Fractal Pop Air Review
Introduction, Pricing, and Hardware Support
Published: 29th June 2022 | Source: OC3D Internal Testing | Price: |
Meet Fractal's Pop Air
If I am honest, after the triumph that was the Fractal Torrent (review here), I was excited to hear that we had a new Fractal case to grace our offices. Better still, the case had Air in its name, signifying that airflow was a priority and that we should expect staller cooling performance. Expectations were here, and hearing that this case was a more budget-oriented offering from Fractal potentially signalled great things for the low-cost PC market.
Presenting the Fractal Pop Air, one half of the new Fractal pop series. As the name suggests, the Pop Air is an airflow-oriented design with a mesh covered front and an external aesthetic that is a mix between NZXT's popular H510 Flow and Fractal's Meshify series, both of which are great case designs. To say the least, we expected a lot from the Pop Air, despite is more modest pricing.
Fractal Pop Air VS Fractal Pop Silent
As mentioned before, the Fractal Pop is available as the Pop Silent and the Pop Air, with the Pop Silent coming without top fan mounts and with plain front panels while the Pop Air features a mesh covered front panel and top fan mounts to enable additional airflow. If you want silence, the Pop Silent is the case you should look at, and if airflow is what you want, you should look into the Pop Air, at least in theory.
Pricing and Colour Options
In the UK, Fractal's Pop Air costs between £72.99 and £81.99, with pricing varying depending on your desire for pre-installed RGB fans and whether or not you want one of Fractal's crazier colour options. Aside from standard black/white colour options, there are Magenta (pink), orange, blue, and green colour options. Today we are looking at the Magenta model.
USB-C Add-on
As standard, the Pop Air features support for two USB 3.0 Type-A ports and has a mounting location for a USB Type-C add-on. If you purchase this addon (MRSP £7.99), you will be able to add a USB Type-C 10Gbps connector to the chassis. Whether or not this add-on is worth it is up to you and your specific requirements. 
Radiator Extension Bracket
To add some additional versatility to the case's top panel, Fractal has supplied extended radiator installation brackets to offset top mounted 120mm or 140mm radiators, adding additional clearance for cable management and tall motherboard components. 
HDD Support and Optical Disk Drive Support
Yes, Fractal's Pop Air supports optical disk drives, up to two of them! While this is uncommon for modern PC cases, it is a useful feature for those who still value their optical drive bays.
Alternatively, the space used by these drive bays can be used as a hidden storage compartment within your PC, and as space for HDDs and SSDs. By default, this case ships with two HDD/SSD brackets and a single dual 2.5-inch SSD bracket. Additional brackets can be purchased from Fractal at additional cost.
Below is a chart which describes the Fractal Pop Air's HDD, SSD, and ODD support.
Most Recent Comments
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Originally Posted by ImprovizoR
With so many versions of the case, you'd think they'd let people pick an airflow variant with a solid side panel. For those of us who don't like panels made of glass that can easily shatter. What a dumb gimmick.
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Originally Posted by Warchild
If its tempered glass, it should not easily shatter.
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However, you would have to be pretty damn clumsy.
The strongest form of glass is laminated. Where they take two thin sheets of glass and sandwich them over a substrate that is completely clear. If it breaks? nothing falls off. However, that is very expensive stuff. Windshields are laminated, and the rear screen (because of the heater) and the side windows are usually all tempered.Quote
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Originally Posted by AlienALX
It's the other way around dude. Tempered glass will shatter. It's designed that way so that it breaks into tiny little pieces rather than going into shards that could be very dangerous.
However, you would have to be pretty damn clumsy. The strongest form of glass is laminated. Where they take two thin sheets of glass and sandwich them over a substrate that is completely clear. If it breaks? nothing falls off. However, that is very expensive stuff. Windshields are laminated, and the rear screen (because of the heater) and the side windows are usually all tempered. |
In other words, its not meant to break easily but it if does, it will shatter. I guess my comment above was worded a little badly.Quote
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