Product Showcase

At the backside of the chassis we notice the gaping hole in the motherboard tray. No it's not done to save money and weight, this is actually a CPU back-plate cutout which allows you to remove and install a new CPU cooler much easier. Typically you'd need to take out the motherboard to install a new cooler, now you can access it from both sides without that unpleasant experience of removing a motherboard from the chassis. Very popular with many chassis manufacturers these days alright.

There is space for cable routing here, not dramatic heaps of it but in-between the motherboard tray and backside panel a good 2.5 cm, not bad and definitely something that has improved over last-gen products from FD. 3cm and wider would have been my preference though.

Fun fact, behind the motherboard tray you can actually install two SSDs. You simply hang the SSD into the cut-outs and secure them with the supplied flat screws, two 2.5" SSD/HDD can be used.

Another fun fact (don't ya love fun  facts!), remove two thumbscrews located at the rear and you can take of the top side of the chassis. This way you can clean out the dust filter. Underneath this location you could also mount 240mm radiators (thick) or 280 and 360mm radiators (slim) for your liquid cooling gear of course. 

And there you have it, the Fractal Design ARC MIDI XL. Plenty of water-cooling support, a fan controller and hey now, a window as standard. A truly excellent chassis folks. I even like the little HIFI component like feet it uses.