Page 3 - Physical Look - Inside
The Fractal Design Focus 2 RGB White TG can be opened up with captive thumbscrews on the back of both side panels. The left side is a clear tempered glass panel with a white metal frame and a black border to help with handling the panel. Interestingly, the glass side also has a black metal bar on the inner-facing side. This acts as a power supply shroud, as it conceals the bottom of the case. It is not necessarily a direct replacement for a shroud, but it is an interesting way to have one without making discrete divisions inside the case. The other side panel is as plain as they come with its solid steel side. The only thing I might want here is some sort of handle or protrusion so that users can be able to grab onto something when sliding the panels off.
Once inside, you can see a typical open-concept design, with no divisions inside the Focus 2 to speak of. The inside is mostly black, including the whole motherboard tray and the expansion slot covers. The Fractal Design Focus 2 RGB White TG can handle up to ATX-size motherboards. As we have already mentioned, we do not have any power supply cover or divider, which means you need to be a bit more conscientious about your cable management at the bottom of the chassis. The internal steel panels are coated well and do not scratch easily, which is a good thing to see.
Popping off the front panel requires a bit of elbow grease, which translates into pulling it off from the bottom. As we mentioned, the front panel is a perforated mesh design with no additional filter. This will allow more dust to enter here, but it also means air should be able to flow easier without it needing to go through multiple layers of filtration. As we have the RGB version of this case, we are greeted with two 140mm Aspect 14 RGB fans. There are six addressable RGB lights in each fan, and they can be daisy chained to a single connection. They are only 3-pin fans, but interestingly enough, they too can be daisy chained so they only need to occupy one fan header. I still wish we had PWM-controlled fans here. Otherwise, they use rifle bearings for quieter operation than sleeve bearings. They spin up to a maximum 1000RPM, provide 41CFM of airflow and 1.02mmH2O of static pressure. These numbers do not necessarily wow us on paper, but we will see how it performs in a noise output later on. Finally, these fans have a 90,000 hour mean time to failure, which translates to over ten years in continuous operation.
The primary area at the back of the Fractal Design Focus 2 RGB White TG comes with the black standoffs installed in place for an ATX motherboard. A large cutout exists on the back of the motherboard tray for access to the underside. This is useful for third-party coolers that often use their own backplates and require access to the back. At the top, we have slots to mount radiators or fans. The fails here can support up to two 120mm or 140mm fans, or a radiator up to 240mm in size with a maximum 121mm width. Fractal Design also included some additional rails to further offset the top radiator away from the motherboard, making it compatible with motherboards that have taller components at the top. There is also a large routing area at the top with folded over edges to prevent severed cables.
At the bottom of the Fractal Design Focus 2 RGB White TG, we have seven expansion slots down the back. The expansion slots are bridgeless, meaning it will not obstruct any connectors at the back of your graphics card. At the bottom, we have the area for the power supply, with rubber pads to reduce vibration between the power supply and the case. This enclosure accommodates standard ATX power supplies, with a maximum length of 250mm, but a recommended one of 175mm. This is to ensure we can use the routing hole near on the back that protrudes out and is probably the largest hole in terms of width. There is one more routing hole on top of the power supply area, which is useful for other front I/O cables like the audio jacks or sometimes USB ports.
The front of the Fractal Design Focus 2 RGB White TG reveals the direct airflow provided from the two Aspect 14 fans. If you do not want to use these fans, you can also install a radiator up to 360mm or 280mm. Closer to the motherboard, you can see the large single routing hole that is slightly angled to provide more cabling space at the back of the Focus 2. There are no rubber grommets here, but once again this hole is folded over to move any sharp edges.
On the backside of the Fractal Design Focus 2 RGB White TG, you can see the front I/O cables here first, with all of them covered in black sleeving to let them blend into your build. There are 21 tie down points at the back, which is really great to see for management. We have up to 27mm of cabling space at the front indented area and 19mm behind the motherboard. This is a bit tight, especially when you start adding storage or cheaper power supplies with non-modular cables. I also think I would appreciate some Velcro straps here to provide better cable management, but you can use the many tie down points for this purpose.
Speaking of storage, the Fractal Design Focus 2 RGB White TG has many different places for installing drives, with almost all of the mounting points at the back. In the front indented area, we have room to install two 3.5" or 2.5" options. Underneath the motherboard cutout, we have two more areas to install two more 2.5" SSDs on plastic pegs. The plastic pegs are a very interesting but budget way to install these drives, as they stick into the mounting holes on your SSD and hold by friction. I would have liked to see something a bit more substantial, such as a sled, to secure the drives in place better. Otherwise, a capacity to store a maximum of four drives is pretty good in its stock configuration.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Installation and Conclusion
