Fractal Design Pop XL Air RGB Black - Tempered Glass Clear Tint - Honeycomb Mesh Front – TG side panel - Four 120 mm Aspect 12 RGB fans included – E-ATX High Airflow Full Tower PC Gaming Case

Product Information

The 5.25″ drives sit at the very bottom of the Fractal Design Pop XL Air, making them easily accessible when the case is on a desk. If it is below the desk for space reasons, you have to bend over quite a bit. Ergo, it’s really more for modern desktop use, where the look also comes into its own better with the RGB fans. Pop Silent combines quiet performance with a sleek, minimalist design aesthetic. It features a sound-dampened closed front, side panel, and top to help deliver an all-round quieter experience. Its clean appearance and sound-dampening functionality allow Pop Silent to serve as a quietly stylish case for mixed use, productivity, and lighter gaming. After giving it much thought, we decided on performing noise tests with each PC Case we receive by placing our ExTech HD600 vertically on top of each case to measure the noise levels emanating from the pre-installed fans at both 50% and 100% with the help of a fan controller (if the case doesn't have one, i use my very own). Measuring 520mm in height, 522mm in length and 230mm in width the Pop XL Air is clearly a large size mid-tower. In total, the Pop series comes in three sizes – apart from the normal size for ATX mainboards and smaller, there is the XL version tested here, which supports boards up to E-ATX, and the mini version for mATX and mini-ITX boards. Each size comes in both a Silent and Air variant. The Silent version is good for quiet systems that are as less power hungry as possible. The Airflow version, which is the one under review here, is for high-performance gaming computers and workstations. Fractal Design Pop XL Air Specifications Dimensions (L x W x H)

Fractal fuse style and function in the Pop Series – a brand-new case family. Pop Air features a mesh front to prioritize airflow, while Pop Silent offers sound-dampened panels and a closed front to help minimize sound. While Pop Air and Pop Silent might differ in their ambitions, both styles offer a solid build quality, a straight-forward layout, and a uniquely stylish design expression. With nothing oversized to get in the way, our full-sized components are simply swallowed up by the XL interior of the Pop XL Silent. We mounted our AIO CPU cooler to the top panel to take full advantage of the voltage-regulator cooling potential of this fan location, as well as full advantage of the case’s included triple intake fans. As always, the purpose of this section is not to build a functional system but rather to showcase what you can expect from the case at hand in terms of interior space. The fans of our AIO CPU cooler do a great job of cooling our motherboard’s CPU voltage regulators, and the Pop XL Silent’s bump up to fourth place probably comes courtesy of its extra intake fans. Delivered with its non-vented top panel as the default option, the Seta Q1 shows us what happens to temperatures at the top of the motherboard when airflow is reduced at the top of the case.

Up front, we find a magnetically attached cover panel that hides two 5.25-inch external bays and is half-filled with a hardware storage tray. Using anything deeper than that storage tray requires the removal of an internal 3.5-inch drive tray in the corresponding location (one upper tray, one lower tray). The Pop XL Silent’s bottom features a power-supply dust filter that pulls out from the rear, via a grab tab that protrudes about half an inch from the rear panel. Protruding screws extend the case’s total depth to 20.6 inches, though its panels are only 20 inches across the outside. An oddity appears in our GPU temperature testing as the Pop XL Silent slowly overtakes the Pop Air RGB in GPU cooling. We credit the extra intake fan for the bigger case appearing to collect less heat over time.

The finished system shines nicely, though some users might prefer less color, less light, or even the steel-sided version of the case. Alternativ, insbesondere wenn das Gehäuse auf einem Teppich steht, kann man das Netzteil so drehen, dass es die Luft aus dem Gehäuse zieht. As already mentioned, the right side panel is made out of tempered glass held in place via 2 rear thumbscrews. Even with a full sized ATX motherboard mounted there's still plenty of space inside the Pop XL Air.The I/O is located at the top and includes the on/off power button, ARGB color button, two USB 3.0 ports, the usual headset and microphone 3.5" ports and a hole for a USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C port (available extra). In terms of interior space, the Pop XL Air may not be the largest mid-tower out there but it does come close. Our acoustic test consists of three scenarios: We run the CPU at full load, the CPU and GPU at full load, and an optimized mode. The CPU full load test runs the CPU and case fans at their maximum speed. For the CPU and GPU full load acoustic test, we also stress the Gigabyte RTX 3070 Ti Gaming OC and set the fans at 75% speed, because in gaming the fans never run at 100 percent and are far too loud when they do.

Fractal Design includes an optional non-vented panel to replace the top panel dust filter, but using it would have required us to relocate our AIO CPU cooler to the front panel, and that probably would have meant removing two of the included fans and using our cooler’s fans in their place. So, we proceeded without adding this optional component. A continuous run is started in Cinebench and the processor’s average temperature is measured for one minute after eight minutes of warm-up time. In the 3DMark Time Spy stress test, the graphics card is loaded for 10 minutes and then the temperature is read, as well as the automatically regulated fan speed. A higher speed means a higher noise level. Fractal Design is a leading designer and manufacturer of premium PC hardware including cases, cooling, power supplies and accessories. Based in Gothenburg and with offices in the US as well as Taiwan, Fractal Design has gained a global reputation for innovative design, elegant aesthetics and solid build quality. Fractal Design products are available in over 45 countries worldwide, and are still growing. One decision on the Fractal Design Pop XL Air that is only partially understandable is the large area on the top, which is closed to the front. Thus, you are limited to radiators up to a size of 280 mm on the top, should you go for water cooling. However, it also prevents fresh air from leaving the case too early when using positive pressure air cooling. The side panel is made of glass and is a bit thinner than some competing cases, but again, the workmanship looks solid. The front panel, which you have to remove to access the front fans or the 5.25″ cage, is well made, but fits very tightly, so you need a lot of force the first time you remove it – I was worried about breaking something here, but in the end it worked without damage. With later removals it goes a little easier. Installation and component flexibility As for the front panel cables, the Fractal Design Pop XL Air is sparse: one connector for the power button, one SATA connector for powering the RGB controller, one USB 3 cable, and one cable for the audio connectors. Compared to other cases, the ports have been slimmed down a bit. USB 2.0 is no longer offered on the front panel, which eliminates a corresponding cable; there is no HDD LED and thus no cable to connect it; the power LED is controlled by the RGB controller, which is why there is no cable for it either, and a reset switch and its cable are also omitted. Thus, the Fractal Design Pop XL is very clear and easy to wire and you don’t have to struggle with the correct polarity of the front panel LEDs on the corresponding headers. This makes wiring easier, especially for beginners.

We’ve updated our testing hardware to use Intel’s 12 Gen “Alder Lake” platform, which has shaken up the desktop landscape (and taken prominent spots on our best CPUs for gaming list). We’re now using a Core i7-12700KF, which is being cooled by a Noctua U12s air cooler. Our graphics card is a Gigabyte RTX 3070 Ti Gaming OC. There is little to report on the interior. The standoffs are pre-mounted for an ATX-sized motherboard, with the center pin facing up for optimal alignment, making motherboard mounting very convenient. The expansion slots are completely closed by screwed covers, which looks very high quality. The screws of the expansion slots are thumbscrews, which in principle can be handled without tools, but are practically so tight in their factory state that I could only loosen them with a screwdriver. Since there are no bars between the expansion slots, the case is suitable for a vertical GPU mount, which is of course not included as standard. An exposed drawing of the case is placed at the rear of the box right beneath its main features printed in 6 languages.