Fractal Design Node 304 mITX Case Review: Paving the Way to the Future
by Dustin Sklavos on November 23, 2012 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Mini ITX
- Fractal Design
- mITX
Conclusion: There's Potential Here
Reviewing the Fractal Design Node 304 is actually a somewhat layered experience, which is interesting given the fundamental simplicity of the design. Probably the first angle to attack is its thermal and acoustic performance, and on those fronts I feel Fractal Design has a success here. The fan controller is essentially only slightly throttling a trio of silent-running fans and bringing their noise level down even lower, but that's still a plus. I think CPU thermals would be improved by using a tower cooler or, alternatively, a closed loop liquid cooler, and at that point the Node 304 would exceed being competitive and start to really shine. Thermals on the dedicated video card were also excellent.
Where Fractal Design loses some steam is in the fundamental design, but again, that's more complicated than it initially appears. What they've done is give you a few modular pieces (specifically the drive brackets) with which you can then adapt the 304 to suit your needs. The problem is that cable space really is at a premium, and I think they missed an opportunity by not placing grills behind the front intake fans. I didn't have problems with cables getting into them, but I can see situations where that could happen. There's no real reason for the motherboard standoffs not to come pre-installed, either, and I really wish the shroud were easier to replace.
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The most interesting thing about the Node 304 may not be any of the usual criteria cases are typically evaluated by, but by how it portends changes in case design in the near future. As I mentioned in the introduction, Fractal Design targets the Node 304 as either a file server or as a minimalist system, but I think it goes deeper than that. Optical drives are essentially falling by the wayside and aren't strictly needed as internal hardware, so why take up space including one? Reset buttons also have a tendency to go unused, so they just omitted it entirely. The plain flat front and minimal style belies the truth: we rarely need cases bigger than this anymore.
By their nature, mITX cases often challenge the imaginations of enthusiasts a bit more, and I can't help but wonder if I could cram my desktop into the Node 304. It's an attractive, small, quiet case, with reasonable thermal performance. The fact that there are no external drive bays means the exterior is particularly clean, and it's striking. While Fractal Design could probably stand to revise the Node 304 a bit more and should consider switching to an SFX power supply to free up some internal space, ultimately this is a very compelling starting point for a small form factor build. I hope to see the Node 304 employed by enthusiasts and boutiques alike.
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cyberguyz - Monday, November 26, 2012 - link
... is a SATA backplane and drive trays.To be a real NAS box, these are a must so you can hot-replace drives in a raid 5-6 array.
If you don't have front-accessible drives for hot swap you need to power the system down, crack into it, swap drives (with a screwdriver, power up and rebuild the array. A real NAS can change a dead drive without even powering down, much less opening the chassis.
Nice case for an HTPC, but for a NAS it is lacking. I'll keep looking.
sna2 - Monday, November 26, 2012 - link
NAS cases are everywhere .what are you looking for exactly?
Randum - Monday, November 26, 2012 - link
I just purchased a Fractal case this year and was pleasantly surprised by the build quality and options for additional cooling/etc. I will not hesitate to buy their brand again - nice to see this compact design!Mithan - Sunday, December 2, 2012 - link
This is exactly what I was looking for:Small mITX case that would fit a bunch of 3.5" hard drives that I could Raid5 as a home file server.
Sold.
batguiide - Sunday, December 9, 2012 - link
Sharea website with you ,
( socanpower. ca )
Believe you will love it.
laptop battery,CPU fan,AC power adapters.DC power adapters and laptop keyboard.
I bought two. Cheap, good quality, you can
go and ship with there.
corax - Wednesday, March 27, 2013 - link
I purchased this case 5 months ago and I am still very happy with it.it runs cool and quiet even after i overclocked the cpu. i would recommend it to anyone looking for a dicrete powerhouse pc that can be hooked onto the tv or simply at your desk .
I was able to fit in my choice of hardware without problems although assembling the pc was more of a challenge than my previous builds because of the used hardware and the limited space at hand.
i have a scythe yasya cooling the cpu , this beast of a tower cooler is 160mm high and fits inside with just 5mm to spare., enabling the overclock potential of my ivy bridge i5.
the motherboard is the asus p8z77-i deluxe. this board has the cpu socket placed more centered enabling a wide range of tower coolers and as a bonus my old cooler could be recycled, saving me some cash to double the ram to 16gb.
a 160mm modular PSU from seasonic is powering the rig. no problems here and this psu does not hinder a full size gtx660.
i used 2 of the 3 drive bay brackets to house an ssd and 2 3.5" hdd's. i left the middle one out for a better airflow and bent the bracket that would normally hinder the graphics card just a llitle bit outwards.(just a few mm so there is no tension on the gpu in the slot).
the biggest challenge was fitting in the cables. a handfull of zipties do miracles and I was able to use the space around the psu and gpu to bundle the cables and prevent them from blocking the airflow.
the result is a whisperquiet shoebox sized gaming rig without having to compromise on anything.
the grate next to the gpu sucks in fresh air and my gpu never ever exceeds 60 degees celcius under load preventing the fans from producing a lot of noise
Hrel - Tuesday, October 8, 2013 - link
You should stop saying they should switch to an SFX power supply. Every SFX power supply I've seen comes with a bracket to adapt it to the ATX standard. It's always better to have choices, the way it is now I can choose between ATX and SFX PSU's. If they designed the case to only support SFX then I wouldn't be able to buy the case at all; since I don't want to use that type of PSU.If YOU want to use a SFX PSU you can in this case; you just chose not to despite your constant complaining about it.
bobbozzo - Saturday, October 26, 2013 - link
Hi, I just got one of these; all the air intakes have filters, but they are not very accessible; the one on the front fans requires opening the case and then popping off the entire front panel.Otherwise, it seems pretty well made. I haven't put a computer in it yet though.
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