Fractal Design Focus 2 PC case review
We put the Fractal Design Focus 2 through its paces and give a hands-on experience of what it's like to build in.
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Fractal Design Focus 2 PC case review: The Fractal Design Focus 2 is a budget PC case, while the Focus 2 may seem like a basic case on the outside, rest assured there’s plenty more to it than meets the eye.
Now read: Fractal Design Torrent review.
Fractal Design has been a heavy hitter in the PC case industry since around 2009 when Fractal released the Define case series. The Define case series secured Fractal Design a place in the US market. Ever since then, Fractal Design has continued to improve upon its very strong Define series foundation.
The Focus 2’s minimalist design is a huge advantage over the “over-the-top” gaming cases we see a lot of these days, but what’s the quality like? And what is it like to build in?
Fractal Design Focus 2
Size
ATX Mid-tower
Total fan mounts
6x 120 mm or 4x 140 mm
Case dimensions (LxWxH)
472 x 215 x 451 mm
Net weight
TG: 6,4 kg, Solid: 6,1 kg
Motherboard compatibility
ATX / mATX / Mini ITX
Dust filters
Front, Bottom
Size
ATX Mid-tower
Total fan mounts
6x 120 mm or 4x 140 mm
Case dimensions (LxWxH)
472 x 215 x 451 mm
Net weight
TG: 6,4 kg, Solid: 6,1 kg
Motherboard compatibility
ATX / mATX / Mini ITX
Dust filters
Front, Bottom
- Stylish
- Inexpensive
- Opaque rear panel
- Lots of drive space
- Not many cable management options
- Incomplete PSU shroud
Fractal Design Focus 2 fan and radiator support
As you can see, the Fractal Design Focus 2 comes with plenty of support for cooling configurations of all shapes and sizes. With room for a 360mm radiator mounted to the front of the case. Impressive considering the Focus 2 is on the smaller side of the mid-tower.
Main features of the Fractal Design Focus 2
- Easy to remove side panels
- Minimalistic design
- Included fan bracket for 120mm fans
- The geometric, strong triangular pattern on the back for breathability and rigidity
- Two included Fractal Design Aspect 14 140mm fans.
Fractal Design Focus 2 PC case review: The visuals
We will now discuss the visuals of the Fractal Design Focus 2 and give our opinion on the case before we delve into performance metrics.
The front
The font of the Fractal Design Focus 2 is … simple. And that’s not a bad thing at all. We live in an age of RGB rainbow everything and sharp, futuristic, ultra-modern designs. But the Fractal Focus 2 stands to be the polar opposite of that. With interesting geometry limited to the layered front of the PC case.
The front is simply a small mesh to capture dust and any air debris that might be floating around, with the Fractal Design logo stamped into the bottom left.
The Focus 2’s front silhouette is a rectangle with flattened corners, painted in a matte black finish. simple but effective.
On its front face, the Focus 2 can fit up to three 120mm fans, or two 140mm fans up to a total of 360mm, this means you can fit a full 360mm radiator up front if you’re thinking of going the liquid cooling route this build.
The rear
The rear of the Focus 2 is again very simple and minimalistic, with the same matte black color scheme. The Silhouette is the same rectangular shape as the front, just without the flattened corners.
The interesting thing about the rear of the case is the geometric and rigid triangular pattern lining the back panel of the case, this back panel allows for both breathability and rigidity.
Makes sense considering the back panel is usually where hot air is exhausted from. Speaking of exhausting air, the Fractal Design Focus 2 is compatible with one 120mm or 140mm exhaust fan.
We can also observe the standard cutouts and seven expansion slot configurations we’d expect on most mid-towers.
We’re also glad to see the return of the bottom-mounted PSU, this differs from the Fractal Torrent, whose PSU was top-mounted.
The near side
The near side, or front side panel as it’s also called, is a glass-bordered side panel that almost completely comprises the full side of the case.
The panel has two thumb screws that attach the panel to the chassis.
Removing the side panel we can see the standard configuration we’d come to expect from mid-tower cases. The PSU is hidden by a shroud that extends the full width of the case, however, there’s no top to this shroud.
So. where other cases will fully enclose the bottom and disrupt a clear airflow pattern. The Focus 2 leaves the bottom of the case bare and exposed, so as to not disrupt airflow.
The bottom
The bottom does not allow for any additional fans, and it’s just a pretty standard bottom. There’s a removable dust filter under the case to allow for easily cleanable power supply filtration.
The floor inside the case is a place to lay your PSU cables protected by the half-shroud we mentioned earlier. So there’s nothing particularly notable about the bottom of the Focus 2. But again, this is a budget case and does everything it needs to, especially at this price point.
There’s room in the bottom for the standard ATX PSU design, this case will not allow the installation of an SFX power supply.
The top
The top of the Fractal Design Focus 2 is simple in its design but very effective. There’s a large removable (for easy cleaning) mesh cut-out present for airflow towards the rear of the top panel, and the I/O occupies the front right of the top.
The top has space for two 120mm fans or two 140mm fans, depending on what you want to mount. This should also go without saying that you can fit up to a 240mm radiator up top too (280mm radiators do not fit).
The great thing is you can switch fan sizes up top on the fly, without the use of a bracket like the front of the case requires.
I/O
Speaking of I/O, we have two USB 3.0 ports, separate 3.5mm audio and microphone jacks, and a power button that lights up when the system is powered. The I/O is laid out in a stealthy, minimalistic fashion. Adding to the overall low profile of the Focus 2.
The inside
The inside of the Focus 2 houses everything you’d need to safely and securely mount your PC hardware.
The Fractal Design Focus 2 can support motherboard form factors of up to ATX, this also includes mATX and Mini ITX motherboards. There’s also a large cut-out near the 24pin motherboard power connector to route all your cables tidily to the back of the PC.
There’s also a smaller cut-out towards the center bottom of the case, to route cables such as HD audio, or internal USB connectors.
The Focus 2 facilitates everything you’d need a PC case for in 2022.
The rear panel
The rear panel of the Fractal Focus 2 has a surprisingly large amount of support for a case of this price point.
First of all, the rear side panel is not glass, or transparent at all. It’s made of painted aluminum meaning you don’t need to be super tidy when dealing with your cables. For someone who hates cable management, this is a huge plus.
Next up is the fact that the Focus 2 supports four storage drives simultaneously, that’s two 3.5-inch HDDs and two 2.5-inch SSDs. Not to mention whatever M.2 drives you can fit into your motherboard. A surprising amount of storage for a case in this price bracket.
The cable management options are minimal, we’ll be honest. There’s not much in the way of a routing tray or guide, but there are plenty of cable tie anchor points on the back panel to keep your cables at bay.
There’s a semi-clear routing point down the center of the case, but there are no guides to help the cables stay put as we see on some more premium cases, like the Fractal Torrent.
Fractal Design Focus 2: Pros and cons
Here we will delve into the pros and cons of the Fractal Design Focus 2 PC case.
Pros
There is something very clean about the Focus 2, it’s minimal and sleek with an interesting use of geometry to add a little flair to the front and rear of the case.
The front of the case can be changed and configured depending on your needs using the included brackets. These brackets change the front fan configuration from 2x 140mm to 3x 120mm fans. You can also attach a 360mm radiator.
The rear panel is completely opaque, meaning nobody can see the cable management atrocities you commit.
The Focus 2 has a very large storage capacity, accommodating two of each 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch storage device.
Cons
The fractal Focus 2 has very few cons, the only thing we’d really wish for is an extra fan at the rear as many PC cases come equipped with three or more fans.
And we would have liked to have seen a longer, more enclosed PSU shroud, just to hide some of the mess at the back of the power supply.
These are two very minor complaints, as fans are not very expensive compared to other PC parts.
Performance
We tested the Fractal Design Focus 2 in both a synthetic and real-world scenario, in this Fractal Design Focus 2 case review. We wanted to see how well the Focus 2 PC case eliminated hot air from inside its chassis.
Before we jump into the testing, it’s important to note the specifications of the system we built into the Fractal Focus 2. Our case test system consisted of:
- Ryzen 7 5800X
- RTX 3080 MSI GamingX Trio
- Aorus Master X570
- 32GB Corsair Vengeance RGB @3200MHz
- Fractal Design Ion+ 860
- Be Quiet Dark Rock Pro CPU cooler.
The synthetic portion of the testing was handled by two programs, Aida 64 and Furmark in the 1440P benchmark. The real-world gaming scenario was handled by Battlefield V at 1440P Ultra settings.
Our tests were concluded after 20 minutes of running, allowing the case to cool back to idle temperatures during each test. We tried to keep the tests as controlled as possible in this Fractal Design Focus 2 PC case review.
With all that being said, let’s jump into the thermal performance of the Fractal Design Focus 2.
The idle temperatures for the Focus 2 PC case read: 26.1°C for internal and 23.5°C for external.
Synthetic testing
Synthetic testing was performed using two well-known stress testing applications in this Fractal Design Focus 2 case review, Furmark, and Aida64. The settings and AA were cranked up to max on Furmark with a 2560×1440 video resolution. Aida64 was set to stress the CPU in addition to the FPU to make sure we really turned up the heat.
The results showed an increase in internal case temperature by 2.7°C over idle (29.8°C total) and an external temperature increase of 0.2°C over idle (23.7°C total).
Real-world gaming test
The real-world testing was conducted on Battlefield 5 (V), and a full 20-minute gaming session ensued with the settings turned all the way up to ultra in a fullscreen 2560×1440 resolution. We didn’t opt to enable Ray-Tracing however.
The end result showed an increase in the internal temperature of 1.5°C over idle (27.6°C total) and an increase in external temperature that is 0.1°C over idle (23.6°C total).
Price
Surprisingly, this case is very budget-friendly. We say surprisingly because it’s very hard to find a case of this quality for the price Fractal is asking for it. This little do-it-all case is on sale for just $89.99 in the US (£89.99 UK).
Fractal Design Focus 2
Fractal Design Focus 2
Why not check out some of our other case reviews?
- Corsair 5000X case review
- Corsair 5000T case review
- Hyte Y60 review
- Fractal Design R6 review
- Fractal Design Torrent
Final word
The Fractal Design Focus 2 is a very sleek, stylish, and minimalistic PC case. Despite being a very budget case, the Focus 2 has a lot to offer.
Whether that’s its stylish design, masses of storage mounting options, or its customizable front fan support. We believe that every PC gamer sick of all the RGB rainbows and glowing lights will have a place in their battle station for the Fractal Design Focus 2.
For those who enjoy an RGB LED or two, this case also comes in an RGB edition. The base edition that we have here costs just $89, a true bargain for a quality, compact case that isn’t in your face as many are these days.
Thank you Fractal for sending out this beautiful budget PC case. And we hope you enjoyed this Fractal Design Focus 2 PC case review.
