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Fractal Design has released many cases in the last few years, but the ITX segment of its portfolio still has room to grow. That's where the Ridge comes in, offering an alternative to the Era chassis with support for bigger GPUs, increased airflow and removable panels for ease of access.
The Fractal Design Ridge is the company's latest ITX chassis, featuring a nordic-inspired design with 12.6 litres of space to work with. You can use this chassis to build an HTPC or a full-fledged gaming system, thanks to its support for 335mm GPUs (325mm if you have an SSD installed). In addition, you can either place it horizontally or vertically.
Building a PC in small cases like the Ridge can be pretty daunting, but Fractal Design has eased the process by adding removable panels to better access the inside of the case. All panels are made of steel/aluminium, but the front has a fabric front that makes the Ridge stand out from other SSF cases.
The components inside a chassis as small as this must be well-ventilated to avoid overheating. To prevent this, the Ridge has perforations on all panels for increased airflow. The chassis has two 140mm PWM Aspect fans, but you can add another three 80mm fans on the top. In addition to the fans, the chassis also comes with a PCI-e 4.0 riser card to mount the GPU vertically.
The front I/O includes two USB 3.0 interfaces, a USB-C port and a 3.5mm audio+mic combo jack. On the inside, you have four 2.5″ drive bays, a mini ITX motherboard tray, and space to mount an SFX/SFX-L PSU. Regarding GPU compatibility, you're limited to 125mm tall (137mm without top fans) and 52mm thick cards (82mm without side fans). CPU coolers can't exceed 70mm in height. The case also supports 280mm radiators if you don't have a GPU inside or a 120mm one when ≤175mm long GPUs are installed.
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KitGuru says: Are you thinking of moving to a small form factor rig? What do you think of the new Fractal Design Ridge chassis?
