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• Conficio - Tuesday, January 01, 2013 - link

  Really, what do you do with ports behind a flap? I might understand it for a card reader and may be a DVD drive? But head phones and mic and USB ports behind a flap? What is the user experience of this? If I use such things, the flap needs to stay open, so making the entire design horrid. I'd understand if the USB ports would be sideways and the flap had side channels to route the cables of an external drive, so I can still close it. But mic and head phone ports need to be outside of the flap!
  
  For that price, I'd like to see some display included, that can be controlled by software. I'd think that it must be possible to produce a simple display with a USB interface that can show output channel, and volume, etc. just by the virtue of it's driver. Not to mention adding any sort tuner card and being able to see tune information or similar. Reply

• kenyee - Tuesday, January 01, 2013 - link

  with a 2500K, it's not even audible and there's enough space.
  Would have been nice if this case worked well though...having space for 4 drives would have been nice... Reply

• smitty123 - Tuesday, January 01, 2013 - link

  i don't need flash , just something else than a gray slab. Reply

• rockoqatsi - Wednesday, January 02, 2013 - link

  I don't need flash either. And I'll deviate from most posters and say that this is one of the best HTPC chassis I've ever seen for the money (if only just from the front.)
  
  I like that the optical bay and all of the I/O ports are behind a flap. I don't need (visible) ports, a headphone or mic jack, and all sorts of buttons---and certainly not a volume knob---on my HTPC. I have a bloody preamp for that. And as far as VFDs and touchscreens go, they look pretty, but at the end of the day are a distraction. Touchscreens are for remotes anyway. An HTPC should be like Seraph from The Matrix: dark, svelte, mysterious, pretty, and silent.
  
  So on the outside the Node 605 does just fine for me. It's such a shame the interior was designed by an ape. Why did they put the HDD hangers on the same side as the expansion slots, power supply and optical bay? The cpu side is like Montana and the other is like Tokyo. No f---ing sense for a case this size. Reply

• perrydoell - Wednesday, January 02, 2013 - link

  After all these years, and no case designer cares to design their case with airflow in mind?
  
  I mean, all I see is a box with holes all around it. You design your own airflow, depending upon what you put in and where you put the fans. I'm sure a thermal engineer geek (I'm an electrical engineering geek myself :-P ) could design a case that has a single, well defined airflow path that could have far better thermal and accoustic performance than you or I could manage. Reply

• cjs150 - Thursday, January 03, 2013 - link

  Silverstone TJ08-E springs to mind as clearly designed around proper airflow.
  
  Personally I wonder why there is a need for these big HTPC cases. To be honest they are nothing more than a standard 1990s case laid on its side. Having built a silent HTPC, mini-itx motherboard was sufficient for me (but I do have a separate NAS for storage), although I accept some audiophiles will want a separate audio card Reply

• Wwhat - Sunday, January 06, 2013 - link

  It's amazing how involved people get with something that is just a metal box.
  And even more amazing and odd what some companies ask for it. Especially since some devices/tools/vehicles come with large metal housings and those don't seem to significantly influence the cost half the time.
  
  But on the other hand some basically simple spare parts for cars that are very basic are also sold for outrageous prices if they are hard to source. It truly is a fine example of price and demand and making a business out of things. Reply

• dj christian - Thursday, January 10, 2013 - link

  "ATX motherboard support on the right side of the case, power supply standing on its side on the left."
  
  should be
  
  ATX motherboard support on the left side of the case, power supply standing on its side on the right. Reply

• stylinred - Wednesday, June 19, 2013 - link

  Just a note on the video card situation, i've got a matx board in the case and am able to stick a powercolor 6970 inside without the hard drive bays being a hindrance and i've still got room to run cables, etc in front of the video card.
  I don't think I'd be able to crossfire the 6970s (don't know who would want to in an htpc case) there is room between the card and the hard drives (if you mount the hdd facing the other way) but considering the width of the card i dont think 2 could fit
  Second, The fan controller in the case has 3 Fan connectors but they only fit 3pin connectors (i bought 3, 4pin fans -_-)
  I know Fractal includes 2 Fractal fans but even at high speed they're only pulling 40cfm (they're the FD Silent R2 fans) and that wasn't enough imo so I replaced them with some Cougar Vortex fans.
  I contacted Fractal Designs about the 3pin connectors and I must say their customer service is amazing, they sent me a step by step email including pictures on how i could cut the 3pin fan connector to accommodate a 4pin fan which they said would work with the fan controller as they've tested it.
  Instead of going that route though I found some 4 to 3 pin fan connectors online, even 3pin extension cables that could support a 4pin connector.
  Also the molex connector for the fan controller, in my case, was loose so it was a big hassle getting it connected to the power supplies female molex
  Third, The slim optical disc drive, Fractal supplies a mounting kit but no slimline sata connection to power your drive you'll have to buy that yourself you can find them online for as low as a dollar.
  The mounting kit is a bit difficult to install, it was for me anyway, since i left it for the last thing to install -_- and because the screws supplied were larger than the holes on the mounting kit (ever so slightly) so I really had to use some force to screw it in
  Fourth, CPU cooling, There is not much height to the case to attach a large heatsink, Fractal recommends no higher than 125mm if the fans are attached on the sides; this was difficult for me to find a suitable cooling unit,, hydro cooling units won't fit btw there's no room to mount the rad+fan unless you do some modding like having it stick part way out of the case. I was fortunately able to find the Noctua NH-U9B SE2 which fit perfectly inside the case with both fans mounted.
  Lastly areas for improvement:
  I wish that there was a fan on top of the case to help suck air out (like silverstone does, i believe) I'm not sure on what my temps will be like since I haven't gotten it up and running yet but it would certainly ease my mind as that whole right side of the case is really congested with hard drives the gpu and psu and there's only that 1 fan blowing in on the right side but its completely restricted with the grill/the hard drives and the cables; again I don't know what my temps will be like but it would certainly ease the mind and there is certainly room for a fan in that area.
  There's also room, believe it or not, to stick more hard drives in the case and it would be nice if Fractal had included mounting brackets for this but I can understand why not. I bought a pci expansion slot hard drive mount to mount my SSD and a 2.5" drive and there’s still plenty of room; there’s even room for a 3.5"
  Also the aforementioned lack of a slimline sata cable, it would be nice if Fractal had included this considering the price of the case and Fractal needs to improve Quality Control (the loose molex and mounting holes)
  Overall though I'm impressed with the build quality and the looks of the case and I can't wait to start using it, but i've been very frugal in my build using hand me down parts and waiting for all my cables/parts from different vendors. Reply