It's not that I'm not a fan of their chassis, but Fractal's already been flamed for recycling/refreshing current designs, charging more, and not really adding anything to justify the higher price tag.
Worse in thermals? Really? It looks a lot like their Define models though.
Huh, can't judge a book by it's cover, I guess... hmm, maybe they're using weaker fans in there?
MSI MPG Z490 Gaming Edge Wifi
i7 10700K
NH-D15
G.Skill Trident Z RGB 32GB (2x16gb)
MSI 980Ti 6GB
Corsair HX 860 80+ Gold
Samsung 860 Evo SSD 1 TB
Crucial M4CT128 SSD 120 GB
WD HDD 1 TB
Samsung HDD 1 TB
Yeah, I definitely wouldn't use the top glass panel on that - except if the gpu is a blower model, because we know those dump most of their heat right out the back.
With the axial fan models, having only a rear exhaust wouldn't get the heat out fast enough, leading to subpar thermals.
You do have some flexibility with this chassis though.
A)IF the gpu is a blower model:
-2 front intakes
-top glass panel
[Use the exhaust fan only if the fan is stronger than the fans on the D15. I've found that just having rear chassis exhaust isn't enough; if they are actually weaker, or not moving as much air as the fan(s) on a tower cooler, they more or less just get in the way.]
B)IF the gpu is a blower model:
-2 front intakes
-top mesh panel: the tower cooler will draw air from both the front and the top
-rear exhaust: refer to the point in part A
C)IF the gpu is axial fan:
-2 front intakes
-top mesh panel: 2 top exhaust. While axial fan coolers have generally cooled better than the blower models, they do so while screwing with the cpu cooler anyway. Plus they produce more heat than the cpu tends to, so the quicker you can get it out, the better.
-Rear exhaust: part A
D)???
-2 front intakes
-top mesh panel: no fans
-rear: none
This one might seem quite off. Sometimes what works best in a particular chassis isn't always obvious, but you won't know without personal testing.
This is basically what mine is, though my hardware config(first spoiler tag) is a bit different from most users.
I played around with different fan configs in my chassis and found that front intake was all I needed; more intakes or exhausts got in the way and lead to slightly worse cpu and gpu thermals overall.