Fractal Design Arc XL Review

Written by Matthew Lambert

April 23, 2014 | 08:51

Tags: #arc #arc-xl #atx #e-atx #e-atx-case #full-tower-chassis #tower-case #xl-atx

Companies: #fractal-design

Cooling Performance

Our test kit includes an ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB graphics card and an Intel Core i7-870 CPU, which has been overclocked from 2.93GHz to 3.4GHz using a vcore of 1.305V and a CPU PLL of 1.9V. This is a modest overclock, but our test kit will spend most of its life under high load, so pushing it too far isn't in anybody's interests. More importantly, some poorer-performing cases push the CPU temperature to above 80°C, so even this overclock will prove to be too much for some cases.

The CPU is cooled by a Gelid Tranquillo CPU cooler with a Noctua NF-S12B ULN 120mm fan. The NF-S12B ULN is a low-airflow fan, so it will highlight cases with poor cooling for the CPU. We also locked the fan speed on the graphics card to 30 per cent to prevent the automatic speed control interfering with the results.

We record the temperature of the CPU using RealTemp, noting the temperature of the hottest core, and used GPU-Z to log the temperature of the graphics card. Having recorded the ambient temperature in front of the main air intake of each case, we're then able to calculate the delta T - the difference between the ambient temperature of our lab and the temperature of the hardware. To load the system, we use a combination of the Unigine Heaven benchmark and the Small FFT test in Prime 95.
  • CPU: Intel Core i7-870 CPU overclocked to 3.4GHz
  • Graphics card: ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB
  • Motherboard: Biostar TPower I55
  • RAM: 2 x 2GB OCZ 1,866MHz DDR3
  • SSD: Corsair Force GT 60GB
  • Hard drive: 160GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.9
  • Heatsink: Gelid Tranquillo with a Noctua NF-S12B ULN fan
  • Power supply: Antec Signature SG-650


Case performance - CPU Delta T

Arranged by CPU Delta T

  • SilverStone Fortress FT04 (max speed)
  • Corsair Graphite 760T (max speed)
  • Corsair Graphite 760T (min speed)
  • SilverStone Fortress FT04 (min speed)
  • Fractal Design Core 3000 (max speed)
  • Corsair Carbide Air 540
  • NZXT Phantom 630 (max speed; no HDD cage)
  • Corsair Obsidian 900D
  • NZXT Phantom 820 (max speed)
  • Corsair Obsidian 450D
  • Fractal Design Arc Midi R2 (max speed; no HDD cage)
  • Corsair Obsidian 750D
  • Fractal Design Arc XL (max speed; no HDD cage)
  • Corsair Graphite 230T
  • Fractal Design Define R4 (max speed; no HDD cage)
  • Phanteks Enthoo Primo
  • Fractal Design Define XL R2 (max speed; no HDD cage)
  • Fractal Design Arc XL (max speed)
  • Fractal Design Core 3000 (min speed)
  • Antec P100 (max speed)
  • NZXT Phantom 630 (min speed)
  • NZXT Source 530
  • NZXT Phantom 820 (min speed)
  • Corsair Carbide 330R
  • Xigmatek Midgard II (max speed; no HDD cage)
  • Fractal Design Arc XL (medium speed)
  • NZXT H630
  • Nanoxia Deep Silence 2 (max speed)
  • Fractal Design Arc Midi R2 (min speed)
  • Fractal Design Arc XL (min speed)
  • Antec P100 (min speed)
  • Fractal Design Define R4 (min speed)
  • Cooltek Antiphon (max speed)
  • Fractal Design Define XL R2 (min speed)
  • NZXT H230
  • Xigmatek Midgard II (min speed)
  • BitFenix Ronin
  • Corsair Carbide Spec-01
  • Nanoxia Deep Silence 2 (min speed)
  • Cooltek Antiphon (min speed)
    • 40
    • 44
    • 42
    • 50
    • 44
    • 51
    • 46
    • 49
    • 47
    • 47
    • 48
    • 47
    • 48
    • 48
    • 48
    • 49
    • 48
    • 49
    • 49
    • 45
    • 49
    • 45
    • 49
    • 47
    • 49
    • 47
    • 49
    • 48
    • 49
    • 49
    • 49
    • 49
    • 50
    • 47
    • 50
    • 48
    • 51
    • 49
    • 51
    • 56
    • 52
    • 51
    • 52
    • 51
    • 52
    • 52
    • 52
    • 52
    • 53
    • 46
    • 53
    • 51
    • 54
    • 50
    • 55
    • 49
    • 55
    • 50
    • 55
    • 52
    • 55
    • 59
    • 56
    • 55
    • 57
    • 52
    • 58
    • 53
    • 58
    • 53
    • 58
    • 53
    • 58
    • 54
    • 59
    • 49
    • 64
    • 54
    • 71
    • 59
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
°C, lower is better
  • CPU Delta T
  • GPU Delta T

Case performance - GPU Delta T

Arranged by GPU Delta T

  • SilverStone Fortress FT04 (max speed)
  • Corsair Obsidian 450D
  • Fractal Design Arc Midi R2 (max speed; no HDD cage)
  • Xigmatek Midgard II (max speed; no HDD cage)
  • Fractal Design Core 3000 (max speed)
  • Corsair Carbide Air 540
  • Corsair Obsidian 750D
  • Fractal Design Arc XL (max speed; no HDD cage)
  • Fractal Design Define XL R2 (max speed; no HDD cage)
  • NZXT Phantom 630 (max speed; no HDD cage)
  • Corsair Graphite 230T
  • Fractal Design Arc XL (max speed)
  • SilverStone Fortress FT04 (min speed)
  • Corsair Obsidian 900D
  • NZXT Phantom 820 (max speed)
  • Fractal Design Define R4 (max speed; no HDD cage)
  • Phanteks Enthoo Primo
  • Fractal Design Core 3000 (min speed)
  • Nanoxia Deep Silence 2 (max speed)
  • Corsair Carbide Spec-01
  • Corsair Graphite 760T (max speed)
  • NZXT H630
  • Fractal Design Arc Midi R2 (min speed)
  • Corsair Graphite 760T (min speed)
  • NZXT Phantom 630 (min speed)
  • NZXT Source 530
  • Fractal Design Arc XL (medium speed)
  • Corsair Carbide 330R
  • NZXT Phantom 820 (min speed)
  • Fractal Design Arc XL (min speed)
  • Cooltek Antiphon (max speed)
  • Fractal Design Define XL R2 (min speed)
  • NZXT H230
  • Xigmatek Midgard II (min speed)
  • BitFenix Ronin
  • Nanoxia Deep Silence 2 (min speed)
  • Fractal Design Define R4 (min speed)
  • Antec P100 (max speed)
  • Antec P100 (min speed)
  • Cooltek Antiphon (min speed)
    • 40
    • 44
    • 49
    • 45
    • 49
    • 45
    • 53
    • 46
    • 47
    • 47
    • 48
    • 47
    • 49
    • 47
    • 49
    • 47
    • 50
    • 47
    • 48
    • 48
    • 49
    • 48
    • 50
    • 48
    • 46
    • 49
    • 48
    • 49
    • 48
    • 49
    • 49
    • 49
    • 49
    • 49
    • 51
    • 49
    • 55
    • 49
    • 59
    • 49
    • 42
    • 50
    • 54
    • 50
    • 55
    • 50
    • 44
    • 51
    • 52
    • 51
    • 52
    • 51
    • 53
    • 51
    • 52
    • 52
    • 52
    • 52
    • 55
    • 52
    • 57
    • 52
    • 58
    • 53
    • 58
    • 53
    • 58
    • 53
    • 58
    • 54
    • 64
    • 54
    • 56
    • 55
    • 51
    • 56
    • 55
    • 59
    • 71
    • 59
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
°C, lower is better
  • CPU Delta T
  • GPU Delta T

Read our performance analysis on the next page.
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