buy the Fractal Design North if:

• You want a PC case with a unique design
• You want a chassis with a healthy use of mesh
• You plan on using more powerful hardware and need good airflow

You shouldn't buy the Fractal Design North if:

• You plan on using enthusiast-grade hardware
• You want the quietest PC case
• You want to use and enjoy plenty of RGB lighting

Fractal has always made great performing cases, though the company struggled with creating interesting designs. In older Fractal cases, you could choose between a black ATX tower, a black ATX tower, or a black ATX tower. The North is a welcome change that should help set the company's future catalog of cases apart from the competition. I'm paying attention to Fractal's future releases after the launch of the North, Pop, and Torrent cases.

The Fractal Design North isn't designed for mass adoption. This is more of a niche chassis, leaving the Pop to take on other well-established mid-tower cases. It is unique, however, and allows those who want something with flair to either stand out from other options in this market segment and/or blend in with other pieces of furniture.

I was impressed by the visuals, the performance, and how easy it is to build a capable system.

I'd also like to see where Fractal can go with further wood and other natural materials. For the Fractal Design North, I was impressed by the visuals, the performance, and how easy it is to build a capable system inside the outer shell. So long as you don't intend to use the side fan mount with larger graphics cards, you'll have a great mid-tower ATX PC case that will surely turn some heads.