Fractal Design Mood Black PC Case - Sleek Fabric Design, 180mm Top Fan, Conceals 325mm Graphics Card, m-ITX Motherboard Compatible, Easy Access Build, Efficient Cooling

This case got a bad rap from Gamer's Nexus and some other popular YouTube personalities (which almost caused me not to buy it). I just really liked how it looks so I took a chance on it. These YouTube channels really need to stop judging every case like it's for the enthusiast crowd. This case was not designed to compete with a gaming chassis. However, the front fabric absolutely DOES breathe! I'm not saying it breathes as well as mesh would, but it's not nearly as bad as these YouTube personalities are claiming. For my Steam console gaming HTPC build, I used a thin Noctua NF-A12x15 fan in the front bottom of the fan bracket, and a Noctua NF-F12 in the top. I did some testing and got the best cooling results when I had the bottom front fan (above the CPU) blow in, and the top front fan blow out (as exhaust). If you have the top front fan blow in, it can impede the hot air exhaust from the CPU chamber. This hot air needs to get pulled out of the case by the big fan at the very top. By having the front top fan push air in, it creates air pressure like a wall of air which can keep this hot air from escaping effectively. The CPU cooler I'm using is a Thermalright SI-100 down-blower style air cooler. In the above configuration, my CPU temps are well within an acceptable range. My GPU temps are great as the GPU chamber is well designed and allows for good airflow (just remember no three slot cards!). In conclusion, you absolutely can build a living-room PC in this case that can play AAA games better than any console (I did exactly that!). It looks great and has become something of a conversation piece. Building in this case is pretty straight forward if you know what you're doing. You may run into some issues getting everything to fit just right but that's part of the fun. Just make smart decisions with this case in mind when picking out all your hardware and have plenty of wire ties available.

The Fractal Mood is getting a bad rep around here in the comments and certain outlets. This is a casual mITX beast, if that makes sense. No over clocking.....no stress testing.....or heavy workloads. Just productivity and casual AAA Ultra settings while gaming....that's it. A Super Console of sorts.Temps aren't a problem when the Top fan is set to Turbo/High to grab all that heat before it ramps up. Set it to that and keep it at that......no mods...that defeats the purpose of the Mood case.If Fractal does a Mood 2... I'll be there.Black color is an off-black color. Not deep black....but that is for the better. A premium 'smart speaker' colorif you will.Case is easy to build in as usual with Fractal case. Their UX on these products is top notch.

Great case, takes a small footprint and looks fantastic! Only downside is that all ports are on the bottom so if you have to plug something in you have to tip it over. But it all comes through one spot so it can make your desk look pretty slick

This case is special. It looks great and takes up 1/3 the desk space of a typical mini-tower. The 180mm fan is so quiet you can barely tell the machine is even turned on. It is pretty enough to park in the living room. The caveats are that you have to use a SFF graphics card (sorry no 4090s), a lower profile CPU cooler, and a SFX form factor power supply. If you do your homework, the build is very simple. As always, Fractal does not skimp on accessories - connectors and everything you need comes in the kit. Fractal build quality is the best in the industry. Very solid, almost no sharp edges to bite you or your cables during the build. Everything on the interior is powder coated. Very pleased with my purchase and I think the age of small-footprint gaming PCs has begun in earnest.Edit - swapped out for an AIO 280mm cooler - the Noctua NH-D9L could not keep up with the 14700k CPU. Fitting the NZXT 280 mm AIO cooler was tight but I got it in there. Temps are much better although you can hear the pump (barely). Still 5 stars on the case.

Great case

I was really excited about the Fractal Mood PC case, but unfortunately, it looks much worse in person than I expected. The design feels cheap, and the build quality is not up to par. Compatibility is a nightmare, especially with different coolers, as it’s nearly impossible to find one that fits without issues. The riser cable design is awful too, placing it directly on the back of a hot motherboard. Overall, this case is a huge disappointment and definitely not worth the investment.

So I actually went into this purchase with low expectations from reviews about thermals.I decided to buy anyways because I loved the look and thought with some mods I could make it work.But what I wasn't ready for was the faded black that looks like it's been left in the sun for 6 months.Put a photo on my filing cabinet for reference. The fabric is also misaligned which is annoying.

It's a poor shortcut to put the power switch and ports at the bottom. Really difficult to us if you choose to place it on the floor. Who wants to reach all the way to the floor to turn it on. Limits it to table use only.