Page 4 - Installation and Conclusion
The installation process was extremely straightforward with the Fractal Design Epoch Black TG RGB Light Tint. For the most part, it was very easy to work with as far as a standard mid-tower is concerned. Out of preference, I installed my Seasonic PRIME TX-1300 ATX 3.0 1300W power supply first, followed by the rest of my components. It does not matter what you install first, since they will all work out just as well in the end. The massive 21cm long PSU had no issues fitting in, but I had to remove at least one of the HDD trays.
Executing a good cabling job was also very easy on the Fractal Design Epoch. As mentioned earlier, there is a gap of 15mm directly behind the motherboard to 30mm in the cable routing area space. The abundance of well-placed zip tie anchor points and three pre-installed Velcro straps improve the experience. There are two large openings adjacent to the motherboard on the right, so choose your half. They are all appropriately placed for routing cables through, whether they are from your power supply or your hard drive, with proper rubber grommets for both looks and vibration dampening. The rubber grommets are clipped onto place, but they stay reasonably secure unless you use excessive force.
The rest of the installation process came and went smoothly. The motherboard shown above is the ASUS ProArt Z890-Creator WiFi with an Intel Core Ultra 7 265K behind the Noctua NH-D15 G2 HBC. The RAM shown is the Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR5-8400 2x24GB. I only have NVMe SSDs connected to the motherboard, which is representative of most modern builds. The three front fans are daisy chained together, so you will only need to connect one PWM and one ARGB connector to your motherboard rather than three each. I did not install any 2.5" or 3.5" drives, even though the Fractal Design Epoch supports them.
Installation of most components will require you to keep your screwdriver handy unless you count thumbscrews as tool-free. This includes all add-on cards as well as your disk drives, if you have any you want to install. I do not have much beef against this though, since it is usually much more secure, and it is not like I will take my computer apart occasionally anyway. The Epoch will give you no surprises.
After plugging in everything, our system configured inside the Fractal Design Epoch Black TG RGB Light Tint was ready to roll. I hit the circular power button in front, and my computer came to life. You can see how the internal ARGB LED fans look when fired up in my above photo.
On a scale from 0.0 to 10.0 where 0.0 is silent and 10.0 is the loudest, the stock Fractal Design Momentum 12 RGB 120mm fans would come in at 5.0 subjective sound rating at full blast. Slowing them down will keep it at around 1.0 in my personal opinion. I am quite sensitive to perceived sound volume, and as a quiet PC enthusiast, the Fractal Design Epoch Black TG RGB Light Tint is reasonably good thanks to the fans. The fluid dynamic bearing fans have a smooth-running motor with no annoying noise during operation. That said, there is nothing intrinsically quiet about the Fractal Design Epoch, as the chassis is fully ventilated with no sound dampening elements.
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Did the latest chassis from Fractal Design continue the tradition of excellent cases? The Epoch Black TG RGB Light Tint definitely fits the bill, with it being a simple and compact chassis built with the quality Fractal Design users are accustomed to. Despite being compact, the Epoch has lots of room to work with, including the ability to accommodate up to two 3.5" and two 2.5" drives. The Epoch features a clean look, and particular to our Black TG RGB Light Tint, ARGB LED fans and a tempered glass side panel. Its Fractal Design North-based design is now modified with a Meshify-style front panel for high airflow, thanks to the triple Momentum 12 RGB fans in front. The fans are quiet in operation and daisy chained for simple and easy cable management. I also like the abundance of cable openings with grommets, large cable routing areas, and built-in Velcro straps to make building a PC as painless as possible. With all these things in mind, I do have a few suggestions for improvement. First, there are no real air filters in front and on top. The mesh supposedly doubles as an air filter, but I personally much prefer real air filters for better dust prevention. Having dust accumulate on the mesh also does not look good. Second, the tempered glass panel only covers 80% of the side. A full-length glass will look better in my opinion, especially if you have a longer graphics card to show off. Lastly, I would appreciate an included rear exhaust fan. That being said, the Momentum 12 RGB fans retail for $30 each, meaning the Fractal Design Epoch Black TG RGB Light Tint technically already includes $90 worth of fans, and the case retails for only $130 at press time. It is not hard to add your own fan at the back after, and for the price, Fractal Design offers good value for what you get with the Epoch Black TG RGB Light Tint mid-tower.
Fractal Design provided this product to APH Networks for the purpose of evaluation.
APH Networks Review Focus Summary:
8/10 means Definitely a very good product with drawbacks that are not likely going to matter to the end user.
7/10 means Great product with many advantages and certain insignificant drawbacks, but should be considered before purchasing.
-- Final APH Networks Numeric Rating is 7.5/10
Please note that the APH Networks Numeric Rating system is based off our proprietary guidelines in the Review Focus, and should not be compared to other publications.
The Fractal Design Epoch Black TG RGB Light Tint is a quality compact mid-tower case that gets all the essentials right.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Installation and Conclusion
