Fractal Design Torrent PC case review
Fractal Design’s Torrent is undoubtedly well designed, but how does it perform in terms of airflow? We test whether or not the Torrent is just another pretty case.
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Fractal Design Torrent case review: The Fractal Design Torrent turned many heads here at WePC when it came through the door, from its geometric layered shape design to its modularity. We like this case.
Fractal Design has been in the PC case business since 2009 when it released the Define case series. This was the case that propelled Fractal Design into the US market and put the company on the map. Ever since then, Fractal Design’s cases just got better and better, with Fractal Design’s torrent being no exception.
Now read: Best CPU cooler 2022.
Fractal Design Torrent
Size
ATX Mid-tower
Total fan mounts
7x 120/140 mm or 4x 180 mm
Case dimensions (LxWxH)
544 x 242 x 530 mm
Net weight
11.1 kg
Motherboard compatibility
E-ATX / ATX / mATX / ITX / SSI-EEB / SSI-CEB
Dust filters
Front, Bottom
Size
ATX Mid-tower
Total fan mounts
7x 120/140 mm or 4x 180 mm
Case dimensions (LxWxH)
544 x 242 x 530 mm
Net weight
11.1 kg
Motherboard compatibility
E-ATX / ATX / mATX / ITX / SSI-EEB / SSI-CEB
Dust filters
Front, Bottom
Dedicated 3.5″ drive mounts
2 (included)
Dedicated 2.5″ drive mounts
4 (included)
Front fan
3x 120/140 mm or 2x 180 mm (2x Dynamic GP-18 included in standard version, 2x Prisma AL-18 included in RGB version)
Bottom fan
3x 120/140 mm or 2x 180 mm (3x Dynamic GP-14 PWM included in standard version, 3x Prisma AL-14 PWM included in RGB version)
Rear fan
1x 120/140 mm
Fixed cable straps
Yes
Tool-less push-to-lock
Both side panels
- Great Airflow
- Robust
- Stylish
- Cable management options
- PSU position
We have the ‘base’ model of the Fractal Torrent in black. The Torrent is available in a few colors, and in an RGB variant, where the front fans are equipped with RGB LEDs. Don’t worry though, there’s still some RGB on the base model – much to our delight.
Main features of the Fractal Design Torrent
- Tool-less tempered glass front and rear panels.
- RGB accent on PSU shroud.
- Geometric honeycomb and parallel fin design.
- Plenty of cable management support.
- Huge 2x 180mm front fans (DYNAMIC GP18), with the option to mount 120 and 140mm.
- 3x 140mm DYNAMIC GP14 bottom mounted fans.
- Modular design for ease of access.
Fractal Design Torrent case review: The visuals
We will now discuss the visuals of the Fractal Design Torrent and give our subjective opinion unburdened by the weight of performance.
The front
The front of the Torrent is nothing short of beautiful. The round cornered rectangular silhouette complements the parallel line geometry on the front of the case magnificently.
This whole panel is dark matte silver on the inside and the outside remains matte black, this creates a small contrast without running the elegance that black brings. The front is made from plastic, meaning it’s lightweight considering how thick the panel is.
The front panel is removable and contains a dust filter on the inside of it, as the front panel itself is completely permeable and exposed to the outside air, we need a dust filter to, well, filter the dust.
Behind the dust filter and this heckin’ chonker of a front panel, you’ll find the bare bone chassis, with the two huge 180mm fans attached to the inside of the case.
The front of the case is incredibly modular and offers a great deal of flexibility when thinking about fan placement. The front of the Torrent can house the following:
- 2x 180mm fans
- 3x 140mm fans
- 3x 120mm fans
- 1x 420mm radiator
Note that no two of these configurations can be installed at the same time.
The reason the Torrent can house so many configurations is that it ships with a bracket that you can attach to the front of the case on the inside, to expand the compatibility beyond 2x 180mm fans.
The rear
You’ll notice immediately that the power supply cut out is all the way at the top of the case, this was pretty common in the PC cases of yesteryear but still has its advantages today.
The sleek, geometric honeycomb design allows almost completely unrestricted airflow out the back of the case. The whole rear of the case is designed for maximum airflow, the reason this honeycomb design is used is that it’s the highest strength per amount of material. Allowing the rear of the case to be as strong and as light as possible.
The rear of the case fits either a 120mm or 140mm fan, with a radiator up to 140mm. Ensuring you’re covered on every cooling configuration.
The motherboard I/O cutout and seven PCI expansion slots are pretty standard and are exactly what you’d come to expect in any modern case.
The near side
Both of the side panels on the Torrent are full clear tempered glass, giving you an awe-inspiring view of your creation. Both panels use the new tool-less design, giving you easy access to your build at any time.
It’s from the side that you can view the hint of RGB that we mentioned earlier. There’s a small defused strip of RGB on the PSU shroud on the top left of the PC. And despite the small obstruction the PSU shroud causes, the side of the PC is basically completely unrestricted. Meaning you can see every single part of your PC.
The glass side panels feature a small black bezel that frames the windows perfectly, and each panel features a small geometric shape as the “pull point” to release the tool-less panels. This shape fits in beautifully with the geometric aesthetic the Torrent has embodied.
It is recommended you remove the top panel of the case first, you don’t NEED to do this by any means. We just find it easier to do so.
The bottom
Not sure if this classes as the side or the bottom, but there are a few things we’d like to discuss regarding the bottom of the Fractal torrent case.
A power supply shroud obstructs the bottom of most PC cases, this is not the case in the Torrent, however, so instead the team at Fractal Design fitted the case with the ability to house three 120mm or 140mm fans along the bottom.
The bottom inside part of the case consists of a dust filter and fan mounting brackets. The brackets are removable to ease the fan installation process.
The Torrent is also raised a good inch or two off the ground to allow for better airflow since the bottom of the case can be configured to be the main intake.
This is incredibly advantageous, especially since the bottom fans screw into their own unit that also consists of a very fine dust filter, to keep bits of yourself/pets out of the inside of your PC.
The top
The top of the case follows the same geometric design as it curves sharply around the top of the Torrent to encompass the sides. Around 90% of the top panel is removable to access the power supply.
Under the outer top panel, you will find the recessed rear portion to house the power supply, the base of which is made from that familiar honeycomb pattern we saw on the back of the case.
The upper portion of the top panel is for cable management and even has specific cut-outs to aid that.
The top of the case is where you’ll find all of the Torrent’s I/O. The I/O is situated on the irremovable front section of the top panel. The Torrents I/O consists of:
- Separate headphone and microphone jacks
- 2x USB 3.0 connectors
- Power button
- Reset button
- USB type C connector.
The inside
The inside of the case is well designed and incredibly functional. With clear markings and cutouts designed to ease the component installation process.
The fully matte black finish accompanied with a small fractal logo printed on the bottom left helps bring even more style and sophistication into the case.
There are rubber grommets situated around the motherboard plate to allow for the easy routing of cables to the motherboard, the grommets are there to stop there being empty holes in the case. The grommets are high quality, well secured, and soft.
The Torrent itself can house anything up to an E-ATX motherboard, meaning there’s plenty of room for activities inside the case. Especially if you’ve opted for a smaller ATX motherboard.
There are pre-installed standoff screws along with a supporting pillar in the center of the PC case to support your motherboard as you screw it into the Torrent. This is an excellent quality of life implement that ALL PC cases should have regardless of price bracket.
The rear panel
The back panel of course fits the aesthetic of the rest of the case, but inch per inch has way more functionality than the rest of the Torrent. The junk in the trunk of this case is certainly no junk at all, but four 2.5-inch SSD bays scaling the left-hand side of the rear panel.
Lining the bottom right of the panel, we can observe two fully fledged 3.5-inch bays for all your HDD needs.
Situated at the bottom of the case, you’ll also find a fan hub that has space for up to six fans. The fan hub is also a PWM controller (pulse width modulator) meaning the power and speed at which a fan operates can be independently controlled.
You’ll also find many cable management options tucked away at the back of the PC, including a cable channel that runs down the middle and slightly offset to the left, and cable tie anchors everywhere you’d ever need them.
Not to mention the smooth high-quality grommets used to occupy the routing holes for your main power cables.
All of these features put together make for a brilliantly well-designed, functional rear panel. You’ll never be a miss back here, as you have all the mounting and cable routing basis covered.
Fractal Design Torrent case review: Pros and cons
We’re going to ruin the con section now by saying that there are not a whole lot of “cons” to be found in the Fractal design Torrent. But it has more than a few “pros”
Pros
To start with, there are plenty of cable management options in the Torrent, with cable anchors, grommets, and routing clips littering the rear panel.
The top-mounted PSU makes for an interesting modem yet retro look, also leaving the bottom of the case free for pure airflow.
The whole case as well as the materials used to construct it feel high quality and very premium. None of the Torrent feels like it’s going to break if we put pressure on it.
Cons
The only negative thing we have to say about the Torrent is the placement of the PSU means we can’t always get enough length to properly rout the cables/hide them well. These issues occurred with our PCIe cables, wiring up the GPU was difficult with the Ion+ and Torrent pairing. Ironic.
Performance
We tested the Fractal Design Torrent in both a synthetic and real-world scenario, in this Fractal Design Torrent case review. We wanted to see how well the Torrent eliminated hot stagnant air from inside its chassis.
Before we jump into the testing, it’s important to note the kind of system we built into the Torrent. Our 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.
Note, we tested the Torrent in its standard configuration, plus a 120mm fan mounted in the rear spot available.
The synthetic testing was handled by Furmark at 1440P and Aida64 extreme, the real-world benchmarks were conducted on Battlefield 5 at 1440p ultra settings.
Our tests were conducted for 20 minutes with the before and after temperatures recorded. We attempted to keep these tests as controlled as possible, but they were both conducted during the English summer heatwave.
With all that being said. Let’s jump into the performance of the Torrent.
As you can see, the ambient temperature was pretty warm that day. Not only does it make us miserable, it greatly reduces a cooling system’s ability to cool. Resulting in higher temperatures.
The idle temperatures both externally and internally hovered around 23.5°C.
Synthetic testing
The synthetic testing was conducted using two fairly well-known stress testing applications in this Fractal Design Torrent 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.
The results showed an increase in internal temperature by 0.7°C (24°C) and an increase in external temperature by 0.1°C (23.6°C).
Real-world testing
The real-world testing was conducted on Battlefield 5 (V), a full 20-minute gaming session ensued with the settings cranked all the way up to ultra in a fullscreen 2560×1440 resolution.
The results of the test showed that, Jack Howarth is a god with the Lee Enfield MK4 and that the internal temperature climbed from 23.3°C to 24.1°C, totaling a 0.8°C increase.
The external temperature also increased by 0.2°C over ambient temperature, showing that things were really starting to heat up in and around the Torrent.
Fractal Design Torrent
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Final word
The Fractal Design Torrent is an excellent PC case if you like interesting geometric designs and tidy cable management options. The sleek black tall geometry makes for a modern intricate presence within your setup.
The fan configuration and airflow potential are the Torrent’s main talking point, with two monstrous 180mm front-mounted fans. You’ll be hard-pressed to find stronger airflow potential in a case of this size.
The top-mounted PSU is interesting but doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for cable stretch, as it’s difficult to plug in certain cables in this configuration.
We have a couple of gripes with the torrent, but nothing too major. We think it’s an incredibly good PC case, worthy of most high-end systems. And most importantly, your time and money. We hope you enjoyed our Fractal Design Torrent case review.
