I just want to gather my thoughts for a second…
My computer case history is pretty simple. Antec 600 (legendary) into Corsair C70 (legendary) into today with a North XL (disappointment).
The Antec 600 was amazing for the time, and it lasted many many years. I didn’t even really need to upgrade, but when I saw the C70 at Microcenter, it seemed like a no brainer. Big upgrade, great aesthetics, and carrying handles for LAN parties. Good ventilation (for the time), plenty of disk trays, easy to build in, pretty acrylic window.
Fast forward to 2020, and we don’t really do LAN parties anymore (rip).
Fast forward again to 2025 and now my C70 is getting.. old. CPUs and GPUs these days are far too high wattage and TDP to be able to deal with anything less than perfect ventiliation. Adding more fans to the C70 just didn’t seem to make the cut, so it was time for a new case.
I, along with likely many others, see the Fractal Design North and North XL and think “wow what a beautiful case, love the wood inlays”. I’d been thinking about the North for a while, and figured the XL was an easy choice for long term compatibility (Epyc one day?). I drove the hour and a quarter down to Microcenter to see it in person, and it was even better than I’d imagined. Very pretty case, the wood front panel was wonderful, seemed like fantastic ventiliation. Overall, what seemed to be a very good case, so I bought it.
Now, simultaneously, I picked up a Lian Li A3 for my wife. I built hers first, obviously, and it was a dream. Easy side panels, easy building, everything clearly organized and clearly structured. Toolless interactions were a total dream. The few screws I did have to put in were simple, small, and out of the way. Overall, was an amazingly easy case to build in. So having had this experience, I opened the old C70 for the last time, and started pulling parts out.
I compare it best to when a human grows into a chair they’ve lived in for years at a time, there were wires everywhere going everywhere. I don’t even know how it had gotten so tangled and complex, but I suppose having a case for 10 years+ will do that. I then opened the North XL and was immediately off put. The Lian Li came extremely well packaged, extra parts and pieces in a little box with individually labeled bags. Included GPU bracket, several extra clips, extra screws, extra pieces all around, and an extremely clear set of building instructions. It includes alternate layout options, extra brackets, the list goes on.
The North XL on the other hand, did not. The screws were in a small cheap cardboard box, unlabeled, single use sealed plastic for the screws, bare minimum quantities. But, I thought, that’s okay. It’s nearly a $200 case but the screws don’t really matter that much. My first hint of that being a problem is trying to undo the thumb screws. On the first twist, I had to immediately jump to a screwdriver. The thumb screws have an awful sharpness to them, and they’re incredibly tight. But that’s okay, I do have a screwdriver, so I started taking the panels off the case. Once everything was out, I popped open the instructions to be immediately disappointed. The images were far less clear, the words weren’t clear, and it felt like such a downgrade from the $90 case I’d just built.
But yet, I pushed all that aside. I’ve been building computers for years. I know how it all goes together, instructions don’t really matter, so I got to work. Yet again, immediately, more issues revealed themselves. The Fan hub is great, but the cable to get to the motherboard is quite short. If routed straight down, it’s not even close to the motherboard. Maybe if I was running the e-ATX it may fit, but even that seems unlikely. No worries, I’ll just undo the velcro cable ties that Fractal includes and reroute it. It’ll get there. And then I had to do the same for the USB3. And the USBC. Are you sensing a pattern?
All of that is fine though. I can manage cable management, no worries. Then I realize I want to check out the front and I take off the front panel with the wood. Aaaaand it’s plastic. Not any high quality clean plastic but cheap basic injection molding with the wood attached to it. Flimsy. Cheap. Fine for an $80 case, incredibly disappointing on a $200 case where the wood is the key defining feature of why it’s interesting.
Going deeper and figuring out the fan attachments, and they’re screwed in. Hard drive trays are in set hard points with very little expandability options. Wire grommets come off with very little effort.
Maybe if I hadn’t just built the A3, I’d think the North XL was a great case. It pales compared to the C70, but it’s barely a shadow compared to the ease and quality of the A3.
I’m glad I bought it from Microcenter and I have a return policy. I couldn’t imagine buying this and having to just live with it. For $200, what a disappointment.
I’m planning on doing either the Antec Flux Pro (welcome back Antec, glad to see you), or the Lian Li Lancool 217 (because oh my god Lian Li really just gets it), and I couldn’t be more disappointed in all of the hype I clearly fell for with the Fractal North.