Fractal Design Era 2 vs Thermaltake TR100 Snow Mini Tower Chassiscomputed

Datasheet figures next to each other, and the airflow balance, pressure verdict and case air heating that the fans in each box compute to behind that case's own front. Calculated with the CaseFlow model, not measured.

Side by side

Fractal Design Era 2Thermaltake TR100 Snow Mini Tower Chassis
FormITXMini ITX mini tower
Volume19.0 L20.6 L
Dimensions366 × 165 × 314 mm391 × 179 × 294 mm
Frontsolid solid or glass frontsolid solid or glass front
Fan mountstop 2 × 120/140, bottom 2 × 120top 2 × 120/140
Radiator supporttop 280 mmtop 280 mm
Dust filtersbottomfront, top, side
GPU length326 mm360 mm
Cooler height70 mm68 mm
Stock fans2 × Aspect 12 PWM (bottom)none
Stock airflow, max rpm81 in / 0 out CFM–
Stock pressure verdictpositive, worst case includedships without fans
Case air at 290 W+6.6 K–
Stock fan noise36.2 dB(A)–
All mounts, reference fans86 in / 132 out CFM 2 / 2 mounts0 in / 132 out CFM 0 / 2 mounts

With a reference pressure-optimized fan on every mount the Era 2 moves more air. The TR100 Snow Mini Tower Chassis ships without fans, so only the mount capacity row compares. The pressure verdict describes the stock fan set, not the case: stronger or extra intake fans in the free mounts, or slower exhaust fans, turn a negative balance positive.

Era 2 — mounts and stock fans

TOPBOTTOMREARFRONT · solid

TR100 Snow Mini Tower Chassis — mounts and stock fans

TOPBOTTOMREARFRONT · solid

Case air heating with the stock fans — computed

0 5 10 0 100 200 300 400 450 W GPU (open cooler) + 40 W board Era 2 K case air above room

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How these numbers are computed

Each stock fan contributes CFMmax · derate · rpm/rpmmax behind its wall's mounting class: filtered mesh front and side mounts as dust filter, bottom as floor + filter, top and rear as open grille, solid and glass fronts as side-slit intake at roughly half of a mesh front. Front, bottom and side blow in; top and rear blow out.

MountingAirflow bladesPressure-optimized
Open grille0.88 (0.80–0.95)0.88 (0.80–0.95)
Dust filter0.70 (0.60–0.80)0.78 (0.70–0.86)
Floor + filter0.64 (0.52–0.74)0.72 (0.62–0.80)
Solid or glass front0.50 (0.40–0.62)0.58 (0.48–0.68)

Worst case sums intake at the low end of each band and exhaust at the high end; positive there means positive regardless of how the estimates fall. Case air: ΔT = 3.1 · W / throughput (m³/h), with an open-cooler GPU putting its full board power into the case air plus board, RAM and drives. Capacity puts a reference pressure-optimized fan on every mount at max rpm — 120 mm 60 CFM, 140 mm 75 CFM — a generic good fan, not a product.

Mount counts, radiator support and clearances are datasheet figures. Nothing here is measured; the same model runs in CaseFlow.