Fractal Design Node 304 - Black - Mini Cube Compact Computer Case - Small form factor - Mini ITX – mITX - High Airflow - Modular interior - 3x Fractal Design Silent R2 120mm Fans Included - USB 3.0

Product Information

Having been away from the PC market for a long while, I’m used to cruddy things stamped out of sheet metal with sharp edges and twisty angles that assured you’d shed some blood at some point during assembly. The last machine of comparable size I dealt with was a Shuttle mini-barebones system, and I think I still have at least one scar from tinkering around inside there. Nothing of the sort happened with this case, and I was continually surprised with how much room I had to play with, even despite initial worries about PSU depth vs graphics card length. Source: Rich Edmonds / Windows Central (Image credit: Source: Rich Edmonds / Windows Central) You should buy this if ... The same rules apply if you take out two of the drive cages to squeeze in a 310mm graphics card. To get anywhere near a tidy build in the Node 304 a modular PSU is a must.

Node 304 — Fractal Design

The PSU is installed on its side and the one thing to note is that the case supports PSUs up to 160mm total depth for non-modular designs; for modular designs, you need to find units of a maximum of 140mm deep. Rear: 1 x 140mm Silent Series R2 hydraulic bearing fan, 1000 RPM speed (compatible with 120mm fans) – includedI want to build with 6 HDDs, but I am concerned that the 304 is too small and the passively cooled C27540D4I may not get sufficient airflow with all 6 drives installed. I'm also interested in any comments on typical power consumption for this build. Lastly, not all PSU;s are created equal. So you're not necessarily guaranteed even 50% of the power total provided on the 12v rail. Assuming a single rail PSU. Most that I would trust being made by seasonic, while being branded by different companies. Antec comes to mind ( earthwatts 500 ) I've owned one now for 4-5 years and am perfectly happy with it. Granted, as stated above, i do not require a massive GPU.. Mostly i opt for mid range. While the maximum size support for motherboards is microATX, you can get a good deal on older boards that work with powerful Intel processors for running Plex Media Server, virtual instances, and other server-related tasks. There are also some good gaming motherboards in this segment that will make for great PC foundations.

Fractal Design Node 304 Mini-ITX Case - Silent PC Review Fractal Design Node 304 Mini-ITX Case - Silent PC Review

First things first: I know next to nothing about what constitutes a good cooling system besides the fact that I want positive air pressure. The front two come with filters and there is a filter for the PSU as well, and they're all removable. All three case fans can be connected to the three-speed fan controller which comes with the case. When it comes to choosing a power supply and GPU there are a few things to be aware of. The case supports graphics cards up to 160mm long but by removing one of the drive cages you can squeeze in a card that's 170mm - but only if you use a shorter power supply. We've said it before but it bears repeating: desktop systems are getting smaller. ATX is becoming less and less necessary, and mini-ITX-based machines more and more offer the same performance and features that their bigger brothers do. That's just the direction of the technology industry as a whole, cramming everything we need into a space half as large. What's specific to cases is their own evolution running parallel with the technology we're putting into them.Front: 2 x 92mm Silent Series R2 hydraulic bearing fans, 1300 RPM speed (compatible with 80mm fans) – included I am building for a file / media server at home. My two key goals are that the file server can comfortably saturate a Gbps link and that energy use is as low as possible. You can immediately see from the photo that some things are missing. Fractal Design has ditched the optical drive bay entirely and saved a lot of space in the process. You may not have noticed that there's also no reset button; HDD activity and power are both handled by the same single blue front LED. Ventilation is pretty minimal, too. Fractal Design took their usual aesthetic and a lot of chutzpah and produced something remarkably unique. Fractal Design Node 304 Specifications You could replace the case fans with 4-pin fans so the motherboard could control them. This is what I did on my Define R4.