Fractal Meshify 3 XL Case Review

While most folks concern themselves with the exterior of the case it is nice to get a peek inside to see what is going on.  The side panels are held in place with the normal assortment of thumbscrews and swing away from the chassis.

The first thing you will notice is that the case has an extremely large opening for heatsink access followed by several smooth plastic panels to help clean up the interior of the case. 

Flipping the case around you will find the supporting structure for what makes the front side so clean.  Cable routing is handled vertically, there are several, mounts for hard drives, fan controller and some smartly placed fan locations.  It is details like this that make a good case a great one.

Starting with the drive rack, these are a combo unit supporting both 3.5” and 2.5” drives with an option to double stack smaller SSDs.  The documentation indicates there is an additional drive location at the bottom of the case but, I don’t see many people using this location, much less finding it.

Cable routing is handled using one of the most unique plastic clips I have ever seen.  Obviously, this is a two part system with a base plate being mounted to the motherboard tray and the removable part clamping the cables in place.  There are additional tie down locations scattered about the chassis making any errors in your cable routing a “you” problem.

The “corner office” or “fish tank” chassis design has become rather popular with the kiddos these days allowing you to get all the viewing of your hardware without the clutter of things getting in the way.  For the Meshify 3 XL you get all the benefits of the “corner office” design without having to admit to yourself that you are, well, you know.

To take advantage of the cooling design of the “corner office” you need to remove the interior plastic panels which expose some smartly designed fan mounts that will accept up to 3x 140mm fans.  Or, leave the plastic in place and enjoy the fact that you have options when you want to make the jump to DIY watercooling.