What is this thing? Is this like the home pod's
big brother. Maybe it's a desktop dehumidifier or a home theater speaker. Maybe it's a space heater.
Well what about none of those things. Okay maybe space heater. This right here is the Fractal Mood
and does it ever put us into one. We're going to find out all about this Scandinavian designed
SFF case right here right now on Robeytech, but what isn't Scandinavian design but still worth
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without that Watermark. if you've been around the channel we have a special in our hearts for Fractal design.
We love the North, the North XL, the Pop Air, and the Terra. The Fractal Terra was one of
your favorite cases that we built inside of last year, which if you really want to check out that
very popular build. Check this video out right here. So when Fractal told us that they were going to
be releasing a new small form factor PC case we we were ready for it. This is it the Fractal Mood,
which is which is just fun to say mood, mood. With a name like that you can really have some fun.
I built a new pc and let me tell you it's in a mood. Okay so the real question is this. Who is
this case for? I mean it's not a traditional PC case by any means and it's also not the type of
small form factor PC that you'd see showing up at say a LAN party. Fractal actually had an answer
for this question before we could even ask. The Mood is for the modern PC Gamer that grew up and
started developing opinions about Ottomans among other things. In other words Fractal saw the need
for a PC case that could fit sensibly into an adult's living space without becoming the focal
point. Now you're probably saying what kind of adult. Yes there are some of us who love having
the PC be the focal point. With the Mood's soft edges, the size and cloth-like exterior, the vision
tracks. Though to be clear this isn't something new. We've seen cases like the Corsair 2000d, the
NZXT H1, The Cooler Master Ncor 100 Max that have a similar smaller footprint, but they're
just less aesthetically tailored design. So let's get to know the Scandinavian design
inspired PC to see who might it be a good fit for. Let's kick things off with the price
and color choices. At launch the Fractal Mood is available in either Mood like gray, which is a
bit more taupe than beige. I can't believe that I even have that much wording in my in my video
in general. I got taupe and Mood light gray in the same sentence or Mood black, which is what
we have right here. Both colors cost $149.99 and they're available right now. Since we're
talking about this PC fitting into a living space. How big is it? While the mood is 8.35 in
or 212 mm deep, 8.35 in or 212 mm wide, and 17.83 or 433 mm tall. So from a comparison standpoint that's
about as tall as three standard ballpark hot dogs or a giraffe's tongue and it's slightly less wide
than a standard dodgeball. As far as weight goes the Mood weighs roughly 13 lb or 4.6 kg, which
for comparison is a whole .9 kg or nearly 2 lb lighter than the Corsair 2000d. For case I/O and
controls the Mood has two usb3 type A ports, one USB 3.2 gen 2x2 type- C port, a combined audio jack,
as well as a power button. All of the front I/O is tucked neatly down at the bottom front edge of
the Mood. In other words the Mood has a sensible number of ports accessible from the front of the
case. And you know what I really do actually like where the connectors are at for the I/O at least,
because some of these smaller cases try to slap the I/O on the top and what was once a nice neat
desk with a small footprint now becomes a mess of wires like an octopus. And you know what it I just
you know how I feel about a mess of wires. Now one thing that isn't necessarily okay is the I/O stuff
here at the bottom, because of how HDMI and stuff like that is sometimes, depending on the length
of the cable, you can actually have some issues. So just be careful with the I/O and especially at the
bottom to make sure that you have smaller display port and smaller HDMI cables. Just a little the
more you know. Now as we explore the Mood we're going to talk about what actually fits inside of
this thing and we're going to have to give some commentary along the way, which we typically say
for the end of a review like this. I think you'll understand once we kind of get into it. Okay let's
start with how to open this thing up. So starting at the back of the case this perforated panel is
locked into place by two tabs at the bottom. Just apply a little tug, it's actually a pretty good
tug, on either side of the panel and it comes right off. After that there are two screws that
need to be removed and set aside somewhere safe and once those are out you can just lift up the
top and hey you're in. As for motherboard support the Mood is limited to mini ITX motherboards and
for very good reason. As big as this case looks the economy of space inside is actually very precise.
Just a word of advice here you're going to need to make sure that any work you need to do on the
motherboard, like installing nvme drives, mounting brackets, or coolers, you're going to need to do all
of that outside of the case. Now we found that any changes that need to be made to the motherboard
required us to actually take it out of the case entirely, which put us in a bit of a bad mood. Now
when we look at GPU support the Mood is limited to GPUs that are under 56 mm tall but, in all
actuality Fractal recommends GPUs that are two slot GPUs around 40 mm, because of these dimensions
the Fractal Mood does fit into Nvidia's SFF ready guidelines. It's too bad they don't have like a
cool badge to actually let you know that. So it's it's a little bit hard to know when something is
or isn't. Come on Nvidia, Jacob let's get that fixed. With that in mind for our build we were actually
able to fit Gigabytes RTX 4O70 Ti Eagle Overclock GPU in there and it was it was a bit snug. Now
that GPU is about 50 mm tall, which means you could also fit like a reference Radeon RX 7900 XT
or that beautiful uh ASUS ProArt RTX 4O80 Super. Now what makes this GPU mounting really interesting
is that Fractal included a PCI Riser cable that runs to a chamber opposite the motherboard. You've
seen this. It's the sandwich design seen this in like the Dan A4 and the Fractal Terra. This cable
runs behind the motherboard itself and it's the precise length to make sure that there is no
slack in that line at all. What is also Smart in this portion of the case is that the corner case
support is removable giving you easier access to actually install your GPU. It made Kevin happy and
trust me if Kevin 's happy I'm happy about it. Now moving on to fans and cooling the Mood comes with
a 180 mm fan pre-installed at the very top of the case. This fan exhausts hot air out of the top and
let me tell you this thing can cook. I actually I really wanted to see if we could like cook an
egg with it or something like that, but I don't know maybe that's another video. Now outside of
this location there are two fan mounts of the case rear for either 2-130 mm or 2-140 mm fans.
These mounts are on a removable bracket, which is super handy in a small space like this, but
whether or not you're able to use that bracket for fans all depends on your choice of CPU Cooler and
the storage drive. So let's talk about your options. The Mood can support AIOs that are up to 240 mm
or 280 mm. But it's worth mentioning that AIOs get tricky when you start looking at the pump
sizes and how to actually fit the hoses inside of this case. Fractal recommends AIOs with pumps
around 45 mm. So AIOs like the Phanteks Glacier One would work, but with the massive pump heads on
most AIO s you're going to have to be fussy about your choices here. And honestly it's just it's that
little bit of extra that you need to look at and welcome to the world of ITX cases. That being said
Fractal provides diagrams for Builders to figure out how and where they need to lay the hosing. It's
it's very Tetris and even with the guide it still takes a bit of manipulation to make it work. It
definitely isn't beginner friendly and we have some concerns that we're going to share a little
bit later. If however you want to use an air cooler inside the Mood it doesn't get any less
complicated. Essentially for a box style cooler Fractal gives you up to 123 mm though 110 mm is
recommended. Okay we've got to pause here, because we need to clear up what Fractal's talking about
here and to clean up our own language around CPU coolers. Now when we think about Tower style
coolers versus box style coolers we typically think about coolers that have fans that run
perpendicular to the motherboard. Think of coolers like the NZXT T120 or the DeepCool AK 620. By this
definition most Tower style coolers as we know them would not fit inside of the Fractal Mood. Now
if by Tower Fractal meant flat Tower coolers, where the CPU Cooler fan is parallel to the motherboard.
Then we're in business. Flat Tower coolers or box style coolers would be your Thermalright A120- x67,
which sounds like a spaceship. The Noctua NH L9 x65 or L9-I, or the forthcoming and brand new that
you showed up on Instagram, DeepCool A400, which we actually can't wait to get our hands on cuz
it's 110 TDP, which is crazy. Whatever style we're talking about the reality is that you're going to
want to look at the lower profile air coolers or if you can find them or search on them box coolers.
Okay we've gotten a little bit too far into the weeds here with the commentary. Let's reel it back
to continue about what fits inside of the Fractal Mood. The Fractal Mood does have two dedicated 2
and 1/2 in SSD brackets as well as one 3.5 in HDD bracket. However, now like all other SFF cases you have
to pick and choose what's most important to you, because if it's drives that means that you're
going to be sacrificing fans or forgoing the choice of using an AIO. Now as for PSU support you
know what actually that's pretty simple. You're going to either use SFX or SFX L style PSUs in
the Mood. There is no way a full-size ATX power supply is fitting inside of this thing. It's just
not happening and another note. If you do SFX or SFX L it is always a good idea, maybe looking at
the Loki with those really nice thinner cables. That are just going to be way easier to cable
management. And finally we need to talk about front panel connectors. Now it would have been a
cruel joke for Fractal to give us such a pretty case with constrictive space and then just give us
individual plugs for the front panel wires right. Yeah that would, that would suck. Unfortunately
it does suck. We have a few individual wires we have to plug in for the front panel. Come on just
just give us one that's integrated. Now since we're talking about front I/O cabling we also noticed
that the internal USB 3 cable was a little too short for us to get it plugged into our Mini ITX
motherboard with enough slack to manage the cable well once it was plugged in. For someone like
me who's just a little OCD about their cable management and honestly when you just you really
want to get things managed well in something like this I just wish they gave us a little bit more
cable link to work with here. If there's a cable inside this thing I need to be able to manage it.
It's just kind of a fact of life. So now that we know everything there is to know about the Mood.
How well did this thing perform in our battery of thermal benchmarks? To answer that question we
have to pause and talk a little bit more about what we were able to inside of it. For specs we try
to keep things as consistent as possible with the rest of our SFF test cases. With the exception
of CPU Cooler and GPU, we'll list the parts on screen right here when we talk about what's
chained. What we typically use is the DeepCool AK 620 digital for our CPU Cooler, but that isn't
an option with its 157 mm an higher. Remember that whole box thing, Tower thing. So we had to opt
for the DeepCool LT 520 240 mm AIO. Now on paper this AIO does play a little bit loose with
Fractal's recommended AIO pump height of 60 mm, but by removing that giant RGB cap from the pump head
we were absolutely able to squeeze it in. We also had to swap GPUs from our RTX 4080 Super Founders
Edition to Gigabyte RTX 4070 Ti Eagle OC. Again it was a tight fit, but this was the most powerful GPU
that we had in the time that we could fit inside the Mood while staying within its space Limit now.
Since we changed these key components we're going to be talking about the Mood in isolation
from other SFF cases, because we don't want to compare them when you can't really compare
them. Okay so let's go on the numbers. While idling the Fractal Mood had a resting average temperature
of 32° c, not bad. Now Under full CPU load though the Mood swung to the hotter side of the spectrum
with an average CPU temperature of 96°. Now hold on can we just pause there for a second. That that
is really hot. And that is also not normal a not normal operating scenario, but I do need to let
you guys know and we're going to pause again for a second here. We did make sure it was running Intel
stock settings. So all in all that's still warm even on a 240 mm AIO with an i7 14700k. This has to
do with concerns about potentially AIO or just the fact that honestly it's the breathability of the
fabric on the outside. We'll talk a little bit more about that later. We talk about open case versus
close case. Now as for 1440p gaming benchmarks the Mood simmered down a bit with an average of
59° C. So gaming was not an issue whatsoever. So what the heck happened here? We have a CPU that's
experiencing severe thermal throttling underload while the GPU, which is definitely showing signs of
working, is not struggling near as much. What gives? What we think is going on here is that the cloth
covering here is not as breathable as Fractal had actually hoped. And when we looked inside the case
cover the sides of the case are actually solid. So there's no there's no air getting out of there. We
had to go back and see what was right about these air flow issues. So we removed the Mood's clothy
shell. Did an open case test. At idol we saw a 4 degree drop in average temperatures. During gaming it was
actually a 10° drop and under CPU load it was 16° cooler with the cover off, which means that this
cover is responsible for up to 16° when it's under load. To put this in perspective 16° C is 60.8 De
F. That's a difference between summer and winter temperatures in the state of North Carolina. All
of this tells us that the mood just isn't really handling ventilation well with higher powered
parts inside or just allowing the cooling to get the air it needs to do the cooling it needs
to do. What's up guys? So we're going to interrupt the review here for a second, because one of the
things that we love to do is we love to reach out to Brands once we've done our testing and talk to
them about what we saw with our data and we share all of our data with everybody. And again sometimes
it's actually resulted in us finding mistakes and then we'll retest, but this one we didn't. We
don't think there was a mistake here, but in my conversation with the team over at Fractal a
couple things did come out. Number one. They said that they saw much better temperatures with the
14700 K using their Fractal Celsius and you know they know fitments been an issue, specifically with
the AIOs and that's why they did the whole guide. So definitely go check out the guide if you're
definitely interested in doing this particular build, because their guide is very helpful for
240 mm. They said 280 mm work though they are a lot more challenging and they definitely recommend
sticking with a 240, which again doesn't change our recommendation for what CPUs you can put inside
of it or anything like that. The other thing too is that for air coolers uh just because this
is you know a negative pressure situation where everything's kind of being pulled in from the two
sides and then out the top. Uh they recommend the Noctua NH D9L. Um which does very very well from
the air cool side and then again for your builds, your 146s, your 147 your 7700 X's. Um that has
a tendency to work very well in this case. Love to give you more information. Again, I would
definitely check out the live stream, because that's going to be the best opportunity we we're
we're working with the team at fractal uh to kind of build something that uh would be ideal. And we
love actually getting to partner stuff like that. Again, we're still sticking by our data. We still
love, we still saw that difference between open case and closed case um, but again it just means it
we're still saying you got to be super conscious about the stuff that you're going to put inside
of this in terms of planning, Etc., to make sure you get a great experience. Cuz if you love this case,
which I mean it's beautiful, it's just something to be aware of. Okay so we've already given some
commentary in consideration. So let's button this review up on the Mood before we get a little too
sour. So if you're considering the Mood as your next PC case here are some things you should know.
Number one. This is a case that is going to require a lot of careful planning. You've probably picked
up in this theme as we've been going through this this whole review, but it's worth repeating.
Everything from GPU size, cooler size, the type of cooler you choose, the pump on the AIO, how much
storage you're going to be able to fit. Ram height heck, even the motherboard itself. All of this needs
to be carefully planned out before you loosen one screw. Fortunately, most product manufacturers
have the dimensions of their devices listed on their product pages, but you're going to have to
do some cross referencing, but Fractal gives you all the information you need to actually succeed.
Also, here's the cool thing with Nvidia's brand new SFF ready guidelines. You'll be able to figure out
which Nvidia GPUs will fit inside the Mood without much of an issue, because this is SFF ready.
We'd also recommend checking out TechPowerUp for precise details on GPU Dimensions. Those
guys actually really have a lot of detail and everything you could possibly want to know about
GPUs. Okay one final note in consideration here and yes we did leave like a a breadcrumb trail
along the way during this review up to this point. Your order of operation here is is going to be
absolutely key. Do everything you need to do on the motherboard before it goes into the case. Make sure
your GPU Riser cable is positioned well as you're installing the motherboard. And be aware that
your PSU is going to be probably the last thing that gets installed inside of the Mood before you
get finished. Thing number two. SFF builds are not really beginner friendly and and this case is no
exception. Look we're not picking on the Mood here, but you need to know that building in the mood
is going to put you in a bad mood if you don't go into it with the mindset that this build will take
a lot of extra time and planning to make it happen. Be patient with the case and be patient with
yourself. We're going to be doing a live stream build inside the Mood so you can follow along
with it if you're dead set on Building inside of the Mood and you can actually watch that right
here. Just know from my PC Building difficulty standpoint the Mood is far closer to the geometric
future M2 than any Phanteks or some of the easy cases like the GT302 that we have right back here.
Okay so we've given you the data and we've talked about all of our details. Now it's time for us to
give you our thoughts on the Fractal Mood. To start let's go back to the question we asked at the very
top of the video. Who is this case for. According to Fractal,again this is for the gamer that's grown
up. That wants a PC in their main Pottery Barn meets like Ikea themed living space without
it becoming a focal point. Does it succeed at that? Yeah, but I would say not as well as Fractal
had kind of hoped. Could it fit in my living room? Sure it's really pretty and it does give off your
non-typical PC case vibes ,but for a media center PC pushing 4K and either in gaming, or content, Etc.,
you really do want a powerful GPU in there. And that's where the mood doesn't accommodate high-end
GPUs very well. The biggest thing you put in here is a 4080 Super. So from a media center standpoint,
or even from a Content playing on a 4K, gaming standpoint, 4090, 4080 is kind of your minimus. Where
actually, the Fractals own, either their Terra or their Fractal Ridge may actually be a better fit
for that. Okay Robey. Well what about as a gaming PC? Again, you could build one inside the Mood, but
it's going to have a lot of constraints. So with that in mind where does that leave us? Does it fail
to deliver what Fractal promised? Should we steer clear of the Mood. Uh I'm not saying that that's
the answer. We love that fractal keeps innovating and pushing PC case designs into places they've
actually never been. And limitation wise it's it's just a bummer, because of how good the Mood looks.
And that's where this kind of leaves us. If you're looking to build a high-powered sleeper rig you
could build one, but just not in the Mood. Honestly if that's you look at like Fractal Ridge or the
Fractal Terra. Both of those cases are incredible while still giving you those grownup Vibes. And
listen if you're okay with building a mid-range system you can still build a modest gaming rig
inside of the Mood. Yes you're a bit constrained about what GPU you can put inside of it and the
cooler limitations do put a damper on the CPU that will be infective inside of it. If you're building
inside the Mood we'd recommend probably an Intel Core i7 14700K or below. Honestly probably
actually recommending the non-K CPUs or 146, but you can do a 280 mm and it it it's inking
there. It's it's possible. On the Ryzen side the AMD Ryzen 7 7800 X3D, the 7700x. Those would be
like kind of your feeling for CPUs. Even still we'd recommend a 280 mm AIO for sure to try and
make sure that you're giving it the best cooling, especially on the higher end Ryzen, the 7700x or
uh you're looking at your 14700K. Otherwise, like I said we be fine with a non-x AMD CPU or non-K Intel
CPU. While that seems like a bummer pairing one of these processors with a GPU like a 4080 Super or
an RX 7900 XTX or XT would make a decent mid-range gaming system. So me the Mood is it feels like the
Audi A4 or the BMW 3 Series where it looks good, but really the power underneath it, unless you have
like an M or an S4, isn't really there. And that's kind of the whole thing. Fractal I want you to hear
me out on this. Don't don't stop making cases like this. Keep pushing cases that think outside of
the gamer's aesthetic bubble and pushing things forward. It does put us in a good mood seeing
designs and releasing of cases that are like the Mood, and the Terra, and the Ridge. So with
our critiques we're not trying to kill the Mood. We know that you guys are absolutely, you guys being
Fractal, are absolutely doing some awesome stuff. And we believe in the vision behind it. So with
our critiques we're not trying to say that you know we don't believe in the case. We absolutely
do. It's just if you want to build in it you just need to know the kind of stuff you can put inside
of it. And we want to see them take the feedback and improve it, which they did with their brand
new Fractal Era, which was taking their older one improving upon it and I I feel like the same
thing could potentially be done here. And for all of you hopeful Builders out there who are
seeing this. All we want to do is set the right expectations for the kind of systems that will
absolutely succeed inside of this case. You're going to want to plan and plan a lot. And you're
going to be in a much better mood if you do. So that's it my friends. That's our review of the
fractal mood. We want to give a huge shout out to Fractal, not only for just an an Innovative case
design, but also allowing us to take a look at the Fractal Mood. But we want to know what you think
about it. Do you like the design? And what other fabric colors or colors or things would you like
to see in a case like this? Also if you're going to build in the mood. What Hardware would you put
inside of it? Let us know all that down in the comments below. Now while you're down there make
sure you slap that subscribe button, whip that like button and ring the notification Bell so that
you get a notification each and every time we post a video like this right here on Robeytech. Also
if you have questions. You want to just talk about it. Maybe talk about the hardware or or some help
getting uh the right build and parts inside of it. Head over to our Discord server discord.gg/robeytech.
Amazing place to talk to a like-minded tech and PC Enthusiast that'd love to talk to you about what
you can put inside of this and you know what you might just make a friend. Also follow us on all the
other social media @robeytech, absolutely everywhere. Thank you so much for watching this video and
we look forward to seeing you on the next one. [Music]
