For those who thought the size of the original Fractal North was too small, the Swedish designer is launching a larger version of the North. Following tradition, Fractal simply calls the larger version the North XL, and just like the smaller North, the XL is also available in mesh-side and glass-side versions. The distinctive wooden facade also remains. In the white version the wood comes from the oak tree and in the black versions it is walnut.

I thought the original North was a nice accommodation in the review, but to be honest: it was probably a little cramped. The main limitation is the space of video cards. If you leave the standard fans up front, you can install cards up to 300mm. That’s not a problem for modest GPUs, but as we saw when building our 25th anniversary gaming PC, that’s not enough for a card like the RTX 4080. It all lends itself to some trickery.

With North XL you will not have such problems. The case has become more spacious in all areas, from the space for your video card to the motherboard and cooling space. Naturally, this also comes at a higher price; The suggested retail price for the North XL is $170 or €205. All variants can be purchased at the recommended price, as Fractal does not differentiate between the Mesh and TG versions. We’ll look at whether the large version is worth the extra price in this review. Of course we can already give the short answer; If you want to install a large video card or eATX motherboard, then: “Yes”.